Apple’s TV Hobby Became An Obsession

Their cheapest device is also their best.

[Yeah, you should watch Supernatural. It’s really good] Photo Credit: Author

It started as a hobby. A 40gb iPod that sits under your TV. In the era before streaming it had just enough local storage to cache your iTunes collection and offered a portal to your digital content. 2006 was the year the Apple TV launched with a version of MacOS under the hood and a Pentium processor to speed it along. Commentary always assumed Apple would release a high-end TV at some point and the box that started out as the iTV was Apple’s way of dipping its toes in the water of a market it had failed at a decade prior.

In the years since Apple has shrank it, stretched it and lost more TV remotes than any product in history* But through the years one thing stayed constant: its place under my TV.

[I mean, at least it kind of looks nice, right?] Image Credit: Author

Many have tried to build the perfect digital content aggregator but few have succeeded. Sony wasted their market lead by trying to overstuff its PlayStation 3 console and Microsoft absolutely blew it with the Xbox One launch. Google just built a (successful) bridge for your phone before really going off the range and Amazon just wants more storefronts. And let’s not even mention cable and satellite company boxes. With umpteen…