The new Apple TV still isn’t officially available in the Philippines yet but I was able to get a brand new unit today from PhilMUG. This device was announced by Steve Jobs during the Apple Music event a few months ago. The supposed main selling points of the new Apple TV are design, price, and renting content from iTunes. The official price tag is $99 but several sources have told me that it will be sold in the Philippines for around P5,000-P6,000. The question we have to ask now is if the new Apple TV is a good buy at that price range for the Filipino consumer?
In all honesty, the answer is a no. The content sources of the Apple TV are Youtube, Netflix, iTunes Store, and your iTunes Library. Renting is pretty much out of the question since it requires a US account and good internet connection. Streaming content from your iTunes Library is okay but you will have to convert your files into MP4 format. There are several other alternatives that are cheaper and more user friendly because you don’t have to convert your movies anymore.
The Apple TV might be a good investment for people who store everything in their iTunes Library so that they won’t have to spend hours formatting everything for iTunes.
As it stands the biggest pro for the Apple TV is the design. It just looks awesome and the user interface is flawless. It’s also sooooo tiny. Here’s a picture of it side-by-side with a pen.
For a more comprehensive review, please check out the Apple TV First Impressions entry over at Apple Manila.
hello carlo! I’m so glad with your blogs about mac products, just wondering if you can have a review about ipod and nike +? is is worth it i’m planning to buy one. thanks!
Hi! Thanks for the encouraging comment!
Anyway, I don’t have a review for it yet but I’m also planning on getting one since I seriously need to get fit, lol. Watch out for the blog entry maybe sometime next week
Cheers!
Carlo
Got the nike+ipod, and all I can say this is the perfect add on. All worth it.
http://www.newmedia.com.ph/is-the-new-apple-tv-worth-it/?replytocom=12246#respond
Would you like to do a review? Ill publish it here as a guest writer entry
sounds good.
I’ll just have find time to do it! Thanks anyway!
Hey Carlo! Does it seem like Apple would bring that product here at all? The meat of the product is in the subscriptions and rentals, and so they’ll have to open up iTunes accounts in the Philippines for us to benefit! I hadn’t heard of them planning to do that here, either ):
Well the previous Apple TV was officially available here so I wouldn’t be surprised if the second gen model is also brought to the Philippines.
After using it for a few days it’s really not just the rentals. Building and organizing your media library into iTunes is actually fun (how geeky can you get right?). Maybe I’ll write a “second impression” review similar to my iPad review.