Apple Lowers the Price of Apple TV to $69

[beelzebozo]

To kick off the 'Spring Forward' media event, Apple announced the inclusion of HBO NOW, HBO's paid subscription service coming in April to Apple TV. Tim Cook also announced that Apple TV will be reduced from $99 to $69, making it more affordable.

Additionally, it is possible to AirPlay Mirror from a CustoMac to an Apple TV, allowing you to extend or mirror your desktop; making it a cheap option to convert a HDTV into a 2nd screen.

Related:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/118662-amd-nvidia-primary-display-airplay-mirroring.html
http://www.tonymacx86.com/graphics/...ete-graphics-working-together.html#post784770

 

[Going Bald]

[Draft] Apple Lowers the Price of Apple TV in 2015

To kick off the 'Spring Forward' media event, Apple announced the inclusion of HBO NOW, HBO's paid subscription service coming in April to Apple TV. Tim Cook also announced that Apple TV will be reduced from $99 to $69, making it more affordable.

It is possible to Airplay Mirror from a CustoMac to an Apple TV.

So you buy an Apple TV unit and then subscribe to HBO Now and play HBO movies from your Mac/PC-Mac to the Apple TV connected to your 70" plasma TV?

 

[derFunkenstein]

I believe it's going to be a channel/app added to the aTV in a software update. But it's worth noting that your iTunes library can stream to an aTV - it's particularly nice for iTunes-purchased TV shows and movies, so you don't have to stream over the internet.

 

[protechtedd]

Nice to hear Apple is breathing some life into the Apple TV, but IMO it’s just a little too late. I sold my Apple TV 2 a couple years ago, and have since been using a quad-core Android box running Kodi media center. It does EVERYTHING you could hope and dream for, watching any media, streaming, apps, games, and yes, even AirPlay mirroring.

Sorry Apple, but you just missed your own party. You had the past, what, 4-5 years to focus on the Apple TV, and just sadly left it laying there on the table. At least you have the Watch going for you, which is nice.

(Reminds me a bit of how Blizzard had the first MOBA game via a community built Warcraft mod, then League of Legends took it and exploded in popularity, and now Blizzard, too many years later, is trying to enter the foray with Heroes of the Storm. No doubt it’ll be good, maybe innovative somehow, but probably wont grab a large enough market share to truly compete with League or Dota. The same thing almost happened to Valve with Counter Strike, being a community built mod, but Valve saught the opportunity and pounced on it, and now they make mega bucks from it. It’s all about timing.)

 

[Octavean]

Apple has refurbished AppleTV units for ~$59 too last time I checked.

 

[newtype]

Apple has a big missed opportunity when they released the Apple TV 1 and it took off and then really didn't do very much afterwards. Apple TV 2 was barely adequate for 720p even with XBMC. If you look at the interface of Apple TV 3, it's too much like an iPad which maybe good for some but for a TV it's very difficult to navigate with a remote.

My biggest problem with Apple's way of doing things is that you can't apply Apple's standards to every device. By trying to make Apple TV an Apple only streaming device and lock it down to content approved by Apple. They've essentially count themselves out of many homes. Why would anyone need an Apple TV when your recent 2014 Smart TV can all stream Netflix, Hulu, some can do Amazon Prime, and many support DLNA.

Some of the features like Apple Airplay and mirroring is cool but Miracast also does it with more devices.

Like you said, it's a huge miss opportunity and there are tons of streaming options that are same or even better than Apple TV without being locked into Apple content.

I'm sure there are enough fanboys that will keep buying Apple stuff but it's not the majority of cord cutters out there.