Apple TV: Broadcast Television nowhere near dead

I had some time to kill at a mall Thursday while my appointment was running a few minutes behind.

Naturally I wandered over to the Apple store so that I could play around with computers that don't suck. Excited to finally play around with the Apple TV, I gave it a whirl for about five minutes. While the interface was predictably flawless, I was left thoroughly unimpressed overall.

First, the picture quality sucks. I tried watching South Park, Heroes, and Pirates of the Caribbean. In all cases, the picture quality was really pixelated, jumpy, and the colors weren't very good. It was a step above YouTube video quality. Nowhere near broadcast. It makes sense that it's going to be really compressed to make downloads make any sense, but I walked away with the feeling that things you download from the iTunes store should either be watched on your computer monitor (provided that you don't have anything bigger than a 15" screen) or an iPod. It just doesn't translate well to a TV screen.

Secondly, the sound didn't seem to necessarily sync up with the picture. It was off by just a hair, but what an annoying hair. If the picture quality is going to be an issue, than the sound at least better sync up with the bad picture.

Finally, the selection of video is still somewhat limited in that you can only get stuff available on the iTunes store. While they've made great progress in this area, there is a wealth of great movies and shows that just aren't available yet.

While I think the concept of the Apple TV is great, it would appear that we're still a few years away from the technology that allows it to work well. Don't waste your money. If you do, it's thankfully pretty cheap.

I'm speechless. Absolutely speechless.

I wish I had a better quality (and more complete) version of this.

Brilliant.

So the big secret...

...is that my sister is now engaged. Her boyfriend (who we're crazy about) called me yesterday to ask if I was cool with him asking her. Of course I totally was.

I understand he also asked my parents if it was cool.

They're thinking maybe June '08. I can't wait.

I just learned a secret!

But I can't really talk about it until tomorrow just in case certain people read this blog. Which I doubt, but I'm going to play it safe.

I really don't get my parents.

My parents are moving to Cincinnati as early as sometime this year for my dad's work. My dad has talked about his desire to move into a smaller house for, probably, six years. And yet, somehow, they've fallen in love with a house that's 3,000 square feet bigger than the one they have now.

I mean, Jeebus. It's just the two of them. My sister will not be making the move to Cincinnati. What the hell are they going to do with almost 9,000 square feet? They can't even figure out how to use all the house they have now. Ridiculous.

Useless crap I want. Part One.

The world's coolest Bluetooth handset.

LED lights that attach to the faucet. They glow blue until the water hits 89 degrees, and then they switch to red.

Space Invaders wall coverings.

Mos Eisley bookends

Because I always forget to carry business cards.