The new AppleTV showed up a few days and I just had to break it out and start playing with it. I won’t bore you with unboxing photos because if you’re a Mac fan you have probably already looked at them. I’ll also keep this review a little shorter since there is already a ton of information out there. I wanted to go over what I liked and didn’t like in the first day of using the AppleTV.

Hardware:
The box was a lot smaller than I imagined. My original Roku box looks huge compared to it. But it has a very nice feel and sticks with Apple’s simplistic approach. Over the years I have settled that all my boxes aren’t going to stack nicely on top of each other.

Remote:
I really don’t like the Apple remote. It’s convenient that it auto connects but it controls every Mac in the general area. If you’re like me you sit on the couch, watch TV and have your laptop right there with you. While I was testing the AppleTV my laptop kept playing music and volume up and down. Plus text entry is horrible going from one letter to the next. There is something much better which I will talk about below.

Software:
The interface is really nice. It’s easy to use and nicely laid out. I had it connected to my plasma TV and appreciate that the text and pictures rotate while listening to music so it doesn’t burn in. There is also a screen saver that takes over the screen after a set amount of time. I have one major issue that I will discuss below.

The best experience with the AppleTV was using the iPad as a remote. It just seems so powerful that I can select a video from my iMac and send it to the AppleTV, all from the iPad. It’s that Apple ecosystem that if you buy all the parts gives you a great experience. Everything just works so nicely together. Text input on the iPad is so much easier. While I wanted to give the Apple remote a chance I have pushed it aside and only use the iPad now. The one major issue I had was if the AppleTV goes to screen saver mode and you send a video it won’t wake the unit. The video is playing but I have to grab the Apple remote to wake the thing up. I experienced this every time when I listen to music until screen saver pops up and then try to switch to video. It’s something that can be fixed and little things like this I expect on new release hardware and software.

Overall I’m very excited about the AppleTV. Airplay will be out soon which will open up a lot more. Plus I’m holding out hope for Apps. At $99, the AppleTV was well worth the price.