Wii trumps Apple TV

By Christian Ponte, posted in Wii - May 31st, '07 2:31pm UTC

070531wiimote.jpg

“This is the first time users can easily browse, find and watch YouTube videos right from their living room couch.”

Alexis Gentry heard this statement yesterday when Apple CEO Steve Jobs formally announced the Apple TV product, which would allow users to find their favorite YouTube videos, pay a tiny fee, and stream them to watch on their television. She then thought something to the effect of, “Having I been doing that already?”

Back in December, Opera launched the trial version of their internet browser for the Wii. Since then, Wii owners have been casually watching YouTube videos from their couches – and for free. Heck, I even remember bringing the Wii to a birthday party in December, and once everyone was tired of jumping around from WiiSports, they literally spent hours just watching YouTube videos on the huge 40-something inch HDTV using the Wii. Those girls were better at the on screen keyboard after a few minutes than I still am today.

While I love Apple and a lot of their products, I’m sure many people wouldn’t pay $300 for a product and then additional fees to watch YouTube videos using it when you can get a $250 Wii with WiiSports, watch YouTube videos for free, browse the rest of the internet in addition, and a few months down the line use that extra $50 to buy Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Which is the better deal?

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  • Despite being an Apple geek myself I would have to say the AppleTV IMO is a rather pointless product. The only useful feature I find out of it is the ability to stream mpeg4 h.264 encoded video to a TV as I do have a lot of those. I see it as a rather pointless device until/unless it supports recording TV in mpeg4. EyeTV has a device that hooks to the AppleTV that allows it to record TV, but it's rather icky in its interface and doesn't really blend in well with the device's interface. What makes it worse is that you can get a Mac Mini, a bluetooth keyboard, and a bluetooth mouse for only a couple hundred more than that, hook it up to an HDTV using a DVI to HDMI adapter, and view everything in 1080p rather than 720p on the AppleTV or 480p on the Wii. If you really want to be geeky there's a driver for the Mac that allows you to use the Wii remote as a pointing device. I use it quite often. It's fun.

    I would say neither is good for that. Nothing beats a personal computer (Mac or PC) hooked to a TV for that sort of thing. It has more bang for the buck in that category. Playing games? The Wii has that covered.
  • Sushi
    Watching Youtube videos on a small screen is icky, let alone on a huge hdtv. Also, comparing the Apple TV to the Wii doesn't really apply to the Videophiles that want to stream HD content from their computers. Likewise, a casual gamer that plays the Wii would probably never buy an Apple T.V. even without the Wii as they don't really care about new gadgets.
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