Apple TV Coverage: The Day After

Plenty of coverage has accompanied yesterday’s announcement that the Apple TV finally shipped. NewTeeVee would have a review but we’re not exactly on Apple’s short list of reporters who get review models over a week before the rest of the press. That would be Walt Mossberg, who filed his review for the Wall Street Journal today (sub. req.). David Pogue also gets to walk on the red carpet.

Mossberg has also produced one of his signature online video reports about the device, but as Gizmodo points out, his video review is of pretty amateur quality — you’d think a technology columnist would at least have an HD camera lying around the house.

The rest of us (NewTeeVee included) will have to wait until they hit Apple Store shelves on Friday, according to mothership GigaOM, then Best Buy on Tuesday. Best Buy got a two-week exclusive, but it doesn’t sound like there’ll necessarily be plenty in stock: Apple is only giving Best Buy 3,000 units for over 800 stores (Update: Best Buy retracts their exclusivity claim). Maybe the Apple TV attention will make it easier to get a Nintendo Wii!

The best coverage in the blogosphere has been from the aforementioned Gizmodo, who got its own Apple TV today and posted a setup video. Among other things I didn’t already know about the Apple TV, it turns out that the only cable you get with it is the power cord — so don’t leave the store without a component video or HDMI cable.

As David Pogue in his New York Times review points out, Netgear’s set top box will play back many more formats. Alternately, for the cost of a cable, TUAW shows you how to turn your Mac Mini (or most any other computer) into an Internet TV device quite easily. With FrontRow and an Apple Remote, it’ll be practically the same experience, with none of the waiting in line.

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