Apple TV

Apple TV gets Watch ABC, Bloomberg, Crackle and KORTV

Apple on Wednesday added some new stations to its Apple TV. The main menu of the Apple TV now contains Watch ABC, Bloomberg, Crackle and KORTV.

Watch ABC is available in select cities with live and on-demand programming; Bloomberg is offering live business, finance and tech news for free; Crackle lets users watch TV and movies, although it seemed like old content to me; and KORTV gives you live Korean TV including top shows, movies, news, sports and music videos.

There is no download necessary to get the new stations, everything was pushed live by Apple.

Apple adds PBS, Yahoo Screen to Apple TV

Apple added two new stations to the Apple TV on Tuesday: PBS and Yahoo Screen. The PBS station will feature primetime shows, including Downton Abbey. The shows will be available on Apple TV a few hours after they air live. Yahoo Screen will feature clips from Saturday Night Live, The Daily Show, and others, as well as original Yahoo programming.

Google Chromecast: No thanks

Dan Nosowitz for Popular Science:

> The Apple TV costs $95 on Amazon–a lot more money, sure. But you get a lot more for your money (great interface, stellar hardware, support for the enormously popular Apple store, the combination of apps and a slinging feature), and it’s also important to remember that these gadgets can help you get rid of cable entirely. An Apple TV costs about as much as one month’s worth of cable. Suck it up, guys. It’s not that expensive.

> This isn’t to say that I’m not excited by Chromecast; I think slinging is exceptionally cool, and I think it’s great that this hardware so cheap and small. But I don’t necessarily think that a device that does exclusively slinging, no matter how cheap it is, is a viable option for most people. It’s best as part of a larger whole.

I agree with Dan. Google basically implemented Apple’s AirPlay, but that’s all Chromecast does. People expect more from an entertainment device in their home and this doesn’t give it to them. That’s not to say Google won’t sell a lot of them—they will, but that initial interest will fade because it doesn’t solve the problem we have with cable TV using a simplistic solution that everyone can use.