apple tv

first of all, what's up with dropping the "i" brand -- no iTV...was there a company that already had that too?

i recently was contemplating something a friend did lately and it made me really look at the apple tv...he's not a dumb guy, so i had to look.  i'm unimpressed.  not just because i'm a microsoft guy (recall: i have a mac at home as my family's primary computer, my wife and i use ipods, and i want a macbook), but from a practical sense...allow me to just dump my thoughts:

• it's an extension to itunes only. it isn't a standalone unit
• i remember watching the launch -- when steve jobs was trying to get people excited about it...my gut was "huh, no excitement...i've seen this stuff before .. it's called media center."
• the setup scenario -- per ben's comment below this may not be accurate -- i've seen reports and other friends tell me they had to do this step to get the pairing with a machine correct on a secure wireless network, but maybe it's isolated must be plugged in to a hard-wired connection before it can be configured.
  • oh, and they don't include an ethernet cable -- sounds trivial, but an oversight in my opinion if the first step requires one
• parental controls? -- seem to be lacking
• purchase from apple tv -- nope
• browse library? -- nope, only "top"
• basically it's an extender only -- but i don't think it really is being presented as such

i don't know, clearly i'm not the market for it -- but do people really buy content from itunes they want on their 60-inch tv?  they don't even sell quality video on itunes.  maybe i'm cynical, but it's kinda of redemption that apple has a crappy v1 product supported by crappy marketing for it.  for me, there is no story here.

the *only* think i like what they did -- and in typical apple form they succeed -- is the physical nature of it.  media center is in "pc" form except those like vidabox.com.  apple tv -- great form factor.  i can't help but really think it is just a smashed mini with front row on it.