Will Apple TV touch off another iPod-style revolution?

Even though Apple TV is just beginning to hit stores, it follows a prediction that it will revolutionize the way people watch TV, eliminate the cable companies and cure cancer. Cure cancer, maybe - but I wouldn't bet on the cable company part.

The view of Apple acolytes holds that this is the next iPod - in other words, a world-changing product. Relatively cheap ($299), it can plug into a monitor or TV set and play back content - audio, slide shows, home videos and high definition movies downloaded from the Apple Store.

Look at its specs a little closer, and you'll note that it can't store much itself. Instead, it's designed to be part of a home network of Macs and/or PCs that serve content. It comes with fairly slick remote controls.

To put it another way, in conjunction with iTunes software running on various other computers, it does much of what Microsoft's Grand Plan for World Domination does - except that it sidesteps a lot of digital rights management problems. There's no provision for HDTV cable tuners or TiVo-like recording functions, for instance, which potentially can be developed later.

Oddly, Apple TV promises to be a huge financial success for reasons that have little to do with TV and everything to do with music. Of course, American households are required by law to have at least one copy of iTunes software and one iPod per teenager. Unfortunately, there's no good way to play back copy-protected music in iTunes over regular audio systems. Apple has a clunky solution - the Airport Express - which has to be manipulated from a PC or Mac. Or you can skip the Airport Express and run a long cable from your PC or Mac.

But if you want a simple, cheap remote device to control big quantities of music, you have to go elsewhere. A handful of companies, like Slim Devices and Sonos, have built real businesses supplying players ($300 and up) with miniature displays that a.) plug into your stereo and b.) access music stored in digital format on PCs and Macs. But they integrate poorly with iTunes and don't work at all with downloaded songs from the Apple Store. That's because Apple's digital rights management system has never been licensed. We won't even get into analogous Windows media extenders, except to say none work very well.

So along comes Apple TV, making it easy to connect and control your digital music from your home entertainment system for a mere $299. For the additional cost of another monitor, amp and speakers, you can also put your tunes in any room of the house. Plus, you can play your slide shows and start buying HDTV movies. What's not to like? I may buy one myself.

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