I have my apple tv hooked up to my stereo receiver and it is wired through the house. Using the apple tv I can stream my itunes library from any computer in my house. In addition, my iphone acts as remote control allowing me to change music at will.

Couldn't you do all of this using any computer in your house?

I feel like my Apple TV is a mishmash of other stuff. I meant to get a mini and hook it up, but was talked into a discount Apple TV. I have an insane fondness for it, but I can't actually recommend it to anyone, because I don't see why they'd want it.

I can play iTunes on my TV, which is nifty (but I don't remember if I can see the playlists of my main library), but I can do that on my TiVo too. Mostly, the big deal is that I can watch iTunes purchases on the TV--I probably wouldn't buy or rent TV/movies from them if I couldn't.

And then all of Apple's trailers are right there, which is nifty, but not worth shelling out for.

Still only 16GB on the Nano? Feh.

A negative look at Ping (Apple's new social networking thingie for iTunes):

Apple's Ping is a bald-faced marketing ploy doomed for failure

Call me a cynic, but I can't imagine that Apple's new, ambitious social network Ping is going to take off. Built into iTunes and the iTunes Store iPhone app, it's designed to let you share what music you're enjoying with your friends while also following your favorite musicians.

It all sounds well and good at first blush, right? Who doesn't like discovering new music based on the recommendations of like-minded friends? But here's the problem: it only tracks what music you buy from iTunes. Just look at where it's located on the iTunes sidebar: in the store section. Any "sharing" that you do is just pushing iTunes' samples at your friends. Yes, it's all just a big setup to trick you and your friends into buying more songs from Apple.

What about music you've ripped from CDs? Or that you've bought from other MP3 stores, such as Amazon? Or, God forbid, music someone sent you or you downloaded illegally? That music might as well not exist. To Ping, you've either bought it from Apple or it's not worth sharing.

I don't know enough about Ping to evaluate this - I'll have to check it out once I get iTunes 10....

Couldn't you do all of this using any computer in your house?

I believe you need some kind of hardware to stream itunes through a stereo reciever in order to use all the speakers in the house.

Other equipment is sold that can do this but I'm pretty sure you need something. I like the Apple TV because I can stream my media from itunes on my tv too and use my iphone as a remote. I do understand one of the other systems uses an iphone as a remote too but I already owned an Apple TV and saw no reason to buy the other system.

I believe you need some kind of hardware to stream itunes through a stereo reciever in order to use all the speakers in the house.

How does the Apple TV do it w/o the speakers being connected to an Airport Express?

The Apple TV is wired to my receiver. The digital signal passes from the Apple TV to my stereo.

The Apple TV and computers all share a wifi connection. Itunes recognizes the Apple TV as a "speaker" connection.

A negative look at Ping (Apple's new social networking thingie for iTunes)

If what that person is saying is true, then ping will be very lame.

I was irritated at the ping announcement because itunes is already more bloated that Orca as it is. Itunes as a software program does not need to get bigger nor to use more memory, etc.

From Wired:

5 Reasons Why Apple TV Is (Still) Boring

I'm just grabbing the reasons without the text:

1. Paltry selection of television shows

2. No iOS

3. No HD antenna

4. No 1080p

5. No bit torrent

I don't think #3 is a big deal, and I can't see Apple adding bit torrent to Apple TV, as it might piss off the content providers Apple is trying to court....