I missed the announcement of a partnership between Amazon and TiVo to deliver video directly from Amazon to (non-DirecTV) TiVo DVRs. I even missed the delivery of the service. Then I stumbled on it when I went to order a new product at Amazon: I can now buy or rent movies and TV shows to be delivered directly to my TiVo recorder. I order and pay on Amazon; the video shows up on TiVo the next time it checks in. All I had to do was enter my TiVo user name and password at Amazon. (The rental deal, by the way, isn’t all that good: 30 days to view, but only 24 hours to finish once you’ve started.)

The combination of buying some stuff for my television from iTunes Store (which I can watch on my TV on Apple TV) and buying other stuff for my television from Amazon (which I can watch on my TV on TiVo) seems like a huge deal. The combination means you can watch stuff on your television without ever having to depend on a cable, satellite or broadcast network. Neither library is complete or even particularly compelling, but the combination probably lets you (if you happen to own both a Series 2/3 TiVo and an Apple TV) get a pretty significant library of content — maybe even enough to skip having cable or satellite attached to your television.

That’s what is interesting. Imagine a world where you have an alternative to cable and satellite and even broadcast television! The Apple TV deal means that a computer company is negotiating for rights to distribute video content. And the Amazon/TiVo deal means an internet company is negotiating for rights to distribute video content. It’s a little like when Ted Turner first started distributing old movies on the TNT channel — it seemed barely relevant at the time, but it ended up being a revolution in TV distribution, particularly after he started CNN in 1980 (when it was referred to as the Chicken Noodle Network).

I got mine this weekend. It’s worth getting just to see how a really well-designed product works. Apple TV IS really well designed, in part because it explicitly doesn’t do certain relatively complicated things.

1) The first iPod model that came out did NOT have iTunes Music Store (hard to remember), so you only played MP3 files on it. It was also locked to a single computer, so if you changed computers, you lost whatever was on your iPod. This was the predecessor to the Fairplay DRM — a really simple way to guarantee to the music labels that Apple wouldn’t enourage piracy.

Apple TV, likewise, will only synchronize with one computer. If you switch which computer you sync with, the stuff on the hard disk inside Apple TV gets overwritten. At first, I thought this was stupid, in part because my computer leaves the house when I do. But then I realized it was brilliant because syncing with multiple computers is much harder to make work for both Apple and the consumer.

2) All that said, synchronizing that much data (movies are about 1.5GB each; TV shows are 200-500MB; and so forth) takes a LOT of time on a wireless network. If you’re used to using Firewire or USB 2.0 with an iPod, be prepared for a whole different dimension. I started syncing my iTunes data yesterday around 10am. By the time I unplugged to go to the office, the Apple TV had both movies and about half the TV shows. And syncing is really pretty dumb; it goes one media type at a time, so still no photos on the Apple TV.

3) That said, there’s nothing wrong with this product! The screen resolution (HD only) is spectacular so that movies and TV shows I buy on iTunes look better than anything else on my television, possibly even including the Blu-ray DVDs I’ve watched on my Samsung DVD machine. Photos are brilliant (once they all get there). And music is as good as the sound system on the television.

In fact, you begin to think that maybe Apple will end up being the delivery mechanism for real HD video. The company has no legacy to protect from being a cable or satellite or broadcast network. The selection of movies they have on iTunes is already pretty good. And you don’t have the issues of protecting consumers from their own media that the Fairplay system creates for music listeners. (I’ve stopped buying music on iTunes since I can’t use it anywhere else.) Video is different than music: Watch it once or maybe twice and you’re finished with 99% of the video that exists. For the other 1%, go buy the DVD.

4) The industrial design of Apple TV is beyond brilliant. It’s small enough that it will go anywhere and pretty enough that it fits just fine sitting by itself in front of the television (not in the stack of stuff underneath). My television has an HDMI plug, so it was the easiest thing in the world to install: Plug in power, connect to the TV, turn it on.

This is the most satisfying experience I’ve had since the first time I got my TiVo to work — and the installation time was about 2% of what it took to get that TiVo to record its first show!

Update April 1, 2007: 1) Michael Chang (comment below) was correct. Apple TV can show HD resolution, but iTunes doesn’t deliver movies and video in that resolution. 2) I solved the only-one–HDMI-slot by buying an HDMI switch, but this stuff is expensive! The switch ($141 including tax) and a 4-foot HDMI cable ($108) cost almost as much as the Apple TV ($299). I didn’t shop around, so I’m sure the BestBuy guy just gave me the most expensive stuff. But that’s the business model for Monster, isn’t it?

Any day now, our landlord will finally deliver a working swipe mechanism to open our office door. Meanwhile, since we moved in, we’ve had to use a physical key to get in, even though we already have the cards that let us into our parking garage. What leads to this rumination, though, is my recent car purchase.

I bought a 2006 Toyota Prius, which came with a smart key. I don’t need to pull the key out to open the car or operate it. As long as I have the key on my person, the car talks to it to establish my authenticity and allow me to open the door and push the start button. It’s kind of eery, actually, for an older guy like me: I walk up to the car and when my hand reaches the door handle, the car senses my proximity, talks to the key and unlocks.

My life now: I physically lock the door to my house, walk up to my car and drive away. I swipe me and my car into the parking garage, swipe myself into the gym, and then take a key out to open our office door. Any day now, of course, our landlord will finally deliver a working swipe mechanism; then I can use one card for both parking garage and office door.

Why do I have a key? Isn’t it feasible and affordable now to install electronic locks everywhere, including my house? Indeed, if it is feasible, why the heck do you need different electronic fobs or cards for each entry point? Why can’t I use my ATM card or cell phone or something else I already carry around? (See this post on my personal blog for another smart-card experience, but I don’t want my identity stored on that one!)
You can feel it: The future isn’t too far around the corner.