I got my AppleTV a couple days ago, but had zero time to do anything with it.  Last night I finally just unboxed it b/c I couldn’t wait anymore, but I still haven’t even plugged it in.

My HD TV set only has three HDMI ports, so I dug around in our TV cabinet last night to disconnect my old Google Android TV box, to make room for the Apple TV.   I can’t even remember what the thing is really called, only that it was made by Logitech.  It started acting glitchy and needed a hard reboot every time I wanted to use it so I just stopped using it long ago.  Like all my other Android devices it seems to have just stopped working sitting around unused, although in this case at least it was supplied with power.  It’s made of plastic and came with a wireless keyboard that had a built-in trackpad that always felt clumsy to use.  It’s about as wide as my Macbook Pro, but light and cheap.

In contrast, I was a bit surprised at how tiny the Apple TV was.  Small form factor, but very solid with a hefty weight.   It’s the best packaged Apple product I’ve seen, yet.  Better than the Macbook Pro or original iPhone packaging.  I heard the watch is really nicely packaged too but I haven’t seen that as yet.  The remote is awesome just to touch and feel, even though I haven’t used it with the TV yet or anything.  It has two kinds of surfaces, one for touch and the bottom half is glass, they both feel amazing.  It’s like no other materials – out of this world.  In a nutshell, it is overtly apparent that the design team at Apple went to great lengths to make this a product like none before it.  I never imagined I would be so impressed with the material design of a device, to bother writing a post about it before even plugging the thing in!