Apple TV comes to SA

Core Group announces Apple’s streaming box will be available locally at R1 099. Does it portend the arrival of television series? By Delano Stockhoff.

Added by Delano Stockhoff on 16 January 2013.
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Apple-TV-640

South African Apple distributor Core Group has said it will begin selling the Apple TV set-top box from this Friday, at a recommended retail price of R1 099. The move comes just weeks after Apple began offering a limited selection of movies in the South African iTunes Store.

The move may, of course, be a precursor to the launch of more content in the local iTunes Store, possibly including television shows, which have been available in markets like the US for some time. For now, though, the selection of content available to South Africans remains limited.

A Core Group spokesman did not immediately return calls for comment.

The Apple TV set-top box, which uses broadband connections to stream content onto connected TVs, will be available at Makro, Incredible Connection, Dion Wired, Hi-Fi Corp, Digicape and iStore outlets. It is essentially a tiny box that gives consumers access to the iTunes library of movies and music.

Until now, the device has been available in South Africa only through nonauthorised, third-party sources, often at much higher prices.  — (c) 2013 NewsCentral Media

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  • paul@mymultimediatv.co.za

    Good luck dear consumer intending to stream and pay for content average netflix HD streams at 1gb per hour

  • Desperate Dan

    You will have to start downloading Monday to Watch it on Friday unless you have full 10Mb ADSL and 1KM from the Exchange. Or you are in the new 20/40Mb Exchanges roll out, but still need to be close to the exchange.Not going to work at our unreliabie, intermittent and slow speed ADSL. Hope Core offers 30 day Money back deals, they going to need it.

  • http://www.facebook.com/stormvdm Storm

    My girlfriend got me one a couple of years ago from the States and we have been using it almost daily. It’s awesome. I have a 4MB Wireless line and streaming is fine. With AirVideo for the iPhone I can stream any video over Wi-fi from all our computers including PC’s. The app even converts AVI’s, Mpeg’s while playing in real-time. Highly recommended.

  • Biscuit1018

    I have a few of these and a regular 4mb connection. It works fine from the us store. Admittedly I use sd and the buffer is no issue. With hd I need to plan a little ahead. But sd is fine for now

  • http://twitter.com/danie10 Danie van der Merwe

    Netflix can be set to Good at 0.3GB/hour which works fine for me.

  • http://twitter.com/danie10 Danie van der Merwe

    I stream live on a 4Mbps ADSL and it is working fine… no buffering.

  • Spartan101

    Hate to burst your bubble, but Samsung’s Allshare app does this without the little box or a 4Mb line ,,,

  • http://twitter.com/sulaimanct Sulaiman Fredericks

    I also use the Allshare app and when i saw this I thought to myself why would anybody want to buy more hardware when you can just use a simple app but then i realised that not everybody has a Samsung…

  • http://twitter.com/aerbingham Anthony Bingham

    Core Group never respond, at least not to the consumers of Apple products

  • Sofa Surfer

    Hi Danie, who is your ISP? I must switch.

  • Biscuit1018

    With XBox and AllShare – Can you buy and rent movies / tv shows without creating VPNs?

  • http://twitter.com/sulaimanct Sulaiman Fredericks

    Yes, same as if you connect to the net with a pc but I also use my bluray as a gateway

  • Spartan101

    @Biscuit1018:disqus – get a life; unless your research has added personal value. The Apple TV offering is nothing like you’re expecting. I’ve seen this from a US perspective. To add to that, how many people in SA have a 4Mb line at home? And even then the iTunes offering is weak (even from a US pov) Wake up and stop blindly following a tech! If I connected my Xbox US account I could stream movies etc. greater than my iTunes account. If you actually read the first instance of this discussion, Storm spoke about streaming between his local devices! I did not intend an Apple/ Sumsung/Android debate – ,but whatever works for you and your defence! (btw – I live in a house with a wife who has an iPhone and a daughter with BB … !)

  • Erena Slabbert

    pLEASE LET ME KNOW HOW, i’m on same 4mbps, fast computer cannot even do fast youtube piece! buffering non stop, I would also like to move to your ISP

  • Biscuit1018

    Really you are overreacting. I wasn’t debating the merits of Android vs Apple. I was asking a real question about Allshare etc. I review my own technology every approx 5 years. Sulaiman said you could buy/rent content etc. on Allshare and I was looking because I had not head that before.

    Apple TV – I have had a few of them in my house for years now and a central Itunes (dont like Itunes but I like the Apple TV). I have the US account. If all I did was stream my own content to other TVs I wouldnt have bought the Apple TVs (would have setup something like xmbc) Thats why I asked the question about Allshare.

    Xbox – Well I dont have one since console gaming doesnt interest me. I therefore can only rely on the limited stuff I have read.
    I understood that you (like you did for Apple (and still do really) needed a US Account (and a Gold one?). The debate about catologs probably is affected by personal taste. I have seen plenty of blogs saying Apple’s is better (and vice versa). I have only about 2x failed to find something that was out but not on US Itunes. I am not disappointed.

    The 4Mb argument (I didnt think we were having one) applies to all online rentals. Sure it is a limited market but probably the majority of the audience on techcentral

    If I did change my technology I would need one that
    a) Can distribute content to the 4 TVs scattered around the house
    b) Can buy rent movies from a remote
    c) Can store my ripped DVDs etc (there the Apple could be a lot better)
    d) Mobile devices – The only thing I use is downloading video to the iPad and music to the smaller iDevices
    e) And most important have a interface that the wife and young kids can operate w/o calling me

    I am sure there are more than a couple that meet most of these criteria.

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