One Small Step For YouTube, One Giant Leap for Internet Video
Perhaps classifying the just-announced YouTube/Apple TV partnership as a small step understates the issue. This is big, no matter how you slice it. While it may push the limits of acceptable video quality with 320x240 pixel videos stretched to HD proportions, the millions of YouTube devotees and the as yet unwashed masses are about to change the nature of living room entertainment. Is YouTube the 800 lb. gorilla that is the special case here or does this signal days to come when you might tune in to the For Your Imagination Channel on your Apple TV to catch the latest from Patrice Oneal, bschooltalk and Design2Share. Setting up playlists to do just that is possible but not necessarily something the casual living room video browser wants to deal with. (In a future post, we'll outline a step-by-step guide to setting up your own iTunes video podcast playlist.)
