Did you hear? If you hold the Apple TV wrong, Apple loses interest. #gen1owner #bitter

I received enough replies, with varied interpretations of my poorly worded joke, that I wanted to respond on my blog. Sometimes 140 characters is not enough. What I really should have said was this:

I’m a first generation Apple TV owner. I was very excited when I bought it, but after using it for a few months I realized that it was just a shiny rubber nipple that would let me feed off of Apple’s teat and nothing else. Now, it collects dust in my closet. In my opinion, Apple abandoned the product, and as a result I feel like it was the worst consumer purchase that I’ve made in recent history. Yes, I’m excited about the announcement of a smaller, cheaper Apple TV, but I’m too burned by my first experience to head down that road again. So, I write silly, bitter tweets instead…

I do like that Netflix is now an option — as someone who has no cable hookup, it’s where I find most of my entertainment — though there are a lot of other things to consider when buying a media center. Will you want to watch Hulu, Vimeo, Ustream.tv, DivX, etc.? I do. I ended up shelving my Apple TV and hooked up a Mac Mini which runs Boxee. It runs purty good.

All in all, if you don’t already own a device capable of running Netflix on your TV, then I think this is a great, inexpensive option. For everyone else, good luck. I’m skeptical of Apple’s rediscovered “hobby,” but I hope that your purchases are well-made and enjoyed. Just consider these the ramblings of a crotchety, old man…

Aesthetics aside…

It seems like the iPad’s keyboard, in landscape mode, leaves you no choice but to hold the device in one hand and hunt-n-peck with the other. What if the keyboard was split into two, and placed in the lower-right and left corners? Then, you could hold it with both hands, and type a la the iPhone.

It’d be a sacrifice to the key size, for sure, but it might be more comfortable and functional.