It was late Sunday evening when I received an important notification from Apple. My Apple TV had shipped. Coming right out off the manufacturing line, this new piece of gadgetry had a long journey before it made its way to my livingroom. Starting off in Shenzhen, China, the package found its way to Anchorage, Alaska, but it wasn't done there. It trafficked the fine city of Indianapolis, Indiana before finally finding itself in the rainy city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One delivery exception later, it was time for me to procure my elegant new machina from the FedEx store in downtown Pittsburgh. After arriving at the local FedEx facility, I could sense by the grimacing expression on the workers' faces that it had been a enduring day. Nonetheless, I was determined to get in and out as fast as possible with no delay. With one person ahead of me, I waited patiently.

FedEx employee: Sir, do you have a pickup too, may as well do both at the same time to save myself a trip.

Me: Sure!!!

So as the FedEx'er tracked down our packages, I stood there waiting patiently. Then she came back carrying two strangely similar boxes. 'Looks like you guys are getting the same package' said the FedEx'er. Yeah, you guessed it, the guy in front of me was also picking up his Apple TV. We looked at each other and nodded as if to say 'ahhh yeah, you too'.

Off to the races I went weaving in and out of traffic destined for home. After arriving at home, I decimated the protective wrapping around the box and snapped a few quick pictures. No new Apple hardware deployment would be complete without photos, right?

Setting this project aside for a moment, I headed out to eat with Shawna and her mom. After returning from a tasty dinner, it was time to put things into motion. I opened the box and began my cabling adventures behind the television.

• HDMI connected, check.
• Digital audio connected, check.
• Power cord connected, check.

With everything connected, time to get this puppy on the network. I turned on the television and boom, I was presented with the Apple configuration menu.

• Wireless network name, check.
• Wireless password, check.
• iTunes Apple TV passcode, check.

Sure, I had to make a few configuration changes such as updating my dhcp server configuration and adding the Apple TV's mac address to the list of allowed clients on my Airport Extreme, but that only took a few minutes and then everything was ready to go.

Right now, iTunes in syncing the bits from my iTunes library to my Apple TV and I expect that to take some time, even using 802.11n. In the meantime, I've been listening to some of the music that's already been synced. I figured I'd capture a few photos of that as well, those are included below.

Obviously I haven't put this device through the ringer yet, but I'm quite pleased with the purchase thus far. I haven't quite gotten used to using the remote yet and I'm somewhat disappointed that I cannot control the volume with the Apple remote, but that might just be because I'm exercising my geek mentality. Resorting to directions is like admitting failure. The interface and transitions are unique and aesthetically pleasing, something I've come to really enjoy about Apple's products. Beyond that, I guess only time will tell, but so far so good.