“Kevin also suggests how the iTV would work if it were based on the iPad’s iOS,” Gewirtz writes. “I’ve been a long-time, long-suffering Apple TV user and it’s relatively easy to picture some of what Kevin’s suggesting. But I also think he’s missing a very, very big possibility: FaceTime.”
Gewirtz writes, “It makes sense for Apple to refresh the Apple TV and transform it into an iOS device. First, the current Apple TV is a complete orphan, with a hacked OS that doesn’t really work for anything. Moving it to iOS would improve maintainability, if nothing else. Then, of course, iOS would almost immediately score the device Netflix. That, alone, would be a major upgrade for the Apple TV. But there are many apps that would be nice to use from a couch.”
“Although Apple is unbearably restrictive in how it allows anything to connect to iOS devices, it makes a metric frak-ton of sense for Apple to ship an iTV device that allows a webcam to be plugged into it,” Gewirtz writes. “At that point, you no longer just have little tiny screens talking to little tiny screens, like a modern day, incredibly annoying Dick Tracy. Instead, you can have Mom and Dad on the couch, talking to Muffy in college. Or grandma on the couch, talking to Baby Biff in his crib.”
Gewirtz writes, “Now, I have to admit that this all seems quite horrid to me. I don’t really want to see people when I talk to them. But I’m not a grandparent. I’m anti-social, and all my friends are ugly. For the rest of the world, I’m betting a FaceTime-equipped iTV device will create entire new legions of rabid, insane, Apple fans. Oh, joy.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, joy, indeed! No sarcasm, on our part, at all; the more the merrier, we always say!
Right now, in many circumstances, FaceTime is useful as hell, provided both parties have iPhone 4′s. The more devices that can utilize FaceTime, the more valuable it becomes. The quicker Apple ties it into iChat on Macs, gets it into iPod touch units with cameras, and spreads it everywhere else that they can, the more products they’ll sell.
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