“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.
Is FaceTime better than iChat?
Because it seems very similar and, to be blunt, iChat really hasn’t gone anywhere despite it’s ubiquity on the Mac. I don’t personally know anyone ho uses it on a regular basis.
I found it horrible trying to configure it on our four home-networked Macs. I found it absurd that iChat had to be running continuously in the background in order to work. Trying to get it set up was frustrating, and I gave up trying to get any use out of it. It was just easier and quicker to get up and walk to another room to speak to someone.
Sorry… meant to say “anyone who”… not “anyone ho.”
@ iFan
iTV app as an actual app.. brilliant!
it seems so obvious now, I really hope this is what apple is planning. I was already planning to forgo a desktop in favor of a Mac mini connected to my tv. with your idea I could be watching a movie via iTunes on my tv, and then just have my Mac mini stream to my itv app on my iPad to bring to bed, the bathroom, the kitchen.. very cool.
I currently have Plex running on my Mac Mini and use my iPhone or iPad as the mouse and keyboard through AirMouse. It’s nice, but I struggle to see how an iTV based on this model could be described as revolutionary… Plex is far better suited to delivering multimedia content on an HDTV that iOS would be. Oh – and I have a web cam on top of the TV running Skype. Rarely use it though – if people are watching TV they don’t want to be interrupted so I can make a Skype call…
FaceTime on iTV makes no sense. Who is going to go sit down in front of their TV to make a phone call? And you can’t use a standard webcam, because you’d be too far away from the TV. It simply isn’t practical. Building a camera into iTV is useless because it would require you to put the iTV in a certain spot very close to the TV, and many, many people don’t have a good location.
What are you going to do with your iTV if you have your TV mounted on your wall? I have my components in the closet behind the living room wall, so you don’t see all of the components, cables, etc. The last thing I want to see is a couple of cables running from my iTV to the HDTV to the webcam.
Sorry MDN, facetime is useless until they port it to 3G. Additionally, it will put an end to a lot of marriages and create breakups. No longer can a boyfriend or girlfriend lie about their location. The video will give away any bar, any day.
On top of iPhone/iPod/iPad, just add the bluetooth support for Wireless GamePad and your Apple iTV will turn as one of the most fun Game Station with access to over 250,000 apps and games.
You not only watch movie, shows, listen music, check your Facebook or have a FaceTime video call with your friends… you can also play games (and do it online with Game Center).
Multi-tasking would even allow you to talk over Skype/FaceTime while playing some game, sharing MobileMe photos, videos, etc…
With a low price ($99-149?) and low price game (starting $0.99) it will simply be a very huge competitor to the PS3, XBOX360 and Wii.
Developers will “simply” adapt the game for a new size screen resolution (something not difficult when one already did it for the iPad and new iPhone Retina Display screen resolutions).
Mark my words
Spid
Um, hello, anyone heard of iChat?
Why Apple doesn’t integrate Facetime into iChat I don’t know….I would have had that available day 1 when the iPhone 4 shipped.
Muffy? Biff? Where and when is this guy from?
“I wouldn’t put it past Apple to try to control what you’re allowed to see, read, and watch through yet another medium.”
OK, dipshit. That’s Apple’s plan: world domination by control of media. I think Apple’s actual motivation would be to make money by revolutionizing the current shitastical experience most have with their cable providers’ content, but I may just be making the crazy talk again.
What does Rose know that causes you to give him oxygen?
Why not quote Joe Schmoe too?
MDN=embracing irrelevance