“Apple is working on its answer to Amazon’s Echo, the voice-activated assistant packaged inside a speaker, but it may come in the form of a refreshed Apple TV, rather than a new hardware product,” Jordan Novet reports for VentureBeat. “The company will build on its enhancements to the Apple TV announced last year, which brought the Siri virtual assistant to the set-top box. A new version of the Apple TV will solve problems with the existing box and remote control, a source familiar with the matter claims. ‘They want Apple TV to be just the hub of everything,’ the source told VentureBeat.”
“Apple has considered several options — turning the existing Apple TV into a more comprehensive assistant, making the Apple TV’s Siri Remote the key device, or even building a standalone speaker just like Echo,” Novet reports. “Ultimately, the third option was dropped, given how much money Apple has spent on the development of Apple TV.”
“The Apple TV will eventually get its own microphone and speaker, the source said,” Novet reports. “The Apple TV represents more than just a set-top box that can replace a cable box. Apple wants to own the living room and the connected home in general, the source said. A more powerful Apple TV would be a stronger foundation for new Apple products.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Bet it supports 4K video, too.
SEE ALSO:
Apple TV 4 is a beta product and, if you bought one, you’re an unpaid beta tester – November 5, 2015
Apple TV and the 4K Ultra HD conundrum – October 8, 2015
Amazon unveils $100 Fire TV box 4K video support, Alexa voice control – September 17, 2015
New Apple TV sounds great, but where’s the 4K? – September 10, 2015
It makes sense that the host device should always be powered and of course Apple TV fits the bill, but the downside is that your Apple TV is most likely to be situated on the pother side of the room near the TV.
The obvious drawback being that a built-in microphone might be too distant for reliable operation. On the other hand, if a wireless remote microphone were used, then it would solve that particular problem.
Apple remote already takes care of that .
Exactly.
As usual, Apple is lining up all the ducks in a nice straight line, but most people don’t notice them doing it.
Right so AppleTV is going to become what we all thought it was going to be in the first place in regards to this model incarnation anyway. It’s what for well over a year before it was launched, so called experts and insiders were saying was a major purpose of the upgrade, that it would do so by being closely integrated as a hub with and for HomeKit so that you outdo control all manner of things by voice through an app environment. I can only suggest that Apple reads these pages in future to get ideas as to how to execute a new peice of kit because clearly its competitors do. Apple has to realise that it no longer has endless time to produce such enhancements, that others are getting cuter and quicker while they dither.
I still haven’t figured out how VR relates to the Apple TV. Maybe this new device is actually a VR headset, which can also be similar to a traditional Apple TV when plugged into a monitor, projector, etc. Or maybe I’m just misconstruing hints and there are two seperate products. Then again, a 3D/VR capture iPhone and a holoprojector would be an interesting combo.
I don’t think this is related to VR. I also don’t know what a ‘holoprojector’ is supposed to be. Please explain. This is a test.
The VR part is connecting dots based on a recent event. Again, I want to emphasize that I’m connecting dots. This means maybe they are related, or it could just be my wild imagination. The hologram part is via Apple patents. Here is one example, which I’m sure you are well aware of:
http://iphone.appleinsider.com/articles/14/09/30/apple-patents-glasses-free-interactive-holographic-touchscreen-display
Hopefully, Apple can blow our socks off, and usher in a new era.
All these devices makes me wonder if Sony and Microsoft have given any thought to adding Echo like capabilities to the Playstation and Xbox consoles.
Talk to the remote! I like it. It’s a solution to the limitation of the previous devices where one must be in the room for the box to hear and respond.
The problem is Siri is still only about 1/3 done. If you do a head to head comparison, between Siri and Google voice input (not Echo which I hear works pretty well).. Siri will fail FAR more often. Try ten queries. Siri does well with sports and flippant answers but more often than not it can’t hear it, gets it wrong or just shunts you to a Bing page of results. It’s weak and simply not a world class product. I gave up on it (though I try it now and again).. It also has an annoying habit it coming on randomly on the phone… .a problem they still haven’t solved. It has to “just work”.. remember Apple? Remember when you built stuff that did that?
Wouldn’t your WATCH just auto-connect to ATV whenever in range? So you say Hey Siri to your watch and then Let’s watch the NBA finals. Watch parses the statement, sends the command to ATV and the channel changes.