“During the same Goldman Sachs conference during which he announced first-week sales of Disney movies through iTunes [125,000], CEO Bob Iger revealed that he has seen Apple’s upcoming iTV device in action and that it has a hard drive, a feature that many assumed would be missing. He said: ‘It can also stream it live through the box to the TV or it has a small hard drive on it so they can download what you put on the device on your computer, on your iTunes, through the television set,'” Brad Cook reports for The iPod Observer.
Full article with more details here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “pog” for the heads up.]
By “has a small hard drive on it,” does Iger mean “in” it or “attached to” it via USB 2.0?
Related articles:
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
The most exciting feature of Apple’s ‘iTV’ may be its USB port – September 15, 2006
Cringely: How Apple plans to own your living room – September 15, 2006
LA Times: With iTV+iTunes Movies, Steve Jobs stumbles over the last 100 feet – September 14, 2006
BusinessWeek: If anyone can make bridge the great divide, Apple can with ‘iTV’ – September 14, 2006
The Beeb asks: Would you buy the Apple iTV? – September 14, 2006
Three markets that are different today after Apple’s ‘It’s Showtime’ event – September 13, 2006
Cramer: Apple’s ‘iTV’ all about ease-of-use; Apple shares are going higher – September 13, 2006
Apple + Living Room = Logical Marriage + Boon for Stockholders – September 13, 2006
The Register: Apple event more like ‘No Show’ than ‘Showtime’ – September 13, 2006
The Telegraph: Steve Jobs’ genius making people desire gadgets for which they have absolutely no use – September 13, 2006
The Guardian: Steve Jobs needs ‘a charisma download, Apple risks being left behind’ – September 13, 2006
Mark Cuban: Things that are special about Apple’s announcements – September 13, 2006
Apple’s ‘iTV’ strategy – September 13, 2006
How will Apple’s ‘iTV’ work? – September 13, 2006
Apple eyes living room market with device codenamed ‘iTV’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV model ‘the gold standard for the digital home of the future’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV ‘will be hard for other players to match’ – September 12, 2006
Apple gives sneak peek of ‘iTV’ set-top box to debut Q1 2007 (with images) – September 12, 2006
Apple’s QuickTime stream of Steve Jobs special event now live – September 12, 2006
NFL and Apple team up to offer 2006 NFL game highlights via iTunes Store – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
Does anyone think that it’s like a cach drive so if the weak ass wireless kicks out that the movie will still play. Also a great way to make sure playback contiunues to play back smooth to load the movie as it plays. It would only take about 10 minutes to copy a whole movie over to it. My money is on that.
This is what the iTV is
It’s just like the new “cable boxes” that have their own hard drives inside. They can download a movie and watch it a few times before the 24 hour timer is up.
What Steve Jobs is planning on doing..remmember what he said “Cable companies are a monopoly”… is to mimick the cable box but use the internet as the transmission.
The iTV will of course operate via remote control, a expanded version of “Front Row” and also stream data from the computer. Music, data, games etc.
So Steve Job’s iTV is going to allow more functionality than a cable box, leveraging the ability of the computer with all it’s extra features like web surfing, email, iChat and so on to a TV.
Of course there is huge problems, first off the cable companies own the broadband delivery system in the US. DSL really isn’t a good alternative.
Plus even though iTMS movies start a minute after downloading begins, it’s still not good enough to stream 1080p reliably.
Download a Quicktime 1080p trailer on Apple’s site and just see what I mean.
Cable companies can start hobbling anything Apple or Microsoft does by throttling the download speeds.
Steve is selling a lot of complicated geek gadgets, but nothing a normal everyday joe can hook up and use, like a cable box.
Just look at the iPod, still no DSL/recharge/hard drive equiped dock to access the iTMS independantly of a computer. This would sell tens of millions of units easy as it’s a entry level device to a computer.
Apple’s stuff appeals to geeks, but doesn’t have any praticality for the majority of normal folks.
Small like in 80GB small?
Phone call to Apple Legal:
Oh Nancy, hi Steve,
Send Robert Iger a cease and desist order will you?, he just violated the non-disclosure agreeement.
Oh never mind, I’m the majority shareholder of Disney, I’ll just fire his ass.
Ahhh power, it’s so wonderful. I feel like Bill Gates.
Who would have thought, just several years ago I was peddling NeXT computers to schools.
Knoe it ALL
“Apple’s stuff appeals to geeks, but doesn’t have any praticality for the majority of normal folks.” huh, the iPod maybe?.
Sorry to be O/T….
Cube – Here’s a nice highlight vid of Jeremy Horn, who is quite possibly my favorite MMA fighter. He’s got something like 110+ fights to his credit, has never been knocked out, and has only gone to decision 10 times! I believe about 50% of his fights he has won by submission. This is a guy who fights about 20+ times a year (on smaller circuits other than the UFC – although he has fought UFC matches) as opposed to say Chuck Liddell who may fight 1-2 times. He lost to Chuck pretty recently (UFC 60-61?), but Chuck DID NOT knock him out no matter how hard he tried. Anyway since I know you are innto MMA, check out this vid (note the vicious elbows at around 1min 50sec, and a devastating head kick at 2min 30sec). Enjoy.
And don’t forget – October 10th, LIVE and FREE on SPIKE TV – Tito Ortiz VS Ken Shamrock III. This will be their final fight.
– ©
To change the subject slightly.
There is confusion about the purpose of the usb port.
I think ( I read it somewhere) the usb will be used for those tiny eyeTV tuners. You won’t need a tv anymore just a large monitor. That where I am waiting for……
Maybe Steve WANTED that leaked??? Nothing better to stir up speculation than a few key hints…
Maybe it has a small hard-drive inside, then for people who want more storage they can either upgrade or purchase an external drive (like the ones LaCie already has made to fit on the Mac mini).
I think it’s more likely to replace the DVD/DVR/VCR (yeah, a few of us still have some legacy VHS tapes hanging around) than it is to replace set-top boxes for cable/satellite. Now I’ve got to figure out how to digitize all my VHS tapes…
So you’ll be able to upload your Hi Def content to the hard drive for playback and not have to rely on wireless. Nice.
Instead of iTV why don’t they call it the Mac Nano or the Mac Mini Mini??
Bob Iger is obviously completely technically illiterate. What a fool to be trying to explain something he knows nothing about. You can tell by his comments that he knows nothing – check it out:
“on your iTunes”, “small hard drive on it”, “what you put on the device on your computer”…. etc etc etc…
I mean, what the hell is he talking about? He sounds like a fifth grader trying to read Tolstoy in front of a class.
He should just shut up and let Steve do the talking from now on.
by ‘small’ does he mean 750GB?? I hope so.
“Apple’s stuff appeals to geeks, but doesn’t have any praticality for the majority of normal folks.”
Yeah, those 60 million people who have bought one of those “iPod thingies”…
All hardcore *nix geeks I’ll bet.
Hey, maybe he was talking about his own hard drive, and just made a little slip.
C’mon people, do ya need a smack in the head to grasp the obvious?
With Leopard, you need an external hard drive to use the Time Machine backup application. With one very simple device, you can have the back up device you need along with the wireless multimedia device you want.
Unlike DVRs and game consoles, this li’l box is going to be the “must have” for all computers, especially Macs, and soon replacing many of those individual video devices.
“Must have”; that is the status you want your new device to have. They’ll be hotter than iPods.
Bundle the $299 iTV with Leopard for $349 as the backup hard drive needed for the new OS X functions and see how much media attention it gets. People will be staring at their Windows boxes wondering why they don’t have a Mac. This may be the final straw that makes people stop saying “Yea, we can do that on our Dells, too (with some extra work).”
If it is to be used as a back-up device, I’d like to see it with a single quick-disconnect connection bay so it can be grabbed quickly in an emergency, and the user can have all of his important files, photos and home movies as he evacuates his home/office. Another HUGE Mac OS X advantage!
Once people get their unimaginative heads out of their bottoms, they will soon see that the iTV’s wireless video abilities would be perfect for lecture halls, conference rooms, shopping malls (remote advertising monitors), etc., anywhere you need to wirelessly send video to a monitor.
Isn’t time y’all start thinkin’ outside the li’l 6″x6″ box?
ApplePi made a great comment that a cache drive would smooth out a somewhat ragged wireless stream. That could solve the 1080p quality issue.
to the bleeding obvious,
“um, the xbox 360 can do everything the itv will do already”
Awesome! When the XBOX 360 just costs $299, and doesn’t look like shit, give me a call.
before anyone flames steve m, i’m sure he’s talking about the “full” xbox 360, not the core one.
itv has an advantage that other video players don’t – it’s made by apple. it has an awesome interface and i’m sure there’s plenty of things about it we don’t yet know. steve jobs only showed it played the standard def video from the itunes store, but it does have hdmi and component for a reason, i like to think. not just for pictures.
what kind of bandwidth would be needed to stream 1080p video using h264?
my quick and dirty research shows roughly 15-20mb/s. 802.11n would be able to do it with bandwidth to spare – say, for dolby digital 5.1.
a possibility here is that apple might introduce macs with blu-ray drives, and allow streaming from those computers to your tv via itv.
i’m quite curious to see where this is all going. =)
iTV is looking more and more like a MacMini in sheeps clothing. Didn’t Steve say it could connect directly to the iTunes store via the internet?
I don’t think Iger let anything out that was not meant to be let out. It’s all part of a clever and grand plan.
Thanks LinuxGuy and Mac Prodigal Son that’s my first positive feedback on here
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> Well feedback of any sort
You are right, its got HD connections to the TV for a reason.
I suspect they could have done without the on board hard drive (if it is indeed there) with 802.11 (n) but as that has been put on hold so plan B is to allow users to upload HD content onto the internal drive.
The thing about Apple’s philosophy is that its pragmatic. Realistically 720P is what we’ll be downloading. Even if its just a small drive and can hold 2 or 3 HD movies you can bet that iTunes will make it very easy to upload and remove content just as you would an iPod.
Its just gunna work.
Admitedly I had reservations but the news if true about an onboard drive will make this product rock.
While the HD DVD vs Blu-Ray forces have collectively failed to introduce affordable products in a timely fashion, Apple has potentially inflicted a knock-out blow to them both. At the very least given the consumer a viable alternative choice.
Know it ALL: I agree with you for the most part. When it comes to the living room, most people don’t buy the brand, they buy the function and price. So Apple has to give them both. I am sure they can, but they’ve got to work hard at it – as opposed to just saying, “Look, we make the iPod! Buy our iTV, too!”
I’ve said it before, you’d be so surprised how many peole don’t associate Apple’s iPod with Apple’s OS. I don’t know why, but they just don’t seem to think that way.
It’s really surprising, too, that Apple has become so dependant on Windows-users. (The iPod would be mediocre if it weren’t for them.) I’m saying that because, like the iPod, the success of iTV will depend on if it works with PCs.
how about an iTV that doesn’t NEED a computer… just directly hooks up to the Internet and iTMS. A TRUE WebTV.
How long before MS announces their innovative xTV set top box that will seamlessly stream old guys in a leotard and butterfly wings dancing alone?
Then there’s Amazon’s groundbreaking unTV that’s actually just a small cardboard box with an Amazon logo crammed with a refurbished, out-of-warranty Tivo.
Next post.
I think the small harddrive has a very specific purpose. Video rental storage. Using a model like netflix, Apple could allow us to determine the number of movies we can have stored on our iTV harddrive, based on the amount of our subscription. ie 9.99 per month for two movies at a time or 14.99 for 4 or something to that effect.
The internal drive allows for temporary storage without the possibilty of these rentals being moved to our computers or iPods. We can download movies at will but can only have a certain number of movies stored on our iTV at a time.
I think Apple is smart enough to know that the vast majority of the video business is in rentals not sales. But they need to get the studios on board with the sales model before they can open up the subcription rental service. They don’t want to tip their hats too soon, otherwise NetFlix and Blockbuster will be screaming like stuck pigs.
Just my 2 cents.