Jon writes, “I predict that Apple TV will actually become a TV.”
Jon writes, “”We recently got a new iMac and started experiencing the wonders of FrontRow. Within a couple of days our DVD player died from jealousy… What a joy to navigate with that wonderful little remote!”
“Apple has revolutionized the cell phone business in the last six months because it has changed the way that people interact with their cell phone. I think they will do the same with TV. Just imagine a TV that you not only navigate with a simple remote but also that you can program like a computer. That is you can reorger your channels and organize them into favorites lists,” Jon writes. “Have user specific lists, download movie rentals and all this [with the beauty of Jonathan Ives design].”
Full article here.
PreDrag… absolutely.
We spend a LOT on amazingly sophisticated TV or HDTV sets and the cable companies cripple and turn our wonders of modern technology into dumb terminal windows.
WHY do we need cable boxes, when our TVs would probably do a better job?
I have an HD-DVR from Time Warner (Scientific Atlanta 8300) that has an SATA port in the back. I was going to buy a 500GB external hard drive to expand the stuff I was going to record, since it only does 20 hours. I figured I’d call Time Warner to ask which hard drive they recommend or what guidelines to follow.
They DON’T have the port activated and don’t support it! I was stunned.
If Apple has the power to shatter the cable companies’ stranglehold, I hope they go for it. iPhone so far has only scared the telephone companies.
Who knows how far it could go. Look at how internet monopolies have gone from per bit, to per minute, to monthly fees. It COULD happen elsewhere.
Maybe THIS, breaking content and service provider monopolies, is Steve Jobs’ REAL mission through all this!
This guy is not thinking here. An “all-in-one” AppleTV that includes the screen would be enormously expensive for starters. Second, the technology behind the screens we see in the latest big-screen models is changing everyday.
If you buy an AppleTV now and it has a 42″ LED screen, what happens when a 150″ plasma screen comes out next week? The screen part is a very volatile market right now.
Apple is smart to ignore that and just produce the box.
What they *will* do is put an optical drive in there. If AppleTV had an optical drive it would replace everything *except* for the big dumb screen.
disagree…TV in the future is about gaming, and for sure international multiplayer net based gaming. I’m around college students all the time, this is a definite.
Passive TV is about dead though. My 10 year-old formerly TV addict nephew is now a YouTube addict.
An Apple branded TV isn’t a very good idea for Apple. That marked is already by large and small, high and low-end machines. I agree that Apple could do better interfaces, but trying to keep up with display technology would be a waste of resources in such a competitive market. It would make more sense for Apple to produce the set-top add-on controller that would connect to and operate the TV as if it were just a monitor. This is what the AppleTV was supposed to be, and why it has been such a disappointment so far (and why Tivo is so much more useful).
If the AppleTV had Tivo-like functionality (or Tivo gained full Mac-interoperability hooked to a Mac mini or AppleTV), then you’d have the clear winner of the multi-media experience. The only thing to add would be an Apple-designed remote (combination of buttons and changeable software interface) to control all portions of the home entertainment system, and you’d be done. The killer app, hardware, and software solution.
That is one of the dumber suggestions that have been posted to this website. – Apple is not going to get into the TV Business.
An iTV with iSmell. That little box that pushes hundreds of odors into your living space; some wanted.
Imagine watching “America’s Famous Stockyards.”
Its great to read all the naysayers to my opinion opining that Apple would *never* do this. Aren’t you the same kind that said that the iPhone was a pipe dream that would never come out?!
I don’t think that we have seen the last of Uncle Steve’s tricks and the whole cable/dish industry is ripe to be upset just as the phone companies were.
Just give us a fresh set of displays please. LED would be nice. OLED would be better, but that would probably be a few years down the road.
TVs need Apple’s interface, and AppleTV does that now, and will do it even better after the keynote next week. Downloading HD content to a STB, and maybe blu ray, is where Apple seems to be heading. And Apple may be able to extract us from the stronhold of cable/dish companies with that model. There is just too much volatility and too much risk in the TV business, and little relevance to the Apple ethos.
________________________________
Yes, the AppleTV will become a TV.
But the truth of this matter is this.
Apple will be partnering with Sony.
The HD Televisions will be from SONY
and Apple will license OSX to them on
this venture. The sizes are 37 – 50″.
Some will adapt with the AppleTV device.
While another line will INCLUDE AppleTV
as a internal along with Blu-Ray combined.
__________________________________
Cable and fiber optic services now offer phone, internet access, and TV. The TV part of that package will become largely unnecessary. Looks to me like Apple is participating in — and helping to bring about — the absorption of TV into the internet data stream.
If @TV allowed you to surf the web and have a large selection of movies for rent or purchase through iTunes, that would do it for me.
Having a “back to my mac” feature where I could work from the couch would be cool too.
I doubt they are going to add a disk player or screen.
My prediction is that we will not see an all-in-one box for the television. But instead we will get intelligent components that will act as a single unit. Apple has already given us two of these components, the AppleTV for displaying some internet content or streaming video. And the Mac mini for computing (I know many people that have a Mac mini attached to their television sets already). Now imagine two additional components… a Blu-Ray player (perhaps HD-DVD too) and the ‘secret’ component would be the ‘tuner’. I think that the long rumored ‘asteroid’ device was not an audio mixer as some predicted, but was actually a TV tuner/Stereo/HDMI device that would become the heart of the Apple media center. It would use an Apple designed remote (or the iPhone/iPod Touch) to control the system. Each of the components would talk to the ‘Asteroid’ by USB and HDMI, and the ‘Asteroid’ would display the combined interface on the viewers screen/monitor (any vendor).
Depending on the configuration the user could watch HD television, cable/satellite braodcasts, Blu-Ray discs, streaming video, iTunes content plus the user could surf the web, read e-mail, play games etc…
Years ago I had the opportunity to work on ‘profession’ grade video components and I was intrigued by the video network that I was tasked with installing. The video network contained a timing pulse that allowed all of the video devices to stay synchronized and it contained a signaling protocol that allowed the user to remotely control any video device on the network. Apples expertise at video (not to mention their knowledge from Pixar) would have exposed Apple to these same concepts and to me it is the next ‘logical’ step. If each of the components could function independently (like the Apple TV, or Mac Mini) then Apple could continue to sell them and upgrade them as needed, but if they automatically integrated with an Apple Media Center then the user would have the flexibility to create a system that matched their needs and their budget.
Just my 2¢ worth.
The name may say it all: Apple “TV”. But if it does come to pass that Apple does offer a new style television, it will be unlike anything we’ve ever seen or probably even imagined.
How ever the hardware manifests, I believe that the so called eco-sphere is really where its at, i.e.: the Apple media center. This is an idea that Apple has put forth consistently over the past few years.
I just got an HDTV and Apple TV. Watching YouTube on the HDTV was a revelation. One could see that this is the future of broadcast television. Sure the video was some what smeary, but it was still totally watchable, and with scalable H.264 video compression, it will only get better.
Consuming TV a la carte is the next big thing. No longer will we be subject to the broadcasters programming and schedules. Its TV on demand, just like the internet experience, only delivered to your big screen TV. Finally, the promise of video on demand is realized. Huzzah!
This is the stupidest thing I have heard yet.
The Apple TV update will be a software update that adds video store software to the mix. Too bad it will only work in the good old US of A.
If Apple made a 50″ Cinema Display with built-in TV and a Blu-Ray drive I’d buy one. Like a shot.
“What about Apple TV (iMac-like hard disc, turner, DVD box) as the dumb terminal ‘dock’ for the ultra-slim Apple notebook?
One functions as a stand-alone TV, the other as a stand alone laptop… together as a well-speced full-size desktop”
my bank account is scared at the suggestion……
but i have my Visa ready. release the hounds!
@ Big Al
Hey, with our rotten health care system and complete dearth of good poutain, we need something to make us feel better.
sry, ‘poutine’.
Good thing, though, we have plenty of ZuneTang.
@ M.X.N.T.4.1
“The problem is that they have to add a tuner, possibly accomodate HD and non HD broadcasting, they would have to have a remote with more buttons on it and they’d have to make versions for different countries as we all use different standards.”
Or maybe just create some sort of device without any real buttons at all, but rather a touch-screen UI that can be changed for any function at will.
I wonder what such a device might look like… Hmmmmm….
An actual TV would be stupid. What happens when you need a new TV, or a bigger screen? The Apple tuner part gets thrown away as well. That’s a waste.
@ KenC
Every TV I’ve had has outlasted most computer equipment. I’ve owned some TVs for decades.
Maybe I’m just thrifty.
I was watching a short highlights from CES2008 and noticed all the bigger TVs and how TVs are going to connect to media servers, streamers and whathaveyou… And it stuck me kinda business as usual thinking.
So real AppleTV would be great. You know, one that is driven by OS X as a core – a TV with OS that can handle various tasks and be simple to use like iPhone. Use Front Row, if you’d like but it would be great to have the current Apple TV-like functions built in and also have tuner and have Safari browser also.
If you think about it, it is not more than stripped down MacMini built-in with large LCD display that can hang on your wall!
Glossy: “Having a “back to my mac” feature where I could work from the couch would be cool too.”
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Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The AppleTV can easily do this if the software is just enabled. In fact, Hacked AppleTV’s have this capability.
Why won’t Apple let us have that gorgeous Mac OS X experience on our HDTV’s without having to resort to some kludgey solution like the Macmini or hooking up our laptops with multiple wires while it balances precariously on a speaker?
Apple, open up the AppleTV ALL THE WAY and I will plunk down the change in a heartbeat.
>Comment from: January 24, 1984
>An iTV with iSmell. That little box that pushes hundreds of odors into your living space; some wanted.
>Imagine watching “America’s Famous Stockyards.”
Imagine watching “Dirty Jobs”
I have long thought that Apple might release a full blown TV alongside the existence of the AppleTV (as an add-on solution to those who want to use their current TVs) as part of their advance into the living room and to stock their stores. I fully expect many more consumer oriented devices to be released, including speakers, and hence the well founded reason they dropped “computer” from their name.
I know if they release a TV, it will be top quality (hopefully 1080P HDTV plasma) and mesh effortlessly with the rest of my Apple hardware/software on a level with which the current Windows Media Center simply cannot compete. It could single handedly cut out the need for set-top boxes and/or DVD players.