“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.
FaceTalk 60 inch iPorn
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I always preferred frelled to fraked
Yes, FaceTime will be on the iTV. I assume it will also be in the iChat soon. I also expect to see it as a FaceTime for Windows. Apple wants the video conferencing market too. This also has a very large corporate application as it rolls out.
Apple would need to come out with its own camera like the original iSight, which could zoom and pan via remote or it wouldn’t work. Even so, I think Apple would rather rely on iPads for this feature than iTV.
iTV will not replace cable/satellite. Those industries are far too entrenched, with significant licensing contracts with content providers (e.g., DirecTV’s $5 billion deal with the NFL), for Apple to come in and take over. More likely is an on-demand, streaming service for renting shows, both commercial free or with commercials. I don’t think Apple wants to be in the TV programming business, as it’s become the field of niche cable stations as network TV continues its decline.
“Although Apple is unbearably restrictive….”
Even that, you can do a lot more with an apple device than you can do with any other’s company product.
I will buy a car for what it can do and it’s quality, not because of it’s specifications. Specs not always translate into functionality.
Control or sell?
SJ @ iPhone introduction, from memory:
“There will be tens of millions of FaceTime devices by the end of calender year 2010.”
iTV AND iPod touche with cams? why not.
> It makes sense for Apple to refresh the Apple TV and transform it into an iOS device.
Whenever I hear that, it makes no sense. “iOS” is defined by its GUI, which is basically defined by using “multi-touch” on the screen. You are NOT going to be touching the screen to interact with any type of new “Apple TV” device that connects to an HDTV. It may have some type of remote control with multi-touch features, but you are not going to be touching the screen, just as we have multi-touch trackpads for Mac but do not touch the Mac’s screen.
And I don’t think it is necessarily a good idea to make an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad into a “remote control.” A remote control is one device where having physical buttons is important. Ideally, when you use a remote control, you should not have to constantly look at the device to see where your fingers are located. You should be able to keep your eyes focused on the HDTV screen that is 5 or more feet away from you, not constantly change focus back an forth from the HDTV screen to the remote control device. A remote with a small number of well-placed physical buttons let’s you “use it blind,” whereas a flat touch-screen with drawn buttons does not (unless you get really familiar with it).
Once you remove the “touch the screen” aspect, it is no longer “iOS.” It is another different “OS” that is based on a Mac OS X foundation, with a different GUI that is optimized for purpose.
Ship it!!! I’ve been waiting!!!
@ ken1w
Do you look at your trackpad when you use it …?
a buttonless remote control makes perfect sense to me.
I’ll buy an iOS AppleTV on 3 conditions: 1) CATV input directly into the device; 2) EyeTV app to navigate/record shows; 3) universal multi-touch remote based on the new Magic Trackpad!
“Honestly, I don’t think so, but I wouldn’t put it past Apple to try to control what you’re allowed to see, read, and watch through yet another medium.””
WTF does THAT mean? So providing a service to people is somehow controlling? Friggin stupid.
Well then let’s start screaming about how Directv CONTROLS what people can see depending on how much they pay.
@ SamLowry
> Do you look at your trackpad when you use it …?
As I said in my own post, it may make sense to have “some type of remote control with multi-touch features.” That would include a something that is like a trackpad (or has a trackpad), where movement on the tracking surface equals something (like a pointer or selection highlighting) moving on the screen. Your eyes stay ON THE SCREEN, not the trackpad. You may still want to have real buttons for things like volume control and power; even an iPhone has physical buttons for sound volume and power.
What I was describing as “being less usable” was making an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad into a remote control, that has ALL on-screen control buttons. Part of the screen may be a tracking surface to control something on the screen, but you would still need some buttons for specific functions, such as sound volume or play, fast forward, backward, pause, next, previous, etc. Yes, maybe you can create multi-touch “gestures” for such functions, but that seems overly complicated and unintuitive for Apple. So if it draws such controls on the screen, you would have to look at the remote control to see where you are going to touch it with your finger.
My prediction for the killer iTV APP is … an iTV APP. Meaning I hope to see iTV be an APP I can download onto my iPad or iPhone – if nothing else but to stream (not load) my video library to my iToys via the internet no matter where I am. I know AirStream already does that – but the exception is that AirStream will not stream any DRM protected video. I would hope that an iTV APP would.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has been developing the new Zune app ‘ButtOut’…
i think Muffy in college will find another use for a webcam equipped Apple TV + FaceTime
@SamLowry
Thats only because you have a cursor on your screen…
you could use a touchpad with apple tv, as long as there was a cursor that was moving with your movements… you cant have a full set of touch buttons on a ipod touch “remote” and not look at it…
that was Ken1Ws point
If they added FaceTime I bet they could get the porn industry to subsidize every device sold. Kinda scary huh?
My daughter-in-law and my grand-daughter keep in touch with her mother via (video) iChat. Where have you guys been? OK, 13″ and 15″ screens, not quite the same as the 60″ wall screen.
I do believe people will welcome a TV interface that can do (so much) more than show what’s on “the cable”. Spend “ad time” surfing for where they last saw “that actress”, for example, or play a YouTube segment of her “sex tape”.
“…you should not have to constantly look at the device to see where your fingers are located. You should be able to keep your eyes focused on the HDTV screen that is 5 or more feet away from you, not constantly change focus back an forth from the HDTV screen to the remote control device”
Actually, if the games are from the iPhone/touch and iPad, the controls should appear on the TV screen while you control them with your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You won’t need to look at the controller because you will see the results of what you are touching on the screen.
I’m not saying a dedicated controller wouldn’t be useful, I just think you could still use the controllers you already have in the iOS devices.
I think the current Apple TV will remain – just plug in a USB web cam (remember the iSight – but in USB) and voila…
I refuse to buy any television shows from the iTunes store since none of them are close-captioned. Very few movies are. Unless Apple give us hard 0f hearing and deaf customers that option then we will not buy their product. That would be iTV killer for me.
Kevin Rose is a chode…. He also predicted one month before the iPhone was first released that it would have a slide out keyboard, a touch screen and two batteries. (ok one out of three… maybe not a chode but certainly a douche)
Cringely predicted video iChat in Apple TV, like, three or four years ago. I have given up hope of Apple ever being wise enough to do it.
Absolutely!!! This is what I wrote on Aug 18th:
http://www.traderhood.com/2010/08/18/next-big-thing-will-be-apple-tv/