“I believe the Apple TV has a lead role to play in Apple’s HomeKit strategy,” Christopher Breen writes for Macworld. “Specifically, it will act as a hub — a kind of traffic cop for the various smart devices in your home.”
“The benefits are obvious. First, with local control you needn’t maintain an Internet connection to take advantage of your various devices. Just log into them through your Apple TV, and you’re in command,” Breen writes. “Secondly, any information generated by these devices can remain on the Apple TV, rather than be spit out to dozens of companies across the globe. The Apple TV can encrypt any communications and transmit data that is almost entirely anonymous.”
“Finally, the Apple TV is always on, so you might as well give it something to do. While your computer could run a smart home, it makes little sense to keep your computer running 24 hours a day just so it can relay the occasional home-centric message from one device to another,” Breen writes. “This is a good start, but it’s not a complete picture.”
Read more in the full article here.
Will Apple finally combine AppleTV and AirPort router?
I’d be happy if the Airport Extreme (with a connected hard drive) could act like an iTunes server, so I don’t have to wake up my laptop to watch movies on the aTV.
The only thing that currently annoys me is the ATV wireless speed cap. No matter what, it’s always stuck on 65mbs. Even on 5ghz N sitting next to your Airport, ATV is capped at that speed. Doesn’t make sense to me why?
When I look at Wikipedia, the 802.11 N is capped at 65 mbs, so the wi-fi protocol is the limit.
That’s weird. My MBP is showing 300mbs on N at 5gz. That doesn’t make sense then. So who is right?
Apple TV – 1 antennae
Your MBP – 2 Antennas (I assume you don’t have a thunderbolt MBP)
2011+ Thunderbolt equipped Macs – 3 Antennas
http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/05/06/mac_os_x_10_7_lion_to_support_450_mbps_wifi_on_2011_thunderbolt_macbook_pro_imacs/
Thanks Backlash. 😊 That explains it then. I always wondered why all three of my ATV caps out at that speed.
Put Front Row back on Mac OS- at least on the Mac mini to differentiate it-and let us use it as a HTPC. It already has the HDMI connection.
The Best Apple TV would be a Mac Mini with Front Row restored.
XBMC/Kodi (with Quartz skin) comes close to the AppleTV experience, so not too far from Front Row. I don’t know if it sucks stuff out of iTunes movies/TV shows. I don’t have anything in iTunes on my mini. It’s all organized the way *I* want it. XBMC/Kodi will also run perfectly without an Internet connection. You can’t even set up Plex without one.
Apple TV be damned! Where is my new Apple 4k (or maybe 5k) Cinema Display…Its Been Too Long…
I would hope they have more in mind than what amounts to a rename of Apple TV to apple home hub. Jeez.
I hope HBO’s announcement of direct selling to their customers is the bigger omen for the Apple TV. Of all private-sector companies, cable providers are hated most of all. Their whole business model is anti-consumer – the perfect market for Apple to get into. Turn the cable companies into ISPs and let Apple be the transit provider from the studios to the consumers who work directly with the content providers who make their content available on the web. If you want to throw in HomeKit as a bonus, so be it. However, I have the latest Apple TV that supports 1080p. The upgrade chain is now dead for me without more offerings that allow me to cut the cable.
Yes, I agree with every word you wrote. Comcast is the worst large company in the US, and it is certainly headed towards becoming a glorified ISP.
Here is why I think they held off on introducing a new Apple TV:
1. They want to release an updated Apple TV in conjunction with an Apple television. Currently, there is not enough panels for a new iMac and 5K television, so it might take some time to ramp up production. In addition, any issues that may arise with the new 5K panels can be fully flushed-out before tens of millions of televisions are sold.
2. The Apple Watch will work with an Apple TV. This will be another selling point for the watch. There could be another event close to the release of the watch where they will fully demonstrate these capabilities.
3. HBO said their stand-alone service would be ready in early 2015. Maybe this will coordinate with the release of a new Apple TV.
Well Cook did make a point if saying the perfect remote control,is on your wrist so just maybe there will be launches of both around the same time. There would have to be a mutual benefit because there is no way that they will want to launch a seriously up speced Apple TV with store blah, blah, blah around the same time as the watch unless they seriously compliment each other in some way. That’s why I fully expected a ATV announcement now so as to avoid that mutual dilution. But if they compliment each other that changes that changes the picture… Literally.
Apple seems to think that everyone wants to use Apple’s iCloud as their ultimate archive, and just to trust that Apple will always keep it secure and properly managed. With lightweight stuff, perhaps Apple will do that fine
However, the weakness of this strategy is that the cloud is only as good and secure as your internet connection. Apple seems to have forgotten this. It’s not even updated the Airport Express to 802.11ac, let alone the iPod Touches. Basically all the connectivity stuff works fine if you’re a consumer and you don’t mind low-quality streaming content.
Pros and content creators, on the other hand, are left with empty promises. iCloud is useless. iOS limitations are imposed onto Apple TV instead of enabling Apple TV or its replacement to be a true Personal Cloud — a Network Attached Storage device that doesn’t just serve compressed pre-canned media, but allows you to distribute your own 4K video over your local wireless network. Now that would be the leap everyone would love to see. As it is now, Apple’s iOS devices do not replace Macs, and the iCloud & wireless networking accessories that Apple sells don’t enable us to replace our wire-connected servers. Oh well, i guess the exciting Apple pipeline is a heck of a lot longer than we expected.
Dear Mr. Breen,
You have been one of the top Apple Guys out there and you really know your stuff about Apple. With all due respect sir, what kind of 8&%# are you trying to pan off on us. Are you a gypsie or something talking about tea leafs? Let me tell you how I feel using something a little better than tea leafs. It is called logic. The only Microsoft product out there under Balmer’s watch was the xBox. They just put a gaming system out there that was essentially a computer. It caught on not only with games but people were upgrading it’s capabilities to do more. And the xBox sold.By the time the 360 came around they made it a game system with a lot more power and came out with different 360s more powerful than the next. Not only more game developers made game but Microsoft added Netflix, Hulu and the apps you can get content from just to see how it could catch on and it did. Now we come to the xBox one. Now it is much more than a gaming system. It connects the cable box and combines everything in one box that interacts wit each other. Now lets turn to Apple. I am a ATV gen 1 owner. And I was very disappointed that the ATV did not get a refresh, most of all the night before Google came out with something new and Apple is in 2nd place now behind Roku and falling. Forget the full fledged tv that will not be here until 2016 at the earliest. And here you are saying about HomeKit and Apple is on the content kick wasting time. There is only two things that Apple can do right now that will totally rock the streaming box market and cause a earthquake in the gaming industry that will totally bury Nintendo and make Microsoft and Sony hang on for dear life and that is by just adding an A7 processor with direct access to Metal for the developers and a ATV App Store. That alone will be a big improvement over the gen 3 ATV. Of course you can add 802.11ac dual band. The whole product line has now been switch over except the iPad Mini 3 ( I am still scratching my head on that one.). That company that made the original Kinect that Apple bought can add a device for the ATV. Add Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2 a more robust AirPlay to use your iOS devices as controllers and Siri. When this is done and the shockwaves are felt Apple will not have to go to the content providers and Automation companies to provide content and devices to support the ATV, the companies will come to them. Most of all the home automation companies will come knocking. All those devices needs a “hub” to connect to and if Apples shows them this new ATV with this much power and connectivity through HomeKit, They will jump on the wagon. The way things are now, Apple will never get the content they want, and they will never get into the home automation market. They need to put something out there now to bring the market back to them before it is too late.