Last week YouTube TV “debuted in New York, LA, the Bay Area, Chicago and Philadelphia,” Faultline writes for The Register. “In 2007, Steve Jobs described Apple TV as a ‘hobby’ when the company first unveiled the fledgling product, but ten years on, little seems to have changed in his absence. To this end, Faultine thinks Apple’s proposed premium bundle is doomed to fail unless it follows through with its explorations into original content.”
“A report from Recode claims to have inside information that Apple is at the negotiating table with HBO, Starz and Showtime, but these suggestions seem flimsy at best, and we see this as Apple taking the easiest possible route to market in a desperate and unimaginative attempt to enter an already crowded market,” Faultline writes. “The financial rewards from this type of bundled service will be nowhere near as rich as if Apple took the plunge by building its own streaming service from scratch, with both original and contracted content – something it should have done a long time ago.”
“YouTube TV meanwhile, is set to launch in the US later this spring with a skinny bundle of 40 channels – combining networks from broadcast and cable, including ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, ESPN, Bravo, Disney Channel, Fox News, FX, MSNBC, Sprout and USA Network,” Faultline writes. “It will roll out as a standalone app with six accounts available per subscription, and includes unlimited cloud DVR storage with no fixed term contract, allowing subscribers to cancel at any time.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Listen, it’s not news that Apple is comically confused about television. Just look at Apple TV, from its amateurishly-designed Siri Remote to its UI to its more-laughable-every-day lack of 4K – it’s a shit-show that we’ve covered extensively.
That said, we just bought several more Apple TV devices* as we’ve now all finally cut the cord. These Apple TV devices are on the fabled “Input 1” (the cable boxes are gone) but they are used well over 90% of the time to simply run the PlayStation Vue** app which, along with Netflix and Amazon Prime Video (we used those via the apps in our Sony 4K smart TVs as they stream in 4K which Apple TV cannot handle – plus there is no Amazon app for Apple TV) and a smattering of specialized subscriptions (MLB.TV, for example), have nicely replaced cable/satellite at a greatly reduced monthly cost. Each of our Siri Remotes are immediately clad in $7.88 Akwox Remote Cases (we don’t use the supplied wrist straps) that allow us to immediately tell which side is up by touch, correcting one of Apple’s many Siri Remote design flaws***.
Now that Apple’s hired Amazon’s Fire TV head to run their Apple TV business, we hope to finally see things move and improve on the Apple TV front.
*We went with Apple TV units because they work the best with all of our other Apple devices (AirPlay, Remote app on iPad and Apple Watch, etcetera).
**Worst-named, but best-featured streaming TV service currently available
***With the Siri Remote, users can’t tell which end is up in a darkened room due to uniform rectangular shape. The remote is still too small, so it gets lost easily. All buttons are the same size and similarly smooth. Only the Siri button attempts to be different, but the slightness of its concavity is too subtle to matter; a raised dot on the button would have been much easier for users to feel. The tactile difference between the bottom of the remote vs. the upper Glass Touch surface is too subtle as well; this also leads to not being able to tell which end is up. A remote with a simple wedge shape (slightly thicker in depth at the bottom vs. the top), as opposed to a uniform slab, would have instantly communicated the proper orientation to the user.SEE ALSO:
YouTube TV launches in select U.S. markets – April 5, 2017
Record live TV without a cable subscription – March 23, 2017
Making sense of myriad cord-cutting options – March 17, 2017
The ultimate cable television cord cutting solution for Apple TV owners – February 17, 2017
Sony releases PlayStation Vue app for Apple TV – November 17, 2016—
Apple TV trails Roku, Amazon FireTV and Google Chromecast with 5% of all U.S. households with WiFi – April 3, 2017
Apple hires Amazon’s Fire TV head to run Apple TV business – February 8, 2017
‘The Grand Tour’ smashes Amazon streaming record – November 22, 2016
Jeremy Clarkson confirms new post-Top Gear Amazon Prime show will be in 4K – November 20, 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
Apple made ‘audacious bid’ for Top Gear trio of Clarkson, Hammond and May, but lost out to Bezos’ Amazon – September 1, 2015
Apple’s move into content creation could devastate Netflix and Amazon
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Why would Apple want to make their own movies and TV shows? – September 1, 2015
Apple exploring entry into original entertainment production – August 31, 2015
Top Gear’s Clarkson, Hammond and May sign with Amazon Prime for new show to debut in 2016 – July 30, 2015