eightzero

harry wild said:

Everything is OLED screens but Apple products!  LOL!  Even the Chineses branded laptops, tablets, PC monitors and smartphones!

Yep. You have choices, contrary to what the US DoJ claims. 

It does seem like this product line (speakers) is ripe for expansion by Apple. The sound quality for the HomePod mini is indeed impressive, but as the article points out, it isn't very versatile. I bought a 20w battery charger just to make it portable.

IIRC, AppleTV still has an optical out port, so adding a optical in port to this would seem to solve some of the lag issues with the Apple TV, but maybe just skippit and put the actual guts of an AppleTV into this device, and connect it with HDMI to a HDTV. With an ethernet port, and add (dare is suggest it again) an updated Airport mesh system. Now all that smart home stuff lives right on your HDTV where it belongs. 

programmer said:

eightzero said:

I don't need a robot or smart technology in my home. I need wifi. Reliable, fast, affordable, secure, easily configurable wifi everywhere. AAPL used to make that. How hard is this? Put it in an Apple TV box, connect it to an antenna and a TV, offer mesh remotes. Pay for it with a subscription to "Apple VPN+" that is part of Apple One. Done.

Not gonna happen. Because robots. 

Not going to happen because there are numerous companies already solving it and therefore pricing has been driven down to minimal margins.

Yabbut cell phones worked fine in 2005 too. And I had a record player back then as well. 

chasm said:

eightzero said:

I don't need a robot or smart technology in my home. I need wifi. Reliable, fast, affordable, secure, easily configurable wifi everywhere. AAPL used to make that. How hard is this? Put it in an Apple TV box, connect it to an antenna and a TV, offer mesh remotes. Pay for it with a subscription to "Apple VPN+" that is part of Apple One. Done.

Not gonna happen. Because robots. 

I of course love this idea because I've been advocating for it since the last Apple routers were discontinued, and I continue to believe Apple could revive the "Secure HomeKit" idea by making routers once again for added security that (now) nobody else will or can offer, along with other "synergistic" features for its devoted fanbase and even non-Apple customers by playing up the security and privacy that would be "baked in" to any such Apple product.

However, lately the industry has started to push for "5G in the home" cellular routers, and I think if that catches on, Apple would be foolhardy not to jump back into the game when that becomes a standard.

especially if they (AAPL) make their own 5G modem chips, eh?

wonder how long before an HDTV appears on the market...with a 5G chip already in it. AAPL unlikely to make such a thing...notwithstanding Gene Muenster's long time predictions. But an Apple TV box? Drool.

I don't need a robot or smart technology in my home. I need wifi. Reliable, fast, affordable, secure, easily configurable wifi everywhere. AAPL used to make that. How hard is this? Put it in an Apple TV box, connect it to an antenna and a TV, offer mesh remotes. Pay for it with a subscription to "Apple VPN+" that is part of Apple One. Done.

Not gonna happen. Because robots.