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Apple exec Tim Cook talks Apple TV, A4 processor, more - Page 2

post #41 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macinthe408 View Post

Thanks for the clarity. So many people hate the Apple TV for delivering what is without a doubt a spiritless experience. However, 100% of that is directly attributable to content providers for doing what they do best--trying to find out ways of fucking consumers instead of figuring out the best way to give them what they want--content.

That is the single reason why I pirate, and I'll be happy to admit as much if some idiotic content owner were to ask me why I do so. They claim it takes away from their revenue, but I'd be happy to pay for their product and add to their revenue if they gave me what I want, how I wanted it.

I don't need silly, arbitrary constraints of content. The fact that I have 24 hours to view a rental is the most ridiculous concept known to mankind. It's like an executive got hit with a anvil upside his head, spit out this 24-hour nonsense in a moment of semi-conscisouness, and it became so.

And I can view Season 1 of TV Show X and Season 3, but not Season 2?? because...well, I could care less what the reason is. I'd pay for it if it was available, but as it stands I am firing up Vuze and downloading FREE content to my heart's content.

*high five

The sheeple here will tear you down for your comment thou... they gave up their will for freedom and prefer to be obedient regardless of what they are fed.
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post #42 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:40pm
Let me throw you a layup.

If a consumer were looking to play music from his iTunes library on his laptop or desktop, to the speaker system attached to his home theatre setup, what other options exist besides the AppleTV?

This is not a joke. I really would like to know.....
Pity the agnostic dyslectic. They spend all their time contemplating the existence of dog.
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Pity the agnostic dyslectic. They spend all their time contemplating the existence of dog.
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post #43 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:43pm
perhaps if they lower pricing of shows and movies. I can find seasons of shows on ebay on dvd for less then i would pay on iTunes and then i can dump the sets on ebay or amazon after i'm done and save even more.

If they made apple tv a media entertainment center it would take off. Throw in cable card, tru2way, DLNA, browser and other features like the iphone apps and you have a winner.

How about porting that kick ass visualizer from os x, i'd rather see that on my screen then the boring album art.
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post #44 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post

What Apple needs for Apple TV is a distribution deal that will allow iTunes to provide a better service than cable currently does. Once they have that, Apple TV becomes very attractive as is. You would buy Apple TV just like you buy a digital cable box now. To get that deal though, Apple has keep Apple TV low profile. Content providers are attached to cable, but they are also greedy. If Apple can convince them that a better iTunes deal will bring them more customers outside of the living room they might go for it. That is precisely why Apple is using the iPad to negotiate 99 cent episodes instead of an improved Apple TV. Once Apple gets the deal they need, they can bring out the new and improved Apple TV and make their push into the living room.

No, thank you! Apple has already caused rise of e-book prices.
I prefer the way Netflix does its business - small monthly payment and unlimited online view of movies. Or even Hulu's way.
American centrism dominates 50% of the population here. That half don't think outside the box ... or perhaps just don't think. © digitalclips
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American centrism dominates 50% of the population here. That half don't think outside the box ... or perhaps just don't think. © digitalclips
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post #45 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rain View Post

*high five

The sheeple here will tear you down for your comment thou... they gave up their will for freedom and prefer to be obedient regardless of what they are fed.

Is that you, Dick Cheney?
Pity the agnostic dyslectic. They spend all their time contemplating the existence of dog.
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post #46 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:50pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by justflybob View Post

If a consumer were looking to play music from his iTunes library on his laptop or desktop, to the speaker system attached to his home theatre setup, what other options exist besides the AppleTV?

Airport Express. I have one in the living room attached to my sound system there, and one in the bedroom too. I'm even thinking of adding one in the bathroom for shower audio.

See http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/
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post #47 of 150
2/23/10 at 4:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post

I hate to say this but I'm very close to giving up on cable....and forgoing F1 this season....and only watch movies....Maybe I can bit.torrent HD F1 races...not sure though.

I've already given up. The only channel I realy need is SPEED channel. And I not sure about F1 races - may be will watch some in bars, may be download some.
I'd prefer to pay fixed amount of money for very limited choice of channels I choose myself
American centrism dominates 50% of the population here. That half don't think outside the box ... or perhaps just don't think. © digitalclips
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American centrism dominates 50% of the population here. That half don't think outside the box ... or perhaps just don't think. © digitalclips
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post #48 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:04pm
Hot damn! Tim Cook is a man who really gets it!! Great to hear that Steve Jobs' guiding philosophy emanates throughout the entire company. Love love love Apple.
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post #49 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:07pm
"Hobby" is code for something. It's a feint. The fence sitters who listen to the blabber from the whiners that ATV "sucks" deserve to remain in the dark.

Apple is obviously testing the waters and/or making deals before making big changes. In the mean time, ATV owners know how good ATV is. I'm one of them.
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Daniel Swanson
Van-garde Imagery, Inc.
611 S. Ft. Harrison #365
Clearwater FL, 33756
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post #50 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PaulSorensen View Post

This is not exactly on topic, other than it being my prediction of how Apple's focus on simplicity will play out for "multi-tasking" (aka background Applications that weren't written by Apple).

In middle-to-late March, Apple will host an event demonstrating iPhone/iPad OS 4 like many are predicting, it will include a dashboard-like feature. Developers will be able two write two types of dashboard widgets:
  • Standalone simple widgets such as the weather widget that is on the Mac OS/X dashboard as well as the similar one on the current iPhone.
  • Application Widgets These have a full application associated with them, but also have a widget that you can display quickly.

The "Application Widgets" will allow the user to run apps in the background. So, for example, Pandora could write a widget that is connected to their app that will keep playing music in the background and display a set of play/pause/skip controls along with the name of the song playing, etc. Apple's own iPod/Music app will have a dashboard widget for controlling it as well.

The user will probably determine which widgets to place "on the dashboard" in way that is similar to the Mac OS/X dashboard interface they will press something and a set of available widget icons will appear at the bottom of the screen and they will be able to drag them onto the dashboard.

Anyway, my prediction... we'll see how I do in a month
---
By the way, they will not demo the 4th generation iPhone in March, they will wait until April or May.

I like this. This is a fantastic solution for neatly circumventing the problem of how to show novice users what is running in the background if its a background process, it has a widget.

And the physical screen size would limit the number of widgets you could show, which limits the number of apps which could run in the background, which reduces the of battery drain.

Having App screens and search screen and a widget screen might make things a bit complicated though.
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post #51 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post

Decoupling internet service providers and television content providers is probably one of the toughest things to do, but that is exactly what we need to happen if we ever want truly great online content distribution, be it from iTunes, Hulu, Netflix or something else. Making Apple TV better than it is now is trivial when compared to getting a content deal that is competitive with cable.

Precisely. For example, Time Warner owns HBO, CNN, CW, Warner Bros., The WB, Cartoon Network among many others. They also happen to be the internet gatekeepers for many people through their Road Runner service.

Given that equation, is it any big surprise they, and their ilk, will fight tooth and nail to obfuscate the conversion to a truly internet driven media distribution environment? Until we, as you say, "decouple" content owners and internet access providers it will be guerilla warfare between the owners and the consumers.

Great point.
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post #52 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post

Who wants to bet that they're developing a secret OS X that runs on ARM?

HINT: They have, it's not a secret.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kotatsu View Post

Curious how Apple seem almost completely uninterested in the living room. Microsoft, Sony, Netflix, and others will own it for decades to come.

I think Cook's comments made it clear they're far from completely uninterested

Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post

It must suck to be a developer not knowing when Apple will switch processor platforms. I know if I was M$ or Adobe, I'd hate to rewrite everything again to support a new instruction set.

You might want to check your facts, but just as Apple made it easy for developers to transition from OS 9 to OS X with the classic environment and the itermediate carbon frameworks, they made it easy to transition to Intel with the Rosetta virtualisation layer and Universal Binaries (which is why they kept trying to emphasise the importance of moving everyone across to XCode before the switch.

But MS and Adobe were about the slowest two to provide OS X support and the slowest to provide universal binaries. They failed were everyone else succeeded.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Woohoo! View Post

Apple wants to sell content, media etc. They want iron clad DRM control.

Which is why DRM is optional on iBooks (at the publishers discretion) and Apple lobbied the Music industry for years to drop DRM. Even though Apple told them before it all started that DRM wouldn't work.
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post #53 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post

What Apple needs for Apple TV is a distribution deal that will allow iTunes to provide a better service than cable currently does. Once they have that, Apple TV becomes very attractive as is. You would buy Apple TV just like you buy a digital cable box now. To get that deal though, Apple has keep Apple TV low profile. Content providers are attached to cable, but they are also greedy. If Apple can convince them that a better iTunes deal will bring them more customers outside of the living room they might go for it. That is precisely why Apple is using the iPad to negotiate 99 cent episodes instead of an improved Apple TV. Once Apple gets the deal they need, they can bring out the new and improved Apple TV and make their push into the living room.

If that happens, I don't see what the point is. Essentially Apple becomes another version of a cable company. Instead of the cable company's box, you'll have AppleTV instead. All that happens is you switch from one overlord to another. Not exactly a revolution.

Personally, I'd rather stick with cable. At least with that I can buy a CableCard compatible box of my choosing (like the TiVo I already own). At least I'll have some level of choice, which is something Apple will never provide. The TiVo provides the same functionality as an AppleTV (some not as pretty as Apple's solution) and exceeds it in many other areas. And unlike Apple, TiVo seems dedicated to actually improving their product.

And I kind of doubt 99 cent episodes are going to be the latest shows. Nor will it be HD content, which kills the concept of home viewing via AppleTV. Likely catalog stuff ($0.99 for episodes of Knight Rider, yay!!), so it's really not going to be all that compelling. Not to mention, every other download service will get moved to those same prices so it won't really be a win for Apple.
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post #54 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

Apple TV = Hobby primarily because cracking the Oligarchy of the Broadcast media is a bit tougher than cracking the music industry. If Apple can deliver lower cost shows and broadband speeds and penetration rise they could be onto something but right now the infrastructure isn't ready. I know of so many areas where Comcast is the only "real" broadband company.

There is also another battle it has to fight, mostly against game consoles and DVRs which have building up to and in many ways exceeding the AppleTV's media extender capabilities. Since these are sold with games being a money maker and often sold with little to no profit Apple's re-entry into the living room is touch from every angle.

They certainly can't drop the living room but they'll need something killer to win it. Creating an SDK seems to be the only thing I think of that is a golden ticket.

Quote:
The A4 - I'm glad he mentioned the part about Apple custom designing their North and South Bridges. Apple back in the day used to custom make many of their ASIC chips at great expense. They now are smart enough (and have the size and shipment numbers) to go the custom route and save money in the process.

Mac OS X has plenty of life and we're now moving into a future where Cocoa has ascended to Chief of frameworks and the iPhone platform is expanding into other products. We should continue to see good scalability from this OS.

Damn right! Use that chip anywhere and everywhere you can. Home Server to AppleTV. I would expect the next iPhone to have the same ARM CPU, but underclocked.
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post #55 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:40pm
I love it. I bought one. But, 3 things could make it perfect for me: A DVD or BlueRay drive, increased support for other video formats, and the ability to actually USE the USB port without paying a 3rd party for the privilege (to plug in my 1 TB USB drive with all my ripped DVDs).
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post #56 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post

Who wants to bet that they're developing a secret OS X that runs on ARM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by columbus View Post

HINT: They have, it's not a secret.

You know what was meant, the full Mac OS X, not iOS X.

Quote:
Originally Posted by columbus View Post

I think Cook's comments made it clear they're far from completely uninterested.

I think actions speak louder than words. In an industry where significant upgrades are expected annually for actively sold devices, the AppleTV hardware sold now is the same as what was originally introduced in 2007. That's three years with only a hard drive bump, and only occasional & relatively minor UI updates and feature additions.
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post #57 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielSW View Post

"Hobby" is code for something. It's a feint. The fence sitters who listen to the blabber from the whiners that ATV "sucks" deserve to remain in the dark.

Apple is obviously testing the waters and/or making deals before making big changes. In the mean time, ATV owners know how good ATV is. I'm one of them.

I agree. Even mentioned the AppleTV in the way he did leads me to believe that it won't be long before we see a new one. I'd like it to be demoed next month with the assumed iPhone OS 4.0 demo, but that seems unlikely for many reasons. Maybe before the actual G4 iPhone special event. I hope it's soon because it's more interesting to me than the iPad.

The AppleTV was great when it came out and has gotten better for no extra cost but it's definitely lagging behind the PS3, 360, and TiVO, as well as the Popcorn Hour and other standalone media extenders in the mix now. Any ideas how they can make it the must have home theater appliance? Or perhaps they won't have to if they just use an ARM CPU and iPhone OS with a new BackRow to run it. It's not like it's a bad investment for them with so much cross development.
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post #58 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by columbus View Post

Having App screens and search screen and a widget screen might make things a bit complicated though.

I'm guessing that double-clicking the home button will bring up the dashboard — which will be combined with the search screen... so there will still be the search bar at the top of the screen, but the widgets will be below it unless they do an actual search. Basically, there will be a "search widget" permanently at the top of the dashboard.
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post #59 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:49pm
I clearly remember Apple promoting the purpose of AppleTV as, "If it's on iTunes, it's on your TV". ATV is a "value added" accessory for iTunes content. This is why it will never have a TV tuner card. Apple doesn't intend it to deliver content from any source other than iTunes.
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post #60 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by columbus View Post

You might want to check your facts, but just as Apple made it easy for developers to transition from OS 9 to OS X with the classic environment and the itermediate carbon frameworks, they made it easy to transition to Intel with the Rosetta virtualisation layer and Universal Binaries (which is why they kept trying to emphasise the importance of moving everyone across to XCode before the switch.

It sounded like it was a bit of a Catch-22 at the time. They couldn't say why people should switch without giving away the secret, the impression I got was the advice to switch wasn't persuasive enough without explanation as to why.

Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

The A4 - I'm glad he mentioned the part about Apple custom designing their North and South Bridges. Apple back in the day used to custom make many of their ASIC chips at great expense.

Didn't they have to do this? Did they even have access to appropriate chips that suited their needs? It wasn't like the x86 world at the time where there were half a dozen chipset makers.
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post #61 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gin_tonic View Post

No, thank you! Apple has already caused rise of e-book prices.
I prefer the way Netflix does its business - small monthly payment and unlimited online view of movies. Or even Hulu's way.

Unbelievable! You like paying as close to nothing has possible, I would have never guessed. Let me know when those services with their current pricing schemes become legitimate cable replacements. You completely missed the point of my post.
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post #62 of 150
2/23/10 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ghostface147 View Post

It must suck to be a developer not knowing when Apple will switch processor platforms. I know if I was M$ or Adobe, I'd hate to rewrite everything again to support a new instruction set.

What's interesting to note here is that Apple did switch processor platforms. From the Samsung S5PC100 (ARM Cortex A8 core) to the Apple A4.

Is it effecting iPad/iPhone developers? Doesn't appear to be.
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post #63 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GreenG4 View Post

I love it. I bought one. But, 3 things could make it perfect for me: A DVD or BlueRay drive, increased support for other video formats, and the ability to actually USE the USB port without paying a 3rd party for the privilege (to plug in my 1 TB USB drive with all my ripped DVDs).

At this point I think an included optical drive just adds cost to the device and redundancy for many homes thus making it lose more sales than it would making an ideal device.

Using the USB port they could add an optical drive option that you would form fit on top. Blu-ray is great for the living room but the iTS is still likely a primary focus on that front, though the AppleTV is more likely than MBPs getting Blu-ray.

Using the USB for additional drives would be nice but I'd just be happy with a Home Server based of the A4. I'd also like the the USB port to be in the front of the device with access to play a video from an iDevice via the AppleTV to the HDTV with unprecedented ease.

Because of legal issues getting every codec and container isn't going to ever happen. However, there are some tricks you can do with a hacked AppleTV, like installing Perian's codec and container suite. Then, you can created a QuickTime Reference Link in QT7 which will load into iTunes. Then you can connect to that iTunes Library from the AppleTV and stream successfully. It would be great if they made the workarounds easier while still absolving them of any wrongdoing, but since iTunes still won't take any audio or video for organizing in the Library it seems unlikely they'd make any other aspect easier.
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post #64 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by anantksundaram View Post

This tells me that 2011 is going to be the year of AppleTV, much the same way that 2010 is already the year of the iPad. I recall Apple saying similar things about the market for tablets, netbooks and such, just a little over a year ago......

Wrong- AppleTv is a complete and utter failure who's time has come and passed. Apple lost the living room as Blu-ray players have skyrocketed and now come complete with WiFi , rentals, etc, etc and can be had for under $200. AppleTV choked itself by maintaining itself as strictly an iTunes Digital jukebox who's sole purpose was to pump money into the Apple media store machine. It just didn't work. Only Apple fanatics go for it.
IT's DEAD.
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post #65 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:11pm
Cook said he believes the Apple TV is an outstanding product, but there just isn't a large enough market to make the hardware worth a great deal of concentration from his company. The product is a "hobby," he said, because it doesn't compare to the phone, computer and MP3 player markets in terms of sales.

I wonder if the Apple TV will soon become part of the 'Apple ecosystem' by running the iPhone OS? That would make it a very interesting device!!
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post #66 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DJinTX View Post

I hope that you turn out to be correct, but I have a feeling we may not be this lucky. Yes, Apple did say these things about tablets leading up to their announcement of the iPad, but they have been tossing the "it's just a hobby" grenades at us for much longer. I think they are trying to make a point, which is, don't hold your breath.

Now I suppose it is possible, that with the iPad and iPhone, that it is just taking longer for them to get the Apple TV ready for primetime, but I don't think so. I think they could have easily updated the hardware 3 times by now, and wowed us with a software overhaul to catch up to the other living room competitors. But so far not a peep for hardware, and only minor software updates here and there.

They have a long way to go. I hope you're right about 2011.

What exactly are you looking for, from AppleTV? (It is a serious question).
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post #67 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pauldfullerton View Post

Cook said he believes the Apple TV is an outstanding product, but there just isn't a large enough market to make the hardware worth a great deal of concentration from his company. The product is a "hobby," he said, because it doesn't compare to the phone, computer and MP3 player markets in terms of sales.

I wonder if the Apple TV will soon become part of the 'Apple ecosystem' by running the iPhone OS? That would make it a very interesting device!!

Steve doesn't want you to surf the web in your living room- afraid you might find a free movie or some porn.
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post #68 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cmf2 View Post

Decoupling internet service providers and television content providers is probably one of the toughest things to do, but that is exactly what we need to happen if we ever want truly great online content distribution, be it from iTunes, Hulu, Netflix or something else. Making Apple TV better than it is now is trivial when compared to getting a content deal that is competitive with cable.

Google is going to offer 1GB home service to anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 homes in the US...that would be a start.
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post #69 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:17pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RichL View Post

I'm happy with my Apple TV the way it is. I guess I'm not your average user but my biggest complaint is that there's no way (that I've found) to play an entire season of a TV show without pressing play after each episode finishes.

It's called a video playlist- they will play non-stop.
Something Apple fixed like 2 years after ATV was released.
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post #70 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielSW View Post

"Hobby" is code for something. It's a feint. The fence sitters who listen to the blabber from the whiners that ATV "sucks" deserve to remain in the dark.

Apple is obviously testing the waters and/or making deals before making big changes. In the mean time, ATV owners know how good ATV is. I'm one of them.

I am truly a very happy AppleTV owner too. My family and I use it all the time. It does no more, no less than what was originally promised, and does it very well, esp. with the new interface. I paid something like $229 for it, what, about three years ago? Still going strong......

I agree that there is a feint of some sorts here.
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post #71 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:20pm
AppleTV is the biggest BAg of HUrt to ever occupy this planet. An additional device that consumes thermal energy- the design is so bad you can't shut it off without turning on the TV or unplugging it?
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post #72 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

There is also another battle it has to fight, mostly against game consoles and DVRs which have building up to and in many ways exceeding the AppleTV's media extender capabilities. Since these are sold with games being a money maker and often sold with little to no profit Apple's re-entry into the living room is touch from every angle.

They certainly can't drop the living room but they'll need something killer to win it. Creating an SDK seems to be the only thing I think of that is a golden ticket.

Games isn't going to be their weakness for aTV but their strength. Once all the games can run on both the iPod Touch and iPad it's an easy step to games for the aTV. Boom. aTV stops being a hobby and storms the living room with an A4 chip.
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post #73 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

The AppleTV was great when it came out and has gotten better for no extra cost but it's definitely lagging behind the PS3, 360, and TiVO, as well as the Popcorn Hour and other standalone media extenders in the mix now. Any ideas how they can make it the must have home theater appliance? Or perhaps they won't have to if they just use an ARM CPU and iPhone OS with a new BackRow to run it. It's not like it's a bad investment for them with so much cross development.

You left out the BIGGEST thing it lags behnd BLU_Ray which now has Wifi and rentals.
ATV was never great- EVEN when it came out.
It makes a great cheese melter though.
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post #74 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

At this point I think an included optical drive just adds cost to the device and redundancy for many homes thus making it lose more sales than it would making an ideal device.

Except that with a Blu-Ray drive, the AppleTV could replace at least one device. As it stands right now, it's just another box to clutter up the living room. That's what is so great about the PS3. It's a game machine AND a replacement for the DVD/Blu-Ray player. And there's the Playstation Store for purchase/rental of movies and purchase of TV shows. And then there's all of the functionality of the AppleTV that it duplicates (audio/video/photo streaming with local storage). All that and it managed to have an easily replaceable hard drive and still manage to be physically attractive (why does a user replaceable hard drive seem so hard for Apple to implement?). Netflix. A web browser. What does the AppleTV offer to compare to all of that?
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post #75 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vinea View Post

Games isn't going to be their weakness for aTV but their strength. Once all the games can run on both the iPod Touch and iPad it's an easy step to games for the aTV. Boom. aTV stops being a hobby and storms the living room with an A4 chip.

Yawn.
Where's the i7/i5 MacBook Pro chip?
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post #76 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by caliminius View Post

Except that with a Blu-Ray drive, the AppleTV could replace at least one device. As it stands right now, it's just another box to clutter up the living room. That's what is so great about the PS3. It's a game machine AND a replacement for the DVD/Blu-Ray player. And there's the Playstation Store for purchase/rental of movies and purchase of TV shows. And then there's all of the functionality of the AppleTV that it duplicates (audio/video/photo streaming with local storage). All that and it managed to have an easily replaceable hard drive and still manage to be physically attractive (why does a user replaceable hard drive seem so hard for Apple to implement?). Netflix. A web browser. What does the AppleTV offer to compare to all of that?

A hand warmer?

Blu-ray has already replaced ATV in that it now has built in WiFi, rentals and comes in at under $200.
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post #77 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by justflybob View Post

Let me throw you a layup.

If a consumer were looking to play music from his iTunes library on his laptop or desktop, to the speaker system attached to his home theatre setup, what other options exist besides the AppleTV?

This is not a joke. I really would like to know.....

A Mac Mini, AirPort Express, a PC, PS3, XBox, plus a number of other devices
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post #78 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:28pm
The Apple TV has been my primary TV-watching device since I dropped cable 4-5 months ago and it's been a lot better than I expected. I watch a lot of podcasts, and have subscribed to the 2 series that I actually want to watch.

Having said that, I agree with the posts here that predict that the ATV will become an iPhone/iPad OS device and will run many/most of the existing apps. Probably with the "preferred" controller being your iPod Touch/iPad/iPhone. The secondary device might a wii-style pointing device.
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post #79 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vinea View Post

Games isn't going to be their weakness for aTV but their strength. Once all the games can run on both the iPod Touch and iPad it's an easy step to games for the aTV. Boom. aTV stops being a hobby and storms the living room with an A4 chip.

I disagree with your comment about iPhone games jumping to the AppleTV. Even when the inevitable change from using Mac OS to iPhone OS as the base there is the issue of input. The iPad is a natural fit for iPhone games since it's still a touchscreen, but for the AppleTV this would require some very clever reworking.

I so agree that games could be a strength, if they get a proper SDK for the AppleTV, but I don't think that would make sense this year when the iPad is just getting off the ground. Let the devs focus on that platform right now.

We've already seen the Wii outpace other consoles despite being considerably weaker in power but having more fun and cheaper games could make it work. Attack them in where it hurts, the game development and distribution method.
Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"
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post #80 of 150
2/23/10 at 6:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism View Post

I disagree with your comment about iPhone games jumping to the AppleTV. Even when the inevitable change from using Mac OS to iPhone OS as the base there is the issue of input. The iPad is a natural fit for iPhone games since it's still a touchscreen, but for the AppleTV this would require some very clever reworking.

I figure it would use iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads as their controllers. A tad on the expensive side but a lot of folks own those already.

Quote:
I so agree that games could be a strength, if they get a proper SDK for the AppleTV, but I don't think that would make sense this year when the iPad is just getting off the ground. Let the devs focus on that platform right now.

Yes, I agree it's not likely to happen this year, and perhaps not the next but I expect by 2012.

Quote:
We've already seen the Wii outpace other consoles despite being considerably weaker in power but having more fun and cheaper games could make it work. Attack them in where it hurts, the game development and distribution method.

This is the gaming area that Apple has been courting...not the PS3/360 crowd.
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