Digg founder says Apple iTV launch in September will 'change everything' - Page 3

Errr.... the touchscreen remote with accelerometer, etc. is in your hand (and your opponent', hand too)! They are called iPhones, iPads and iPod touches-- and maybe even the WiiMote!

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You're missing the point. It isn't "You'll have a bunch of mobile phone apps to play with on your new TV device", it's "There will be thousands of developers creating new (and adapting existing) apps for your new TV device".

Reread his post

You may be right. The first computer I ever used was an Apple IIe/c? in 1984-85.

I didn't do a wiki search and, from photos I assumed weren't modded later on, it was a wooden cabinet. I only heard from others about the exclusivity and value of the Apple I.

Even so, I really do believe that the true first personal computer was the Mac/Lisa. When I used the IIe, one needed to learn the command line. With a GUI that changed.

No. Hell no.

I am at the beach on my iPhone not at home on my MBP or at work on my iMac

Hilarious! Delusional but hilarious!

an iOS AppleTV / iTV definately could be successful but storage is a serious concern.
for a rumored $99 it wouldn't include much storage. Add to that the Cloud isn't ready and wont be for 5-10 years (optimistically). One work around is for it to seamlessly connect with the Time Capsule, though I personally think it makes more since to have 1 device (apple tv + time capsule)

Streaming videos from my imac to my apple tv is poor and not an acceptable or practical solution. If Apple is serious about iOS / iPad / iphone (and they are!) then don't tie us to a computer!

the other suggestion I would make is Apple needs to have a universal app ready on day one that turns any smart phone (android, blackberry, windows and iphone) into a remote for apple tv - this gives the new apple tv universal appeal. imagine where apple would be today if ipod hadn't become windows compatible?

Rose's announcement would irritate me greatly, were it my company. If it was someone inside Apple, they're obviously not following the employee handbook.

It is possible Rose's announcement is an intentional leak.

It is possible that Apple intentionally threw Rose some product disinformation, possibly in order to find an existing leak.

Rose may spend a lot of time hanging out with investors who might be occasionally let in on a secret but don't play by the Apple guidelines regarding company confidential data.

I don't have any reason to doubt the accuracy of Rose's description of the new product, although the iTV trademark seems to be thoroughly spoken for. http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield...009:25864l.2.1

Apple can engineer its own video processors (ala Sigma Designs), the presence for which may explain why such a service might not be 100% interchangeably available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Mac.

Apple is probably interested in redirecting customer interest away from Youtube.

Emperor Gregor Vorbarra might say, "Let's just see what happens."

X

There is no doubt that SJ revolutionized various markets, that is undeniable.

However, the assertion was that SJ created new industries and your comments do not change the fact that the industries that SJ jobs revoluionized presaged SJ and would still exist without SJ. They oils not look the same nor would they be as profitable. But SJ did not create the personal computer industry nor did he create the smart phone industry

But so far they all have !

How so? Everything Cinemagic said is correct. Even Apple fanbois have to admit that Windows Media Center > Front Row.

I'd say not likely. The existing ATV is an x86 device whereas iOS is designed for ARM chips. None of the apps would run without translation. I think most ATV users will ditch their box when they see how small the new one is anyway. The old one will be a tough resell when the new one is so cheap - in fact, if anyone here has one, I'd say sell it right now. You can put OS X onto it of course and use it as a cheap server/Mac.

If you think about the components needed to do this, they can fit inside a plug. Imagine a plug like the iPhone charger with an HDMI port coming out. It can be wifi or have an ethernet port.

The subsidy model they can use is interesting because if you think about normal TV, you get ads that can be skipped through. For each programme on this, they can show you an iAd or a standard ad that you can't bypass, which means they don't need to use so many ads.


That's going to be a huge selling point. Porn companies don't really have a way to get explicit porn direct to your TV. Not only will they have one now but they'll all have to adopt HTML 5 video.

TV channels will be websites or Youtube channels. In many ways not having content control or standards can be a bad thing but after a few years of cable TV, you start to see how bad their content is anyway.

TV needs a shake-up and this is the best way to do it. The pricing model concerns me a bit but if they do pay-per-minute up to a cap then it should be ok. Pay-per-movie will relegate it to the status of an electronic Blockbuster and people will only use it to add to their cable viewing and use it infrequently.

Why isn't streaming from a computer any good?

Probably won't work for Canadian consumers.

We are still dealing with 60GB/200GB monthly data caps .

I don't buy the "replace your cable box with it" idea when iTunes will never have close to the amount of programming as cable. At any moment there are over 400 programs airing on my cable service, over 10,000 a day. Some are new, some are repeats. Some are popular and others unheard of. National news. Local news. What about live events like sports or award shows like the Grammys that are NEVER released? How about soaps that air every day? What about music rights in shows which are not an issue when broadcast live but face lots of red tape (and are often cut) when released on DVD or for download?

No it was the commodore PET

Whooooohaaaa I can't wait...I along with a lot of others would love to see this happen. I just hope there's an update that would let some of these features work with the apple tv that's out now too would be a shame to let those who did purchase be left out to dry :)

No the first personal computer was the commodore pet released in January of 1977

The original comment was not limited to "industry." It included products and markets. You seem to be creating a straw argument by focusing only on the term industry, and construing it in the most narrow way possible. Of course you are right, no one was really arguing that point in the first place. Can you think of any revolutionary products that are associated with one person that didn't have some kind of precursors? Or even an industry out of which they grew?

For starters, The AppleTV doesn't use FrontRow, that is only on Mac OS X. I don't understand why you'd jump from the AppleTV to the Mac so I'm going to ignore that and assume you were referring to BackRow.

WMC has things that are better and thing that aren't. The features and options you find important depends on the type of user you are. For instande, WMC has a virtually infinite number of configurations and options available but it doesn't have the ease of use that even the first AppleTV had. But you're comparing a PC OS and an appliance, which is far from accurate for any comparison. No other media extender OS I've seen matches the look, feel and ease of use of the AppleTV UI. Even now with YouTube access being common on many appliances acting as media extenders the AppleTV has a mug easier to use YouTube player.

Can you really see the average user choosing to build or buying a desktop and then configuring it (with a mouse and keyboard) before being able to use it? That notion is silly on the face of it. And that's before we take into account variances in HW with go beyond the basic specs. For instance, I'd be concerned with the fan or ODD noise interfering with my "home theater" experience, a common occurrence with buying cheap budget HW, but I doubt many would consider the dB levels when building or buying a device.

There will always be features and options that companies like Apple can't touch but does not mean there is no value in the products they offer.

Beyond that forget any local programming or news or local cable access. Your tv choices would severly limited

Years? Were your eyes open?

The irony... the final nail in Flash's coffin will be iTV... and pron

History repeating. Some of these debates are sounding a lot like those that preceded the announcement of such products as the iPod, iPhone, and iPad. A lot of pronouncements about how the facts show that the bumblebee cannot fly.

PS - Poor analogy. The bumblebee is a shipping product.

My prediction is that the App store is going to be the big thing for this. We'll see iPad-like applications running on it.
The trick is the remote. I am wondering if they'll use the $3 mems chip and make a Wii-like remote. This would allow one to pick from menus on the screen by pointing with the remote. It could also allow for video games and full iPad emulation on an HD TV. Now how much will you pay?

What will really enthuse me is if we can run applications which manage the content. I want to have groups for Dad and Mom and Kids so we don't have to go digging for content. I want automatic purchase decisions based on # of unwatched shows, dollars available, and priority orders. This sounds like a cool app to download from the store.

So...

• iPad like power,
• App Store,
• Mems controller based Remote.
• small Flash storage capacity for cheap, bigger for more money,
• lots of streaming,
• not much, or at least no more than today, media-for-sale.
• Lots of tie-ins with other Apple products.

Off-the-air recording is interesting but full of hassles for the worst-case customer. Apple works hard to keep the worst-case customer out of its hair.

While I agree that they could I doubt Apple would make into a plug or plug sized devices for two reasons. [list=1][*]"Over" engineering costs money and at the proposed $99 price I think that would require a more cheaply engineered, component priced and manufactured device.[*]Having it as a plug could affect WiFi data transfers (even though this is how the Airport Express works) require an IR wire or remove IR altogether (which I don't see) and make it an invisible device when some of the best advertising is to show off your product.

Fo these reasons the smallest I'd expect is about the size of an iPod Nano in a Base.

What's to say that the iTV won't allow you to do that? Local storage is not necessary for recording of shows.

What about all the stuff you *can't* get on cable though?

What about programs from other countries that we currently can't access without super-expensive equipment?

What about programs that are tailored to what a smaller set of viewers want, instead of just a lot of dreck that the masses find acceptable?

In many ways the argument for Internet TV is the same as the original argument for podcasting. For instance I recently got cable TV after living without it for ten years or so, and it's all shite to me. Endless re-runs of junk like Family guy and the Simpsons. MASH and Barney Miller over and over and over again. I wouldn't *choose* to watch any of that if it wasn't streaming into my living room. With podcasting and Internet TV stations, the information can be tailored to the audience.

Isn't it better to pick and choose what you want to watch and when you are going to watch it?

It's basically a choice between a big pipe full of crap vs. a smaller pipe with just what you want to watch.

It is not SJ history to sell cheap $99 boxes. More than likely anything that comes out will have a huge value added features to justify a fat profit margin. It would have to include:
1. App store, iBook, iTunes and even You Tube content.
2. TV content would have to something more than the junk of cable and air TV. Video streaming like Netflix, video on demand and content on demand as it has been mentioned.

Otherwise, I am sticking with my new souped up fast MacMini with 8 GB RAM, 500 GB HD... networked to my HD storage. Soon I will be getting Fiber. If I wanted junk, I would have gone with Windows Media solution.

Yah. Newton was hardly a "failure" either.

Or perhaps all the Apple fans on this site that equally cannot spell?

I couldn't disagree with you more. First off TV Tuner cards are not HDCP compliant, they have no HDMI inputs and they can only record digital TV off of the air. If you want to pass through a cable box, you are limited to analog. Secondly, the internet is becoming vastly rich with streaming television and movies. ATT Uverse and Verizon FIOS both use a version of IPTV which is television streamed through the internet to a special receiver. I have a ROKU box for netflix streaming and I use it so much, I dumped my cable. ROKU actually has a vast library of channels now (not just netflix) that cover the gamut of everything I want to watch. People have been screaming for alacarte television for quite some time now, and the cable companies have not wanted to spend the resources to make it happen. Now it is finally happening through technology like ROKU and this new Apple TV. This is going to be something people will buy, and for $99, you cant beat it.

The way I read it, networks will be streaming shows to the Apple TV box either free, or with a small subscription fee. Sure, cable is not going away tomorrow, but unless they keep up with the growing trend of network services, they are going to go the way of the transistor radio, and 8-tracks. Cable television is a relic of the past and satellite goes out everytime the wind blows.

Thats my 2 cents worth of opinion. Take it or leave it.

Nah, you guys are a special breed.

I think this time he is close to being 100% right on this since he is only repeating rumours we already heard for he most part. However, I think you are right about the "multiple angles" thing.

People have been pushing that idea for about a decade or so and it hasn't caught on yet. One of the main features of that newfangled thing called the "DVD" that came out a while ago, was the fact that it could have multiple camera angles of the same movie on the same disc so that the viewer could swap from one camera to another during the course of the show. If you go back and look at the marketing materials they used then, it was one of the main answers to the question "Why is digital better than tape?"

It never caught on, and it's almost impossible to find a DVD that uses the feature. I have over 3,000 DVD's and only one of them has it.

"Multiple viewing angles" is kind of a classic boondoggle. It will be amusing to see if Jobs actually tries to sell that on stage.

For $99 I'm certainly willing to give it a shot. What will make it killer for me is if I could buy a live/streaming sports event on it at a reasonable price. Say, get the Hockey Night in Canada stream for $1.99/game in HD. Sold, sold, sold.

You might better ask what industries did he kill or remake - what would not exist or be different without him.

Personal computers existed before the Mac
-The Apple II running Visicalc killed mainframe computing (reborn as Desktop Computing)
-The Mac & the LaserWriter killed the printing industry (reborn as Desktop Publishing)

Flash based music players existed with the iPod
-The iPod, along with iTunes killed the music industry distribution & pricing model

Cell phones existed before the iPhone
-The iPhone killed cell manufacturers who had no platform (Android will finish them off)
-The iPhone killed the traditional cell carriers role

Tablets existed before the iPad
- The ipad killed the netbook, and created a whole new category of device
-The iPad will probably kill print publishing of books and magazines as we know it
-The iPad/iPod is taking a chunk out of the gaming industry

App stores existed before iTunes
-The app store killed traditional software distribution & pricing
-The app store may kill many roles the "the web" is currently used for

Together, the ipad and the app store may take a piece out of the advertising industry.
The AppleTV may take a chunk out of the cable carriers

Add in that the genesis of the web came from designs found in next and HyperCard

For me to buy it, it needs 1080p, 7.1 audio, support for mkv's, DTS-MA HD/TrueHD so I can play my rips I already have. Then I will be excited.

Not going to get even remotely excited til you see where it will be coming in the near future. iPad in Canada is great but, the killer iBooks app...nowhere to be seen unless you count the public domain books. Huge disappointment it is not available here. Figure it will be the same for this one. Netflix is coming in September...Hate the cable company...hate the spokesman even more he is a goof.

High-Profile 1080p is possible with Imagination decoder chips even though some rumours say 720p max and at $99 that seems likely.

7.1 channel audio is easily doable even though I think 5.1 is the best to expect.

I see absolutely no reason why Apple would support the MKV container.

DTS and Dolbys HD lossless audio that is optical in Blu-ray seem unlikely as BRDs dont have the capacity and bandwidth limitations that Apples streaming device would have. If Apple did add HD lossless audio it would likely be DTS-MA HD, not TrueHD as the latter appears to be losing ground steadily. Dont these audio codec have a built in fallback as needed?

If there's anyone who could successfully sell old poop in a new, shiny can, it's him.


Why do that when you can watch it live on CBC for free? It would have to be a free streaming download -- unless you're talking about seeing it later, on demand. Then maybe CBC could pull it off.

Now, we're talking about free TV, there. Could Dana White look into streaming live UFC PPV events on the Apple TV? If he's smart, he will.


I find it unlikely that anyone could fit all that equipment into the space of an iPhone with modern technology.