FUTURE HARDWARE 23 DAYS, and counting. - Page 4

MWSF may be more consumer oriented, but the release of Intel based computers will be big, and will have to be mentioned in more than just passing. This will be important for consumers looking to buy software for their new computer and for developers wanting to release software. Steve will need to do more than just say "We have a new Mac Mini" he will have to say that "We are releasing a new version of OS X, and it is Intel compatible. We have a new computer to run it on, and we have the following developers ready to release software with Universal Bionary versions of their software."

Yes, but Jobs won't make a technical presentation (i.e. the minutae regarding the bus, instruction sets, etc). To the degree that the changes enable Jobs to sell the new products and tease the technically minded to go to www.apple.com, I agree with you.

My intent was to say that just as a car salesperson does not elaborate on the technical details of every part from bumper to bumper, Jobs will sell the product on a more general level at the Keynote.

In other words, all the folks who frequent these boards are NOT Jobs' target audience. We are already sold on finding out the details, whether the prods were announced at a kenote or just appeared on apple.com/store.

Happy new year!

My expectations for the keynote and the products available afterwards:

- The usual boasting of iPod and market share
- Improved iPod shuffle
- New TV content deals on iTunes
- iLife 06
- iWork 06
- One new line of Intel Macs (to test the waters)
- Wireless Mighty Mouse

I would like to see higher quality Apple displays (or a price drop considering Apple displays are almost 50% more expensive than other equivalent monitors with fewer inputs/features), a price drop/revamp of their Airport Extreme base station considering it is outrageously expensive ($200 for less functionality than a typical $60 router these days), and a redesigned Mighty Mouse so that it's actually easy to clean the trackball.

Perhaps the one product I'm secretly wishing for is an AirPort A/V unit. I'm not too fond of full blown computers in the living room, but having a streaming multimedia device would not be too bad. There would be a daemon running on a computer that the AirPort A/V connects to, the AirPort A/V displays a screen similar to FrontRow, and then a wireless remote (hopefully with a touch wheel instead of the iMac remote's shuffle-like buttons) controls the AirPort A/V. A remote control experience to play media while having a computer experience to download and organize your media seems to be ideal to me. This maintains Apple's philosophy of having a computer as the central hub that other devices attach to.

It would expand the iTunes presence, counter the Xbox 360/PS3 as a streaming media center, and be relatively easy to use compared to setting up a computer right next to the TV. You don't have to keep synchronizing data between your media center and your main computer (think if you keep your photos on one computer but want to output on a media center). It solves the issue of outputting to the TV (since some people don't want to watch TV shows on a computer) and solves the remote speaker control iTunes issue requiring a computer. After all, it is awkward to output iTunes from a computer room to a living room without any form of control (except if you have a notebook or your computer is in the same room of course). Also, if you add a dock accessory to connect to the Airport A/V, you could plug in someone's iPod and play anyone's music/video to a home theater using a remote. Then most of the people wishing for wireless iPods would get most of their functionality.

Media center computers / HTPCs seem like an overpowered niche (mind you, I have one as well as a Momitsu V880N), and I think it is hard to get people to accept a computer or new home theater box in the living room. Tivo for instance has had a really hard time, but many people are accepting cable boxes with integrated DVRs.

Finally, I think that anyone expecting a Tivo-like DVR device from Apple is going to be severely disappointed come MacWorld. Cablecard 2.0 just isn't available yet, a high definition DVR by itself is very expensive (and Tivo standard definition boxes are more than sufficient), and I think it would be just as hard to get cable and satellite companies to accept an Apple DVR as it is for cell phone companies to accept an iTunes cell phone. Cable companies see video on demand and PPV as their future and Apple has struck a major blow by allowing TV shows to be downloaded and owned for only $1.99.

But with Apple it would be different (hopefully) with a home media solution. In an ideal situation, a home media box would be offered which is seemesly integrated with your mac.

It needs to work on a PC as well, using iTunes and Quicktime for Windows to gain a broader market appeal and continue the "Halo" effect that in helping to increase Apple's market share. It also needs to be afordable enough to compete against other solutions in the market and offer a new, more intuitive solution to gatting audio/video off the computer and into the "livingroom". For these reasons it should not be a Mac Mini Entertainment System.

http://loop.worldofapple.com/archive...-limit-to-1tb/

Does ThinkSecret have it right? Is Apple prepping for video storage on .Mac?

Let's see, the BattleStar Galactic "Trailer" off of iTunes, about 21 minutes worth of iPod video hits in at 106.3 MB gives you about 186.5 minutes or 3 hours of video storage on your .Mac account. If you upped the video quality to HiDef it wouldn't take long for you to fill up that 944 MB of storage with video. A steaming service through iTunes/Front Row, which if set up right you wouldn't need any additional storage on your .Mac account, just an "Alias" in Front Row with a licensing "Key" which could download the stream when requested. That would free up Apple's servers, since they would only need one copy of the video on the server which could be streamed on demand. It would also allow cross platform support and negates the need for a .Mac account subscription to use the service.

Streaming media to save storage space on your hard drive makes me think of something.

A laptop or Mac Mini with a small hard drive, read NAND drive.

Very unlikely but it was the first thing that came to my mind...

I was considering video for sale online, and was wondering how strong the market would be. How much could they charge for a single movie? I realize it's illegal to copy movies, but I assume it's done often. My brother has some sort of movie rental deal where he can rent as many movies as he'd like for about $10.00 a month. Unless they were offering around $2.00 per movie, I'm not sure how many takers they would have. Basically, with the average home computer having the capability of backing up the content of DVDs, you don't need to pay to own them in order to possess them, legally or not, on your HD, etc. Just wondering if you guys think this would be an issue or not.

Happy new year!

If they make it so you can only access per one unique computer, then they can kiss my ... If it is for any computer/media center computer I own with MY .Mac account, then there is a good chance I would go for it. Of course, I would want to put them on my iPod for travel sake.


Ahhh, screw it, I am buying DVD's.

I believe the market is very strong as long as it is priced appropriately and some factors come into play. Music is easily tradable over P2P services, but Apple has made a music store that has had success. The same thing could happen to video.

However, I believe there there are more technical hurdles to face than the threat of piracy, especially for video to be used in a home media solution. People are gobbling up video on demand and pay per view services at the expense of DVD renting services, so DVD piracy isn't a big factor going forward.

The big thing about video is that the data is huge in comparison to music files. Even if you used DVD quality (instead of high definition), it would take several hours to download a 2 hour movie. People expect a certain quality with video as opposed to music, so reducing the quality isn't really an option. Streaming is not a viable option even with the best Internet connections. People expect an immediate gratification with paid services, and that cannot be provided easily with video downloads.

There is also no easy way to get video downloads into a home theater. While personal music is generally played on portable devices (iPod) or in a home audio system (Airport Express), there needs to be a solution to output video to a TV "securely" (to appease the movie industry) and easily.

Even if you do not have an iPod, you can still buy music online and use it away from the computer by burning CDs. This was an accepted and expected practice for all music downloads. Most people that download Divx movies online do not burn copies to use on their TV because there is no easy way to get it there. They watch them only on their computer, and really most people would rather watch video on their TV (much like how most people want to listen to their music on the go or on their CD player).

The ironic thing about this is that cable companies are positioning themselves as the home media center. Microsoft and Sony aren't the competition. Cable companies are adding the DVRs and the streaming media on demand. They have the delivery system to get video quickly to consumers and streamed so it's immediate. People already accept cable boxes and you don't need to buy new devices to watch it on your TV.

Apple would be facing an uphill battle against entrenched companies that are protecting their bread and butter. Don't get me wrong. I would love to see some sort of home media solution from Apple because I imagine that it would be easier to use and also quite seamless. But, it would be a fight unlike the iPod versus MP3 battle where Creative, Samsung, and Dell did not have any real advantage over Apple.

why can't apple develop an "xm" for apple, so you pay the subscription and download at will, then store and access your system from any internet site, which is what tivo has done, unless apple buys tivo, or maybe apple thinks it can do it better with itunes. itunes does have name recognition, so they can market a "rental" system stream, store, burn (limited to 2) and access from any computer. and with apples new codec for video use a 42 inch display for a primary visual media center. can you imagine a 42inch imac hung on a wall???