To all the people who have come up with reasons why this will not work. Do you really think you are smarter than Steve Jobs was, and he never considered all of these technical issues?
Really!
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
Folks, I've written about my professional musician wife before. This pretty much really happened:
Wife: I just bought Netflix.
Me: Oh. (Thinking: Don't we have cable?)
Wife: Yes, now I can watch movies on my MacBook and iMac.
Me: Ok.
...Time Passes...
Wife: Can we hook this to the TV in the bedroom? (Nice little 32" flatscreen.)
Me: Yes. (Off to Apple store to buy adapter to hook to PC input on TV.)
Wife: Cool. But what are all those cables going to the TV?
Me: Well, we need those to get the signal to the TV from the MacBookPro.
...Time Passes...
Me: Dear, did you say that was Netflix? (Yep. I listen really well...)
Wife: Yes.
Me: Uh, the AppleTV in the living room can receive Netflix.
Wife: Well, bring it in here.
Me: (Being an engineer I start to get wires and power cables to run it all nice an neat behind the entertainment center.)
Wife: Can you hurry?
Me: I am hurrying.
Wife: Just grabs the whole mess and sets the AppleTV cables and all on the side of the entertainment center.)
Me: (That's really ugly.)
Wife: Now, make it work.
Me: (I hand her the TV remote and Apple Remote.) Push the HDMI button and then press the big silver button on the Apple Remote.
Wife: Cooool!
Me: Now, use the round iPod thingie and move to Internet and push the silver thingie.
Wife: Cooool! There's Netflix.
Me: Leave on business trip. Get Call...
Wife: I can't get this to work.
Me: Push HDMI. Push silver thingie. Go to Internet. Select Netflix.
Wife: Cooool!
Folks, if you're a TV manufacturer, a content creator, or a content deliverer and this isn't your business plan, or a logical extension of this business plan, you're dead meat.
I have seen the future. It is Cooool!
what did I miss here - why didn't she just open her MacBook and log into Netflix? Or was that the whole point?
I've tried talking to my Xbox with Kinect, and it's inability to recognise pretty much anything makes it 100% useless. I've also played around with Siri on my wife's iPhone 4S and the results are.... to be frank, garbage.
Perhaps it's because we're English and not American, but it's accuracy was only around 50%. it produced amusing results, but it's really limited to toy value for now. The thought of trying to control a TV solely using voice commands is not in the least bit appealing. I think I'll stick with my TiVo.
It's limited to a handful of languages and dialects, but British English is one of them. Did you make sure Siri's settings were set correctly? Do you have an unusual accent, for example, a mix of Japanese and English enunciations that could confuse Siri?
what did I miss here - why didn't she just open her MacBook and log into Netflix? Or was that the whole point?
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
To be clear, no one is saying Jobs didn't "crack" the TV conundrum, just that doing what others have done before or ignoring the locked-in model of the content owners and providers who also supply your internet) is clearly not the answer. If Jobs says he 'cracked" I have faith that he did that it's not simply putting one box inside of another.
PS: Remember when people said the milled aluminium chassis of the MBA/MBP was overkill? Now the PC vendors want Intel to give them money so they can compete with Apple's designs.
a voice control UI for a big HDTV would be useful sometimes, but there are a lot of practical problems too, as many have noted.
but using AirPlay/Screen Mirroring right now with my iPad, Apple TV, and HDTV, i don't know how voice UI would be equal, let alone better. the iPad can display vast amounts of supplemental information related to what your watching without cluttering up the TV screen. try the new free Bloomberg TV app for a great example of that. it can add additional controls/info/social services for games without cluttering up the TV screen. and most of all, it lets you do "real true multitasking" - watch something on TV you control with an iPad app - like the TiVo app or Xfinity app, or whatever - and do something else entirely different at the same time on your iPad while sitting on the sofa. this is the kind of "multitasking" that PEOPLE REALLY DO (not the geek version).
Siri could not do any of that. on a TV, it would just be a gimmick.
so i am just not buying in to this Apple HDTV hype. All that is really needed is an updated Apple TV 3 (to get the super A5 chip) with HDMI pass thru (to integrate your cable box input into its home screen and avoid needing to input switch with the TV remote) and a much better Remote App for iPad/iPhone (the current one is mostly a track pad). and of course you could then use Siri with your iPad/iPhone to control and interact with all these, rather than shouting across the room to the TV. now that makes sense.
Folks, I've written about my professional musician wife before. This pretty much really happened:
<snip>
Folks, if you're a TV manufacturer, a content creator, or a content deliverer and this isn't your business plan, or a logical extension of this business plan, you're dead meat.
And there you've perfectly captured the whole issue!
It's not about the TV display: even the bad flat panels are pretty good, and the good ones are great. It's not about the content (although it is still about access to content...) It's not about your DVD player, or your Blu-Ray player, or the receiver, or the TiVo, or the AppleTV, or the speakers...or...or...
But it is about throwing all those things in a bag, garnishing with a couple of hundred bucks worth of cables, shaking it all up and trying to make sense out of the unholy mess you dump out on the floor.
Using a TV used to be barely any more complicated than using the refrigerator. Now it's rocket science?except not as understandable.
No microhone, Siri will learn to filter out home background noise.
Great software makes great hardware.
I agree....also you could still have a remote that could also double as a microphone. So the whole thing could still be hands free.
Imagine this scenario... you are laying in bed late at night watching TV. Your wife is asleep in bed. Do you really want to be speaking commands? You would wake your wife and she would not be happy. There are still very good reasons to have a remote....and it could double as a microphone.....
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
Can you use AirPlay to push Netflix (and other video) onto the AppleTV? Or have an AppleTV in the HEC and bedroom TVs so you don't have to move them around or pay for pricey dongles?
You still have the issue of switch inputs on the TV to point to the AppleTV but that's been like that since for decades. Except when VCRs had coax passthroughs for cable boxes. That meant you could simply press play on a video and it would play. THough that won't work today, unless?
Unless you have an AppleTV Pro. A device that sits between your TV and your cable/sat/DVD/Blu-ray/TiVo and acts as conductor to all the media being played don the TV. The TV is plugged into the AppleTV Pro's passthrough power so it turns on when you hit the button on the AppleTV remote. You never worry about the TV remote at all. You only ever deal with the AppleTV UI to switch inputs to the other boxes connected to it. This comes with its own inherent problems but at least you'll get a useful and responsive interface to switch inputs along with AppleTV layovers on your TV even as your cable box is pushing your favorite TV show.
To all the people who have come up with reasons why this will not work. Do you really think you are smarter than Steve Jobs was, and he never considered all of these technical issues?
Really!
... and that may become a big problem.
Sadly, Steve is not here anymore. This Tv thing is a very complex venture. As I said before... it's a Steve thing. His vision isn't there anymore... his tenacity, his arrogance, his patience, his timing... the RDF... all gone.
I'm not saying that the team he left is incapable of pulling this off... but it will be a lot harder without Steve. It's always a lot harder to complete a project when the team leader/architect is gone.
A huge project such as this will really bring forward Apple's inner politics. Eventually one of the big boys, whether it be Cook, Ive, Forstall or whoever, will disagree with something and then we will see what is what. ... and eventually someone with enough power will want to do it their way and take a different route at the fork in the road.
Can you use AirPlay to push Netflix (and other video) onto the AppleTV? Or have an AppleTV in the HEC and bedroom TVs so you don't have to move them around or pay for pricey dongles?...
Let me say this: My wife asked if we could have it on both TV's. I said the simplist solution is just to buy another AppleTV. She said ok, go get another one.
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
That is my point. I think we're all missing it. We're headed to one Internet connection, one TV, and one remote. As many of these TV's as you want, anywhere in the house you want.
When I moved the AppleTV into the bedroom, I only had to hook up power and HDMI. With the Apple TV Set there won't even be that. It worked. It was already configured for WiFi. The remote looks like a funny iPod. The interface is blown away simple.
My wife has two master's degrees in music. She is happy. She can make it work.
Let me say this: My wife asked if we could have it on both TV's. I said the simplist solution is just to buy another AppleTV. She said ok, go get another one.
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
That is my point. I think we're all missing it. We're headed to one Internet connection, one TV, and one remote. As many of these TV's as you want, anywhere in the house you want.
When I moved the AppleTV into the bedroom, I only had to hook up power and HDMI. With the Apple TV Set there won't even be that. It worked. It was already configured for WiFi. The remote looks like a funny iPod. The interface is blown away simple.
My wife has two master's degrees in music. She is happy. She can make it work.
That sounds great, but it misses two very important things. First, you still need to switch inputs on the TV to get to cable/sat/DVR/DVD/Blu-ray. Second, In the US most of get our internet from the same people that sell us access to TV, who play very large sums of money to get access to that TV content, who depend on these large sums to support their shows.
So we have the same input switching complexity, albeit slightly better than before as I outlined in my previous post, and you have the entrenched system of the content owners and content providers not letting anyone break up this union. If Jobs "cracked" it, that is what he cracked, not simply doing the obvious by putting an AppleTV in a TV to save the effort of a power cord and HDMI connection.
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
Apple Outsiders who want to become Apple Insiders (sorry AI) first need to "get" just what Apple does these days. Once you get "it" you'll know that Siri is the newest UI of the future, it will evolve, it will mature, and 10 years from now it will dominate the voice-driven gadget marketplace (and profits) the way the Apple's MultiTouch UI dominates the SmartPhone marketplace
That's what Apple does. Got it?
I speak not with arrogance but with battle-tested authority, I have held Apple stock now for 27 years. (I wish I had more.)
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
.
Not really. It took a little effort and time to configure. Selecting the wireless network and typing in the password took a bit of time. Then the software update took a longer time. Then trying to figure how to get my movies streaming to the AppleTV (turn on sharing). Definitely wasn't a minute and half.
I'm kind of excited at the prospect, but it has to be competitively priced. My 61" Samsung gives me beautiful 1080p pictures, and until it dies, I'm not replacing it with anything. Even an Apple TV.
I too have a beautiful Samsung, but it has to be hooked up to a cheap, nasty, stupid Comcast cable box with its own worthless remote. If Apple can make a TV that I can just talk to and tell it what I want to watch, then sign me up.
Sadly, Steve is not here anymore. This Tv thing is a very complex venture. As I said before... it's a Steve thing. His vision isn't there anymore... his tenacity, his arrogance, his patience, his timing... the RDF... all gone.
I'm not saying that the team he left is incapable of pulling this off... but it will be a lot harder without Steve. It's always a lot harder to complete a project when the team leader/architect is gone.
A huge project such as this will really bring forward Apple's inner politics. Eventually one of the big boys, whether it be Cook, Ive, Forstall or whoever, will disagree with something and then we will see what is what. ... and eventually someone with enough power will want to do it their way and take a different route at the fork in the road.
jmho
And heck, we don't even know how much SJ may have done work on this project before he passed.
How much he wrote down ?
How much he told folks ?
Hell, they may already have a prototype being used / tested as we speak
That sounds great, but it misses two very important things. First, you still need to switch inputs on the TV to get to cable/sat/DVR/DVD/Blu-ray. Second, In the US most of get our internet from the same people that sell us access to TV, who play very large sums of money to get access to that TV content, who depend on these large sums to support their shows.
I submit that you're still missing the fundamental point: I assert that there will be no more input switching. I submit that cable, satellite, DVR, DVD, Blu-Ray (a world of hurt, remember). May not even be in the Apple TV Set.
Think about it, with Internet and On Demand programming, why all that other stuff?
I know of the complexities of the content providers and licensing and all that you mention. But I further submit that all this will fall away as it becomes clearer and clearer that it's a "Who needs it" situation.
I'm not going to guess what the threshold is for the pendulum to swing toward dropping all those accessories, but I believe that the pendulum is swinging.
Comments
To all the people who have come up with reasons why this will not work. Do you really think you are smarter than Steve Jobs was, and he never considered all of these technical issues?
Really!
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
Folks, I've written about my professional musician wife before. This pretty much really happened:
Wife: I just bought Netflix.
Me: Oh. (Thinking: Don't we have cable?)
Wife: Yes, now I can watch movies on my MacBook and iMac.
Me: Ok.
...Time Passes...
Wife: Can we hook this to the TV in the bedroom? (Nice little 32" flatscreen.)
Me: Yes. (Off to Apple store to buy adapter to hook to PC input on TV.)
Wife: Cool. But what are all those cables going to the TV?
Me: Well, we need those to get the signal to the TV from the MacBookPro.
...Time Passes...
Me: Dear, did you say that was Netflix? (Yep. I listen really well...)
Wife: Yes.
Me: Uh, the AppleTV in the living room can receive Netflix.
Wife: Well, bring it in here.
Me: (Being an engineer I start to get wires and power cables to run it all nice an neat behind the entertainment center.)
Wife: Can you hurry?
Me: I am hurrying.
Wife: Just grabs the whole mess and sets the AppleTV cables and all on the side of the entertainment center.)
Me: (That's really ugly.)
Wife: Now, make it work.
Me: (I hand her the TV remote and Apple Remote.) Push the HDMI button and then press the big silver button on the Apple Remote.
Wife: Cooool!
Me: Now, use the round iPod thingie and move to Internet and push the silver thingie.
Wife: Cooool! There's Netflix.
Me: Leave on business trip. Get Call...
Wife: I can't get this to work.
Me: Push HDMI. Push silver thingie. Go to Internet. Select Netflix.
Wife: Cooool!
Folks, if you're a TV manufacturer, a content creator, or a content deliverer and this isn't your business plan, or a logical extension of this business plan, you're dead meat.
I have seen the future. It is Cooool!
what did I miss here - why didn't she just open her MacBook and log into Netflix? Or was that the whole point?
I've tried talking to my Xbox with Kinect, and it's inability to recognise pretty much anything makes it 100% useless. I've also played around with Siri on my wife's iPhone 4S and the results are.... to be frank, garbage.
Perhaps it's because we're English and not American, but it's accuracy was only around 50%. it produced amusing results, but it's really limited to toy value for now. The thought of trying to control a TV solely using voice commands is not in the least bit appealing. I think I'll stick with my TiVo.
It's limited to a handful of languages and dialects, but British English is one of them. Did you make sure Siri's settings were set correctly? Do you have an unusual accent, for example, a mix of Japanese and English enunciations that could confuse Siri?
what did I miss here - why didn't she just open her MacBook and log into Netflix? Or was that the whole point?
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
To be clear, no one is saying Jobs didn't "crack" the TV conundrum, just that doing what others have done before or ignoring the locked-in model of the content owners and providers who also supply your internet) is clearly not the answer. If Jobs says he 'cracked" I have faith that he did that it's not simply putting one box inside of another.
PS: Remember when people said the milled aluminium chassis of the MBA/MBP was overkill? Now the PC vendors want Intel to give them money so they can compete with Apple's designs.
but using AirPlay/Screen Mirroring right now with my iPad, Apple TV, and HDTV, i don't know how voice UI would be equal, let alone better. the iPad can display vast amounts of supplemental information related to what your watching without cluttering up the TV screen. try the new free Bloomberg TV app for a great example of that. it can add additional controls/info/social services for games without cluttering up the TV screen. and most of all, it lets you do "real true multitasking" - watch something on TV you control with an iPad app - like the TiVo app or Xfinity app, or whatever - and do something else entirely different at the same time on your iPad while sitting on the sofa. this is the kind of "multitasking" that PEOPLE REALLY DO (not the geek version).
Siri could not do any of that. on a TV, it would just be a gimmick.
so i am just not buying in to this Apple HDTV hype. All that is really needed is an updated Apple TV 3 (to get the super A5 chip) with HDMI pass thru (to integrate your cable box input into its home screen and avoid needing to input switch with the TV remote) and a much better Remote App for iPad/iPhone (the current one is mostly a track pad). and of course you could then use Siri with your iPad/iPhone to control and interact with all these, rather than shouting across the room to the TV. now that makes sense.
Folks, I've written about my professional musician wife before. This pretty much really happened:
<snip>
Folks, if you're a TV manufacturer, a content creator, or a content deliverer and this isn't your business plan, or a logical extension of this business plan, you're dead meat.
And there you've perfectly captured the whole issue!
It's not about the TV display: even the bad flat panels are pretty good, and the good ones are great. It's not about the content (although it is still about access to content...) It's not about your DVD player, or your Blu-Ray player, or the receiver, or the TiVo, or the AppleTV, or the speakers...or...or...
But it is about throwing all those things in a bag, garnishing with a couple of hundred bucks worth of cables, shaking it all up and trying to make sense out of the unholy mess you dump out on the floor.
Using a TV used to be barely any more complicated than using the refrigerator. Now it's rocket science?except not as understandable.
No microhone, Siri will learn to filter out home background noise.
Great software makes great hardware.
I agree....also you could still have a remote that could also double as a microphone. So the whole thing could still be hands free.
Imagine this scenario... you are laying in bed late at night watching TV. Your wife is asleep in bed. Do you really want to be speaking commands? You would wake your wife and she would not be happy. There are still very good reasons to have a remote....and it could double as a microphone.....
King of Beige doesn't know content is King?
And iTunes is the King of content, right?
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
Can you use AirPlay to push Netflix (and other video) onto the AppleTV? Or have an AppleTV in the HEC and bedroom TVs so you don't have to move them around or pay for pricey dongles?
You still have the issue of switch inputs on the TV to point to the AppleTV but that's been like that since for decades. Except when VCRs had coax passthroughs for cable boxes. That meant you could simply press play on a video and it would play. THough that won't work today, unless?
Unless you have an AppleTV Pro. A device that sits between your TV and your cable/sat/DVD/Blu-ray/TiVo and acts as conductor to all the media being played don the TV. The TV is plugged into the AppleTV Pro's passthrough power so it turns on when you hit the button on the AppleTV remote. You never worry about the TV remote at all. You only ever deal with the AppleTV UI to switch inputs to the other boxes connected to it. This comes with its own inherent problems but at least you'll get a useful and responsive interface to switch inputs along with AppleTV layovers on your TV even as your cable box is pushing your favorite TV show.
To all the people who have come up with reasons why this will not work. Do you really think you are smarter than Steve Jobs was, and he never considered all of these technical issues?
Really!
... and that may become a big problem.
Sadly, Steve is not here anymore. This Tv thing is a very complex venture. As I said before... it's a Steve thing. His vision isn't there anymore... his tenacity, his arrogance, his patience, his timing... the RDF... all gone.
I'm not saying that the team he left is incapable of pulling this off... but it will be a lot harder without Steve. It's always a lot harder to complete a project when the team leader/architect is gone.
A huge project such as this will really bring forward Apple's inner politics. Eventually one of the big boys, whether it be Cook, Ive, Forstall or whoever, will disagree with something and then we will see what is what. ... and eventually someone with enough power will want to do it their way and take a different route at the fork in the road.
jmho
Can you use AirPlay to push Netflix (and other video) onto the AppleTV? Or have an AppleTV in the HEC and bedroom TVs so you don't have to move them around or pay for pricey dongles?...
Let me say this: My wife asked if we could have it on both TV's. I said the simplist solution is just to buy another AppleTV. She said ok, go get another one.
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
That is my point. I think we're all missing it. We're headed to one Internet connection, one TV, and one remote. As many of these TV's as you want, anywhere in the house you want.
When I moved the AppleTV into the bedroom, I only had to hook up power and HDMI. With the Apple TV Set there won't even be that. It worked. It was already configured for WiFi. The remote looks like a funny iPod. The interface is blown away simple.
My wife has two master's degrees in music. She is happy. She can make it work.
Let me say this: My wife asked if we could have it on both TV's. I said the simplist solution is just to buy another AppleTV. She said ok, go get another one.
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
That is my point. I think we're all missing it. We're headed to one Internet connection, one TV, and one remote. As many of these TV's as you want, anywhere in the house you want.
When I moved the AppleTV into the bedroom, I only had to hook up power and HDMI. With the Apple TV Set there won't even be that. It worked. It was already configured for WiFi. The remote looks like a funny iPod. The interface is blown away simple.
My wife has two master's degrees in music. She is happy. She can make it work.
That sounds great, but it misses two very important things. First, you still need to switch inputs on the TV to get to cable/sat/DVR/DVD/Blu-ray. Second, In the US most of get our internet from the same people that sell us access to TV, who play very large sums of money to get access to that TV content, who depend on these large sums to support their shows.
So we have the same input switching complexity, albeit slightly better than before as I outlined in my previous post, and you have the entrenched system of the content owners and content providers not letting anyone break up this union. If Jobs "cracked" it, that is what he cracked, not simply doing the obvious by putting an AppleTV in a TV to save the effort of a power cord and HDMI connection.
If they can do it first ?
Do it right ?
Price it ok ?
Make it looks great ?
and build the hype up, it just might work.
Skip
Well, we are all VERY VERY smart here at AI forums. Sometimes we emphasize that LOUDLY and sing our own praises, other times we belittle and denigrate. But we are almost always right. Outside of AI lots of people insisted the iPad was nothing but a large iPod, for instance. They never really 'got it' like we all did. Some people on the 'outside' even dissed the iPod, and iPhone when they originally came out and some even insisted the lack of a physical keyboard would never fly. Here we knew better. So when we loudly proclaim an Apple Television to DOA with absolute certainty, its because we know.
Apple Outsiders who want to become Apple Insiders (sorry AI) first need to "get" just what Apple does these days. Once you get "it" you'll know that Siri is the newest UI of the future, it will evolve, it will mature, and 10 years from now it will dominate the voice-driven gadget marketplace (and profits) the way the Apple's MultiTouch UI dominates the SmartPhone marketplace
That's what Apple does. Got it?
I speak not with arrogance but with battle-tested authority, I have held Apple stock now for 27 years. (I wish I had more.)
In a way that is the point. To see Netflix on the TV from the MacBook, she had to drag the web browser to the second screen. Then the MacBook would go to sleep way too often.
The point here is that the integration of control, hardware, and content just took a light year leap. All the pieces are there. Nobody but Apple has successfullly brought it into a realm where a person as absolutely intelligent as my wife is happy with it.
Also, it freed up the MacBook Pro and the associated table and one set of ugly wires went away. This is a beautiful system.
Gotcha
I think that what I'm trying to say is that Apple is taking us in the direction of one remote that looks a lot like the Apple Remote that came with the AppleTV. There will be virtually no input switching or any thing even near the complexity of what AppleTV already supplies.
You put that remote in the hands of a customer and tell them to use it on that brand new Apple TV Set and they will be watching whatever they want in about a minute and a half.
.
Not really. It took a little effort and time to configure. Selecting the wireless network and typing in the password took a bit of time. Then the software update took a longer time. Then trying to figure how to get my movies streaming to the AppleTV (turn on sharing). Definitely wasn't a minute and half.
I'm kind of excited at the prospect, but it has to be competitively priced. My 61" Samsung gives me beautiful 1080p pictures, and until it dies, I'm not replacing it with anything. Even an Apple TV.
I too have a beautiful Samsung, but it has to be hooked up to a cheap, nasty, stupid Comcast cable box with its own worthless remote. If Apple can make a TV that I can just talk to and tell it what I want to watch, then sign me up.
... and that may become a big problem.
Sadly, Steve is not here anymore. This Tv thing is a very complex venture. As I said before... it's a Steve thing. His vision isn't there anymore... his tenacity, his arrogance, his patience, his timing... the RDF... all gone.
I'm not saying that the team he left is incapable of pulling this off... but it will be a lot harder without Steve. It's always a lot harder to complete a project when the team leader/architect is gone.
A huge project such as this will really bring forward Apple's inner politics. Eventually one of the big boys, whether it be Cook, Ive, Forstall or whoever, will disagree with something and then we will see what is what. ... and eventually someone with enough power will want to do it their way and take a different route at the fork in the road.
jmho
And heck, we don't even know how much SJ may have done work on this project before he passed.
How much he wrote down ?
How much he told folks ?
Hell, they may already have a prototype being used / tested as we speak
Skip
That sounds great, but it misses two very important things. First, you still need to switch inputs on the TV to get to cable/sat/DVR/DVD/Blu-ray. Second, In the US most of get our internet from the same people that sell us access to TV, who play very large sums of money to get access to that TV content, who depend on these large sums to support their shows.
I submit that you're still missing the fundamental point: I assert that there will be no more input switching. I submit that cable, satellite, DVR, DVD, Blu-Ray (a world of hurt, remember). May not even be in the Apple TV Set.
Think about it, with Internet and On Demand programming, why all that other stuff?
I know of the complexities of the content providers and licensing and all that you mention. But I further submit that all this will fall away as it becomes clearer and clearer that it's a "Who needs it" situation.
I'm not going to guess what the threshold is for the pendulum to swing toward dropping all those accessories, but I believe that the pendulum is swinging.