I'm curious though... if you think it's a bad idea for Apple to get into living room gaming... do you think they should get into automobiles?
Now THAT'S a stretch!
Not really, although it seems so. Tesla came from basically nowhere. Apple has shirtloads of cash floating about, looking for something to do. Apple's talks with the likes of BMW could see R&D sharing ( R&D is easily the biggest cost to car builders ) happen. Heck, Apple could just buy Tesla.
An Apple branded car could happen. Just so long as Jonny doesn't design it, and FoxComm doesn't build it.
True but so does every other media player. In addition Amazon has the advantage of creating/distributing, or whatever you want to call it, very good original content.
Just getting cable TV stations to be distributed via the Apple TV is not going to do much unless somehow the experience changed drastically ( like getting rid of ads which is unlikely). The cable companies will just make up for lost revenue by increasing the cost of Internet. So, this is not really about money. Chord cutters will not save by programs being streamed.
The Netflix approach is very appealing. You ha a supermarket of content which you munch on whenever you feel. You obviously can't do that with time sensitive shows such as sports, news and so on ... But you can do it for almost everything else.
I don't think we will be seeing a major change in the video landscape with this new Apple TV. Hopefully we will see a more open device with an App Store that can be used to expand in a variety of ways by developers and users.
Whatever they do, they have to keep the price reasonable.
Netflix is pathetic in offering newish shows and movies. So, basically, cancelled it. I live in Canada, it'S a bit better in the US.
A8 gaming is limited by the graphics processing power of the PowerVR Series 6XT GX6650 GPU, which while very impressive, is still a battery powered device that can't match current generation mains powered desktop/laptop GPUs. My MBPR has an Nvida GT 650M which is a 45W device more or less comparable to what's in an Xbox One. The PS4 GPU is more powerful still, and probably has on the order of 24 times the graphics processing power of a GX6650 GPU.
Interesting. Never been much of a gamer, but have considered doing some on my iMac. So, how does my 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB with 16 GB of RAM compare?
Apple has been holding pocket aces for a while. Maybe with the Apple Music launch it's finally time to play them. A karaoke app would catapult the Apple TV. It's the ultimate "casual gamer" app. Apple has been teasing karaoke in recent keynotes as well.. (If it's announced, I hope Apple has Jimmy Fallon demoing it).
As for Apple's best tech purchase, after NeXT, I think we have yet to see the full practical potential of Authentec.
Netflix is pathetic in offering newish shows and movies. So, basically, cancelled it. I live in Canada, it'S a bit better in the US.
Use a VPN like UnblockUs. I'm on Oz, where Netflix recently arrived, but I've had it for years. UnblockUs lets me choose to watch ALL the Netflix regions. Sure, new release stuff is a little thin, but it beats the hell out of A$125 per month for our local cable gouger.
Apple has been holding pocket aces for a while. Maybe with the Apple Music launch it's finally time to play them. A karaoke app would catapult the Apple TV. It's the ultimate "casual gamer" app. Apple has been teasing karaoke in recent keynotes as well.. (If it's announced, I hope Apple has Jimmy Fallon demoing it).
As for Apple's best tech purchase, after NeXT, I think we have yet to see the full practical potential of Authentec.
Hey, that's a very interesting observation. Apple Music karaoke built into every Apple TV? It's a goofy idea that I think would be hugely popular. It would also fit the idea that an upcoming Apple announcement would be "hilarious"! Nice bit of piecing together clues that were right there in the open. ????????
Netflix is pathetic in offering newish shows and movies. So, basically, cancelled it. I live in Canada, it'S a bit better in the US.
"Better" is a subjective term. I am familiar with both the Canadian and U.S. versions of Netflix and "different" would be more accurate than "better". I do tend to tune in to the U.S. Netflix more often - but I was surprised to see that Canadian Netflix had some pretty significant content that wasn't available until months later on US Netflix.
You do know that there are easy solutions for getting US (or any other region) Netflix in Canada, right? Search for "smart DNS" services and for about $4/month you can select any one of about 20 different worldwide regions to be part of with unlimited and nearly instant switching between regions. It's also not Netflix specific. It fools any website that uses DNS to determine your geographic location. Hulu+ is another one I use it for. It also doesn't slow down your internet connection the way a VPN solution might. I cut the cord 3 years ago and rely exclusively on multi-region Netflix and Hulu+. If I want to catch a baseball or hockey game, I head over to a friends place or a local sports bar. Live news and weather I can get on the radio or internet.
I would be interested in the new Apple TV only if I was able to install Kodi(XBMC). I absolutely love this program, it has redefined the way I watch TV. Even than though I won't be buying anything for at least another year or so as I already have a Minix Z64 in my bedroom and an Nvidia Shield TV downstairs. Both of the which do everything that I could possibly ever want a TV Set-Box to do, especially the Shield TV, just a fantastic machine. We have 4 game controllers for it now as we stream games from my son's monster gaming PC, though the games we have installed on the device itself aren't to shabby, can't wait for Crysis 3 and playing Doom 3 on our huge TV is an absolute blast, albeit scarry. The kids still have Apple TV's in their rooms, though they only use it for Netflix. The rest of the time their used primarily to connect their iPad's to their TV's. Well my daughter does that anyway, my son uses his Shield Tablet connected via HDMI using the, separate, built in HDMI port (which is still the best way to connect your tablet to a TV, especially if your going to play games), he also uses Kodi. Even when we travel I always bring along at least one device that has Kodi installed so we can enjoy a movie at night, I still find my little Kindle HDX to be a great gadget for such things as when paired with a FireStick or FireTV it has the fastest wireless display connection I've seen from any device that I've used. Even faster than a Microsoft Surface 3 connected via a Microsoft Wireless Display adopter, which is no slouch either.
My solution the the ATV licensing issues which I mentioned before would be.
1) produce an EPG API. 2) when TV player apps are installed they can write their schedule to the EPG 3) The TV app shows the schedules for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. there would also be other non live content and you can search for specific Netflix (etc) content within this app. 4) a request to start the show launches the installed app on the correct page. The back button goes back to the main TV app. On that page you get the original apps branding.
This wouldn't monetise much for Apple but if it works they could force Tv player ATV apps to give over some revenue.
I would be interested in the new Apple TV only if I was able to install Kodi(XBMC). I absolutely love this program, it has redefined the way I watch TV. Even than though I won't be buying anything for at least another year or so as I already have a Minix Z64 in my bedroom and an Nvidia Shield TV downstairs. Both of the which do everything that I could possibly ever want a TV Set-Box to do, especially the Shield TV, just a fantastic machine. We have 4 game controllers for it now as we stream games from my son's monster gaming PC, though the games we have installed on the device itself aren't to shabby, can't wait for Crysis 3 and playing Doom 3 on our huge TV is an absolute blast, albeit scarry. The kids still have Apple TV's in their rooms, though they only use it for Netflix. The rest of the time their used primarily to connect their iPad's to their TV's. Well my daughter does that anyway, my son uses his Shield Tablet connected via HDMI using the, separate, built in HDMI port (which is still the best way to connect your tablet to a TV, especially if your going to play games), he also uses Kodi. Even when we travel I always bring along at least one device that has Kodi installed so we can enjoy a movie at night, I still find my little Kindle HDX to be a great gadget for such things as when paired with a FireStick or FireTV it has the fastest wireless display connection I've seen from any device that I've used. Even faster than a Microsoft Surface 3 connected via a Microsoft Wireless Display adopter, which is no slouch either.
@Marvin (The Global Moderator): Your image posts, which then get reposted by people replying to your post, keep keep crashing Safari on my iPad. Can you guys back off a bit with this image-post-fest?
@Marvin (The Global Moderator): Your image posts, which then get reposted by people replying to your post, keep keep crashing Safari on my iPad. Can you guys back off a bit with this image-post-fest?
The second video above is near life-like -- nothing like the mobile versions. I bought République Episode 1 to see how it compares.
Even Republique would be classed more in the Indie category due to the size of the team and budget but it shows more of the style of console games. A higher production value game in the App Store would be Bioshock:
Spoiler:
[VIDEO]
There's a breakdown of its original development here:
It aimed to start out with a small team like Republique but expanded to 3x the size and took 3 years. These kind of teams are struggling to survive. That company was recently wound down and they kept about 15 employees with the aim of building narrative-driven games:
The non-telltale ones are better with a hardware controller. Over time the hardware performance issue goes away so that's not going to be what holds back high quality games on mobile.
He often times embeds videos from YouTube. Seems like Safari has an issue playing them.
If there's a lot of media in a page, especially videos, mobile browsers can struggle to keep them in memory. It'll probably be low memory causing the crash, the crashes get logged to:
Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage > Diagnostic & Usage Data.
I removed the quoted videos so hopefully that will stop the page crashing.
Though, a solution comes to mind -- A new category: Mobile/Console games! A few quality, major, immersive titles that have comparable mobile and console components. Where you could play on either and continue on the other. Priced accordingly. Likely, you'd want to use a controller (if available) but could manage without if necessary.
Apple does this to an extent with special categories like 'Big Name Games' but the problem is more to do with the buyer than the selling format. Mobile users just don't want to part with money unless they have some addicting games that gets them to buy things in-game. It's the same problem that applies to the music industry. When iTunes came along, it changed buying habits and set a price expectation. When streaming came along it changed buyer habits again, always lower and lower price to the point that musicians eventually find it unsustainable.
Right now gaming is dividing in two, where you have big studios like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, 2K living on their few high-earning franchises. On the other side, you have mobile where everyone is submitting the next millionth-and-one button masher game hoping it has something addictive to milk payments out of people. Even for the one-hit wonders, the follow-up success is hard to come by:
It's almost like the talent shows on TV where thousands of hopefuls flood in to be whittled down to just a few good ones. In between the extremes is something that buyers aren't supporting because it hits that area where it's too expensive to make and so is priced too high for the value it offers. There is a high quality level of Indie game with games like Limbo and Badlands and more lightweight games from big publishers like the Sims, these would work well on the ?TV.
Another game category that would work better on the ?TV than any other platform Apple has just now is the casual/social game. Board games, Pictionary, quiz games, Karaoke. The Wii targets this market a bit but it's a high investment cost whereas the ?TV is affordable. This takes on a whole different set of competition like Mattel, Hasbro etc.
A quick solution is to (temporarily) block Marvin while accessing this thread.
Trust me: IMO you're not going to miss much.
Good suggestion on its face, but it doesn't work. I just tried to block Marvin (temporarily), but "Block Member" is unfortunately not an option with Moderators.
@Marvin (The Global Moderator): Your image posts, which then get reposted by people replying to your post, keep keep crashing Safari on my iPad. Can you guys back off a bit with this image-post-fest?
Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dick Applebaum
Guilty ... Sorry! What iOS?
A quick solution is to (temporarily) block Marvin while accessing this thread.
Trust me: IMO you're not going to miss much.
I find Marvin's posts to be very informative. He often times embeds videos from YouTube. Seems like Safari has an issue playing them.
Agree on Marvin's posts being informative.
I've all but given up on browsing the internet on my iPad Air except for the most light and basic things. Seems like the 1 gig of RAM might be part of the problem with crashing. I wouldn't be surprised if newer 2 gig models have far fewer Safari crashes.
It's almost 2 years old and is great for lots and lots of things, but sadly browsing the internet isn't one of them.
... and an Nvidia Shield TV downstairs. Both of the which do everything that I could possibly ever want a TV Set-Box to do, especially the Shield TV, just a fantastic machine. We have 4 game controllers for it now as we stream games from my son's monster gaming PC ...
Hey Relic how is the lag?
Between the streaming and wireless controllers is it acceptable?
I have wanted to do something similar but don't want to waste my money if it feels like mud.
Comments
I'm curious though... if you think it's a bad idea for Apple to get into living room gaming... do you think they should get into automobiles?
Now THAT'S a stretch!
Not really, although it seems so. Tesla came from basically nowhere. Apple has shirtloads of cash floating about, looking for something to do. Apple's talks with the likes of BMW could see R&D sharing ( R&D is easily the biggest cost to car builders ) happen. Heck, Apple could just buy Tesla.
An Apple branded car could happen. Just so long as Jonny doesn't design it, and FoxComm doesn't build it.
True but so does every other media player. In addition Amazon has the advantage of creating/distributing, or whatever you want to call it, very good original content.
Just getting cable TV stations to be distributed via the Apple TV is not going to do much unless somehow the experience changed drastically ( like getting rid of ads which is unlikely). The cable companies will just make up for lost revenue by increasing the cost of Internet. So, this is not really about money. Chord cutters will not save by programs being streamed.
The Netflix approach is very appealing. You ha a supermarket of content which you munch on whenever you feel. You obviously can't do that with time sensitive shows such as sports, news and so on ... But you can do it for almost everything else.
I don't think we will be seeing a major change in the video landscape with this new Apple TV. Hopefully we will see a more open device with an App Store that can be used to expand in a variety of ways by developers and users.
Whatever they do, they have to keep the price reasonable.
Netflix is pathetic in offering newish shows and movies. So, basically, cancelled it. I live in Canada, it'S a bit better in the US.
A8 gaming is limited by the graphics processing power of the PowerVR Series 6XT GX6650 GPU, which while very impressive, is still a battery powered device that can't match current generation mains powered desktop/laptop GPUs. My MBPR has an Nvida GT 650M which is a 45W device more or less comparable to what's in an Xbox One. The PS4 GPU is more powerful still, and probably has on the order of 24 times the graphics processing power of a GX6650 GPU.
Interesting. Never been much of a gamer, but have considered doing some on my iMac. So, how does my 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675MX 1024 MB with 16 GB of RAM compare?
As for Apple's best tech purchase, after NeXT, I think we have yet to see the full practical potential of Authentec.
Netflix is pathetic in offering newish shows and movies. So, basically, cancelled it. I live in Canada, it'S a bit better in the US.
Use a VPN like UnblockUs. I'm on Oz, where Netflix recently arrived, but I've had it for years. UnblockUs lets me choose to watch ALL the Netflix regions. Sure, new release stuff is a little thin, but it beats the hell out of A$125 per month for our local cable gouger.
Hey, that's a very interesting observation. Apple Music karaoke built into every Apple TV? It's a goofy idea that I think would be hugely popular. It would also fit the idea that an upcoming Apple announcement would be "hilarious"! Nice bit of piecing together clues that were right there in the open. ????????
You do know that there are easy solutions for getting US (or any other region) Netflix in Canada, right? Search for "smart DNS" services and for about $4/month you can select any one of about 20 different worldwide regions to be part of with unlimited and nearly instant switching between regions. It's also not Netflix specific. It fools any website that uses DNS to determine your geographic location. Hulu+ is another one I use it for. It also doesn't slow down your internet connection the way a VPN solution might. I cut the cord 3 years ago and rely exclusively on multi-region Netflix and Hulu+. If I want to catch a baseball or hockey game, I head over to a friends place or a local sports bar. Live news and weather I can get on the radio or internet.
What agrument? He has been dead for years, they may as well say, Woz wouldn't have done it that way
personally it is the controller, and the games. My mother has an iPad, and it seems nothing special to me.
I was talking about the approach, not the content.
1) produce an EPG API.
2) when TV player apps are installed they can write their schedule to the EPG
3) The TV app shows the schedules for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 etc. there would also be other non live content and you can search for specific Netflix (etc) content within this app.
4) a request to start the show launches the installed app on the correct page. The back button goes back to the main TV app. On that page you get the original apps branding.
This wouldn't monetise much for Apple but if it works they could force Tv player ATV apps to give over some revenue.
AppleTV is doomed.™
A quick solution is to (temporarily) block Marvin while accessing this thread.
Trust me: IMO you're not going to miss much.
Even Republique would be classed more in the Indie category due to the size of the team and budget but it shows more of the style of console games. A higher production value game in the App Store would be Bioshock:
There's a breakdown of its original development here:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3774/postmortem_2k_boston2k_.php?print=1
It aimed to start out with a small team like Republique but expanded to 3x the size and took 3 years. These kind of teams are struggling to survive. That company was recently wound down and they kept about 15 employees with the aim of building narrative-driven games:
http://irrationalgames.com/new-featured/a-message-from-ken-levine-2/
There are some others in the App Store like:
https://itunes.apple.com/app/game-thrones-telltale-games/id906862658?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/app/mass-effect-infiltrator/id486601093?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/app/deus-ex-the-fall/id633443676?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/app/back-to-the-future-the-game/id419176153?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/app/grand-theft-auto-san-andreas/id763692274?mt=8
The non-telltale ones are better with a hardware controller. Over time the hardware performance issue goes away so that's not going to be what holds back high quality games on mobile.
If there's a lot of media in a page, especially videos, mobile browsers can struggle to keep them in memory. It'll probably be low memory causing the crash, the crashes get logged to:
Settings > General > About > Diagnostics & Usage > Diagnostic & Usage Data.
I removed the quoted videos so hopefully that will stop the page crashing.
Apple does this to an extent with special categories like 'Big Name Games' but the problem is more to do with the buyer than the selling format. Mobile users just don't want to part with money unless they have some addicting games that gets them to buy things in-game. It's the same problem that applies to the music industry. When iTunes came along, it changed buying habits and set a price expectation. When streaming came along it changed buyer habits again, always lower and lower price to the point that musicians eventually find it unsustainable.
Right now gaming is dividing in two, where you have big studios like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, 2K living on their few high-earning franchises. On the other side, you have mobile where everyone is submitting the next millionth-and-one button masher game hoping it has something addictive to milk payments out of people. Even for the one-hit wonders, the follow-up success is hard to come by:
http://bgr.com/2014/08/26/flappy-bird-vs-swing-copters/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/26/us-rovio-outlook-idUSKCN0QV18P20150826
It's almost like the talent shows on TV where thousands of hopefuls flood in to be whittled down to just a few good ones. In between the extremes is something that buyers aren't supporting because it hits that area where it's too expensive to make and so is priced too high for the value it offers. There is a high quality level of Indie game with games like Limbo and Badlands and more lightweight games from big publishers like the Sims, these would work well on the ?TV.
Another game category that would work better on the ?TV than any other platform Apple has just now is the casual/social game. Board games, Pictionary, quiz games, Karaoke. The Wii targets this market a bit but it's a high investment cost whereas the ?TV is affordable. This takes on a whole different set of competition like Mattel, Hasbro etc.
A quick solution is to (temporarily) block Marvin while accessing this thread.
Trust me: IMO you're not going to miss much.
Good suggestion on its face, but it doesn't work. I just tried to block Marvin (temporarily), but "Block Member" is unfortunately not an option with Moderators.
And, he's posting more video gunk...
Ugh.
@Marvin (The Global Moderator): Your image posts, which then get reposted by people replying to your post, keep keep crashing Safari on my iPad. Can you guys back off a bit with this image-post-fest?
Thanks.
Guilty ... Sorry! What iOS?
A quick solution is to (temporarily) block Marvin while accessing this thread.
Trust me: IMO you're not going to miss much.
I find Marvin's posts to be very informative. He often times embeds videos from YouTube. Seems like Safari has an issue playing them.
Agree on Marvin's posts being informative.
I've all but given up on browsing the internet on my iPad Air except for the most light and basic things. Seems like the 1 gig of RAM might be part of the problem with crashing. I wouldn't be surprised if newer 2 gig models have far fewer Safari crashes.
It's almost 2 years old and is great for lots and lots of things, but sadly browsing the internet isn't one of them.
Edited for clarity.
... and an Nvidia Shield TV downstairs. Both of the which do everything that I could possibly ever want a TV Set-Box to do, especially the Shield TV, just a fantastic machine. We have 4 game controllers for it now as we stream games from my son's monster gaming PC ...
Hey Relic how is the lag?
Between the streaming and wireless controllers is it acceptable?
I have wanted to do something similar but don't want to waste my money if it feels like mud.
Thanks.