Is it a coincidence that Intel, Apple, and others today announced a speeded-up timetable for adoption of 802.11n?
Quote:
The EWC specification comprises a number of technical elements, including mixed-mode interoperability with 802.11a/b/g networks to allow enhanced performance while maintaining communication with legacy devices.
PHY transmission rates are supported up to 600Mbps for support of applications requiring high data rates, such as transmitting multiple HDTV streams, and reduction of battery drain by minimizing the time required to send and receive data streams.
What they should do is a make an apple equivalent to those sideways media center pcs, that people put underneath their tvs like the windows boxes that do that. that'd sell like hotcakes because even if their computers were pcs in their living room it could be mac. They get used to that and bam, macs in their study as well soon enough. People like my father who are home entertainment nuts eat that kind of stuff up.
What if Apple decided to just team up with sony on the PS3 and make that the media hub device and have apple make all the goodies to get stuff around?
I don't know why so many people seem to think this is possible...
It won't happen, forget about any involvement between Apple and Sony on the PS3!
While Sony and Apple collaborate in some specific areas, the PS3 would be an area where they are directly competing against each other.
Sony hopes to use the PS3 "multimedia center" aspect to push its ATRAC music format and will integrate its own music store to the console, and without a doubt an online movie store with their own movies on it. Why would Sony want Apple to interfere with their plans?
If Apple has to team up with a game console maker, it will be the big N...
Hi, I'm Addabox, once again here in my role as the official Apple Is Not Going To Make a Projector spokes-model.
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
I don't think a projector is a good idea anyway, it doesn't have the same mass appeal as a set-top box. People don't want to have to buy a new TV/monitor/projector screen, they want to use their existing equipment in a new way. Just give me a small, sleek set-top box with a media center interface and let me connect it to my TV anyway I want (composite, component, DVI)... for under $1k.
I don't think a projector is a good idea anyway, it doesn't have the same mass appeal as a set-top box. People don't want to have to buy a new TV/monitor/projector screen, they want to use their existing equipment in a new way. Just give me a small, sleek set-top box with a media center interface and let me connect it to my TV anyway I want (composite, component, DVI)... for under $1k.
..... and that would explain those video ipod pictures - it was the remote control!
have you seen or used the controller for this bose system? it is a color touch screen remote. it displays the song your are listening to or the movie your are watching, and, you can drag the "buttons" anywhere you want. it's m-azing. i've used it at the bose store b4
have you seen or used the controller for this bose system? it is a color touch screen remote. it displays the song your are listening to or the movie your are watching, and, you can drag the "buttons" anywhere you want. it's m-azing. i've used it at the bose store b4
The Bose web site shows no such remote. The Bose 48 Lifestyle system described has a white standard remote with a small grey scale display.
As far as I am aware Bose do not make a full colour touch screen remote. Is it possible it was another companies remote they were demonstrating?
Not that I actually expect something like this (yet) but:
4 Product & profit system
1) Make a standard audio cabinet size pizza box (please not in white!). In it are the video I/O guts to convert analog to digital, control your A/V gear, built in wifi Pre-N, and some sort of home automation control such as ZigBee. This unit controls the video and transfers it to and from your computer. You can also display your computer screen on your TV.
2) There is a hole/space on the top that you can optionally drop a MacMini into if you want to also have local PVR functionality that does not require your main Mac. This would also enable you to get a DVD obviously, but don?t hold your breath waiting for an Apple branded DVD ripper, though some nice programmer will make it. The DVD would only let you save your PVR?d content to disk.
3) New Pre-N Airport Video optimized to handle the video streams and maybe even a repeater for the Zigbee.
4) Optional video iPod to take things on the road and alternately use as a second remote to the system. This will have video out via USB2 and SVID. This way you can take your videos to work/etc.
While some limited content would be available for download, at first most programming would come from the PVR via your cable/satellite and thus the slower download speeds would be less of an issue. Pick the movie you want Tuesday night, and it downloads it while you?re at work and don't care that it takes 6 hours.
Hi, I'm Addabox, once again here in my role as the official Apple Is Not Going To Make a Projector spokes-model.
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
Don't make me keep having to come in here.
Are there any projectors marketed towards the home?
And why not a mediabox-type Mac with a media center OS version of Tiger :
- usual functionalites/apps possible but a full media center Mode stressed at all levels - special aqua aesthetics, button attached functionalities, special iApps versions
- running on Intel : no big need for Rosetta or non-Apple Universal binary apps (so less hit on proc) with a big focus on iApps / Media center usage
- special features for iPod users (new synchro port/slot, AP express functionnality included directly from docked iPod etc.)
- breathtaking visual gizmos for Media center apps (3D windows flip a la Solaris, ripples, genie effects, transparency) thanks to dedicated hardware
- H.264 MP4 codec hardware decoded
Pros :
- Windows dual boot allowed for games
- Easily upgradable when Yonah/Merom arrives
- Avoid PC users fears/misconceptions about Mac OS X -standard (new name reminding of Windows Media center), but give them a taste of the Apple OS ergonomy/power
- iApps spread to a larger base
- paves the way for iMovie store
- new striking design posssible because of Intel proc (cooler than iMac with its pro usage tailored G5)
- cheap (no screen included)
- allow aquaintance with other Apple products (keyboards, mouses, screens)
- accelerate Mac developpers transition to Universal binaries.
- ipod video dream companion
Cons :
- weak proc
- some Mac apps not working yet (those working on low level and needing a port to Universal binaries
Are there any projectors marketed towards the home?
Yeah, a bunch.
The "home theater" projector tends to stress video performance (read: black levels) over brightness, the assumption being that you will be viewing it in a totally or near totally dark room. That means around 1000 lumens.
They typically start at about $1,000 and go up, fast, from there.
For a general purpose display device, wherein you might want enough brightness to use it in average ambient lighting conditions with, say, a 60" diagonal image (and you're not so worried about black levels), you would want somewhere north of 2,000 lumens and something like a 2,000 to one contrast ratio-- something that can be had now in a form factor about the size of shoe box for about $1,500. Figure 3K lumens for a grand (in an even smaller box) in a year or two.
There's really no way around the ambient light/black level problem, short of some really expensive off-axis light rejecting screen material, so the best you can do is make your whites really bright so the blacks look blacker in contrast (but which raises your black levels anyway so you reach a point of diminishing returns).
Anyway, the larger point being that the imaging chips that largely dictate the performance of these things aren't anything that Apple has special access to, and you best believe that the current players in the market are all over any new promising developments.
So it would be sort of like expecting Apple to come up with a "breakthrough" LCD screen that somehow leapfrogs what's on the market in either price or functionality, and since the functionality is all coming from the LCD fabs themselves, that doesn't make much sense.
Yes, they could take the guts of a nice projector and put it in aluminum or white plastic, but.......
Hi, I'm Addabox, once again here in my role as the official Apple Is Not Going To Make a Projector spokes-model.
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
Well are you willing to bet on this information? How about a lifetime ban if you are wrong?
Quote:
Originally posted by niji
on wednesday will be launched apple's:
1. first projection device, and,
2. an updated Airport Express
the combination will allow keynote presentations as well as movies to be shown wirelessly.
it will not be a video iPod. and not a hard-disk.
just like the iPod came before iTunes Music Store, in this case also apple will introduce hardware that is best in class and believe that if they build it, the movie studios will come.
starting with pixar, which is being released from disney distribution connection.
You won't see a media box yet. The hardware isn't ready.
What's going to be needed is
1. Intel hardware that supports TCPA
2. Larger capacity 2.5" hard drives
3. HDMI 1.2 with hirez audio and better RGB support
4. Further maturation of Quicktime
5. $$$$$$$$ Media Centers don't come cheap.
I'll be looking forward to an Apple Media center late 2006 early 2007 done right.
Why would they need a larger capacity 2.5" HD? 3.5" HDs are cheeper and faster and would easily fit in any enclosure designed to be a set-top box.
As for price, to become the mas market appeal that the iPod has it needs to be relatively cheep, say $299 (USD) price range or lower on the bottom end, which should be doable with today's technollogy, even if it doesn't have the next gen standards.
The biggest roadblock that I see is in the tuners, not the connections, hard drives or Quicktime.
As for TCPA, I can't see why you would need that for a media center that, idealy, would be connected behind a firewire to a local network and mainly be used for AV storage as opposed to critical personal information stored on a computer.
Comments
The EWC specification comprises a number of technical elements, including mixed-mode interoperability with 802.11a/b/g networks to allow enhanced performance while maintaining communication with legacy devices.
PHY transmission rates are supported up to 600Mbps for support of applications requiring high data rates, such as transmitting multiple HDTV streams, and reduction of battery drain by minimizing the time required to send and receive data streams.
Originally posted by G-Dog
What if Apple decided to just team up with sony on the PS3 and make that the media hub device and have apple make all the goodies to get stuff around?
I don't know why so many people seem to think this is possible...
It won't happen, forget about any involvement between Apple and Sony on the PS3!
While Sony and Apple collaborate in some specific areas, the PS3 would be an area where they are directly competing against each other.
Sony hopes to use the PS3 "multimedia center" aspect to push its ATRAC music format and will integrate its own music store to the console, and without a doubt an online movie store with their own movies on it. Why would Sony want Apple to interfere with their plans?
If Apple has to team up with a game console maker, it will be the big N...
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
Don't make me keep having to come in here.
Originally posted by geekdreams
I don't think a projector is a good idea anyway, it doesn't have the same mass appeal as a set-top box. People don't want to have to buy a new TV/monitor/projector screen, they want to use their existing equipment in a new way. Just give me a small, sleek set-top box with a media center interface and let me connect it to my TV anyway I want (composite, component, DVI)... for under $1k.
Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.
Originally posted by BIgFella
..... and that would explain those video ipod pictures - it was the remote control!
have you seen or used the controller for this bose system? it is a color touch screen remote. it displays the song your are listening to or the movie your are watching, and, you can drag the "buttons" anywhere you want. it's m-azing. i've used it at the bose store b4
Originally posted by i-am-an-elf
have you seen or used the controller for this bose system? it is a color touch screen remote. it displays the song your are listening to or the movie your are watching, and, you can drag the "buttons" anywhere you want. it's m-azing. i've used it at the bose store b4
The Bose web site shows no such remote. The Bose 48 Lifestyle system described has a white standard remote with a small grey scale display.
As far as I am aware Bose do not make a full colour touch screen remote. Is it possible it was another companies remote they were demonstrating?
4 Product & profit system
1) Make a standard audio cabinet size pizza box (please not in white!). In it are the video I/O guts to convert analog to digital, control your A/V gear, built in wifi Pre-N, and some sort of home automation control such as ZigBee. This unit controls the video and transfers it to and from your computer. You can also display your computer screen on your TV.
2) There is a hole/space on the top that you can optionally drop a MacMini into if you want to also have local PVR functionality that does not require your main Mac. This would also enable you to get a DVD obviously, but don?t hold your breath waiting for an Apple branded DVD ripper, though some nice programmer will make it. The DVD would only let you save your PVR?d content to disk.
3) New Pre-N Airport Video optimized to handle the video streams and maybe even a repeater for the Zigbee.
4) Optional video iPod to take things on the road and alternately use as a second remote to the system. This will have video out via USB2 and SVID. This way you can take your videos to work/etc.
While some limited content would be available for download, at first most programming would come from the PVR via your cable/satellite and thus the slower download speeds would be less of an issue. Pick the movie you want Tuesday night, and it downloads it while you?re at work and don't care that it takes 6 hours.
Corey
Originally posted by addabox
Hi, I'm Addabox, once again here in my role as the official Apple Is Not Going To Make a Projector spokes-model.
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
Don't make me keep having to come in here.
Are there any projectors marketed towards the home?
- usual functionalites/apps possible but a full media center Mode stressed at all levels - special aqua aesthetics, button attached functionalities, special iApps versions
- running on Intel : no big need for Rosetta or non-Apple Universal binary apps (so less hit on proc) with a big focus on iApps / Media center usage
- special features for iPod users (new synchro port/slot, AP express functionnality included directly from docked iPod etc.)
- breathtaking visual gizmos for Media center apps (3D windows flip a la Solaris, ripples, genie effects, transparency) thanks to dedicated hardware
- H.264 MP4 codec hardware decoded
Pros :
- Windows dual boot allowed for games
- Easily upgradable when Yonah/Merom arrives
- Avoid PC users fears/misconceptions about Mac OS X -standard (new name reminding of Windows Media center), but give them a taste of the Apple OS ergonomy/power
- iApps spread to a larger base
- paves the way for iMovie store
- new striking design posssible because of Intel proc (cooler than iMac with its pro usage tailored G5)
- cheap (no screen included)
- allow aquaintance with other Apple products (keyboards, mouses, screens)
- accelerate Mac developpers transition to Universal binaries.
- ipod video dream companion
Cons :
- weak proc
- some Mac apps not working yet (those working on low level and needing a port to Universal binaries
- big developpement ressources used by Apple
Originally posted by BRussell
Are there any projectors marketed towards the home?
Yeah, a bunch.
The "home theater" projector tends to stress video performance (read: black levels) over brightness, the assumption being that you will be viewing it in a totally or near totally dark room. That means around 1000 lumens.
They typically start at about $1,000 and go up, fast, from there.
For a general purpose display device, wherein you might want enough brightness to use it in average ambient lighting conditions with, say, a 60" diagonal image (and you're not so worried about black levels), you would want somewhere north of 2,000 lumens and something like a 2,000 to one contrast ratio-- something that can be had now in a form factor about the size of shoe box for about $1,500. Figure 3K lumens for a grand (in an even smaller box) in a year or two.
There's really no way around the ambient light/black level problem, short of some really expensive off-axis light rejecting screen material, so the best you can do is make your whites really bright so the blacks look blacker in contrast (but which raises your black levels anyway so you reach a point of diminishing returns).
Anyway, the larger point being that the imaging chips that largely dictate the performance of these things aren't anything that Apple has special access to, and you best believe that the current players in the market are all over any new promising developments.
So it would be sort of like expecting Apple to come up with a "breakthrough" LCD screen that somehow leapfrogs what's on the market in either price or functionality, and since the functionality is all coming from the LCD fabs themselves, that doesn't make much sense.
Yes, they could take the guts of a nice projector and put it in aluminum or white plastic, but.......
What's going to be needed is
1. Intel hardware that supports TCPA
2. Larger capacity 2.5" hard drives
3. HDMI 1.2 with hirez audio and better RGB support
4. Further maturation of Quicktime
5. $$$$$$$$ Media Centers don't come cheap.
I'll be looking forward to an Apple Media center late 2006 early 2007 done right.
Maybe updated Mac Mini with the hidden ipod connectors will be fused with the idea of an iHome + iPod video connectivity
How about this ?
"There's still great PPC products in the pipeline"
Originally posted by hmurchison
You won't see a media box yet. The hardware isn't ready.
What's going to be needed is
1. Intel hardware that supports TCPA
2. Larger capacity 2.5" hard drives
3. HDMI 1.2 with hirez audio and better RGB support
4. Further maturation of Quicktime
5. $$$$$$$$ Media Centers don't come cheap.
I'll be looking forward to an Apple Media center late 2006 early 2007 done right.
Well, I am hoping this is what happens tomorrow.
More iPods and Macs is just craptacular IMO.
And why 2.5" HD's? TIVO is not using 2.5" drives.
Originally posted by Nic Leblond
How about this ?
"There's still great PPC products in the pipeline"
*yawn*
Originally posted by addabox
Hi, I'm Addabox, once again here in my role as the official Apple Is Not Going To Make a Projector spokes-model.
Apple is not going to make a projector. There is no magic technology/form factor that the projector manufacturers just sorta forgot to implement.
Unlike the MP3 player market that the iPod debuted into, the video projector market is massively competitive and involves the top tech companies in the world (Sony, NEC, Samsung, Panasonic, etc.).
Apple has nothing to bring to this market. If a brighter, smaller, higher definition broadband wireless projector could be made at a given price point, it would already be available, designed and manufactured by people with years of experience in optics, lamping and video processing.
MP3 players were a sort of catagory without focus, waiting for a killer implementation.
Projectors are a white hot market where the improvements come every six months and traveling corporate types would sell their children for a few less ounces, a few more lumens, or a slightly easier to use interface.
OK? Please, everybody, say it with me. If you think Apple is going to make a projector it just means you haven't been paying attention to what's on the market now.
Don't make me keep having to come in here.
Ahh, sanity. Thank you.
Originally posted by niji
on wednesday will be launched apple's:
1. first projection device, and,
2. an updated Airport Express
the combination will allow keynote presentations as well as movies to be shown wirelessly.
it will not be a video iPod. and not a hard-disk.
just like the iPod came before iTunes Music Store, in this case also apple will introduce hardware that is best in class and believe that if they build it, the movie studios will come.
starting with pixar, which is being released from disney distribution connection.
the mac is the digital hub.
Originally posted by msantti
*yawn*
Dual dual G5's would be anything but a yawn.
Originally posted by hmurchison
You won't see a media box yet. The hardware isn't ready.
What's going to be needed is
1. Intel hardware that supports TCPA
2. Larger capacity 2.5" hard drives
3. HDMI 1.2 with hirez audio and better RGB support
4. Further maturation of Quicktime
5. $$$$$$$$ Media Centers don't come cheap.
I'll be looking forward to an Apple Media center late 2006 early 2007 done right.
Why would they need a larger capacity 2.5" HD? 3.5" HDs are cheeper and faster and would easily fit in any enclosure designed to be a set-top box.
As for price, to become the mas market appeal that the iPod has it needs to be relatively cheep, say $299 (USD) price range or lower on the bottom end, which should be doable with today's technollogy, even if it doesn't have the next gen standards.
The biggest roadblock that I see is in the tuners, not the connections, hard drives or Quicktime.
As for TCPA, I can't see why you would need that for a media center that, idealy, would be connected behind a firewire to a local network and mainly be used for AV storage as opposed to critical personal information stored on a computer.