Apple ready to flick switch on Apple TV revolution
With last minute graphics-related issues seemingly sorted out, Apple Inc. expects to begin manufacturing ramp up of its long-awaited Apple TV wireless media hub as early as Monday, AppleInsider has learned.
The move comes exactly 6 months from the day in which the Cupertino-based iPod maker first unveiled the $299 device to a crowd of media folk and analysts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, Calif.
Since then, the company has faced a series of setbacks that saw the product's launch slip from January to February and, most recently, to mid-March. In nearly all cases, the delays appear to have been software related.
"Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March," Apple recently told customers of its online store who have been waiting on their pre-orders to ship since January.
Although Apple has never offered an official explanation for the delays, speculation as to the latest two-week push back centered around the possibility that the device had yet to receive the necessary approval from the Federal Communications Commission. However, that appears not to have been the case.
People familiar with the matter have instead fingered NVIDIA as the source of the last month's delay, explaining that quirks in the embedded graphics software raised some last minute red flags over in Apple's quality assurance department.
Apple, those same people say, had anticipated a manufacturing ramp early last month when it began supplying its Taiwanese OEM partner Hon Hai (Foxconn) -- not Inventec as earlier media reports had suggested -- with build materials for the Mac mini-shaped set-top boxes.
As AppleInsider exclusively reported back in January, Apple TV will drawn its graphics capabilities from NVIDIA's G72M graphics chipset with 64MB DDR2 video memory -- essentially the firm's GeForce Go 7400 chip.
At the heart of Apple TV device is a 1.0GHz Pentium M-based Intel chip with 2MB of L2 cache (code-named "Crofton"), which will be under-clocked to run on a 350MHz bus. The device will also pack 256MB of non-upgradable 400MHz DDR2 main system memory, a 40GB 2.5-inch PATA hard disk drive, and a 802.11n capable wireless card.
The move comes exactly 6 months from the day in which the Cupertino-based iPod maker first unveiled the $299 device to a crowd of media folk and analysts at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco, Calif.
Since then, the company has faced a series of setbacks that saw the product's launch slip from January to February and, most recently, to mid-March. In nearly all cases, the delays appear to have been software related.
"Wrapping up Apple TV is taking a few weeks longer than we projected, and we now expect to begin shipments mid-March," Apple recently told customers of its online store who have been waiting on their pre-orders to ship since January.
Although Apple has never offered an official explanation for the delays, speculation as to the latest two-week push back centered around the possibility that the device had yet to receive the necessary approval from the Federal Communications Commission. However, that appears not to have been the case.
People familiar with the matter have instead fingered NVIDIA as the source of the last month's delay, explaining that quirks in the embedded graphics software raised some last minute red flags over in Apple's quality assurance department.
Apple, those same people say, had anticipated a manufacturing ramp early last month when it began supplying its Taiwanese OEM partner Hon Hai (Foxconn) -- not Inventec as earlier media reports had suggested -- with build materials for the Mac mini-shaped set-top boxes.
As AppleInsider exclusively reported back in January, Apple TV will drawn its graphics capabilities from NVIDIA's G72M graphics chipset with 64MB DDR2 video memory -- essentially the firm's GeForce Go 7400 chip.
At the heart of Apple TV device is a 1.0GHz Pentium M-based Intel chip with 2MB of L2 cache (code-named "Crofton"), which will be under-clocked to run on a 350MHz bus. The device will also pack 256MB of non-upgradable 400MHz DDR2 main system memory, a 40GB 2.5-inch PATA hard disk drive, and a 802.11n capable wireless card.
Comments
I can't accept that SJ thinks the Movie market is like the Music Market where people want to own their Media. You only watch movies once or twice. Also, Apple could roll music and TV into this subscription service. The market share they could take with that would be Giganormously massive. Apple would own the future distribution of Media!!
You could cut out Cable TV service with this!!!
I'm surprised that there isn't more speculation about a Movie Bit Torrent possibility with Apple TV. It seems like a slam dunk idea for Apple. With that internal hard drive in the Apple TV they could have a Netflix subscription service where Media is stored on that little Apple TV hard drive.
I can't accept that SJ thinks the Movie market is like the Music Market where people want to own their Media. You only watch movies once or twice. Also, Apple could roll music and TV into this subscription service. The market share they could take with that would be Giganormously massive. Apple would own the future distribution of Media!!
You could cut out Cable TV service with this!!!
I can't accept that SJ thinks the Movie market is like the Music Market where people want to own their Media.
I want to own my own media. I know a lot of other strange folk such as myself, too. We?re out there! Rental/exploding media options are nice to have relative to movies (they are useless for music) but the sort of features that inspire me to purchase products like this revolve around long-term ownership.
The device will also pack 256MB of non-upgradable 400MHz DDR2 main system memory, a 40GB 2.5-inch PATA hard disk drive, and a 802.11n capable wireless card.
If the appleTV is going to run OS X and only has 256MB of ram, isn't it going to be doggedly slow? I don't want to see any beach balls of death on my tv...
If the appleTV is going to run OS X and only has 256MB of ram, isn't it going to be doggedly slow? I don't want to see any beach balls of death on my tv...
Who's to say it's running Mac OS X?
Who's to say it's running Mac OS X?
It will run OS X. Think of it, even the iPhone will run a run-down Version of OS X, so why not on the iTV?
Apple Hi-Fi II - El Flopperino.
What's your definition of a flop?
Appleinsider had an article that discussed Apple Hi-Fi being one of the most profitable iPod gadgets. Also everyone who uses an Apple Hi-Fi has an iPod. Sounds like a win-win for Apple to me.
If the appleTV is going to run OS X and only has 256MB of ram, isn't it going to be doggedly slow? I don't want to see any beach balls of death on my tv...
Its an optimized version of OS X, not the general Mac OS X. Primarily all it will do is playback media.
If the appleTV is going to run OS X and only has 256MB of ram, isn't it going to be doggedly slow? I don't want to see any beach balls of death on my tv...
Isn't Apple TV simply a video player and/or wireless router?
For most of us, it is still coming as originally scheduled and a few weeks delay is a heck of a lot easier to take than the delay it is taking to get our troups out of Iraq.
Isn't it nice how the media likes to feed the fodder?
I want to own my own media. I know a lot of other strange folk such as myself, too. We?re out there! Rental/exploding media options are nice to have relative to movies (they are useless for music) but the sort of features that inspire me to purchase products like this revolve around long-term ownership.
I think that most people like to own their media, but the fact is that people rent a lot more video than they purchase.
I want to own my own media. I know a lot of other strange folk such as myself, too. We?re out there! Rental/exploding media options are nice to have relative to movies (they are useless for music) but the sort of features that inspire me to purchase products like this revolve around long-term ownership.
Well, you could certainly still do that but the thought of paying $20 or $30 a month for imediate access to any music/TV/Movie* makes my jaw hit the floor. With this Apple TV and a Bit Torrent iTunes it's possible. This revolution would make the iPod almost a drop in the bucket.
You can't compare this to renting a movie because it isn't the same. Imagine having the past 70 years of media available instantanously. Eventually you could even get old radio broadcasts in there if you like.
This could replace Cable TV (Except live sports) and Radio! That's huge!
The iPhone could stream your content subscription to wherever you are, in the car, in a hotel, wherever!
*I understand Apple doesn't have all this in iTunes but that's the way it's headed
Tell me again..... why should I buy this product?
Buy it if you need / want it, if you don't then don't buy it, simple.
Not every product is for every person!
Buy it if you need / want it, if you don't then don't buy it, simple.
Not every product is for every person!
Gee, thanks. I had not figured that out.
And equivalently, it's nice to see that this thread is hopping with hyper-enthusiastic consumer interest (unlike the case of various iPod releases or that of the impending iPhone).
Tell me again..... why should I buy this product?
First I would suggest you simply watch the January Keynote. If none of the features come forth for you, please don't. And if not, hopefully your decision why not is not posted here.
For me, I endorse the idea of expanding the viewing of my iTunes videos from my iPod and sharing it with the rest of the family. Spreading out to an larger audience helps me justify what some members of the brood suspect as frivilous on my part. If not downright selfish.
But probably more important, is the capability to show off my photographic skills and answer the every repeating question of, "Whatever happened to all those photos you took while we were in London last spring? Or, our son's graduation? Or, Paul and Hilda's 25th aniversary? Or, last summer's holiday at the cottage?…You know the ones you took on that new 20 gillion gigisomething digital camera that you just had to get right before the plane took off!"
To which I woll be able to respond, "Just watch this dear. it's HD and it is virtually idiot proof."
To which, she'll tetort, "You mean Hello Dummy?…I can only wish!"
Gee, thanks. I had not figured that out.
And equivalently, it's nice to see that this thread is hopping with hyper-enthusiastic consumer interest (unlike the case of various iPod releases or that of the impending iPhone).
Glad I could help, after all you did ask the question!!