ugh AppleTV... joost has had widgets from day one but they don't try to sell you anything. Right now, they have chat (text), rate the show you are watching, news, weather, clock, and a few others.
Granted, joost is just not all it was cracked up to be. They have really bad coding (using 100% of the processor when connected to a 1080p TV is inexcusable and shoddy) and has stopped me from even trying to use it.
back to my ugh AppleTV. So now, apparently, we'll have a new remote with one or two tiny buttons that do something 99% of people don't want to do. Seems like AppleTV will continue to be a simpleton user device and not the gadget all us technophiles WANT to add to our home theaters to replace our Windoze HTPCs.
It sounds strange, but I can imagine people remotely watching programs with each other. Each person would have their own PIP box on the other people's screens. A similar type of phenomenon is already quite common, people watching tv together while chatting on the phone.
AppleTV is not the first product to envision this type of user experience. Remember the old AOLTV service? It included overlays like this, including chat and instant messaging features tied to the channel being viewed. Very cool for its day.
AOL has approved patents for these and other technologies. There were also synchronized games to play along with broadcast TV, and news and sports scores, and interactive tie-ins with TV commercials.
It's questionable whether all of APple's patent applications will be approved. There's tons of prior art of the subject. One of the original patent authors for AOL?s iTV patents has an interesting post at www.BroodingSavage.com
Just to be clear... I love my AppleTV -- or at least I will when the software upgrade comes out... But come on, have we been waiting 10 years to have sport scores on a TV screen? This is old new for some of us. www.BroodingSavage.com
I love the idea of additional data streams accompanying hd broadcasts. I'm just suprised it has taken this long.
It didn't take this long... and hasn't yet happened
The biggest problem with additional streams is making a standard. If any company has their own idea, and doesn't license it or licenses it too expensively, then TV channels just aren't willing to add an AppleTV-stream, as well as a Microsoft stream, and a TiVo stream, Sony stream etc. Too much work.
That said - there ARE standards for the interactivity. In Australia, the FTA channels picked a standard, and the cable channels picked a different one. Hmmm! It doesn't help the show creators anyway since they still have 2 choices (which may or may not match US standards etc).
Comments
Granted, joost is just not all it was cracked up to be. They have really bad coding (using 100% of the processor when connected to a 1080p TV is inexcusable and shoddy) and has stopped me from even trying to use it.
back to my ugh AppleTV. So now, apparently, we'll have a new remote with one or two tiny buttons that do something 99% of people don't want to do. Seems like AppleTV will continue to be a simpleton user device and not the gadget all us technophiles WANT to add to our home theaters to replace our Windoze HTPCs.
It sounds strange, but I can imagine people remotely watching programs with each other. Each person would have their own PIP box on the other people's screens. A similar type of phenomenon is already quite common, people watching tv together while chatting on the phone.
AOL has approved patents for these and other technologies. There were also synchronized games to play along with broadcast TV, and news and sports scores, and interactive tie-ins with TV commercials.
It's questionable whether all of APple's patent applications will be approved. There's tons of prior art of the subject. One of the original patent authors for AOL?s iTV patents has an interesting post at www.BroodingSavage.com
I love the idea of additional data streams accompanying hd broadcasts. I'm just suprised it has taken this long.
It didn't take this long... and hasn't yet happened
The biggest problem with additional streams is making a standard. If any company has their own idea, and doesn't license it or licenses it too expensively, then TV channels just aren't willing to add an AppleTV-stream, as well as a Microsoft stream, and a TiVo stream, Sony stream etc. Too much work.
That said - there ARE standards for the interactivity. In Australia, the FTA channels picked a standard, and the cable channels picked a different one. Hmmm!