I'm not immediately seeing the benefits of these kiosks.
This would be so people could just stop in at a 7-11 or whatever and buy a cd to load up onto their ipod or zune? Or perhaps a movie for their notebook?
I'm sure it would produce revenue, so there's no reason not to I guess. It would be like a movie and music ATM lol.
Not at 7-11 but maybe at say, the train station. imagine, if you're at the train station and you have your iPod or iPhone or MacBook and you're in the mood for a movie for your long journey from point A to point G. Well there you go, you can now get a movie before you leave!
I don't disagree that BB might not be the right target, and Starbucks would be better. The point I was making is that with the hardware capabilities and marketing savy of Apple, they could put a whole new spin on movie rentals. Bring in your iPod or iPhone rent a movie and play it on your TV at home. The era of large square footage retialing of movies and music is over. In my opinion.
If you are going to play it on your TV at home, Apple wants you to rent it at home on your computer or AppleTV.
This is geared for the traveler who wants a movie for a long flight.
They can rent the movie at the Starbucks in the terminal or if the airline supports it right at their seat.
Or they can rent the movie from the kiosk in the lobby as they are checking into their hotel.
This is geared to people who won't be watching it at home.
I'm not immediately seeing the benefits of these kiosks.
This would be so people could just stop in at a 7-11 or whatever and buy a cd to load up onto their ipod or zune? Or perhaps a movie for their notebook?
I'm sure it would produce revenue, so there's no reason not to I guess. It would be like a movie and music ATM lol.
My first thought was that this was about the way iPhones will soon be able to recognise each other. The idea being that as you walk by one of these things in an airport it would know you were standing in front of it with your iPod and maybe even call your name and display stuff that it knows you like from it's profile of you. In that way this could be just one of those patents where Apple is trying to lock up all the ideas they can think of that relate to uses of their product so no one else can say they did it first.
The iPaq reference troubles me though and the whole idea of multimedia kiosks or kiosks of any kind is so passé (everywhere except Japan), that it now strikes me as just a lame 1990's sort of idea in general. Apple does patent or attempt to patent a ton of stuff and most of it is never acted upon. I would bet there is a certain amount of competition among Apple engineers and given the amount of patents applied for a great deal of pressure to come up with the odd patent-able idea. Not every idea is even capable of being written up in a form that the patent office will consider and not every application they consider is accepted.
What I would like to see even before kiosks is a way to remove music from your iPhone without syncing with your computer. I generally keep my iPhone at or around capacity, so if I am away from home and want to grab something new (either from the iTunes store or a future kiosk) I would need to be able to remove content first to make room. Especially if I wanted to download a movie or something of significant size.
If the airlines were smart this would be on airplanes and they partner with either Apple or Amazon. Why run around looking for an Apple kiosk when you know there's everything you need on the airplane itself? Movies, music, e-books, and games. Amazing that airlines have the most captive audiences available to them every day, and they haven't figured out how to take advantage of that beyond showing TV reruns and a hoping passengers pick up "Skymall" catalogs.
Hopefully you stick in a DVD+DL and it burns a much higher quality 720p video for you (with DRM of course), that you can copy on your computer to play. Cost of actual media is maybe $2, and would readily solve the bandwidth problem.
are these like the vending machines in airports that sell ipods?
Funny you say that. I was at JFK and I wanted to download LOST to pass the time. I couldn't - because I couldn't find an iTunes gift certificate in the airport (was travelling from Toronto to Britain). Even if I could have just "rented" a movie from an iTunes Kiosk, that'd be much better than bringing physical media on my trip.
Didn't realize this was frustrating so many people. We'll link in the patents going forward.
Sorry,
K
Doesn't frustrate me at all :-)
Some good feedback.
Thanks for running this site and keep up the good work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sjgelman
Sure, I could look it up myself, but I didn't write the article. I figure that would be basic info to include.
And I did have a site up for about 8 months or so about Apple patents (the now-defunct appleipwatch.info). It took way too much time (since I only worked on that after regular work hours) and it was barely read.
Maybe not so many people are interested in looking at patents, just reading news about them. Just a thought.
Is this to cover Wifi roll-out costs with a revenue stream? Blanket high-traffic zones with connectivity. Pay for the costs with revenues from media sales.
Eventually, I could shut down my home phone account (yay!!), and switch to "iPhone Home" only. Let's say, instead of cell, it is Wifi Skype-like. It works on my airport extreme at home.
And at the Train station, airport, shopping mall, the bus, my car....
It would be expensive to roll out such coverage, obviously. Hello, media revenues. Hello mass partnership potential (would you like free connectivity...?)
And free iPhone Home to iPhone iPhone Home calling for me! ("Hi honey... you want the new Star Wars tonight... oh... the Chick Flick? Oh. Ummm... how about both?)
If the airlines were smart this would be on airplanes and they partner with either Apple or Amazon. Why run around looking for an Apple kiosk when you know there's everything you need on the airplane itself? Movies, music, e-books, and games. Amazing that airlines have the most captive audiences available to them every day, and they haven't figured out how to take advantage of that beyond showing TV reruns and a hoping passengers pick up "Skymall" catalogs.
I agree. Right now they have On Demand Programming for first class on the recent Delta flight I took. I was not in first class. On WestJet in Canada, in economy you get the choice of 4 movies on pay per view in the seat back, it's not on demand, you have to order it within the first 10 minutes of the flight.
This solution would satisfy both first class and economy, and itd be nice to watch it on your computer or seatback (if the flight supported it), and be able to pause, etc.... and finish it later... at your hotel....
I've been wanting this device for years now. I've rented those mini-DVD players many times in previous years at airports. The ones you use locally or can take ona plane and then drop at certain airports. They were expensive, but worth every penny if you are bored, and limited. Buying and rented media that that you can watch on your iDevice is a much simple business model if you can figure out how to make it secure. I hope these come out soon, especially if they have full access to the iTS or at least the previous week's TV shows so a traveler can keep up to date. Paying $1.99 for an episode you'll watch once doesn't seem so bad when you sitting in a terminal.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella
Apple's Answer to RedBox?
As a kiosk-based competitor to RedBox, I'd say no. Idon't think the market for going to an iTunes Store kiosk to DL media onto your iDevice to then play on your TV would worth the effort when most people could just DL it from iTS. But even that is limited if you don't have a way to connect to your computer. RedBox is cool for what it does. A year or two ago they averaged over $30k/year per kiosk.
Sure, I could look it up myself, but I didn't write the article. I figure that would be basic info to include.
Still agreeing with you.
I just thought you might be able to easily make use of the services that would email notifications to you when new patents/publications are released that match search criteria.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kasper
Didn't realize this was frustrating so many people.
I don't know if there's many people who know/care about the details. But, personally, I've learned to just ignore tech stories about patents until I've read the claims. So I'd certainly appreciate at least the patent/serial number.
(News sites tend to focus on the abstract and description, which aren't really important. It's all about the claims.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny Mozzarella
I think the perfect interface would be a Microsoft Surface in every Starbucks.
I don't think the 'perfect' interface involves a Microsoft user experience.
I'm sure they'd churn out a Touch OSX variant for tighter control and integration.
(... and for a number of years I did write 'superhero' as my profession on my IRS filings.)
This is not the first time that Apple has filed a patent on this idea. I vaguely remember something similar from a few years ago before the iPods gained video playback abilities.
Apple would not partner or buy a "sinking ship" like Blockbuster.
A more likely candidate would be Starbucks.
Apple-bashers will have a field day with a Starbucks partnership as underscoring the "typical" Mac user's "effete, latte-sipping" image (as I saw someone derisively put it), but...
...that would be brilliant. Completely out of left field, but still brilliant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by solipsism
Paying $1.99 for an episode you'll watch once does seem so bad when you sitting in a terminal.
...while eating a $12 sandwich and drinking a $8 beer, it definitely doesn't.
I'm affraid though a big box with half the iTunes data base on it would be the same as painting steal me on it. This device would have to be built like and installed like a bank ATM machine.
In any event I could see this as potentially being successful especially if they can get their own RF allotment. The problem is this; when I've needed similar services like this (stuck in an Airport) there are usually thousands of others there delayed also. When that happens the WiFi is so congested as to be almost unusable. That is an extreme case but on the other hand one would most likely want such a service when snow bound at an Airport.
Outside of a travel situation I could see this as a successful venture if the kiosk also provided web access. Around where I live there simply are to few WiFi hot spots. So if this could in some way give businesses a way to pay for that hot spot or at least significantly reduce the non income producing expense I could see up take.
A few months ago I went iPhone only for my phone and Internet. This to greatly reduce out of pocket expenses and to reduce the number of bills to keep track of. Of corse I still need fast Internet access from time to time which is why I think offfering Internet access through this device would be grand. As it is though the bulk of me transfers of recent times involve iTunes data. So the more places to pick up that data the better. It isn't just movies either, apps, pod casts and other things come via iTunes. What I'm saying is that filtering the system to supply just movies or limited media types isn't going to do it. All of iTunes needs to be supported.
I'd be supportive if the kiosks spread WiFi hot spots
Comments
I'm not immediately seeing the benefits of these kiosks.
This would be so people could just stop in at a 7-11 or whatever and buy a cd to load up onto their ipod or zune? Or perhaps a movie for their notebook?
I'm sure it would produce revenue, so there's no reason not to I guess. It would be like a movie and music ATM lol.
Not at 7-11 but maybe at say, the train station. imagine, if you're at the train station and you have your iPod or iPhone or MacBook and you're in the mood for a movie for your long journey from point A to point G. Well there you go, you can now get a movie before you leave!
I think that's what they're aiming for.
I don't disagree that BB might not be the right target, and Starbucks would be better. The point I was making is that with the hardware capabilities and marketing savy of Apple, they could put a whole new spin on movie rentals. Bring in your iPod or iPhone rent a movie and play it on your TV at home. The era of large square footage retialing of movies and music is over. In my opinion.
If you are going to play it on your TV at home, Apple wants you to rent it at home on your computer or AppleTV.
This is geared for the traveler who wants a movie for a long flight.
They can rent the movie at the Starbucks in the terminal or if the airline supports it right at their seat.
Or they can rent the movie from the kiosk in the lobby as they are checking into their hotel.
This is geared to people who won't be watching it at home.
I'm not immediately seeing the benefits of these kiosks.
This would be so people could just stop in at a 7-11 or whatever and buy a cd to load up onto their ipod or zune? Or perhaps a movie for their notebook?
I'm sure it would produce revenue, so there's no reason not to I guess. It would be like a movie and music ATM lol.
My first thought was that this was about the way iPhones will soon be able to recognise each other. The idea being that as you walk by one of these things in an airport it would know you were standing in front of it with your iPod and maybe even call your name and display stuff that it knows you like from it's profile of you. In that way this could be just one of those patents where Apple is trying to lock up all the ideas they can think of that relate to uses of their product so no one else can say they did it first.
The iPaq reference troubles me though and the whole idea of multimedia kiosks or kiosks of any kind is so passé (everywhere except Japan), that it now strikes me as just a lame 1990's sort of idea in general. Apple does patent or attempt to patent a ton of stuff and most of it is never acted upon. I would bet there is a certain amount of competition among Apple engineers and given the amount of patents applied for a great deal of pressure to come up with the odd patent-able idea. Not every idea is even capable of being written up in a form that the patent office will consider and not every application they consider is accepted.
I'm not immediately seeing the benefits of these kiosks.
I'm sure it would produce revenue, so there's no reason not to I guess.
Great post!
are these like the vending machines in airports that sell ipods?
Funny you say that. I was at JFK and I wanted to download LOST to pass the time. I couldn't - because I couldn't find an iTunes gift certificate in the airport (was travelling from Toronto to Britain). Even if I could have just "rented" a movie from an iTunes Kiosk, that'd be much better than bringing physical media on my trip.
Didn't realize this was frustrating so many people. We'll link in the patents going forward.
Sorry,
K
Doesn't frustrate me at all :-)
Some good feedback.
Thanks for running this site and keep up the good work.
Sure, I could look it up myself, but I didn't write the article. I figure that would be basic info to include.
And I did have a site up for about 8 months or so about Apple patents (the now-defunct appleipwatch.info). It took way too much time (since I only worked on that after regular work hours) and it was barely read.
Maybe not so many people are interested in looking at patents, just reading news about them. Just a thought.
Eventually, I could shut down my home phone account (yay!!), and switch to "iPhone Home" only. Let's say, instead of cell, it is Wifi Skype-like. It works on my airport extreme at home.
And at the Train station, airport, shopping mall, the bus, my car....
It would be expensive to roll out such coverage, obviously. Hello, media revenues. Hello mass partnership potential (would you like free connectivity...?)
And free iPhone Home to iPhone iPhone Home calling for me! ("Hi honey... you want the new Star Wars tonight... oh... the Chick Flick? Oh. Ummm... how about both?)
I guess you could connect other device, too...
Is this likely?
If the airlines were smart this would be on airplanes and they partner with either Apple or Amazon. Why run around looking for an Apple kiosk when you know there's everything you need on the airplane itself? Movies, music, e-books, and games. Amazing that airlines have the most captive audiences available to them every day, and they haven't figured out how to take advantage of that beyond showing TV reruns and a hoping passengers pick up "Skymall" catalogs.
I agree. Right now they have On Demand Programming for first class on the recent Delta flight I took. I was not in first class. On WestJet in Canada, in economy you get the choice of 4 movies on pay per view in the seat back, it's not on demand, you have to order it within the first 10 minutes of the flight.
This solution would satisfy both first class and economy, and itd be nice to watch it on your computer or seatback (if the flight supported it), and be able to pause, etc.... and finish it later... at your hotel....
Apple's Answer to RedBox?
As a kiosk-based competitor to RedBox, I'd say no. Idon't think the market for going to an iTunes Store kiosk to DL media onto your iDevice to then play on your TV would worth the effort when most people could just DL it from iTS. But even that is limited if you don't have a way to connect to your computer. RedBox is cool for what it does. A year or two ago they averaged over $30k/year per kiosk.
Sure, I could look it up myself, but I didn't write the article. I figure that would be basic info to include.
Still agreeing with you.
I just thought you might be able to easily make use of the services that would email notifications to you when new patents/publications are released that match search criteria.
Didn't realize this was frustrating so many people.
I don't know if there's many people who know/care about the details. But, personally, I've learned to just ignore tech stories about patents until I've read the claims. So I'd certainly appreciate at least the patent/serial number.
(News sites tend to focus on the abstract and description, which aren't really important. It's all about the claims.)
I think the perfect interface would be a Microsoft Surface in every Starbucks.
I don't think the 'perfect' interface involves a Microsoft user experience.
I'm sure they'd churn out a Touch OSX variant for tighter control and integration.
(... and for a number of years I did write 'superhero' as my profession on my IRS filings.)
and then offer the uncut version of the movies playing on in flight entertainment, for download.
I don't think the 'perfect' interface involves a Microsoft user experience.
I'm sure they'd churn out a Touch OSX variant for tighter control and integration.
(... and for a number of years I did write 'superhero' as my profession on my IRS filings.)
If these kiosks are made by a 3rd party the most likely OS, based on history, is Windows... but I can't see Apple being okay with that.
Apple would not partner or buy a "sinking ship" like Blockbuster.
A more likely candidate would be Starbucks.
Apple-bashers will have a field day with a Starbucks partnership as underscoring the "typical" Mac user's "effete, latte-sipping" image (as I saw someone derisively put it), but...
...that would be brilliant. Completely out of left field, but still brilliant.
Paying $1.99 for an episode you'll watch once does seem so bad when you sitting in a terminal.
...while eating a $12 sandwich and drinking a $8 beer, it definitely doesn't.
(I'm assuming you meant "doesn't.")
Great post!
No, YOURS was a great post my friend, yours was.
I was talking about a benefit to the customer, not to Apple. But someone pointed out the train scenario and it made some sense.
In any event I could see this as potentially being successful especially if they can get their own RF allotment. The problem is this; when I've needed similar services like this (stuck in an Airport) there are usually thousands of others there delayed also. When that happens the WiFi is so congested as to be almost unusable. That is an extreme case but on the other hand one would most likely want such a service when snow bound at an Airport.
Outside of a travel situation I could see this as a successful venture if the kiosk also provided web access. Around where I live there simply are to few WiFi hot spots. So if this could in some way give businesses a way to pay for that hot spot or at least significantly reduce the non income producing expense I could see up take.
A few months ago I went iPhone only for my phone and Internet. This to greatly reduce out of pocket expenses and to reduce the number of bills to keep track of. Of corse I still need fast Internet access from time to time which is why I think offfering Internet access through this device would be grand. As it is though the bulk of me transfers of recent times involve iTunes data. So the more places to pick up that data the better. It isn't just movies either, apps, pod casts and other things come via iTunes. What I'm saying is that filtering the system to supply just movies or limited media types isn't going to do it. All of iTunes needs to be supported.
I'd be supportive if the kiosks spread WiFi hot spots
Dave
I don't think the 'perfect' interface involves a Microsoft user experience.
I'm sure they'd churn out a Touch OSX variant for tighter control and integration.
If these kiosks are made by a 3rd party the most likely OS, based on history, is Windows... but I can't see Apple being okay with that.
It was joke.
Apple using Microsoft Surface really?
Only in Bizzaro World, and even then it wouldn't make sense.