Intel confirms: Online TV service in the works, set for 2013 launch
Chipmaking powerhouse Intel revealed on Tuesday its plans to roll out an online television service later this year, a move that could bring it into direct competition with Apple, which is also expected to launch a television product in the near future.
Speaking with AllThingsD, Intel Media corporate vice president Erik Huggers confirmed months-old rumors that an Intel-powered set-top box and accompanying TV service are on the way. The team building the platform, Huggers revealed, was composed of personnel hired away from an array of tech luminaries.
Intel will soon take on Apple in the alternative set-top segment with its own device.
"We've been working for about a year now to set up a group called Intel Media. It's a new division with new people ? people [we've hired] from Apple, Netflix, and Google."
Rumors of an Intel-powered box have been around for months, but picked up steam late last year, with the company expected to reveal its set-top solution during January's Consumer Electronics Show. The device failed to materialize at CES, but Tuesday's news conforms largely to what was expected of Intel.
Intel's offering will be centered around a set-top box and cable content packages. Intel is still negotiating the latter element with content providers, but it is expected that the packages will be smaller bundles than those customers currently receive from the cable companies. Those bundles are expected to be more tailored to consumers' own preferences.
The set-top box itself is also said to have an integrated camera, allowing for gesture-based controls as well as targeting ads directly toward users based on what the camera "sees" in the room.
Rolling out its own set top box and content service is a considerable departure from the norm for Intel. Typically, the company has been content to feature its products in the computers of much of the PC industry. That strategy, which led to $53.3 billion in revenue for 2012, may begin flagging in the coming years as the PC market continues to falter and consumers increasingly move to mobile devices, a segment Intel has struggled to enter.
Moving instead into providing its own set-top box will bring Intel into direct and indirect competition with not only the cable providers, but firms such as Samsung, LG, and Google, as well as Apple, which is widely rumored to be considering a disruptive leap into the television sector.
While the former three companies have seen varying degrees of success with Google TV and other Smart TV offerings, Apple's Apple TV has moved from niche product to "an area of intense interest" for the company. Speaking on the issue of television in general, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company believes it can contribute a lot to the space.
Speaking with AllThingsD, Intel Media corporate vice president Erik Huggers confirmed months-old rumors that an Intel-powered set-top box and accompanying TV service are on the way. The team building the platform, Huggers revealed, was composed of personnel hired away from an array of tech luminaries.
Intel will soon take on Apple in the alternative set-top segment with its own device.
"We've been working for about a year now to set up a group called Intel Media. It's a new division with new people ? people [we've hired] from Apple, Netflix, and Google."
Rumors of an Intel-powered box have been around for months, but picked up steam late last year, with the company expected to reveal its set-top solution during January's Consumer Electronics Show. The device failed to materialize at CES, but Tuesday's news conforms largely to what was expected of Intel.
Intel's offering will be centered around a set-top box and cable content packages. Intel is still negotiating the latter element with content providers, but it is expected that the packages will be smaller bundles than those customers currently receive from the cable companies. Those bundles are expected to be more tailored to consumers' own preferences.
The set-top box itself is also said to have an integrated camera, allowing for gesture-based controls as well as targeting ads directly toward users based on what the camera "sees" in the room.
Rolling out its own set top box and content service is a considerable departure from the norm for Intel. Typically, the company has been content to feature its products in the computers of much of the PC industry. That strategy, which led to $53.3 billion in revenue for 2012, may begin flagging in the coming years as the PC market continues to falter and consumers increasingly move to mobile devices, a segment Intel has struggled to enter.
Moving instead into providing its own set-top box will bring Intel into direct and indirect competition with not only the cable providers, but firms such as Samsung, LG, and Google, as well as Apple, which is widely rumored to be considering a disruptive leap into the television sector.
While the former three companies have seen varying degrees of success with Google TV and other Smart TV offerings, Apple's Apple TV has moved from niche product to "an area of intense interest" for the company. Speaking on the issue of television in general, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company believes it can contribute a lot to the space.
Comments
First, they subsidized Apple's competitors to make MacBook Air clones. Now, they're going to compete directly with Apple.
Apple should really see what AMD can do for them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
The set-top box itself is also said to have an integrated camera, allowing for gesture-based controls as well as targeting ads directly toward users based on what the camera "sees" in the room.
Holy crap, that sounds like something that I would definitely not want in my room or anywhere in my residence.
Isn't it enough that everybody is continuously monitored on the internet, with targeted ads, tons of cookies getting stored, google and facebook checking on your every move, and now somebody wants to have a live camera looking into somebody's room?
Originally Posted by jragosta
Apple should really see what AMD can do for them.
Give worse chips on a worse platform?
Exactly what I was thinking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
All the pieces are lining up.
I would think so as well. Hopefully whatever Intel negotiated with the studios and networks can be improved upon when it's Apple turn.
I can think of a gesture I would like to give to this concept.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Apple ][
Holy crap, that sounds like something that I would definitely not want in my room or anywhere in my residence.
Isn't it enough that everybody is continuously monitored on the internet, with targeted ads, tons of cookies getting stored, google and facebook checking on your every move, and now somebody wants to have a live camera looking into somebody's room?
My initial thought was the same, but it will probably be a feature that can be toggled on and off. Which then makes it similar to the camera on most of our other devices.
So George Orwell's 1984 was right :-(
Or Apple directly with them since they are first to market, and has Apple announced anything? Is Intel or anyone else Apple does business with not do anything at all because Apple might eventually do it?
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
The set-top box itself is also said to have an integrated camera, allowing for gesture-based controls as well as targeting ads directly toward users based on what the camera "sees" in the room.
Yeah, that won't be making it into an Apple equivalent of this device…
And what is making me think that the processing power needed for this level of object recognition doesn't exist yet? Meaning… humans reviewing footage…
The whole camera/privacy thing just reeks of google.
Thumbs down to Intel.
edit: Including targeting of ads - genius. People are gonna snap these up alright. NOT
They'd have to hire an army of people to review all the footage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Give worse chips on a worse platform?
Not hardly: GCD and OpenCL on AMD GPGPUs with the upcoming R600 Target branch, not to mention Apple's own contributions would scream on the AMD FX-8350 Vishera and trounce on Steamroller.
The wafer size drop for the new Vishera and the upcoming line closes the TDP gap between Intel and expands the Multi-threading/Core scalability that Intel knows it can't match doesn't help with FinFET 14nm and 20nm wafers AMD will move to [even down to 14nm already tested by GF/TSMC], all while the vaunted Integer gap will drop dramatically.
In short, OS advances are moving to a full-on Parallel Model in distributed computing, including the ARM embedded space. AMD with its tightly coupled relationship with ARM developing hybrid SeaMicro brand AMD Opeteron/ARM64/RadeonGPGPU hybrid Heterogenous Systems Architecture [http://hsafoundation.com/] platform is making it clear that Intel cannot count on Apple to stick to their approaches.
If you notice, all of Apple's iOS partners are on-board with HSA.
Any application that is fully multi-threaded and OpenCL aware screams on Vishera and surpasses the Ivy i7 3770k, at nearly 1/3rd the price.
The only caveat is Hypertransport, but seeing as Apple co-developed it I imagine that bus architecture won't be a problem for them, or their 3rd party app developers as they won't have to adapt their applications to it.
I'd love to see Apple buy a stake into AMD like it did with ARM. Their cost of products would naturally drop.
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On the Windows 8 Tablet front, Vizio is passing on Intel and has signed on fully with AMD and their solutions. Citing better performance in graphics and battery life as two big wins. With that and the upcoming PS 4 and XBox 720 using AMD CPUs and GPUs it's going to be a big year for AMD.
Object recognition is here already and sophisticated too - all international airports use it. Quite a few domestic ones as well.
And have you seen the hardware they use? It's not a tiny little camera.
Yes of course. I don't think for one minute that the object recognition could approach the sophistication of airport scanners. But in principle general shapes are not hard to match.
Whatever, I think it's an ill-founded idea and a complete invasion of privacy.
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No one ever said anything like that.
It is, however, disgusting that every time Apple does something, the entire industry scrambles to make exact copies.
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