roundaboutnow

mikethemartian said:

It amazes me that the richest people are the weakest.

No, not the weakest. They all recognize a useful idiot when they see one.

I don't think Tim Cook is "caving" to the president-elect. Cook seems to be the most deft among the tech leaders in dealing with him. That's being smart, and dare I say it, even manipulative. (Which I will also say is probably not too hard to do, even toward such a stable genius).

dewme said:

If I eat the vegan cheese while using an Apple Vision Pro, will I be transported into the future? 

Yes, but please come back and tell me what the Apple stock price will be. 

I don't understand why a transparent OLED TV would even be in the running. They're kinda cool, but they have limited applicability and don't seem to represent where tech is heading.

AVP definitely points to the future, and I would have to say, so does vegan cheese based on it being "AI formulated" (assuming AI was in fact a significant contributing factor to its development).

chasm said:

I have only ever seen the native OS of my HiSense TV once -- when I first hooked it up. It wasn't awful, just mediocre and klunky.

...

TV OSes in general are lacking. Many so called "smart" TVs don't necessarily allow installing the streaming app you want if they are more than a few years old (or even new for that matter). This includes LG, Samsung, and Vizio. The closest ones to being workable are the TVs with the Roku OS (except that their damn remote has no number keypad). Note that all of these TVs have the ability to install the Apple TV app, but of course, this is not the same as an actual Apple TV device.

In my family, there are several smart TVs that can't get the Paramount+ app for example. And none of the TVs have a particularly good way of integrating broadcast OTA (Over the Air) sources for local channels into the smart menu OS. It's not terribly difficult for me to figure it out (you just navigate the menu to switch inputs), but this is still too much for certain family members to deal with. (OTA may sound old-fashioned to some, but it is certainly ubiquitous).

Speaking of local channels, this is where cable or satellite TV often come in. If you have Spectrum, you can install their app on either a Roku device or Apple TV (I have one of each on different TVs). It's a little better than having a separate cable box since you don't have to switch inputs on the TV itself. On the Roku device, its not possible to have the Spectrum app automatically launch when you turn on the TV, but I got the Apple TV from Spectrum along with the Spectrum Apple TV remote that does make the Spectrum app launch on start up if you hit the right button.

Now that Spectrum (and Comcast) offer the Xumo streaming box, it looks like local/linear TV and streaming TV (still not OTA) might be a bit better integrated. Same thing with the DirecTV Gemini box. I don't have these, but I know someone that has a Xumo and while they are not too impressed, at least the remote has a number keypad.

What's still missing is a device that does not need to be associated with a cable TV or satellite TV service so that one can access local OTA channels and has an App Store to install whatever streaming apps one wishes.

I would say the chance of a TV with an Apple logo on it is slim, but not zero. There would have to be a clear benefit to do so compared to just connecting an Apple TV. Maybe Apple should come out with a TV with an OTA tuner integrated with Apple TV OS? There would then be the bonus of having an all in one solution to watch regular TV and streaming TV, play games, have HomePod integration, and be a HomeKit hub too. In my mind, a TV with these capabilities should cost about as much as a separate Apple TV device combined with a nice TV like an LG 65" OLED. People say that Apple is not interested in the low-margin TV business, but it's not like the Apple TV is such a high margin device, so who knows? If not a TV, then maybe an Apple TV soundbar?