linuxplatform

Beats said:

Well.... this is a first.

WRONG as usual. But this time it isn't QUITE your fault. It is the fault of the UTTERLY DISHONEST columnist WHO KNOWS FULL WELL THE REASON but won't admit it. The entire reason is that while competing full-fledged app stores like the Amazon AppStore and the Samsung Galaxy Store are allowed on Android, they are not allowed on iOS, iPadOS, watchOS or tvOS. 

Let me give you an example. Razer once had (and Nvidia still has!) an Android TV devices with their own app stores that contained their own games and apps. Nvidia cross-lists their apps on the Google Play Store but Razer didn't. But on iOS/iPadOS/tvOS? Such folly isn't allowed. 

Same deal here. Just like Steam and Nvidia GeForce Now, xCloud is going to be an app store for games. Apple only allows competing app stores - especially ones where you set up your own payment arrangements - on macOS. That is why xCloud was only allowed to test a single game on iOS. Offering multiple games would have violated iOS policies.

In other words, xCloud will never be on iOS for the same reason that Nvidia GeForce Now isn't on iOS and why Stadia isn't on iOS. Think about it. Use your heads. Office 365 and all the other Microsoft apps are on iOS. YouTube, Gmail, Chrome and all the other Google apps are on iOS. So if there is a reason why xCloud (Microsoft), Stadia (Google) and GeForce Now (Nvidia, not even a direct Apple competitor unless you count their Android TV box that almost no one buys) aren't available then that reason begisn and ends with Apple.

Let me spell it out for you. With iOS/iPadOS/tvOS you have TWO BILLION USERS ON A PLATFORM THAT IS BY FAR THE MOST LIKELY TO HAVE PAYING SUBSCRIBERS INSTEAD OF PRIMARILY FREE-TO-PLAY OR FREE-WITH-ADS CONSUMERS. You have to be either TOTALLY NAIVE OR COMPLETELY NUTS to think that Nvidia, Microsoft AND Google made the decision to put their subscription gaming service - or ANY subscription service for that matter - on ANDROID but not iOS/iPadOS/tvOS. NO ONE ELSE - NOT EVEN GOOGLE - DOES THIS. I repeat ... NOT EVEN GOOGLE PUTS SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES ON ANDROID AND NOT IOS/IPADOS. IF ANYTHING GOOGLE INTRODUCES SOME FEATURES AND PRODUCTS ON IOS/IPADOS BEFORE THEY GET TO ANDROID AND CHROMEOS.

So instead of allowing this columnist's creative obfuscations cause you to hate and resent Microsoft ... ask yourself why GeForce Now isn't available on anything but macOS either. Ask yourself why Steam isn't supported on iPads even though the A12X is perfectly capable of meeting its performance requirements (older Steam games can run on very cheap Windows and Linux hardware), Steam is on record stating that they NEED to diversify their platforms from being dominated by Windows AND IS GOING TO BE SUPPORTED ON CHROMEBOOKS LATER THIS YEAR OR EARLY NEXT YEAR. (That is right ... Google is going to enable and promote Steam on ChromeOS DESPITE KNOWING FULL WELL THAT IT WILL TAKE STADIA CUSTOMERS FROM THEM. Just as Microsoft has no problem with Steam, Origin or Epic despite fully knowing that they compete with XBox, even more so than they do with PlayStation or Nintendo.)

I repeat. Blame iOS/iPadOS/tvOS (macOS not so much) App Store policies for this. NOT Microsoft. (Or Google or Nvidia.) No matter how much Apple sites like this run interference for them.

9secondkox2 said:

Stinking Microsoft. 

Always trying to fight with apple. 

And always banding together with the other also-rans 

Lol

Good luck with that

Stinking Microsoft ... that is subjective so I will let that pass.
Always trying to fight with Apple ... so they AREN'T supposed to offer products and services to compete with Apple's? If that is the case then Apple shouldn't sell iPhones because Microsoft was selling smartphones first. Or the iPad Pro because Surface. Or "Pro" smartphones with bigger screens because Samsung. Or AirPods or the Apple Watch because Samsung had their products first. Or HomePods. Or Apple TV. Or Apple TV+. Or Apple Music. Or iWork because Microsoft Office. Or Apple Arcade because XBox Play Pass. Etc. Meanwhile Microsoft has TONS of VERY PROFITABLE PRODUCTS where Apple doesn't even compete in. Oh I almost forgot ... no Apple Silicon because Microsoft (and Google) had Windows and ChromeOS on ARM years ago.
Always banding together with the older also-rans ... you mean platforms that dwarf Apple's market share? Besides, it isn't as if Apple gave them a choice in the first place. More on that later.

Lol Good luck with that. Again subjective so I won't comment. 

Beats said:

Thought "Apple Silicon" branding was for Mac SOCs? This family of chips will be faster than the A-series found in Apple TV.

Unless you're being sarcastic, which is technically correct!

Ummm ... no. Apple Silicon is ... Apple Silicon. It is inclusive of every chip that Apple designed. (Aren't there several "Intel-based Macs already run Apple Silicon" articles on this site referring to theT1 and T2 chips?) 

Apple Silicon is merely a BRAND and it is the brand name that is new. But the brand includes everything from the special purpose security and TouchBar/TouchID controller type chips in Macs to the S series chips in the Apple Watch to the A series chips in Apple TVs, iPads, iPhones and soon Macs. The branding is brilliant too because it tells people that every CPU in every Apple device is designed by Apple exclusively to be integrated with the hardware and operating systems in Apple products. 

Come on, this is your brand so you should know this stuff already. I can get you being wrong about Android, Linux and Windows - which you pretty much always are - but at least get your own brand right.

A lot of misinformation here.

Samsung smart TV = Tizen.
LG smart TV = lgOS.
Sony smart TV = Android.

As for the rest, it varies. Some older smart TVs basically run a browser on top of Linux, which is what the "smart" DVD/Blu-Ray players did and what the Nintendo Wii/Wii U consoles did too. Newer smart TVs are Roku (#1 by far) with the rest split between Android TV and Fire TV. Android TV may have a slight advantage because they have more manufacturers thanks to Google's rules that if you manufacture an AOSP device you can't manufacture a Google Android device. Lots of the companies that make smart TVs also make Android phones or tablets - TCL, Xiaomi, Motorola, OnePlus, Nokia, Foxconn and Sharp being huge examples but also Haier, Philips and Hisense in some overseas markets - or want to reserve the option to be able to in the future. That limits the Fire TV manufacturers to Insignia and Toshiba (who both gave up on Android tablets years ago).

As for the cheap low end hardware ... that is also a bit outdated. Thanks to Amazon Fire products, the standard smart TV uses the same turnkey stack: an ARM SOC by either Amlogic, Allwinner or MediaTEK that includes the CPU, 2GB of RAM, 8 GB of storage and a gigabit NIC on the same board. The attempts by Amazon and Google to turn their smart TV boxes into mini-gaming consoles flopped - Google is giving it another go with Stadia - but they don't need much horsepower to begin with. Smart TV apps are increasingly migrating to PWAs - which is all they were on the original smart TVs anyway - so the only "performance" required will be the networking stuff. What is very cheap for a tablet or phone is different for a smart TV. In addition to not having to rely on a battery which makes the power design way different, in a smartphone or tablet the mobile SOC actually drives the display. Meanwhile with a smart TV, the SOC is just another input to the TV display. It takes the same, say, Amazon Fire Stick or Roku hardware, puts it inside the TV and assigns it to, say "HDMI 0". So the smart TV CPU isn't actually driving a 70 inch 8K TV the way that a Qualcomm CPU inside a Samsung Galaxy is actually driving the 4K display. Instead, the TV's hardware is. Take the ARM SOC out of the smart TV and you will still have a 1080P/4K/8K TV, which isn't the case with a smartphone or tablet.

The curious thing with smart TVs is when down the line they become hosts for web services like Stadia and PWAs. Especially since the difference in cost between smart TVs and regular TVs keeps diminishing. Right now 40' 1080p smart TVs start at $200 at most retailers, while their traditional counterparts start at $180. And that is the normal price, which means that they will frequently be on sale for LESS than their non-smart counterparts. And app developers have every incentive to do PWAs. Right now mobile is easy: you only have to support iOS, Android and maybe KaiOS (what became of Firefox OS and has gotten quite a bit of traction in developing countries on phones that cost $35-$60 ... and incidentally its apps are all PWAs). But streaming? There are at least 8 major platforms all with tens of millions of devices: Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Tizen, lgOS, Android TV, XBox, PlayStation. (Nintento has no plans to continue offering streaming channels on their consoles.) Doing a "write once run anywhere" PWA is going to become much preferable, especially when it comes to updates.

"Samsung's latest attempt to take on Apple's AirPods Pro, the Galaxy Buds Live are bean-shaped wireless earphones, that this time includes active noise cancellation."

I have written this in the past. 

1) Samsung was the first to come out with an AirPods type product, preceding the AirPods to market by 6 months.
2) Samsung's AirPods type product have features that AirPods lack.
3) Samsung's AirPods type products do not emulate the AirPods in any way but instead have their own design language.

Seriously, Samsung has been making audio products - from analog headphones to home theater systems that cost nearly $2000 - for decades. They shouldn't be considered a copycat in this area at all.