Some very smart people I’ve been talking to suggest that, by building a platform, Apple is generating leverage that it can use to great effect in these negotiations. A mid-market breakout box offering is one thing, but a huge, rumbling platform with an upward trajectory of living-room dominating apps and third-party content is another beast. If, obviously if, Apple is successful with the Apple TV, it could be in a position to dominate content in a way that no other ‘smart’ TV platform has before it.
If Apple did indeed ‘delay’ the Apple TV from being released at WWDC, then it probably had a reason. And, if my sources are correct, that reason could well be polish, polish, polish. The experience of using it is said to blow away the types of junky smart TV interfaces we’ve had to deal with so far. This is the first real Apple TV product.
If you see another annoying settopbox, they blew it.
I guess some people are expecting something novel because it’s Apple. Since they didn’t do it with either the watch or their music service, I doubt they’ll do it here either. But if they manage to have an Amazon Video app, they’ll have a leg up over Android TV and the nVidia Shield.
So how would it be any better than any other settop box by the likes of PS4, Xbone, etc. They already have anything that a media person could want, and some crap that they don’t.
Suddenly Apple says they’re delaying something that was subpar to begin with? Only an Apple fan could spout out that ‘oh, they’re just doing it to polish it!’ More likely there were some horrible bugs and/or something missing from it.
In many conversations with Apple fan boys, that’s always the reasoning for delays ‘oh, they’re polishing it up!’ ‘Oh, they don’t need removable batteries, when would you ever NEED that?’ etc.
Maybe you can control it with your voice. Imagine the fun? The whole family can argue about what they want to watch and even the TV can get confused and say screw it give me a beer.
I predict gesture not voice.
I predict it’ll require an iPhone that will serve both as the remote as well as let you turn off the TV from work as well as let you monitor/restrict what the kids watch while you’re at work.
Apple requiring an Apple device, yeah sure. Makes sense.
As a remote a smartphone is however totally crap.
On a remote I can feel where the keys are, on a touchscreen device I can’t. That means before you do anything on a touchscreen you’ll first have to look at the device instead of the TV.
There were touchscreens which are flexible and you can feel ‘bumps’ but I’ve never seen any real wide-spread products.
Meh, they’ll have a normal remote, but all the REAL commands will need the iPhone. All the regular remote will do is turn it on/off, raise/lower the volume, and turn the channel. Anything else will be through the iPhone.
If it does not have a ‘skip forward over Adverts’ or a ‘Mute the volume during Adverts'[1] button then it will fail in my eyes.
[1] some station deliberately increase the volume levels for adverts.
My first language is not English, so I’m wondering. Does “turn the channel” come from turning a dial on very old TVs ?
Isn’t it time to upgrade the language ? Or should we wait for Apple to show us how it’s done so we know what the last invention for the living room entertainment will be.
(which they won’t because VR hasn’t entered the mainstream yet, it’s scheduled to do so starting early next year)
Change the channel is what is usually said. You turn the TV on but I have never heard turn used for switching channels.
The phrase “turn the channel” dates from the 1950/60s when you turned a rotary dial by hand to switch channels.
Well nobody really ‘holds their horses’ anymore either. That’s just how language is.
If you really think that a static remote is better than the dynamic interface of a touchscreen, you don’t have much of an imagination.
What do you want to do with your TV?
Figure out what is on
Change to a different program
adjust the volume
FF/RW current program to desired spot
start recording current program
record future program
I think adjusting the volume and FF/RW would be easier with a physical remote, but not the other operations.
Oh, good. So if it puts on a show I don’t like will it properly interpret my middle finger?
No probably changes channel when you put up a middle finger to make clear you don’t want to watch what is currently on.
Well, if it’s like Android TV, I assume it’ll have its own app ecosystem. Plus, it probably won’t cost $300+. Besides, if you’re not a gamer (or just play very casually like I do), then the PS4 and Xbone are complete overkill.
The PlayStation 3 was an excellent blue-ray player at a good price. I slipped a few into family members living room on that point, but yeah PS4 or Xbox (what number are they on?) are not cost effective for that usage case this time…
I do have a PS3 for that exact reason and I’m not wild on it as a blu-ray player. I have to plug in a controller and re-calibrate the remote every 5th time I turn it on.
Considering the content overlap between Amazon and iTunes, I’d not hold my breath were I you.
Well, I’ve not really seen anything really novel from them for about 8 years now (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_%281st_generation%29).
I gave the Apple TV a brief chance but it was just an awful device to use, UI was okay, although extremely basis, no what got me was the co plete lack of … well … everything, especially as something as simple pleasures as adding a browser, my TV has a built in browser. In fact my TV has more features than the Apple TV had. I’ve now moved on to a Minix Z64 for the downstairs and a new Nvidia Shield TV for my bedroon as thats where I watch most of my TV from and I can say without a doubt, I’m finally happy with the way my TV’s are setup. First and foremost, Kodi is the central app in all of this, I no longer have to subscribe to a bunch of services that collectively give me what I want. No, now I have everything under a single organized app. I’m watching TV shows from all over the world like Australia and Dubai, my connections are almost always fast, the UI is fantastic, etc. The Shield adds a gaming factor to the equation that is quite I impressive, I can’t wait for Crysis 3.
Edited 2015-08-29 19:27 UTC
AppleTV is an _INCREDIBLE_ device but only if you are a hardcore iTunes/AirPlay user.
I use iTunes for all my video/audio collection and I cannot live without AppleTV really, AirPlay works like a charm streaming lossless audio and pretty good 720p video over my humble 11n wifi network. It sounds trivial but It’s hard to achieve with other products/protocols at this price level.
For example, in the audio apartment, only Bluetooth AptX is lossless capable and It’s not so common as AirPlay. Just an AptX receiver costs like an AppleTV and they don’t do video just stereo audio!
BTW, as you well said, AppleTV sucks in every other aspect… but It’s pretty darn good in the few things it does.
Is…is that a thing people are? Huh.
OK, let’s see. Let’s assume that your appartment is the worst possible place for WiFi, so that you get the lowest operational speed of 11n connection – 6.5 Mbps.^A^1 Unless ALAC is no worse then uncompressed audio, even with stupidly generous 96kHz sampling for 32-bit samples it should be no more then 3 Mbps. (I actually have several tracks in ALAC, and their bitrate is less then 1 Mbps, but anyway…) So you should be able to stream lossless audio even if your hardware experiences severe data drop (more then 50% after switching to slowest possible data rate and literally flooding wireless channel with correction frames).
Now, “pretty good 720p video” is a bit too vague to evaluate, but Youtube’s 720p videos are around 2 Mbps and Apple’s HD video service is 4 Mbps;^A^2 both are easy tasks for slowest 11n networks as well. Sure, your video might be better then that; if it is of HDTV quality, it still should have a bitrate below 20 Mbps,^A^3 which is still below threshold of typical 11g home wireless network.
So ability to stream all of that over wireless is not exactly a big deal. Neither is ability to decode 1080p in realtime, which is something every decade-old hardware decoder can cope with.
Interestingly, my old settop box, which is a cheap Russian-branded Chinese ripoff of ancient ASUS media player, had no problems with those tasks even over SMB and FTP connections in very flacky 11g network several years ago.
^A^1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_802.11n-2009#Data_rates
^A^2 http://www.zdnet.com/article/dont-believe-the-low-bit-rate-hd-lie/
^A^3 http://forums.highdefdigest.com/hdtv-programming-info/68632-questio…
No, for an Apple product is is a complete and utter piece of junk. It is truly embarrassing for Apple. I have a variety of media devices and it makes the WD’s which I hate look good by comparison.
so your TV has a browser. Whoopi-do
How ofter does your Desktop browser get updates?
How often will your TV browser get security updates?
It seems to me that there are dozens of different ‘smart TV’ that are just not getting security updates after say 1 year from purtchase. Not that different from an awful lot of Android phones (As oft discussed here and on other forums).
My understanding is that the Apple TV device gets its OS updated pretty frequently and is supported for a number of years.
So there are some areas where the Apple TV falls down in functionality but over the lifespan of such a device does that matter all that much.
Much like the never ending new version of MS OFfice. How many of the majority of users would even care about this new functionality? Very few indeed.
How many of the potential Apple TV users really don’t care if it does not run Crysis? Gamers are a minority and not the majority (IMHO)
[edit]
My new Smart TV runs Android. I fully expect that it will stop getting updated by this time next year. It will never be directly connected to the Internet. This is not because of potential malware but because it phones home all the time. With it not connected then I really don’t care about the smart functionality but the screen is fantastic quality.
Edited 2015-08-30 07:30 UTC
But alas, I had only one kidney to give to my Apple addiction.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/teen-sells-kidney-iphone_n…
Maybe an eye next, if this new Apple TV isn’t 3d/vr of course…
Yet another Own-to-Rent device that Apple effectively owns and controls in perpetuity.
All Idiots and A-holes, prepare to open your wallets and grab your ankles…Yet again!
Don’t worry, they gave their consent and do it willingly, this is no iRape.
There is no informed consent for these organ donors. The poor kid was probably told his kidney will grow back in a few weeks.
Yeah, should they had access to an iStuff before hand, they could have accessed the Internet, Wikipedia, Encarta or Google and learned that a kidney do not grow back. Unlike Prometheus’.
But kids are now so much iDumb they cannot open a book and read. If it’s not on the Internet, it’s not true anymore, as if truth and lies have switched place since then.
Edited 2015-08-31 10:24 UTC
I guess you don’t value your body that highly then?
The Apple Tv will cost a lot less than an iPhone or even an iPod.
My guess is that it will be no more than a couple of pints of the red stuff.
Eventually you’ll realize that for an employed adult a $99 device does not constitute rape.
First, if you think the OP meant the price, you’re deliberately misinterpreting the comment. second off, we don’t know what this future Apple TV will cost yet, nor even what it is. Is it a $99 set top? A full TV? Something else? The rape comment was directed at the fact that even though you bought it, you don’t get to choose what is done with it, what providers you access, and what you can install on it. Then again, your leanings on this have been clear since day one as you’ve supported Apple’s “for the greater good” policies relentlessly.
“If you see another annoying settopbox, they blew it.”
You would prefer all of the Apple “i” stuff to be built into the television itself?
Yeah, integrating the computing parts into the monitor is just crazy, Apple would never do that.
I was just trying to understand the comment.
It’s a dumb and consumer-unfriendly way to build a computer. But a television? I don’t know. Depends on just how much ‘stuff’ is integrated into system. With current method I appreciate the ability to upgrade the source from VCR to DVD to BlueRay, upgrade the sound from stereo to 5.1 to 7.1, and replace defective components without having to purchase a brand new screen every time.
It is very different. I have now had my current TV (40inch HD TV) from 10 years ago. I have zero reasons to get rid of it. It works as well as it did on the day I bought it. Of course it doesn’t have the 3D stuff and so on, but I don’t think I am missing much.
If Apple releases a TV, I am very unlikely to buy it. But I do have a couple of Apple TVs. I am much more likely to get rid of a couple of Apple TVs or give them away, than I am to get rid of a 40inch TV just to get a new, and even more expensive one.
I am in the same boat, to me building the smart features into the TV itself is really really stupid as the development pace right now is MUCH MUCH faster than the lifetime of a TV.
My current main TV is a 58″ plasma that is 6 years old, all built in network features are hugely outdated but the picture is still better than many modern TVs so upgrading it to something better would be expensive.
On our bedroom TV the chromecast can even turn on the TV and switch it to the correct input, so here you don’t really notice that it is an external device during most usage. In 2 years or whatever when it is not powerful enough to handle modern content then i can just buy another inexpensive device and plugin instead. It is a pity i need the chromecast in the first place though, but Samsung really doesn’t know how to design software
Well, I understand that, but I would make the same argument with monitors. My monitors are much more expensive than any of my TVs, and I would never buy a computer if it comes in a monitor I don’t need.
The thing is: Though we might not want that, there is a market for integrated solutions.
I think it’s really difficult to comment on a product that nobody has seen yet. I have 4 ATVs in my house, basically one for each TV, and I love it. Adding HBO and Showtime as online only service was the best thing that could happen. I don’t even know what else I would want for the ATV. Maybe Starz as an online subscription would be nice, but they have only a couple of shows I care about anyway.
Xbox one already offers hdmi passthtrough and voice controlled TV guide. Apple needs to at least match this.
I think we’ll see AppleFlix (apple netflix) and linked hardware.
The only coup available to Apple over Amazon and Netflix is if they launch the service in 4k. Its chicken and egg (pun not great, but intended)as I know most of us don’t Have 4k tvs but thats mainly because there isnt 4k content…
Everyone knows about a screen in the living room for vegging out in front of at the end of the day. Pick movies, browse offerings, click to watch, fall asleep. Big deal.
Think about screens or projections in the other rooms of your house — kitchen, kids rooms, and the home office. If they find a way to get a cheap camera with it you can do some good stuff:
The kitchen – family calendar view, daily planner, family to-do list, weather, recipes, how-to videos, all your iMedia, FaceTime to other boxes, and of course streaming dance moms.
The kids rooms – school calendar view, homework, all iMedia, FaceTime to other boxes, and of course streaming netflix.
The home office – Ted talks, MIT online, all iMedia, FaceTime to other boxes, and of course streaming howard stern.
Plus your iWatch, iPhone, iPads, and macs will be aware of every Apple TV in the house and can airplay beam media to it, FaceTime with it, and otherwise interact (“send pdf to kitchen screen”).
Apple already has the pieces in place to make all of this available from day 1. Imagine if they sell them in packs – 3 boxes for $199, to encourage you to put in several nodes at a time.
Just give AppleTV a set of different interfaces for these different modes and allow each box to become a smarter client on the LAN, and the existing iCal/iCloud/iTunes infrastructure takes care of the rest.
This UI could be similar to Outlook’s Today screen, or Apple’s Today notification area.
The idea is that screens aren’t going away anytime soon and Apple doesn’t want someone else offering a family-type groupware application when the whole family is already using iOS.
Edited 2015-09-02 12:20 UTC