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Apple Enters Media Center Domain
An anonymous reader writes "CNN has a story up describing Apple's new media center concept. The software takes on a classic Apple approach: simplicity. 'The program, called Front Row, lets you listen to music, watch videos, play DVDs and display photos from a distance with a few clicks of a lighter-sized, six-button remote control.'" More details available from ThinkSecret.
This isn't precisely a secret, however, and hasn't been for the months since it was introduced. :)
http://www.apple.com/imac/frontrow.html
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
There's a utility called "Frontrow Enabler" that will allow you to install FrontRow on any Mac, not just the iMac G5. The utility and instructions are here. You need Pacifist and the latest FrontRow Update from Apple.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
"Front Row doesn't display live TV"
That is pretty limited functionality. So, why would you hook this up to your TV?
>One thing that bugs me is the fact that you're stuck with their display
I think the Mac Mini demonstrates a willingness to abandon single source on displays. Good thing too, IMHO
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
Five of buttons change the color of media center unit and one is for the mouse click.
Read the link to the article at Thinksecret. It's more than about Frontrow. The short paragraph linking to the article doesn't really describe it well. Really quite interesting about storage on iDisk and such.
sig here
"Apple Releases Front Row Media Software" is a news story. (Or, at the very least, a slashvertizement worth reading.)
"Somebody From CNN Write About Apple's Front Row Media Software, Which Was Released About A Month Ago" is the sort of submission that MacSlash and other "what Steve Jobs had for breakfast today is thrilling news to us" sites would probably reject.
I'd rather read a badly-written review of Front Row by some random slashbot (or a link to some techie-site review, like Ars) than another "OMG! Apple Matters So Much That CNN Is Writing About Their Software" submission. Come on, editors. You can do better.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
> The program, called Front Row, lets you listen to
I think NTL might have something to say about this name in the UK. Their pseudo-VoD system over cable is called Front Row.
So apparently this is a dupe, but it's the first I've seen of it, so I found it interesting. I looked at the picture of the remote here and I think I like it. Just the other day I was looking at one of those remotes that come with digital cable boxes these days, and there were way too many buttons there. To make matters worse, almost every remote these days has just about as many buttons, but they are generally organized differently, making it harder to switch TV's. How often do people visiting a friend's house have to ask their friend to do something like change the volume, because the remote is overly complicated? I like the idea of a remote with just a couple of buttons.
I hope this isn't supposed to be the surprise announcement for the MacWorld Expo in January. A friend of mine said the leading rumor is that Steve Jobs will introduce the Intel-based laptops six months before they were supposed to come out. I'm delaying my Mac laptop purchase to see if that rumor is true.
"a few clicks of a lighter-sized, six-button remote control."
shouldn't it just have 1 button?
In other news, Apple is rumored to be working on an operating system that is based on BSD Unix and will have a user-friendly UI attached to it.
They are also thinking of getting into the music arena, possibly with portable MP3 players, but analysts say this is just crazy.
"Leo Fender was in a 'state of grace' when he designed the Stratocaster." -- Paul Reed Smith
actually... what TFA is talking about is a new version of frontrow (2.0) which will be introduced in january along with a new media center edition mac mini (complete with ipod dock built in, possible tivo functionality etc).
it also looks like they're prepping lots of new content from several new cable networks and other sources. i wouldn't be surprised if pixar started making exclusive shorts for the itms (itunes music, er, media store)...
For a media centre it does not seem to have very many features, even if it is meant to be simple.
Here is what I use on my MythTV box that are not available for this:
- Watching live TV
- Scheduling recording of live TV
- Web interface to access information
- Weather
- Games
- News feeds
- Advert detection
These are all things I use on a daily basis and I think that they should be included in any media centre, and Apple's offering barely meets any of those.
I RTFA... and I'm disappointed. If this is going to depend on programs being cached on iDisk, then why do I need a new Mac Mini at all? Lots of the speculation was that the new mini might get a tv tuner card and lots more storage, to give it DVR functionality etc. How is this different from a website that just streams you video? Media center... yeah right. I'll keep my TiVos.
One thing that bugs me is the fact that you're stuck with their display.
So hacksaw it off already. It supports a second display (mirrored). Or you could just wait till they release the new towers and minis and buy one of them and a display of your choice.
actually... what TFA is talking about is a new version of frontrow (2.0) which will be introduced in january along with a new media center edition mac mini (complete with ipod dock built in, possible tivo functionality etc). it also looks like they're prepping lots of new content from several new cable networks and other sources. i wouldn't be surprised if pixar started making exclusive shorts for the itms (itunes music, er, media store)...
Hell, I can't find a standard sized remote 1/5 of the time I want it. Does the idea of a tiny remote scare anyone else? A couch has 10^5 times the number of places for one of these bad boys to hide.
Perhaps Apple will plan ahead and assume the user will lose the remote and put a god damned set of directional arrows on the unit itself. It seems like once a month I encounter a remoteless DVD player with no means of navigation on the main unit. When the first option on the DVD menu is not play it turns into a hell of a time.
Just to clarify this submission for people... it contains two, unrelated links. The first is a CNN article about FrontRow and is old news. The second is speculation on a rumor site about the new version of the mac mini and how Apple will tie in a new video service that is largely inferior to what they are offering now, via iTunes, and that will not work with the new iPods video capabilities. The whole thing sounds rather suspect to me.
For a "media center", my modded xbox with xbox media center (the open source software, not the MS one) does all this and more, and cost significantly less than a mac mini.
Six buttons is too many for an Apple object! I suggest just one button, and the remote can
have a motion detector in it; the user can hold the remote parallel to the appropriate
face of a cube, and click the button. Simplicity itself!
Free, legal music for iTunes users.
The employees create beowolf clusters with mac mini media centers. The Soviets do it too, but no one cares.
I bet MS is kinda scared about this. At this stage in the game, I think there are a lot of satisfied Apple customers who'd love to bring an 'iPod' quality media device into their living room.
I don't think MicroSoft has built up this sort of goodwill.
In fact, I saw on TV -- "The Apprentice", where they has MicroSoft on the show. Trump said to them, "I use a lot of MicroSoft, and it works." As if that was news.
Not "it works fanTASTIcally!" -- but just a limp-sounding "it works."
Given how much Trump exaggerates, it automatically downgraded his statement to, "on good days it kinda works," -- basically, if something is half-assed, Trump says it is the best thing ever. So I think MicroSoft has a customer-perception problem.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
They are also thinking of getting into the music arena, possibly with portable MP3 players, but analysts say this is just crazy.
I hear that it will have lower capacity than its competitors, and lack wireless. As that's lame, no one will buy it.
If your comment title says 'Re: Foo', I'm not likely to read it.
I refuse to purchase any machine with the display married to the computer...I love their PowerBooks
I know it's not really what you meant, but technically...
± 29 dB
Rightly or wrongly, the computer world has been drooling for the convergence of the PC and the loungeroom. So far, that's been a pipe dream - really, it seems the majority of people just don't feel the need for a PC that links into their entertainment systems like that. Which is why stand-alone devices, up to and including TiVo, have worked - while other things, like WinXP MCE, have pretty much been duds.
Given Apple's track record, their understanding of markets, and their ability to package a whole product which does what it claims to in a simple, useful, and aesthetically pleasing way, this would have a better chance than most previous attempts at being _the_ breakthough device they've been looking for.
What you denigrate as "cute packaging" - nice box, nice interface, etc - is essentially the only thing the people pushing for this kind of convergence have to offer.
Which is not to say I agree - despite having a PC permanently in the lounge room, hooked up up to my TV & digital PVR, I really can't see the point. The "converged PC" is a solution to a problem that exists only in the minds of marketers and the wet dreams of futurists - not in the minds of the market itself.
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
If Apple put out a mini that came with Front Row and included the remote, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It would replace my DVD player and I'd get an EyeTV and replace my TiVo as well. I was actually thinking of buying a mini for precisely this purpose, but I'm hesitant to do it without a decent remote control and portal (i.e., Front Row). The beauty of the mini is it's a sub-$600 computer with no frills and takes up next to no space. If they married it to Front Row, they'd easily steal the entry-level (which is, honestly, where average Joe Consumer is) from Windows Media Center, which last I checked, required a behemoth $1000+ PC and is not as simple as FrontRow.
1. imacs can mirror to another display (vga; dvi only with vga=>dvi box)
2. screen spanning doctor http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/ibook_e.html enables , well, screen spanning on imacs and ibooks
3. dvd player can be set to disable the other display while playing movies
4. front row patches have been available for a while, so you can run it on most newer macs. a guy even has put a mac mini in his (off all cars) f150, complete with front row etc: http://www.leftlanenews.com/?p=818
i personally use a mac mini without display, controlled via VNC (built into OS X 10.4) and a sanyo plv-z2.