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Apple TV To Be Revamped
An anonymous reader writes: This Wednesday, Apple is hosting an event in San Francisco to announce updated versions of some of its products. One device getting a lot of the attention will be the Apple TV, which has languished for several years without significant changes. Apple is making a renewed push for the living room. The company has expanded its partnerships with TV studios over the past few years, launched its own streaming music service, and also made inroads on gaming. The new Apple TV will try to do all these things, including support for apps. It will also reportedly feature universal search: "Essentially, you'll be able to search for a show or movie once, and see results from all sorts of different sources." A side effect of this ambitious goal is that the device will more than double in cost, going from $70 to $150.
really? rumours are accepted as facts here?
The linked New York Times article mentions that it will need an internet connection. So the Apple TV will be competing with non-internet TVs and people watching TV on laptops, desktops and tablets. Quite why somebody would buy another device to do what their other devices already do (other than it being Apple) I'm not quite sure?
Video Game cheats, hints a
You mean like owners of Roku and Tivo boxes have been able to do months/years?
Apple is trying to reproduce its success from the cellphone market in the set top box. Bring out features that were already available on competing platforms and charge a premium for them. Obviously, the reason for Apple TV's lack of success is that its price was too low.
<Just waiting for the Apple fanboys to mod me down!>
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
It's APPLE. Everything APPLE sounds good. sw-Bling!
"It wasn't reporting a steady stream of passwords, search terms, and just generally overheard words while listening for "Siri" back to Apple for passing through their corporate analysis and sales partitioning algorithms, and NSA's computers in those mysterious buildings whose costs rival the Apollo program and Manhattan project.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
The App Store on the Apple TV should be just as revolutionary as it was on the iPhone 3 when it came out. Instead of making a deal with Apple or Comcast or Roku to get your content on TV, you'll just write an app. This should open up TV to a whole new universe of niche providers and accelerate the trend of shrinking audiences for cable and broadcast shows.
I'm looking forward to all the new choices.
I'm first in line if they come out with some new version. I love my current one, but will buy the latest and greatest apple product anytime!
If someone is decideing between a Roku or an Apple TV based on a $80 price differential then they probably can't affort to buy shows anyhow. What matters is what's the easiest thing to use , gives you great results, and doesn't become an on-line attack vector in your home because you left it unpatched. For example, I bought my Amazon firestick because it delivered the content I wanted in the most simple way and it keeps it self updated and patched. It's not over complicated. I don't want something that can do everything like a chromeStick or an XBMC home sever. I want something that does just what I want extremely well.
What's the one thing I'd like for my Amazon fire stick that it doens't have is to be able to access the apple iTunes movie store. When you can plan in advance, downloading the movie rather that real time streaming is likely to achieve much better outcomes when my connection is overloaded. Paying a $1 extra for that is usually worth it to me.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Bit of an omission at this point in the game I think.
Agreed. Times have changed from the old days when Steve Jobs would tell the fanbois what to buy and they would trip over themselves to obey..
I see "It will also reportedly feature universal search: 'Essentially, you'll be able to search for a show or movie once, and see results from all sorts of different sources.'" and I think "No surprise, Apple taking something that's existed elsewhere (this has been an ability for the Roku for some time now) and it'll be hailed as revolutionary."
You don't have to make a deal with Roku to be in their platform, just write an app.
First of all, do you know Brightscript? I don't know many people that do...
Now compare that with the number of people who know the iOS SDK.
Also on Roku you are just making a "Channel", not an app. You don't have much in the way of a controller. You don't have any integration with media (iOS apps can be built to read and do things with all iTunes media). The Roku SDK is very content-presentation centric, instead of being an app with the full breadth of capability we've come to expect from mobile apps.
I like the Roku box but to say it has "apps" in the same sense as HOPEFULLY the AppleTV does (we still do not know for sure if the AppleTV has apps this time, it's been expected for years now) is to ignore all practical factors at work. I had looked before at platforms to build apps for TV but all of them were really limited compared to mobile app SDK's.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
along with gui software , mp3 players , personal computers , digital watches.
You are just a stupid troll.
And yet Apple sells a lot more now than when Jobs was alive. Go figure.
"Essentially, you'll be able to search for a show or movie once, and see results from all sorts of different sources."
And I'll bet that if you search for free content, say the public domain "It's a Wonderful Life", this universal search will only show sources where you will have a pay-per-view fee in addition to your monthly subscription charges.
Can i host my own content on my own server with having to use iTunes?
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
It is a bit misleading to say that the price has doubled. While the ATV is currently at $69, it has traditionally sold at $99. The $30 drop was in anticipation of its originally scheduled debut in late Spring, which got delayed.
So it is more like a 50% increase than a 100%+ increase.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
People do not want a box to hook up to their idiot box, they want an idiot box that will do all of it for them
SeaFox makes a good point that if you have a nice display, you might not want to throw it out when your receiver breaks or becomes obsolete, and it's easier to orient an external receiver for good Wi-Fi reception than to do so with a display.
smarter TVs mean the game console is also dying
How well do "smarter TVs" work with two to four remote controls? How responsive are they to player actions on said remote controls? And how does one load a game onto them while living in an area with harshly capped Internet? For those who live too far from the DSLAM, cellular and satellite Internet are often the only options, and they tend to cap home users on the order of 10 GB per month. The major consoles, on the other hand, support loading games through discs.
Umm... Do you mean assassinations?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
the Apple TV will have an App Store. [...] You don't get that with a Roku.
Roku apps are called channels. There are plenty of them, some unlisted (so that they don't show up in the channel store if they don't have to), and there's no $99 per year fee to develop your own channel.
Parent posts false information and get up-modded? Wow, the Apple fanbois are in full swing today!
Give me a doohickey that I can plug into my TV's HDMI/USB/Firewire/whatever port. This doohickey lets me stream whatever from my PC to my TV. Wanna watch a show? Fine. Wanna listen to music? Fine. Wanna put a DVD into the PC DVD drive and watch on my 60" TV? Fine. Wanna play a game? Urm, I can see how that could be a problem.
Not really. The article was far too-well written compared to the typical /. submission. That should be your first clue that it might be written by a PR person as an advertisement.
nt
Wow, upgrades that do stuff that Roku's been doing for a while at 50%+ more cost.