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Television Needs To Be Reinvented, Says Apple SVP (businessinsider.com)
Eddy Cue, Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Service at Apple, isn't happy with the current state of how people watch TV. He said we currently live with a "glorified VCR," the interface of our current TV is the problem and we need to reinvent it. Cue pointed out a number of other issues he has with today's TV:"It's really hard to use [a cable box or satellite TV]. Setting something to record, if you didn't watch something last night, if you didn't set it to record, it's hard to find, it may not be available. There may be some rights issues," Cue said. "It's great to be able to tell your device, 'I wanna watch the Duke basketball game, I don't care what channel it's on.' I just want to watch the Duke basketball game. Today you got to bring in the TV, go through the guide, find which sports programs or whatever -- it's just hard to do."
...if Apple has a new product to help with that
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
The rights holders are the problem and will never allow this.
The fragmentation of media into smaller entities is a good thing and while the complexity goes up, the result is a buffet of entertainment for any mildly skilled geek due to the broken technologies that resulted from this lack of coordination. Apple can talk and talk about fixing the brokenness but nothing is going to happen. Mainly because no one can figure out how to make money off of it except Apple.
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
Your cable DVR uses voice commands for that stuff... You just call Comcast on your phone, press 0, then just keep saying "Duke basketball game" until it appears on your TV.
Alternatively, you could just ditch the TV altogether and go read book.
If intelligent life is too complex to evolve on its own, who designed God?
Netflix already reinvented it, at least for many of us. You're not going to pull another iphone success story this time around.
sports blackouts, lack of channel choice, forced to use and rent there hardware or pay outlet fess.
Are the real things that need to be fixed.
Also the pay TV distributors that cram ad's on each F* page of the guide need to go as well.
I don't buy the theory that TV needs to re-invented and that it is the reason for driving change. The powers that be wan't people to believe that though. I think its probably more about being the first to introduce new technology and whoever does that (as seen by Google and Facebook) will 'control' the new distribution model. That is what its really about.
-- Betting on the survival of the media industry is a serious risk. I advise investing elsewhere.
I'd be a lot happier with Hulu if they didn't plaster the local station logo in the corner of the screen, which is somewhat distracting for me.
Other than that, I feel that TV has already been rebooted just fine. I have a massive on-demand selection that I can watch at any time for a reasonable price. And no commercials at all, as I value my own time. I cut the cable a decade or so ago, and don't miss it at all. You can sign up for half a dozen streaming services and still you're probably paying equal to or less than basic cable. Of course, you do have to factor in internet connection costs, but most people want that service anyhow.
If Apple wants to create a compelling streaming service, they'll have to compete with existing services out there. I'm happy to take a look and see if it's worth a subscription. But since I have consoles that run any streaming app just fine, I can't imagine myself wanting any hardware they could possibly offer.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
I just go and grab the torrent if I missed it.
What needs to change is BULLSHIT copyright laws.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
>> "It's great to be able to tell your device, 'I wanna watch the Duke basketball game, I don't care what channel it's on.' ...which is exactly what I've already been doing for years (and for $0.00 give or take a few watts) with my Linux-based media PC that is running MythTV and plugged into an OTA antenna.
I don't think Apple wants to use proprietary connectors. In the past, they have fully embraced standard connectors, when those connectors were good enough. They ditched ADB when USB came out, and they ditched FireWire when USB got fast enough to transfer video.
What they won't do is use a standard connector if they feel that all standard options are compromises. When they felt the need to move away from the 30 pin iPod connector, they felt that the USB options were insufficient (not fast enough, not enough power for charging tablets, and most importantly, not reversible), so they developed Lightning to solve those shortcomings. I think if USB-C had existed at the time, Lightning might never have been developed.
Except that lightning has transfer issues as well. It cannot send 1080p video at 30FPS, let alone the 4K video that it's camera can shoot.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with multiple ports on a device. I love having separate micro USB, micro HDMI and audio jacks so that I don't have to buy overpriced adapter cables. Hell, put all three ports on the bottom so that it can be docked the same way.
"A plan fiendishly clever in its intricacies"- Homer Simpson
If only Apple made something to change the interface to television, oh I don't know, an Apple TV...
Stop complaining and start coding!
BTW Comcast X1 is gaining a lot of useful features, such as "Team Reminders" for sporting events, "People Also Watched", Custom Playlists for DVR, etc.
I don't think Apple wants to use proprietary connectors.
LOL. My office is all Apple and every workspace is a mess of proprietary adapters and the only purpose they serve is to connect Apple products to other Apple products.