Game consoles likely to be more popular in living rooms than personal computers! Stay tuned for more news at 11!

Apple tried the "set-top box" years ago and quickly got out of it. They may not be willing to try it again. iTunes, iPhoto, and iDVD all require a full computer interface, mouse, and keyboard in order to really use their complete features. TiVo is already positioning itself for downloadable, digital movies. Apple might be able to come up with a combination of all of those technologies in a set-top box but what does that really do for the average consumer? A digital library ("server"?) box for music, photos, movies, and TV shows? I suppose that's what the analyst is getting at. Might be a market for it...

Analysts continue to amaze me. I refuse to believe that Apple would put Linux on a home entertainment server, were they even to make one. Clearly, they would either use Mac OS X (possibly scaled down) or a purpose-built OS, as they did on the iPod. But Linux would offer no advantage over OS X, and Apple would have a PR nightmare once word leaked that they chose Linux over their own OS.

Apple ran their own .country servers on Linux up until a couple of months ago in many european and almost all asian countries. They finally switched over to OS X Server more than 2 years after its release because they were worried that all the snickering going on on the 'net would catch fire and everyone would learn that they didn't trust their own servers to their own software. A couple months ago, they switched them all to Panther/Apache without any fanfare...despite 10.3 server having already been out for almost a year at that point...

You are bored and day dreamin, or a nightmare more likely

The entertainment server (PowerPod?) can be considered as a cross between a home iPod and an Airport Express with video added as it would include music, photo, H.264/AVC video serving/storage, wifi/ethernet networking with a Mac/PC, and an AC plug for power.

The iTunes and iPhoto reference just denotes that this PowerPod has the same simple sync relationship as the iPod has to those two apps. I think a new Apple iTunes-like app for catalogging/ripping/recording movies/clips/TV/video is needed (unless it is just added to iTunes).

The PowerPod would have the color iPod UI on its front panel (screen to left of clickwheel instead of above it) and an iPod-lookalike remote control. The iPod screen would become the 10' user interface, as its categories would be displayed on the remote control, front panel, and TV - of course, movies, TV, and video would need to be added.

All Apple has to do to make this happen is work the wifi remote control protocol to the Mac/PC and the PowerPod, and add the H.264-based video app on the Mac(PC?), and H.264 video recording/playback for the PowerPod (with all the variations on TV/display interfaces). Both iTunes and iPhoto apps could be extended to show libraries on both the Mac/PC and the PowerPod, with the ability to rendezvous and sync.

Apple would make a big splash if it introduced this PowerPod, along with H.264 in Tiger, and an agreement to allow DRMed-ripping of standard-quality DVDs. Now if they could work out the digital download Movie Store at the same time, that would be icing on the cake.

Ummm. No. Bad morons. BAD!

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PCs will always be the best for gaming....

Why?

Well you can upgrade a computer. And not HAVE to buy a new one every 2 years.

Computers are peoples lives, gaming is peoples lives. But they dont surf the internet, email, chat, anything but gaming with their XBOXs etc.

Also, WHO THE HELL PLAYS HALO2 ON AN XBOX AND THINKS ITS SO GREAT? HALO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A MAC ONLY GAME BY BUNGIE, AN APPLE ONLY COMPANY (not anymore). HALO1 WAS TO BE THE FIRST GAME FOR THE BUDDING OSX, AND BAM NOTHING HAPPENED FOR YEARS.

I rant for this reason, a first person shooter is going to play like crap if you dont have a mouse. Joystick and buttons? F*ck off thats not how you play a first person shooter.

You guys sure cry a lot about Bungie being bought by Microsoft, thus ending Halo to come out on OS X first. Of course you blame Microsoft, but why not blame Bungie for being sellouts?

Besides, you go with the where the markets are.

As if Halo was ever going to be Mac first anyway, given that everything they released from Myth onwards up to Oni and Myth III was a Bi-Platform release.

Even ye olde Marathon II got ported to the PC eventually, and Oni appeared on the PS2.

If I had to make a bet on the most likely scenario, it would be some sort of alliance between Apple and TiVo. Alas, I only have a "Series 1" TiVo box, but the Series 2 has a Home Media feature and TiVo Desktop software that allows music and photo sharing, as well as some other spiffy features.

I get the sense that, although out for a number of years, Microsoft's Media Center PC is only a blip on the radar when compared to the number of TiVo units. Plus, TiVo owners seem to be almost, if not more, enthuiastic about their platform than Mac users. And last I checked, TiVo is running a version of Linux on a PowerPC chip.

Hmm ... why not extrapolate to Apple bought out TiVo and relaunch it as an Entertainment Server? Recall that Apple relaunched SoundJam as iTunes.

In another development, Sony will be launching a home server (based on IBM's Cell processor) for broadband content, probably next year. Will Apple's entertainment server also based on Cell processor or G5?

Good call, Mace. With Apple 4B+ pile of cash, and TiVo's market cap of around 400M, Apple could easily purchase them.

As I indicated in my prior post, I think a TiVo/Apple combo would be a great winner. Although the Microsoft Media Center PC may have the technology, TiVo definitely has the mindshare, and (more importantly) the rabidly loyal users that would complement Apple well.

Computers don't work in the living room - the industry was trying to push this a few years ago, but keyboards and mice can't be used effectively from a sofa or EZ chair. (Whereas videogame pads work fine.)

Doesn't TiVo use rendezvous? Or support it in some way?

algr,

PC's don't work in the living room is exactly the point being made by Milunovich. an entertainment server is not a PC, but an easy-to-use, almost-never-crash consumer electronics device like a stereo or TiVo. so either a videogame console or this entertainment server device will become central in the living room. that's why Apple has a chance, as they're proving with the iPod and Airport Express that they can make such consumer electronics devices. the entertainment server will not require a mouse or keyboard, it will use a remote control with the UI viewed either on the remote or on the TV. The color iPod interface is beginning to shape up as just such a 10' interface.

the only reason to buy tivo is to get their software, as tivo itself really doesn't even design or make the hardware. does apple think they need tivo's software, given what they've accomplished with the iPod and clickwheel? i don't think so.

regarding mindshare, who has more - tivo or apple? clearly apple, even though it is not as a pvr. but the similarity between its iPod and its entertainment server will make crossing over easy.

tivo has only about 2 to 2.5 million subscribers, of which 65% come through directv (and 75% of new subscribers come through directv). directv is rumored to be ending its partnership with tivo by summer. if directv thinks they can write pvr software, then apple surely could. i don't see them buying tivo, which is beginning to get the word "beleaguered" attached to its name.

Microsoft has positioned itself toward the business market (although is trying to get back into the home with Media Center and XBox).

However, when you think "entertainment" - you think of Apple. Period.

Microsoft will never be an "entertainment" anything. Microsoft won the business battle but Apple will clearly win the home entertainment one.

Can't wait to see it!

XBox ROOLZ!

why not use embedded darwin? this guy doesn't know what he's talking about... besides all those programs would have to be re-written.

Quote

mloader wrote:
Doesn't TiVo use rendezvous? Or support it in some way?

Yes, when you have the Tivo Desktop software started on your Mac, it will announce iTunes playlists and iPhoto albums using Rendez... er... OpenTalk. The Tivo will then see them. Since the home media option is now free, all series 2 Tivos support this. The music player is a bit awkward to use but not too bad (it only supports mp3). The photo viewer is very good and images look amazingly crisp on my TV. And while these features are kind of cool, I find I use them very very rarely.

apple buying them or not - not sure. smart for Apple if they did. Ties nicely to pixar too . Tivo likely has a huge cache of very hard to beat patents (I worked in this space so have a pretty strong opinion about that) coupled with their early market entry and tremendous learning from that. Plus they've tackled the hardest part first - video - so adding other media would be easier. And it's ok if they don't make their stuff. Most powerful position would be in a reference design they license. Think ARM meets Intel Inside for the home entertainment market. IMHO

Where will I find the whole report?

that statment was true before wireless. i have no problem kicking back on my sofa with my keyboard in my lap.