jwdsail - 06 September 2010 01:09 PM

incorrigible - 04 September 2010 08:47 AM

Here’s a quite from SJ himself which helps to explain what ATV is (or more specifically what it is not):

People don’t want a computer on their TV.  They have computers. They go to their wide-screen TVs for entertainment. Not to have another computer. This is a hard one for people in the computer industry to understand, but it’s really easy for consumers to understand. They get it.

But Jobs is wrong, most people *do* want a computer on their TV. We just want one w/ an UI much superior to what we’ve seen so far.

I think Jobs has it right. I was thinking about this before the September event. I think the only thing we need on our TVs is video that looks better on a large screen than on a small screen and stuff we want to view with others. The computer provides a better experience for most everything else.

I’ve connected my MacBook Pro to my HDTV, using a Wi-Fi keyboard and a Magic Track Pad, and while usable, the internet on my TV just doesn’t feel right. I’d much rather sit on the couch with my MacBook in my lap when surfing. But once I start playing a movie or TV show from the MacBook, it transforms into a very pleasurable media center.

For those geeks who want a computer on their TVs, buy a Mac mini.

FalKirk - 06 September 2010 02:02 PM

jwdsail - 06 September 2010 01:09 PM

incorrigible - 04 September 2010 08:47 AM

Here’s a quite from SJ himself which helps to explain what ATV is (or more specifically what it is not):

People don’t want a computer on their TV.  They have computers. They go to their wide-screen TVs for entertainment. Not to have another computer. This is a hard one for people in the computer industry to understand, but it’s really easy for consumers to understand. They get it.

But Jobs is wrong, most people *do* want a computer on their TV. We just want one w/ an UI much superior to what we’ve seen so far.

I think Jobs has it right. I was thinking about this before the September event. I think the only thing we need on our TVs is video that looks better on a large screen than on a small screen and stuff we want to view with others. The computer provides a better experience for most everything else.

This depends a lot on two things: 1. What do you think of as a computer? and 2. What’s inside the box?

When Apple Computer changed its name to Apple Inc, Steve Jobs said that among the Mac, the iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV, the only one you think of as a computer is the Mac. Ironically, in the same keynote in which he announced this, Steve Jobs also said the iPhone runs desktop class applications. So there is a grey area with non-Mac devices that can run desktop class apps, and the iPad also falls into this grey area.

Now, we know the Apple TV has the same A4 chip as the iPhone and iPad, but we have to wait to discover if it runs iOS.

Interesting development in regard to ESPN3 Video

The article is about ESPN 3 on the Xbox, but I find this part interesting in regard to Apple and future live content

In rolling out its application for ESPN3 video on the Xbox 360, Microsoft backed off demands for publishers to use its proprietary streaming format, enabling them to stream video via HTML5 instead, according to an MLB exec. The introduction of HTML5 will not only make it cheaper for ESPN, MLB and other providers to deliver live video…

Inzerillo said Microsoft realized it didn’t make sense to create an Xbox-specific version of the stream. So instead, the software giant implemented HTML5 in its game console to enable content providers to reuse the same streams they were delivering for other connected devices. Now, Inzerillo said, “PlayStation, Roku, Boxee, Xbox, connected devices from LG — all of those folks are using the same fundamental streams.”

For those not familiar MLB App for the iPad already streams live BB games to the iPad/iPhone.  The current version of ESPN 3 uses Flash on the desktop so I find the change to HTML 5 interesting to say the least.  When Apple gets rolling with the new Apple TV I would expect ESPN to make a grand appearance on the device.  SJ as the largest shareholder of Disney is not about to let Microsoft get the only deal.

adamthompson3232 - 17 September 2010 12:28 PM

Airplay is Apple’s ‘Go to Market’ Internet TV strategy

On July 4, 2010 I posted this on Fortune’s Apple 2.0 Blog:

@Boso Zoku: I like the way you think. Try this on for size.

Despite what pundits and everyday people think, people DO NOT want the whole internet on their TVs. They don’t want to read articles, they don’t want to type searches letter by letter, they don’t want to “surf” the net using clumsy remote controls. What they want is to surf the net on their computers and then occasionally display internet content on their TVs.

Suppose Apple sold a set top box for $99 that connected your iPad to your TV. Some advantages:

-Anything that is on your iPad can be displayed on your TV. iTunes (music, television, movies), Apps, the entire internet. The possibilities are endless.

-Your iPad is your remote. No more unintuitive menus. No more tedious letter by letter searches. No more relying upon the user interfaces provided by the phone, cable and satellite “orifices”. You locate content on your iPad, hit a button and - zap - it’s displayed on your TV.

-From Apple’s perspective, it will sell a ton of iPads and make iPads “sticky”. Who’s going to want to buy an iPad competitor when their iPad and TV are joined at the hip?

Thoughts?

On August 23, 2010 I posted this as part of an extraodinarily long post on Apple TV here at TMO:

3) The iPad as a remote.

What if your iPad was your TV’s remote control? The iPad would make the biggest, badest remote control of them all. All navigation and input would be accomplished using the iPad’s touch interface. You wouldn’t look at your TV to manipulate the content on your TV. You would look at and interface directly with your iPad. No more tedious letter by letter searches. No more relying upon the user interfaces provided by the phone, cable and satellite “orifices”. You locate content on your iPad, hit a button and - zap - it’s displayed on your TV.

http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/forums/viewthread/79146/#520689

Is my dream coming true? Is Apple transferrig the web - or at least those portions that we want - onto our big screen TVs via our iOS devices?

If this is doable - and I thought we had agreed that it wasn’t - then Apple has flanked BOTH the carriers AND the content providers. The carriers are cut out because the content is streamed to us as data - not through a separate TV feed. And the content providers are screwed because everything they put on the web, they put on TV via AirPLay. The content providers can still charge for their internet content, but they can’t keep their internet content off of the big screen and they can’t charge TWICE, once for displaying content on our mobile devices and again for displaying our content on our TVs.

Do you see where I’m going with this? We’ll be able to display Hulu, ABC.com, Netflix etc. on our TV’s by pushing a button on our iOS devices. Is this as big as I think it is? I must be missing something. What am I missing?

The core function of the AppleTV is for viewing movies and TV shows stream from iTunes(HD quality video), Netflix (SD quality video) and UTube (low quality video).  And occasional viewing from iOS devices/Macs.

Mace - 17 September 2010 06:51 PM

The core function of the AppleTV is for viewing movies and TV shows stream from iTunes(HD quality video), Netflix (SD quality video) and UTube (low quality video).  And occasional viewing from iOS devices/Macs.

Mace I hope you don’t work in marketing   Apple TV is still a hobby but IMO Apple will iterate rapidly to the next version if they have success at $99.  The follow-on version of the A4 will look very similar to the Samsung Orion .  The die will be a bit larger but that will only add about $5 to the ATV BOM and provide double the CPU performance and about 5 Times the GPU performance.  This opens up the ability to deliver 1080p and high speed gaming.  Not quite up to the PS 3/ XBOX 360 but above the Wii.  I expect Apple to put together a new ATV UI layer/framework and release a SDK at WWDC with new product during the fall release schedule..

It’s being reported that the Apple TV is selling out. http://www.fierceiptv.com/story/apple-tv-devices-selling-out-can-google-tv-roku-compete/2010-10-12

I don’t KNOW this, just speculating, but my guess is that the Apple TV, with its low $99 price tag, is being positioned as the cheapest and easiest way to get Netflix onto one’s TV. I still feel that eventually, AirPlay will be the stealth feature that drives the device to new heights. And although I’m sure many people will buy them, 99 cent rentals are, to my mind, the least enticing aspect of the product.

However, if AirPlay and other devices help to “cut the cord” between consumers and cable TV companies, content providers may, belatedly, rush to fill Apple TV with content. They will, in my opinion, be too late. The ala carte rental model will be overwhelmed by the over the internet digital download model. Then, when they’ve totally lost control, the content creators will finally yield to Steve Jobs’ entreaties and switch to a subscription of other ala carte form of distributing TV shows.

In the same way that the music industries lost album sales and then DVD sales, the TV/movie industry is going to lose the “all you can eat” TV cable distribution model. In other words, they’re going to move from a buffet where you pay a high entry price with thousands of alternatives but none of them very appealing, to a restaurant model where you order, and pay for, only what you want.

Had a play with one on Saturday morning in the store… Was very impressed actually. Seems quite snappy compared to the old one and the Netflix app worked pretty damn well. They had three on the shelves… If I can get one I might pick one up at the weekend.

I purchased THREE of them, hour one, day one.

Expected them to be allllllhhhhh OK, or about that.

Now I have 2 high end TiVo’s with internet, ROKU box, and an internet capable Blu-Ray with Netflix and all, so I have some basis for comparison.

Anyway, my expectations for AppleTV were VERY VERY low. I basically expected another toy thing.

BUT….

.... it has blown me away, despite being a streaming Netflixer from the VERY FIRST DAY you could have that on ROKU, yeah, I buy them all on day one, for marketing purposes, and have it on two other boxes as well….

... NETFLIX on AppleTV is like another entirely new experience. The interface is WONDERFUL, the menu’s are intuitive, geeorgous and I use it with REMOTE both on the iPad and iPodTouch and it is nice, even the included remote clicker is subtly upgraded from the previoius aluminum one they sold with the desktops for $19.

I can see where this is going, add in GAMES, and your iPad or iPodTouch as the controller, with the hosted games at the datacenter, for multiplayer action, and to extend the usefulness, add in AirVideo app, {a MUST HAVE app for anyone with videos and a iPad } and a few others, and you have ANOTHER GAME CHANGER.

I believe they are downplaying this one right now, because the GAMECENTER isn’t ready, nor is the server farm in North Carolina.

Trust me, this is 2011’s *iPAD* blockbuster, and almost no one in the media has gotten that message yet.

BUY ONE TODAY, see what I mean, it is only $99, so you owe it to yourself as a “marketing tester tool.”

I have a slogan, “Let my AAPL stock pay for all my APPLE TOYS!” So far that has worked out like a charm.

TanToday - 12 October 2010 09:26 PM

I can see where this is going, add in GAMES, and your iPad or iPodTouch as the controller, with the hosted games at the datacenter, for multiplayer action, and to extend the usefulness, add in AirVideo app, {a MUST HAVE app for anyone with videos and a iPad } and a few others, and you have ANOTHER GAME CHANGER.

I believe they are downplaying this one right now, because the GAMECENTER isn’t ready, nor is the server farm in North Carolina.

I’ll admit I’m intrigued with the possibilities and the potential. I plan to buy one in November when AirPlay becomes available.

We have a second home (“the cabin” in the woods). TV is limited to basic cable or the dish. We added wifi a year ago when the cable company finally ran the line out that far so we could get some work done up there.

Bought an Apple TV as soon as they became available. Didn’t know what to expect from “the hobby”, but thought I could plug it into the 23 inch HDTV at the cabin and get SOME entertainment value out of it.

Wow.

The spouse and I quickly realized we come to the cabin to enjoy nature and RELAX. Don’t want the news….don’t want the chattering weatherman. We can get that kind of thing through our Ipads or Pcs.  When the TV is on what we want is entertainment of our choosing.

The Apple TV is perfect. The interface is easy to use and very intuitive…Like all apple products, it just works…like you expect it to.  Netflix streaming is simple, and the output is excellent.

After a couple weekends of this we are actually discussing dropping the cable and just using the Apple TV as “the content provider” for the TV. Certainly much more to come through this little device in the months ahead…..For 99 bucks, what a deal.

Not having had the earlier version of Apple TV, I was not sure quite what to expect or how I would use it….but now I “get it” and I can see so much more that will be coming (games, apps, more content…..). Yum.

Ordered the aTV2 in early Sept from Amazon. Just arrived on Tuesday (over one month backordered).  Replaced the aTV1 and did the setup in about 20 minutes. Much faster than the old one. I had configured the original with a 500gb external drive to sync all my media for local playback without needing to have a computer on all the time.  With the aTV2 requiring a computer to stream, there is a spinning pinwheel waiting for the buffer. Music seems to buffer much faster when selecting multiple speakers with airplay, but video still takes between 5 and 15 seconds to get buffered (full ‘n’ network, aTV2 requires ‘g’ for video streaming).  The home sharing feature makes more sense now - all i/a devices/software now recognize each other automatically without pairing, basically bonjour for media equipment. AirPlay works really well for sending synced audio to one or more playback devices (same as before, just tweaked a bit).  I think the remote aps are a little more complicated to use with the new aTV2, but it might just be my learning curve.

Netflix is a killer ap for this hardware, fast intuitive interface - better than their web site for sure. If a future update adds HULU and network-specific playback “channels” (i.e. the iPad ABC ap, and?) the $99 will be a great bargain.  Right now we maintain a mac mini in the TV stand for streaming network shows, HULU, and viewing anything flash.  The mac mini also plays regular DVDs and holds all the media that might get streamed to the aTV2 sitting right next to it.  Seems like overkill, but the computer is not going away. The aTV2 will sell a lot of mac minis, eventually.

I don’t know if I can convince anyone to buy the aTV2 - I’m not even convinced to keep it over the aTV1. I’m annoyed that the aTV2 won’t sync with my universal remote, which only does single button press pulses, not continuous as required by the aTV2 in order to pair. The faster interface, web streaming (with possible updates coming) and futureproofing my rig will probably earn it a dedicated input on the TV. But I miss the fully synced media library, analog jacks for backwards compatibility, and complete integration with the remote aps as a dedicated device.

Just bought one for a Christmas gift for my future son-in-law, just in case they are backlogged to far. The local store is sold out.
APPLE TV-USA
$99.00
Ships: 5 - 7 business days
Delivers Oct 22 - Oct 28 by Standard Shipping
Part Number: MC572LL/A