Google and Apple Finally Teaming Up?

nieske writes "Rumors are spreading about Google and Apple teaming up to form a video alliance. Google might provide streaming video content for Apple's upcoming iTV, which was revealed in last week's Apple event. The only thing that seemed to be missing in the iTV preview was streaming video, and with Google's Eric Schmidt on the Apple board of directors, this alliance might actually not be so far-fetched."

Poo Pooing ITV

Lots of people dismiss this product, but the kicker for me is that its priced so I can put one in each room with a TV, instead of a PC beside each TV.

Imagine watching Youtube on your bigscreen... (on the other hand, with that crappy video, perhaps not).

Re:Poo Pooing ITV

That's the situation NOW, but give it ten years and we may have all the bandwidth necessary to stream hi-res. The technology's still in its infancy, really.

Re:Poo Pooing ITV

First of all, that's a really horrible design considering how stiff coaxial cables are -- I can easily imagine that thing either pulling out or snapping off it's USB port, especially if you use it with a laptop (as pictured).

Does that happen? I've never, ever broken any of my USB ports, even though I routinely plug and unplug peripherals, especially for my laptop.

Second, what I'm surprised nobody has made is a TV tuner designed to stack under the Mini (like all those external hard drives, etc.).

If you go back to the Elgato Web site, you'll see they offer a half a dozen different PVRs, including several designed to stack under a mac mini. I bought one of these years ago and it has happily been storing my TV shows since, including easy archiving to DVD. It isn't perfect, but it is pretty darn good.

Re:Poo Pooing ITV

The iTV is nothing more than a Media CP extender. You still need to have the main system that captures the audio/video or handles the DVDs. The iTV lacks a tuner card and DVD player. While you can put one of these in every room of your house that has a TV, you wouldn't get the same functionality as a Media PC in every room of your house with a TV.

What exactly is an iTV?

Does anybody know what exactly the iTV is based on? Is it based on a special edition of OSX (akin to Windows MCE), a new real-time OS based on Darwin/xnu, Quartz, Cocoa and QuickTime (though lacking large chunks of OSX which are irrelevant), the iPod RTOS, or something else?

Bandwidth?

Back of napkin maths...

My MythTV box in the UK consumes about 1.4 GB of data per hour of programme. That equates to about a 400kbit/second bandwidth requirement to be able to stream broadcast quality standard definition video (I think? Can anyone confirm that?). So basically I'd need at least a 4Mbit ADSL/Cable connection to stream video in real time and that's without enough of an overhead to ensure a 99.9% free picture.

What resolution did they say the iTV was running at? If I download a film from iTunes, what resolution is it? 640x480? That's a fair bit less than PAL. Maybe they could use a different codec to squeeze some more performance out of it, but it seems that the bandwidth requirements are pretty high right now...

The problem is that my dad, for example, expects the TV to work, when he turns it on, all the time. If he turns on his TV and gets some "buffering" messages up, he's going to take the thing back to the shop and tell the guy that sold it to him that "it doesn't work properly"...

Anyone else think that streaming TV is just not ready yet? I'd say we need another couple of years at least...

Re:Bandwidth?

Anyone else think that streaming TV is just not ready yet? I'd say we need another couple of years at least...

Honestly, I think _quality_ streaming TV is just a pipe dream. As we introduce new TV standards, such as HD, we increase the size and standard of "Normal". With Normal going higher and higher, is it feasible to think that the web will catch up? Will Normal even plateau? I'm not sure, but I venture to say "No"

Speculation of course

While this item is pure speculation it is at least interesting. I'm unclear why Apple needs Google to stream video though. I don't see the win-win scenario for either. A more interesting idea is presented by Bob Cringley (http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060914 .html [pbs.org]). And yes an Apple TV with iTV built in is a great idea and will happen.

Huh?

From TFA:
"It's not hard to imagine a Gapple iTV that that would not only allow you to consume media files on your home theater system, but also stream television content and display relevant advertisements from Google..."

Let's see, iTV plays movies, TV shows and music I buy from the iTunes music store, why do I need Google? To show me targeted ads? No thanks.

"...especially since this device requires a network to do anything useful."

Yeeeaaahhh.... I have broadband just like all the other people the iTV will be made for. What the hell is he talking about? My computer needs a network to do anything useful. My cell phone needs a network to anything useful.

Another crappy blog to ignore.

So is this...

meaningful or YAGAAR (Yet Another Google-Apple Alliance Rumor)?

Al Gore is on the Board too... But you don't see

Apple isn't teaming up with Phillip MOrris or US Tobacco to make iSmoke or anything like that. And Karl Rove still loves his Apple Powerbook. Just saying that's all.

benefit

I don't see why the cable companies would allow this. It just would be too easy for them to give inconsistent access to this. This would allow the telcos to finally strike back at the cable companies. I could see Bellsouth packaging thier DSL extreme with ITV.

yay

Another slashdot story about a team-up that is not beyond the realm of feasible possibility.

Hooray.

-stormin

Dumb, dumb, dumb rumor...

This is a particularly dumb example of classic "slap-2-big-names-together" rumor production. All Apple really has going for it in it's negotiations with the studios is that they, Apple, are the experts when it comes to online distribution. Why in the name of God would they blow that by being seen to defer to Google?

Coming up the Stretch.. (Microsoft... *GASP*

From what i hear and see in Job Postings,
M$ is working on something similar..

http://www.microsoft.com/tv/IPTVImpact.html [microsoft.com]

Just my 2 cents.

Possible TV content?

I wonder if they'd be able to leverage the partnership Google has with Current TV. I find myself actually watching Current a suprising amount. Some of the stuff is quite interesting and it could definately stand wider distribution/attention.

ITV

I'm not sure if the name ITV is already trademarked, as there's a long established TV station in the UK called ITV [itv.com], which stands for Independent TeleVision.

Gapple?

or maybe Goople?

OK, it's probably about entertainment...

...But who cares? The thing I want to know most about this alliance is Steve Ballmer's response.

Now that would be entertaining.

Maybe, but doubtfull

This might be true, but it sounds like more fake Apple rumors. Keeping in mind the fact that 90% of Apple rumors are completely unbased, look at the holes in this rumor.

First, Google Video is great, but its video quality is nothing special. The video is very highly compressed and encoded in to a Macromedia Flash container. The result is a very very lossy conversion prosses. Herein lies the problem. Google video's quality is perfect for free PC content, but for TV?? The trend lately is heavily towards HDTV and better, not worse. I for one would NEVER play anything on my television that was below antenae quality (if that).

The second hole here is, if not for Google Video software, what is Google providing here?? The servers and bandwidth? That does not make any sense because Google is not an ISP. So maybe its the content? Nope. Apple has MUCH more mature ties with the media conglomerates than Google does. This is due to their past relations relating to the iTunes store and especially close ties with Disney (recently) and Pixar. Apple.

So, sorry to burst the all of your bubbles, but the only thing Google has to offer Apple that we know of is: Advertisements and Phd's. How streaming TV with advertisements can generate enough revenue to work, I don't know... but maybe thats what Google's Phd's have figured out. Lets just wait and see...

Timing's off

I'll safely call this rumor until further notice. The addition of Eric Schmidt to the Apple board is strategic, but not necessarily linked to iTV. After all, iTV has probably been in development for a year or more, Schmidt's only been on the board a few weeks. Perhaps his appointment was quid pro quo for an ongoing (and heretofore secret) development alliance between the two companies, but I don't think so.

I'll believe it when...

I'll believe it when...

I read about it on the Fake Steve Jobs Blog. [blogspot.com]

A Small Spat

But will it be iTV or gTV at that point?

Or just split the difference and call it hTV

The Future

I am from the future Google is not supposed to ally with either Apple or microsoft. Google will be a standalone thing in the future making its own OS and becoming sooo successful that it will buy apple n microsoft to establish a monopoly!! Google CEOs will have enough money to buy several contries. Dont worry guys... alliance is impossible... unless google is like stalin, allying with competitors and then getting rid of them... it'll be kool to see google do that.

Oh the Humanity

The true question is if the Earth is a large enough mass to contain the resulting Fanboy pride. Two perfect entities, merging together into something better than perfection? The mind cannot retain its sanity in the fact of such truth, anymore than it can gaze upon the face of God.

Whole religions were started for less my mortal brethren.

matchmaking in the 21st century

Dear Apple and Google,

Everyone loves you and thinks you'd be a good match for each other. So please get together, if for no other reason than quelling these "will-they-or-won't-they" rumors that keep cropping up.

Stay safe,
VJ

Logical Step

If Google is happy to team up with the Chinese government, than the least they could do is get in bed with the big DRM pushers.

"We aim to organise the world's information... and then ruthlessly suppress it."

Trademarked?

I think ITV [itv.com] might have some reason to complain about that product name

What happened to Akamai?

I thought Apple had dumped unpteen jillion dollars in akamai [macobserver.com] back in 1999, and akamai was going to be doing all the back end for Apple.

What does Google got that Akamai ain't got, other than courage?

HH

What makes the hottentot hot?

Streaming TV

In Hong Kong, we already have streaming broadband pay TV [nowbroadbandtv.com] provided over a standard 6-8Mbit DSL connection. Apparently they will be upgrading to HD in the near future. I am not sure if this will coincide with a network upgrade to ADSL2 or something. This has nothing to do with the iTV, but it shows that streaming tv over broadband networks does work. -------- www.ephix.net

Re:One more

Should they merge what would the new company be called? Gootenple? Goopledo? Ningoople?

Re:Good to see google slowing down

Any apple project is 15 years from conception to delivery.

I guess that means any Microsoft project takes 30 years from theft to aborted delivery.

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Re:Apple iTV

I was about to say the exact same thing - especially when Apple kick up a fuss over anyone naming anything *pod.

Re:Good to see google slowing down

I guess that means they started the Newton Message Pad project in 1978, then, only two years after the company was founded... Or the iPod project in 1986, 5 years before the mp3 standard was adopted. Helluva chrystal ball they have over there in Cupertino, huh??? Turd.

Re:no streaming content?

He didn't say anything about it being HDTV. It was DVD Quality but DVDs are not HD. That is why there is the big Fuss about BluRay and HD-DVD.

Re:no streaming content?

The iTunes movies are DVD quality. The trailer Jobs showed *was* HD streaming, apparently, from their trailers website. I doubt many normal broadband connections will get the same speed as Jobs' demo setup, however.

Re:Apple iTV

But Apple will have to change its product's name: ITV...

Apple announced the iTV device as a preview of things to come. iTV is a product code name, not what it will be shipped/marketed as. This was practically the first thing they said about it.

Not quite

ITN is an internationally known British news organisation. You're right however that ITV does already exist, as a number of commercial British channels, and main rival to the BBC here in the UK.