Apple TV to be a Centrally Controlled P2P Network?

Rolgar writes "PBS' Bob Cringely theorizes that since the Apple TV will be an always-on device with a 40GB hard drive, Apple may move to content distribution via a P2P network. The ISPs will incur higher bandwidth locally, possibly lose some subscribers to cable TV, but have fewer costs through the Tier II Internet backbone providers. Bob also expects that Google will be involved with their fiber network and advertising expertise, and my hope is that they'll bundle in YouTube content as well. The article suspects that they won't get around to announcing the full details of this plan until they hit a half million units or more, and that this Apple and Google pairing will become the equivalent of a cable TV provider with almost none of the infrastructure costs. Eventually, he hopes, we'll see a real HD revolution from Apple and Google for this service." If Apple rolled something like this out to the service, would you bite on it? What would it take you to move to this over Tivo or MythTV?

I'm paying for distribution now, too?

[Erwos (553607)]

Why should I waste my bandwidth on distributing Apple's movies and music for them?

Re:

[mtec (572168)]

Perhaps for a potential discount on movies?

Re:

[Lord_Dweomer (648696)]

This comment keeps popping up in these types of discussions but unless the company gives a rate for a direct download, and then provides a discounted rate for the P2P download, how are we, the customers, able to confirm that we are indeed getting a discount on what we download? How do we know they are not just pocketing the savings as profit? The problem is there is not sufficient transparency in this equation, and when I'm using my bandwidth that I pay for to support the business of some company, then I

Re:I'm paying for distribution now, too?

[Maury Markowitz (452832)]

You give credits on the online store for "uploads". Say 1 penny per MB (or whatever). Feed 20 songs @ 5 MB, get $1, buy a song for "full price". What could be more transparent than that?

Re:I'm paying for distribution now, too?

[Random Destruction (866027)]

I'm pretty sure getting paid to send data would be against my (and most others') TOS

Re:

[Daniel_Staal (609844)]

This is just one idiot columnist, with a poor track record of predicting Apple's decisions, saying what he thinks Apple should do.

Of course, if Apple had listened to him in the past they'd either be another PC manufacutrer, or just plain bankrupt.

My tag for this article is 'makingstuffup'. That's all he's doing. Don't attach anything in this article to Apple, as if they support, endorce, or have even considered it. They haven't, as far as we know.

better than ... how?

[jamienk (62492)]

How is this better than the following workflow (which is what many do now, and more will do soon):

* Find content on the Internet or other places (via whatever means)

* Download/aquire (again, however you need to)

* Watch on your TV (via any network-attached device or stand-alone DVD player that supports lots of codecs and can be controlled with a remote)

The only things outlined in TFA that differs from this is

* What is available is controlled by some bullshit companies who will have your worst interest at heart

* You have to watch ads

* You have to pay for downloads

* Apple and Google spy on you

Er, um ... no thanks!

Re:better than ... how?

[siegesama (450116)]

Because some people wouldn't mind getting their movies legally. You realize you've stepped far, far out of fair use, right? If you want to rip your own movies, fine, but that's not at all what you just suggested. Apple is at the head of that "updated business and distribution model" that everyone has been harping on about for a while now.

Re:

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF (813746)]

How is this better than the following workflow...* Watch on your TV (via any network-attached device or stand-alone DVD player that supports lots of codecs and can be controlled with a remote)

Currently most people don't have an easy way to perform this step. Most people do not have their computer connected to their TV. Geeks like us do, normal people don't. Most people don't want to burn a DVD or VCD every time they want to watch something. Apple's device is a way to connect the computer to the TV, witho

iTunes CAN do DivX

[alexhmit01 (104757)]

iTunes plays anything that is in Quicktime Format, and Quicktime will happily store MPEG-4 video. Once you install the DivX Codec for Quicktime (a free download), you can play your DivX movies in Quicktime. All you have to do is save the new file with the Quicktime wrapper (that stores the meta-information) and copy it into iTunes. Remember, Quicktime is Apple's media playing system. The Quicktime Player is just a small front-end for playing Quicktime moves (on Mac), or an embedded Quicktime + Player fo

"Bob"?

[The Bungi (221687)]

Has everybody forgotten "Cringely" just a pen name for Mark Stephens?

Re:

[Panaflex (13191)]

Fraud is a bit harsh - assumung your speaking of his "PhD" here which he explains in the slashdot interview: [slashdot.org] I think he misrepresented the facts... when you're a PhD candidate often people assume PhD, and he didn't correct everyone he ran into. It's his fault of course - but nevertheless it's not as if he "bought" a degree online or something of that nature.

Cringely:

Of course this is a long story, but the compressed version is that I did every bit of my PhD including the paper and the defense. Coming out

Simple.

[Rob T Firefly (844560)]

What would it take me to move to this over MythTV? Let's see... it'd have to be FOSS by people who aren't entangled in various dealings with all the media companies, it'd have to run on Linux, and it'd have to be something I could tweak to my needs and system specs without too much trouble.

Basically, it'd have to be MythTV.

Re:Simple.

[sabinm (447146)]

I hear you. But MythTV is a pain to setup. FOSS and all, but if I can't get grabber info reliably outside of the U.S., then I'm not interested. I set up a MythTV (went with knoppmyth) and then went to actually download settings from my cable, to find out they don't have XML grabber in my country. Don't even think about 'Zap2It'. So because I didn't have grabber info, it wouldn't allow me to watch tv?!? No option to enter the channels in manually, huh? No, MythTV is still just a myth. I don't watch my cable TV as it is. If apple and google can offer the tv shows (and they do) and interactive data on a three hundred dollar box that works with me pressing the 'on' button, with RSS feeds replacing XML grabbers for show listings and recordings, then THAT is the Mythical convergence I'm looking for. And no, don't tell me that MythTV is just not mature yet and to wait. This is TV, not heart surgery. I don't have the inclination to wait for features that have been implemented on my TV for the past 25 years.

Suddenly it doesn't seem like such a waste

[Maury Markowitz (452832)]

$299 for a 720p (only) display extender? Meh.

$299 for a 24/7 torrent node that replaces a PVR? Hmmm.

I'd buy THAT for $299.

Re:

[Nerdfest (867930)]

A 40 Gig disk doesn't go very far towards replacing a proper PVR, unless it's expandable.

Leave TiVo? No Way

[Crispin Cowan (20238)]

They can have my TiVo when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

Apple TV, from all the reports I've read, sounds spectacularly weak. I don't expect it to ever succeed.

Conjecture: "Apple TV" is the Newton of Apple's play into the convergence market. A cute idea, nice try, but they totally blew it. Apple will likely go back to the lab and come out with something that doesn't suck so much, just as they did with the iPod.

Crispin

Not a replacement for Tivo

[tattood (855883)]

The iTV is not meant to be a replacement for Tivo, at least by my understanding. Essentially what it is, is the same thing that the AirportExpress does. It allows you to stream the movies/TV shows from your PC (using iTunes) to your nice big TV instead of your computer monitor. It doesnt have a built-in tuner, so you can't watch live TV. I was really excited about it when I first saw it, but then realized that it's not a DVR.

Obviously hasn't seen Apple's presentations

[ironring2006 (968941)]

The basis of the article title, wondering what the 40GB HD is doing, is easily answered if you watched the Apple keynote. The AppleTV, while has the ability to stream from any device on the network, is primarily more intended to be used like an iPod, syncing your latest tv shows/movies, etc. from your main computer that you would usually use to get your new content. Heck, the AppleTV is even listed as part of the iPod store option. Since its always on, it can do the syncing constantly and becomes more network connection agnostic. You don't have to worry about your wireless connection crapping out in the middle of a stream if you've got what you want to watch already on the HD. That along with standard buffering/cache/OS stuff, is all I see the HD being for.

If Apple really wanted to put out a p2p distribution node, an easier solution would be to just release it as an update to iTunes. Then they aren't limited to only the AppleTV nodes.

P2P buzzword swarming

[Wesley Felter (138342)]

I think Cringely used the power of P2P to combine random buzzwords, product names, and company names faster than ever. Is there any evidence that this particular combination is actually likely to happen?

No SD output.

[acwork2 (267001)]

The thing that KILLS the Apple TV for me is the lack of SD output. I don't have an HDTV right now and don't plan on getting one anytime soon. I'd love to buy this but its few features aren't enough to convince me to buy an expensive TV that I have no need for otherwise. It would have been really simple to add a composite or s-vid out. Sure it wouldn't look quite as nice but it would open up their potential customer base but a large amount.

Stupidest troll EVER from Cringley

[TrentC (11023)]

The new Apple TV media extender is supposed to ship this month, perhaps even by the time you read this column, and if you are like me you are wondering what that 40-gig hard drive is doing inside. I'm guessing we won't know for sure until later this year [...]

...unless you listened to Jobs' Macworld Keynote or read the flurry of articles that flew around afterwards -- such as this Macworld article [macworld.com] -- in which case you would know that the AppleTV is a glorified video iPod that can be synced with iTunes like any other iPod. (Sorry, that's not technically true; apparently the AppleTV can sync over a wireless network connection.)

It will be interesting to hear Apple's explanation for the hard drive.

Is he seriously unaware of the purpose of the hard drive? Can he honestly not find the AppleTV page where they discuss how the AppleTV syncs with iTunes [apple.com]?

Or is this simply the most egregious example of not letting the facts -- easily-obtained facts, no less -- get in the way of his "secret answer"? I know these Cringely pieces are often light on substance and heavy on BS, but this in unbelievable...

Re:In Time & On...

[gladish (982899)]

The biggest problem I have with this new device is that it's only going to work with iTunes. I want to have a media distribution box (preferrably linux) streaming audio, video, and pictures to my tv and stereo. I don't want the vendor locking that apple is trying to accomplish. By the way, this is the stuff that makes me want to wear a tinfoil hat. The idea of google and apple teaming up to take over our living rooms by selling a little white box, all the while the only thing consumers are thinking of is when can I get one.

Re:In Time & On...

[mblase (200735)]

The biggest problem I have with this new device is that it's only going to work with iTunes. I want to have a media distribution box (preferrably linux) streaming audio, video, and pictures to my tv and stereo.

While I agree on geek principles, I don't see how a keyboardless box like the iTV would be able to connect to any streaming software source the user might have, at least not without a lot of PC-end configuration. That sort of thing completely trumps Apple's ease-of-use principle, which is practically the First Commandment of their business.

On the other hand, iTunes is free, and Quicktime supports plugins and can handle just about any codec you want (disclaimer: I'm a Mac user and I know firsthand that there's plenty of things VLC plays better). So for the average user there's little to complain about, and for the non-average geek there's better ways to do what iTV does without buying iTV at all.

Re:Depends on the features

[cayenne8 (626475)]

"I love my Tivo to death, and have it set up just the way I like it. "

I like my Tivo, and really love my MythTV box(es). My thoughts are...will be cool if they do this AND someone figures a way to adapt Myth so that it too can hook into this 'network' and be able to get content off it just like the AppleTV box.