Apple Enters Media Center Domain 241
An anonymous reader writes "CNN has a story up describing Apple's new media center concept. The software takes on a classic Apple approach: simplicity. 'The program, called Front Row, lets you listen to music, watch videos, play DVDs and display photos from a distance with a few clicks of a lighter-sized, six-button remote control.'" More details available from ThinkSecret.
Installing Frontrow on any system (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Or.... (Score:5, Informative)
The news is in the second link... the article on thinksecrets.com
Basically the news is that Apple will be letting users stream purchased content from .mac iDisk drives - including full length movies.
I still can't decide if this is a good idea or not... this model has its advantages, but it most certainly has its disadvantages as well.
read the link! (Score:5, Informative)
Trade Mark (Score:4, Informative)
I think NTL might have something to say about this name in the UK. Their pseudo-VoD system over cable is called Front Row.
Re:read the link! (Score:5, Informative)
Hence, "Apple Enters Media Center Doman" is a story about a product which has been out for months, with a link to wild speculation about What It All Means.
Without the redundant link to a useless Front Row review to make the headline kinda-sorta factual, you would be left with the far-less interesting story, "Another Rumor Going Around About Mac Media Centers."
Lame.
Re:Or.... (Score:5, Informative)
Basically the speculation is that Apple might be letting users stream purchased content from
Fixed.
Re:About time (Score:3, Informative)
One thing that bugs me is the fact that you're stuck with their display.
So hacksaw it off already. It supports a second display (mirrored). Or you could just wait till they release the new towers and minis and buy one of them and a display of your choice.
Clarity (Score:4, Informative)
Just to clarify this submission for people... it contains two, unrelated links. The first is a CNN article about FrontRow and is old news. The second is speculation on a rumor site about the new version of the mac mini and how Apple will tie in a new video service that is largely inferior to what they are offering now, via iTunes, and that will not work with the new iPods video capabilities. The whole thing sounds rather suspect to me.
Re:Or.... (Score:3, Informative)
So front row is all i need for my living room media center thing. And a bigger screen. Those apple cinema screens look nice.
Re:read the link! (Score:4, Informative)
Every time I think that the completely uninformed Apple-bashing posts have gone away, someone like this pops up like an annoying ad.
Macs come with neat software that lets you hook old and new machines together via FireWire and migrate all your old stuff over with a couple of clicks.
Macs have done this for a long time, actually. It's called FireWire disk mode. The migration software is pretty new - I think it was introduced quietly a couple of years ago - but Apple knows that most of their customers are upgrading from one Mac to another and designed this feature to make that task easier.
What's more, every time you purchase music from iTunes, you get a reminder to Back Your Shit Up(TM). Unfortunately, Apple can't do this for you yet - people do still need to take the initiative and be responsible for preserving the stuff they paid money for.
Re:read the link! (Score:3, Informative)
God damn. Are you being intentionally obtuse?
Your itunes songs work on up to five CPUs...any of which can be deauthorized from any machine running iTunes.
Please, PLEASE try and do a little research before spouting ignorance. Yes, the files are DRMed. No, it's not the fucking end of the world odious DRM. In fact, it's pretty damned fair as far as I'm concerned. I have four machines, and they can all play the songs I bought from iTunes. If I buy a new computer, I can deauthorize one of the four authorized ones and authorize the new CPU all by myself.
You really believed that Apple would make you rebuy all your music when you get a new machine? Geez.
I'd buy it.. (Score:4, Informative)
If Apple put out a mini that came with Front Row and included the remote, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It would replace my DVD player and I'd get an EyeTV and replace my TiVo as well. I was actually thinking of buying a mini for precisely this purpose, but I'm hesitant to do it without a decent remote control and portal (i.e., Front Row). The beauty of the mini is it's a sub-$600 computer with no frills and takes up next to no space. If they married it to Front Row, they'd easily steal the entry-level (which is, honestly, where average Joe Consumer is) from Windows Media Center, which last I checked, required a behemoth $1000+ PC and is not as simple as FrontRow.
Re:Or.... (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't even dream of using one of today's Minis as an HDTV PVR. I got so frustrated with mine that I sold it.
You must not have used enough RAM.
In spite of what the EyeTV box specs say, I used a Mac mini 1.42 as an HDTV PVR from the month that they came out, and it worked like a champ.
The only reasons I finally upgraded to a G5 tower (just a couple weeks ago) were 1: Decompressing large H264 files on the fly without frame drops, and 2: Better performance when playing games like World of Warcraft.