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Apple Games Hardware

Apple's 2014 WWDC Keynote Will Be Streamed Live; Hopes For a Microconsole? 147

Posted by timothy from the apple-tv-plus dept.
SlappingOysters (1344355) writes "Grab It is reporting that Apple will stream its 2014 WWDC keynote live at 10am PST on June 2. The site speculates that a recent update to showcase title and previous keynote star Real Racing 3 could confirm a rumoured microconsole announcement. The App Store has seen a dramatic rise in the quality and frequency of AAA spin-off titles over the last year, giving Apple a good platform to make a move into this emerging space."
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Apple's 2014 WWDC Keynote Will Be Streamed Live; Hopes For a Microconsole? More

Apple's 2014 WWDC Keynote Will Be Streamed Live; Hopes For a Microconsole?

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  • Could confirm? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by FPhlyer ( 14433 ) on Sunday June 01, 2014 @02:26AM (#47139701) Homepage

    The site speculates that a recent update to showcase title and previous keynote star Real Racing 3 could confirm a rumoured microconsole announcement.

    Could confirm? Seriously... if it's still questionable then it is still unconfirmed.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Krojack ( 575051 )

      And cost 50-100% more than your current top priced console and only play games approved by the ghost of Steve Jobs.

  • Apple TV? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by steveha ( 103154 ) on Sunday June 01, 2014 @02:59AM (#47139761) Homepage

    Apple is known for limiting the number of different products. IMHO Apple is unlikely to ship a "microconsole" and continue to ship the Apple TV.

    Much more likely: the "4th generation" Apple TV, which will not only do everything an Apple TV does, but will also play games if you buy a controller.

    According to Wikipedia, the current Apple TV uses a single-core ARM chip. For gaming, Apple should put in a more powerful chip, which may imply a price hike. Perhaps Apple will continue to sell the current generation as a less-expensive model, for those who don't care about games.

    • bingo

      • I think iOS gaming is a real possibility on apple TV. Last year Apple opened up a framework for made-for-iphone bluetooth gamepads. they specified two layouts, the xbox 360 layout and the SNES layout. it's kind of silly to use these with an iPhone, but totally make sense to use them with apple tv. although from everything I hear there will be a new iOS 8 on Mon but no apple TV updates. I imagine it would happen in the fall, if it happens at all.

        from what I've heard, the iOS 8 and OS X.10 are a lock, and ma

        • But since it's the WWDC keynote, wouldn't it make sense to say something about a future game-able AppleTV box, so that games are ready when it launches? Maybe limited availability for registered devs?

        • Last year Apple opened up a framework for made-for-iphone bluetooth gamepads. they specified two layouts, the xbox 360 layout and the SNES layout. it's kind of silly to use these with an iPhone

          I don't see how the layouts are so silly. There are iPhone cases with buttons, and holding it horizontally makes the combination of phone and case look like an original GBA, PSP, or the bottom half of a Nintendo DS. The DS and PSP copy the Super NES's layout closely, and the GBA is the same thing minus two buttons. Other gamepads come as something to clamp onto the phone with the buttons at the bottom, which looks more like a GBA SP or NVIDIA SHIELD.

          • The controllers themselves are fine. I just think it's weird to hold a console controller and prop up your itty bitty phone on a table to play. Definitely not the console experience! Btdubs interesting stuff online about why the Mfi controllers are so expensive. One reason, in order to ensure controller quality apple specified that all manufacturers must source their buttons from just one source. Another reason is probably mad fees.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by unrtst ( 777550 )

              The controllers themselves are fine. I just think it's weird to hold a console controller and prop up your itty bitty phone on a table to play.

              I don't know about Apple products, but many other devices (ex. Samsung Galaxy S4 & S5) support MHL (basically a micro HDMI connection). A cheap cable lets me plug it into my home reciever, and it works great for netflix, sharing pictures/video, Karaoke, or games (I've used it for Real Racing 3 on a 110" projector screen).

              Add something like the chromecast, or intel's WiDi, and all that would be wireless, which certainly seems more in line with Apple's stuff. I have zero clue if anything like that is in t

              • With recent gen iPhones and iPads you can mirror the device to your screen with an appletv. So yes this is possible.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          It would be unusual to release a games console with no release day games for it. Sure, you can have iPhone/iPad games on there, but the resolution will require scaling to fit a TV. They might still do it, but if a console were in the works I'd expect developers to know about it already.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smash ( 1351 )
      Yup. The appletv is crying out for a controller - there are millions of iOS developers who would love to break into the home console market. The hardware is capable enough, it just needs the relevant gaming APIs. The fact that apple have recently done the game-related kits for iOS IMHO strongly suggests that gaming is definitely going to be more of a focus in future. A controller enabled AppleTV makes sense.

      • there are millions of iOS developers who would love to break into the home console market.

        Then why doesn't a small business that's been successful on Apple's App Store sign up as a PlayStation game developer? Sony Computer Entertainment has lately been courting indies in a way that would have been nigh unthinkable last generation.

      • Yup. The appletv is crying out for a controller

        Speaking of controllers, appletv is crying out for a fucking modern remote control like every other internet box has. Bluetooth connected (or whatever protocol, just not IR). My ps4 has a headphone jack on the controller itself, and it's fucking awesome. The appletv controller is always getting lost because it's the width of a credit card and slips beneath the couch cushions or wherever. I have better luck getting a woman than i have finding that thing. I like the roku controller a lot. Maybe I'll just ma

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by rthille ( 8526 )

          You mean you can't find the remote app on your iphone?

          • there's nothing that beats a tactile dedicated remote. the kind that your hand can use without you looking and without thinking too hard. volume up, volume down, change channels, play feed, whatever. the same way I'm typing on this keyboard but not looking at the keys. the iPhone app you have to take your eyes off the tv and look at it, then click on the button you're looking for, then go back to the tv. definitely not what I want. thanks for the snark though.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by rthille ( 8526 )

              Yeah, it was definitely snark. I've got a Harmony remote, and the AppleTV remote sits in the cabinet with the other random TV related stuff.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Speaking of controllers, appletv is crying out for a fucking modern remote control like every other internet box has. Bluetooth connected (or whatever protocol, just not IR). My ps4 has a headphone jack on the controller itself, and it's fucking awesome. The appletv controller is always getting lost because it's the width of a credit card and slips beneath the couch cushions or wherever. I have better luck getting a woman than i have finding that thing. I like the roku controller a lot. Maybe I'll just map

          • If ur SO can't operate your complicated setup then ur shits too complicated. One TV, one remote is all anyone needs. Presumably you have one of those nightmare Logitech do everything remotes that makes things "simple".

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              If ur SO can't operate your complicated setup then ur shits too complicated. One TV, one remote is all anyone needs. Presumably you have one of those nightmare Logitech do everything remotes that makes things "simple".

              Yes, because it does simplify stuff.

              The minimum remotes is 2 - cable box and TV. But then there's all the other stuff - you have game consoles (PS3, Xbox360, PS4, Xbone), Blu-Ray players, Rokus, etc.

              In fact, what simplifies it down is that they ALL connect to the A/V receiver, so the only TV c

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )

      For gaming, Apple should put in a more powerful chip, which may imply a price hike. Perhaps Apple will continue to sell the current generation as a less-expensive model, for those who don't care about games.

      Rewording slightly, since we are talking about buyers of Apple products::

      Apple could put in a more powerful chip, which may imply a price hike for those who don't care about overpaying.

      • Apple's most usual practice is to upgrade the processing power each year whilst keeping the price the same. Price changes usually come with different hardware form factors. And more often down than up.

      • The 3rd generation Apple TV has a more powerful chip than the 2nd generation model but the price didn't change. Since Apple uses the same Ax ARM CPU in almost all their iOS units, it's cheaper to just buy more of the same chip than to order half as much of two different chips.

        I'm expecting the next AppleTV box to use the same A8 CPU as the current top-of-the-line iPhone/iPad. This could explain the delay in releasing the new box.

    • iPhone or iPod touch may be the controller...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )
        Only if the iPhone or iPod touch itself has an MFI controller with actual buttons clamped to it. Touch doesn't do so hot when you aren't looking at your fingers.

  • Wonder why so relatively early in the year... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I am curious why Apple is having their WWDC convention in the early summer (before the Google I/O event even), when normally they are in the fall.

    If they announce a console, they should merge AppleTV and it, so one product does all the set top love in a residence. Maybe even add a Blu-Ray drive, so one only needs it and the TV.

    Other things that might be useful as Apple announcements:

    1: A security standard for devices, and more than just SSL or "just trust us". Apple upping the bar in the security arena w

    • Re:Wonder why so relatively early in the year... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Noah Haders ( 3621429 ) on Sunday June 01, 2014 @03:44AM (#47139839)

      I am curious why Apple is having their WWDC convention in the early summer (before the Google I/O event even), when normally they are in the fall.

      WWDC is always at the beginning of June. They will have a separate event in Sep where they in recent years have announced the new iPhone.

      If they announce a console, they should merge AppleTV and it, so one product does all the set top love in a residence. Maybe even add a Blu-Ray drive, so one only needs it and the TV.

      never happen, apple hates physical media. heck, they never supported blu ray in their MacBooks, and are now killing off physical media completely. besides, why would you need a blu ray player when you could just rent or buy from iTunes? :P

      • i think you guys totally missed his point. From apple's perspective, that's a lost sale.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Jack Griffin ( 3459907 )

      Maybe even add a Blu-Ray drive, so one only needs it and the TV.

      Why, so they can get all those people still stuck in 2008? No-one uses physical media anymore, why would anyone want an optical drive these days?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by amiga3D ( 567632 )

        Some people are slow to move on. I know people that actually read paper books too. If you watch flea markets there are still people that buy 8 track tapes. I remember when 8 track came out and it sucked then. Nothing like listening to a song and having the damn player change track right in the middle of it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )

        why would anyone want an optical drive these days?

        Because it's cheaper than moving your family out of a place with a slow and/or capped home ISP.

        • Just get an external drive if you want to party like its 2004. I bought a Sammy blu ray drive on amazon for thirty bucks.

      • No-one uses physical media anymore, why would anyone want an optical drive these days?

        Load disk. Play movie. Play extras.

        Flawless 1080p projection and full theater sound with Blu-Ray.

        Out of pocket expense for a Samsung Blu-Ray player with a mix of streaming media apps, $80.Samsung BD-F5700 Wi-Fi Blu-Ray Player (Black) [amazon.com]

    • apple will need to do more to get into enterprise. A real desktop / bigger mini will work if it's easy to get to storage (some enterprise place remove storage before shipping units out for any number of reasons) also need to be like HP, dell and others in where you can destroy / not return a failed HDD / SSD. Same thing for laptops

      AIO are nice but in enterprise the desktop + monitor is better.

      also an real server hardware and not the mac pro rack mounted.

      OR let mac os X server run on any hardware in a VM. Ma

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by smash ( 1351 )
        The mac mini is plenty for enterprise use, as is the MBA. The hardware is not the problem. It's the immaturity of enterprise management tools. No, macs don't need anywhere near as much IT management, but the enterprise will be slow to acknowledge that, and without proper enterprise management, they will not be readily accepted.

        • This is the one thing that makes me very sad at Apple.

          Their business focuses mostly not on business. I would love to see them change that, and do business right. They'd pose a credible threat to microsoft and we'd all benefit from the additional choice.

      • also an real server hardware and not the mac pro rack mounted.

        you know how many customers were pissed when apple cancelled the Xserve? Both of them.

        OR let mac os X server run on any hardware in a VM.

        Apple sells hardware and builds software so people have a reason to buy the hardware. Considering that OS X server is free, I don't think they'll be inclined to let you run it in a vm.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by SKorvus ( 685199 )

      >3: A rackable desktop/server. The only reason MS is existing is because of their presence in the enterprise. If Apple can get into this market, even a bit, it is a stable income base.

      Did you forget about these? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X... [wikipedia.org]

      Apple discontinued them 4 years ago, after a 10-year effort, presumably because they weren't making much headway. I was disappointed, because I agree they should be pushing into the enterprise market as well. But their revenue overwhelmingly comes from consumer de [brandongaille.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rthille ( 8526 )

      Re: #3

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X... [wikipedia.org]

      No one sees any reason to pay for the beautiful Apple gear in a server room. Plus, I'm not sure that OSX is really server grade at this point.

  • What is the point of this story? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Sunday June 01, 2014 @03:26AM (#47139805)

    I normally don't like looking at Apple Rumor sites at all, or reading about them.

    But a story like this seems REALLY pointless. What on earth is the point of publishing the story days before we know for sure what will happen? Just so people can swagger in with last minute "guesses" that hardly count because of last minute leaks?

    Much better to discuss the meaning or use of what actually is to come, rather than some possibility which will be potentially dissipated in mere days.

    In other words, let the cat at least settle down in the box before you open it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bogtha ( 906264 )

      What on earth is the point of publishing the story days before we know for sure what will happen?

      That's nothing. In previous years, Slashdot has quite happily published stories about Apple products while the presenters were still on stage announcing them. Hence the discussion is useless because everybody is talking about things that are shown to be irrelevant five minutes later and the stories invariably leave a bunch of things out, necessitating updates and subsequent articles. It's a real clusterf

  • of Apple's cultural bankruptcy. Jobs died and they haven't come up with ANYTHING of importance. He's been gone for almost 3 years. He wasn't that active the last year or so, so technically he's been out of the picture for almost 5. Apple needs to do something big and smart. I don't see that happening with Cook at the helm. They could do something small and smart, like PUT COVER FLOW BACK INTO ITUNES. But I don't think that will happen. I think they'r just going to minimax themselves into triviality.

    • Re:just another confirmation (Score:5, Insightful)

      by smash ( 1351 ) on Sunday June 01, 2014 @07:45AM (#47140331) Homepage Journal
      Why is this allegation constantly leveled at Apple? What have Samsung done? What has Google done? Fact is, revolutionary hardware or software doesn't come around very often. If Apple are doing such a poor job, what is your suggestion?

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The point is that "doing something revolutionary" was Apple's Business Model and how they were able to maintain their high prices and also their "followship".
        What Jobs managed like no second was waiting for the right moment and then shipping the technology with a near perfect UI. He did not ship products "when they were possible" but when they were "possible to make elegant".
        He was not the first on the market of computers (Mac), MP3 players or Smartphones or webshops. But he waited long enough until he coul

        • Doing the same thing with what we call "TV" is hard as hell, because you have a labyrinth of contracts and obligations between multiple levels of writers, producers, distributors, giant media corporations and all of these are different per country.

          In short, it's not a technological barrier that Apple can easily solve, because it's a bureaucratic problem.

          • Apple's iTunes division could work around studio bureaucracy the same way Netflix did: vertical integration. Invest in a TV studio to produce original programming. Or what am I missing?

            • a TV studio to produce original programming.

              Original, in the sense of a remake of a TV series that was based on a novel in the first place.

            • "Invest in a TV studio to produce original programming."

              You are thinking much too small

              Comcast/NBCUniversal has a market cap of ~$135 billion. Apple has $160 billion cash on hand.

              Apple could stage a hostile takeover of the largest media company in the world and any financing would be out of convenience, to avoid repatriation of foreign earnings, etc.

              • Apple could stage a hostile takeover of the largest media company in the world

                If that happens, national competition regulators could probably stage a hostile takeover of Apple.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by smash ( 1351 )

          No. Apple's business model is "don't build bargain basement crap". It just so happens that now and again, those "not bargain basement crap" items end up being groundbreaking, because plenty of other companies get to market first with garbage, or don't see the market at all.

          Apple's prices haven't been high for a good 6-7 years or more now. Yes, i'm aware you can buy a laptop for $250. It's garbage. The trackpad will suck, the screen will suck, the OS will suck, etc. I've yet to use a PC laptop (and

    • Don't worry they have Dr Dre now! He's like the black Steve jobs.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Karlt1 ( 231423 )

      2001 - iPod
      2003 - iTunes Music Store
      2007 - iPhone
      2008 - the App store.
      2010 - iPad

      Apple introduced 5 products/services to change an industry in 10 years. I'm not even sure that the iPod by itself should be considered industry changing before the Itunes Music Store nor am I sure where the iPhone would have been without the app store. I'm more inclined to say....

      2003 - iTunes Music Store+iPod
      2008 - iPhone + app store
      2010 - iPad

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smash ( 1351 )
      So, now i've seen the keynote.... how does a new programming language, automatically synced application state between devices and seamless use of mobile network for calling from your mac strike you? Does any other company offer anything similar? No, thought not.

  • I sure as hell didn't need them to go to Apple.com [apple.com] to see the banner at the bottom of the home page, which leads to this page [apple.com] which clearly tells us about the live streaming tomorrow.

  • I think the article screwed up here.
    From the article:

    "Party Play allows four friends to connect via BlueTooth controllers to an iPad, enabling local splitscreen multiplayer. Take your iPad out to your flatscreen TV with a HDMI adaptor and bingo, the Apple microconsole has arrived."

    So the iPad is the microconsole, and you can ALREADY DO THIS.

    The iPad can mirror anything to a TV using HDMI, and the iPad can already do MFi controllers, so there is NOTHING NEW HERE.

  • Is "emerging space" a synonym for "didn't go anywhere?" As it stands, there is the Ouya, which is dying, a bunch of android consoles dying on the vine, and a Playstation Vita TV, which hasn't caught on enough in Japan to bother shipping elsewhere. As it stands, the only microconsole-like object that is doing OK is Chromecast, and that has nothing to do with games.

  • We will get apologies from the people that reported on bullshit unfounded rumors that turn out to have no relation to anything Apple was actually going to release.

    No, I've never been right before. Why do you ask?

  • Screw that. I want an iPad, the size of a coffee table book, with an iOS 5 or 6 style GUI.

    Of course, there is that snowball's chance in hell, but I seriously expect that Ive will continue to destroy the Mac and iOS GUI.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wovel ( 964431 )

      Seems much improved in 8. Been playing with it for a while and the more consistent fonts make the flat interface much better.The ios 8 beta feels much more polished than ios 7.1.1

  • Literally the only thing I care about from this WWDC is the role Andre Young will be playing as an Apple employee. As long as he's drawing an Apple paycheck, they won't get another penny from me for anything. As far as I'm concerned, the guy is a misogynist and a homophobe. His presence is an insult to every female, gay and lesbian employee there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wovel ( 964431 )

      I think he is actually dead in Eminem's basement so your all good. I heard it on the radio.

  • Ah, what is actually the difference between a microconsole and a smarthphone? Ah, yeah, the name... so that Apple fanboys buy two devices that do exactly the same and spent double as much money. Well thought! And by next year the Giga-iphone: A giant 4K screen that you can also use to watch TV!!! AWESOME

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