Third-Generation Apple TV Lands With a Thud 222
DeviceGuru writes "Although generally overshadowed by the iPad 3 debut, Apple also introduced the third incarnation of its Apple TV streaming media players this week. Sporting a revamped icon-based UI, the third-generation Apple TV doesn't add much to its predecessor beyond a truly-HD 1080p video output mode. Although Apple TV is still not supported by an Apple Apps Store plug-in apps ecosystem, its new UI (available as a free update for 2nd-generation Apple TVs) does seem to imply that this capability is coming soon. Meanwhile, Roku is gearing up for a $50M IPO, so this cord-cutting story is far from over."
Dear Apple... (Score:5, Interesting)
Give it an app store so I can have Plex just like on my iPhone and iPad.
I promise to buy like 3 of them minimum.
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Exactly! Agree completely. That's the only reason I won't buy it and get rid of my HTPC
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I already bought one, although if it had an app store, I would buy another one immediately. I wish it also had Amazon Prime, and Hulu support, but that's obviously out of the question.
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...Roku has an app store, but there's something to be said about mirroring - ipad now, and this summer, your desktop.. so in reality, you will be able to get amazon and hulu via apple tv, by mirrioring your mac on your TV. you can already see some mirroring support in apps. one of the sky mapping apps (forget which one) only put the sky/stars on the TV, while the controls remain on the ipad. one of the real racing titles also puts the main view on the TV, but control elements remain on the ipad.
I have a rok
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You can put plex on the apple TV since 2010 or something.
Also check out:
http://firecore.com/atvflash-black [firecore.com]
I plan on buying an Apple TV this weekend. ;-}
It finally has 1080P which is what I have been waiting for as have a lot of other people.
The only thud is the thud of my cash in apples coffers.
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sounds like 1080p might not necessarily be all that - or it's not a gaurantee
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/03/new-itunes-1080p-looks-good-through-better-h264-compression.ars [arstechnica.com]
The reason that the 1080p versions of the iTunes Store videos can be a good deal better without doubling the file size—or worse—can be found in the tech specs of the new AppleTV and the new iPad. The AppleTV now supports H.264 compression for 1920x1080 resolution video at 30 frames per second using High or Main Profi
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...at which point you might as well just spend the $600 grand total on a Mac Mini instead. It's kind of sad to tie up another more expensive device just so you can have yet another one do the actual decoding. That's a 3 device chain because the iPad can't cut it either.
Nevermind the sad excuses. Just get something that is capable of doing the job. Plus you will be able to install any "app" or use any web based service (no Google lockout).
Just jailbreaking the ATV is a remarkably less pathetic option. Then y
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It's available. You just have to jailbreak it.
http://wiki.plexapp.com/index.php/PlexNine_Client_ATV [plexapp.com]
Why the negative headlines? (Score:5, Insightful)
It seems like all the headlines since CmdrTaco left have been really negative, misleading headlines. Do negative headlines really bring in that much more traffic? I stopped reading boing boing because of their terrible headlines, and it looks like Slashdot is headed down that route too.
I used to come here for my daily dose of news and interesting topics, now all the headlines are used to cast doubt on company's futures, failed products and missed deadlines.
I don't mind hearing about "Your Rights Online" and the negative aspects of SOPA, etc, but it's gotten to the point where slashdot is no longer that shining beacon of interesting, exciting NEWs. Why would you spin a minor product improvement (720p->1080p) as a negative headline? What do your readers get out of it? Does it really improve traffic that much? Slashdot goes from being interesting and standing out as a good source of news, to just another "me too" BoingBoing style blog. Please don't do that.
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Re:Why the negative headlines? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Why the negative headlines? (Score:5, Informative)
I agree with Hadlock. The editors are choosing the articles with negative spin more often. The same subject is often submitted multiple times by different people with different slants, yet the editors are picking out the negative articles more often than the positive ones even when the positive ones come out first.
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If editors are changing stories or headlines to give them a negative spin it will be simple to prove: just link to a firehose submission and the accepted story where it occurred.
Re:Why the negative headlines? (Score:5, Insightful)
It's an attempt at appealing to the smug, baseless superiority that everyone seems to want to get in on these days. And it's not all negative - stories about things that are "in" with the crowd but that others don't understand/get, like the Raspberry Pi, are being fawned over.
This attitude, then, leads to 2 basic themes that I've noticed: "We're better than everyone else because what they like we hate for various esoteric reasons, and we are always right", and "We're better than everyone else because we know about stuff that they don't, even though our own estimation of our knowledge is blown up out of proportion". Neither of these viewpoints tends to be based on logic.
And this isn't new. Slashdot's been going this way for years, well before Rob left. It's just more blatant now. Personally, I think it coincides with the rise of social media, with everyone thinking the world must hear and respect their opinions about even the most mundane things. But I have only anecdotal evidence to support that theory...
Re:Why the negative headlines? (Score:4, Interesting)
apple bashing is fine. this is a website with a freaking Borg icon for bill gates and a slant against other entities perceived to be against freedom (SCO, oracle etc.). crappy groupthink maybe but we're all intelligent and know to exercise critical judgement, and comments often show respect towards our "enemies". it's on slashdot that I learnt how much technically advanced and well integrated microsoft solutions are, or how apple succeeds by mostly giving their customers what they fucking want.
I didn't thought the headline was negative really. but that's because I didn't know what a "thud" was. so I'm pissed at the editor for using a very rare anglo-saxon word I've never seen anywhere :D.
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That is a bit of an anachronism, but it was entirely appropriate when it was made. We had no idea ten years ago that the Window monopoly was going to be breaking up within our lifetimes.
"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", first it was IBM, then Microsoft, now it's Apple. Don't get me wrong, I think Apple makes some pretty damn good products that have contributed hugely to progress, but they're just as much control freaks as the old boss. The only real change I believe in is that now there's Android which is open source, even though many lock it down there'll at least be an open platform for the mobile. As has been reported here, there'll be no dual booting/migrating a Windows ARM ph
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"Meet the new boss, same as the old boss", first it was IBM, then Microsoft, now it's Apple. Don't get me wrong, I think Apple makes some pretty damn good products that have contributed hugely to progress, but they're just as much control freaks as the old boss. The only real change I believe in is that now there's Android which is open source
The difference is: there's no longer a iron fist monopoly on the pc world. I can get a Mac as my computer at a significant percentage of employers- up from 0 ten years ago. Software companies have actually started writing osx apps. Windows may have lost mindshare, but it's in no way comparable to the situation I've dealt with for 25 years as a Mac user.
Mobile devices- apple doesn't even come close to having a monopoly. Android is very successful, and iProducts are better off for it.
Basically it sounds Ike y
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It hasn't broken up yet. last I checked, Windows was still on some 90% of desktops worldwide. And Microsoft's tactics haven't changed much, if anything they're more subtle and insidious now that they have to keep the DoJ and EU off their back.
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They might still have most desktops (it's a smaller percentage of PCs though, because notebooks outsell desktops) but the monopoly isn't there anymore. It used to be you HAD to have a Windows machine because all the software you needed only ran on it. Now most people can be quite happy with whatever OS they like.
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Native binaries still remain a problem for the same reason they were always a problem. The real monopoly breaker is the web. That's why Microsoft tried to cut off Netscape's air supply to begin with.
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I don't understand why there are shiny new massmarket hardware stories on slashdot at all. And the resulting flamy discussion about market shares, so bloddy boring...
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Yeah, I found a browser add-on that makes reading Slashdot a lot more palatable. It works in Chrome and Firefox. I haven't tried it in IE.
http://news.ycombinator.com/ [ycombinator.com]
From the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept (Score:5, Insightful)
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...and it got nowhere until it addressed some of those criticisms.
On the other hand we have it straight from the horse's mouth: "It's just a hobby".
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... and yet, here we all are, ACs and real people alike. :D
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I'm not sure your assertion that the new iPad is a let down is correct. Was anybody really expecting a giant leap since the iPad2 was released?
Personally, I think the screen is going to really be a big leap forward.
Apple TV isn't really lackluster. Finally it has 1080P which is nice. Now I don't have to dicker with my HTPC stuff and try to make it work with my family and visitors.
Anyone can make an apple TV appliance work. For me this makes it shine for only 100 bucks. Jailbreak it and you get much much mor
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Except it doesn't "just work". You still have to hack with it in order for it to do anything interesting. Plus you will still need software running on another PC to do all of the heavy lifting.
That's the main problem with ALL of the ARM appliances. Their cheapness comes with severe capability tradeoffs.
Turning a PC into an appliance is not nearly as problematic as some people like to pretend.
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> What do you want it to do, exactly?
Play video, and not just stuff spoon fed from the Apple store.
Being able to do Netflix is not terribly interesting these days. Just about anything can do that. Some of those devices will even play your home movies or DVDs.
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Leftist money?
Huh?
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It kind of depends on how you judge things: quality or sales.
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
More to the point, Apple doesn't need the Apple TV to be revolutionary. What they need is a way to get their content onto your TV. They're selling these iPads and iPhones with all this ability to play media, and they're also selling the media to play on them. If there were no easy way to get that media onto your TV, that would be a gaping hole in their product lineup.
Besides, if there's an upcoming revolutionary change in TV, I don't tank it'll be a new technology or device, but instead a service. If someone can get a new distribution method in place which effectively replaces cable TV providers with an Internet service, providing access to first-run TV shows and sporting events, it has the potential to change the entire industry.
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Seems to me Apple has only treated the apple TV as a footnote.
I hardly see anything about this niche appliance.
Yet.... I am getting one this weekend.
Re:What? (Score:4, Interesting)
It's the equivalent of an adapter to let you hook your iPad, iPhone or iTunes up to your TV. It's not glamorous, but it is nicely executed and adds a lot of capability.
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I never bought that "it's just a hobby" line. That's all just PR spin.
Apple wants every product to be a runaway success; but they also like to project an aura of infallibility.
So what they do, after they launch a product, is very quickly gauge the market success of the product and carefully calibrate their public comments about the product to match the market success.
Runaway hits get the "we worked really hard to revolutionize the world" treatment. And relative duds get the "oh, that's just a hobby" treatme
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Dismal failure? What other device in its class sells anywhere near as well?
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Pretty much everything.
Apple simply does not dominate in this area like it does in others. It has a much weaker showing in video streamers than it does in mp3 players or tablets.
Might be more comparable to the smartphone market now that Apple is not the dominant player there anymore.
Re:Revolutionary ? (Score:5, Interesting)
Was the smartphone, or tablet, or laptop, or music player revolutionary when apple released it, or was it the device they copied from that was revolutionary.
Take the iPad as an example, yes it was revolutionary. Microsoft and others had been trying tablet concepts since the late 1980s. Sometimes calling them tablets, sometimes slates, sometimes pads. Every last one of them was a flop.
Apple launched their iPad and it was an instant success.
Using the political connotation of revolution, this is the difference between a few people grumbling, and having a revolution that takes over the country, transforming politics from then on.
Apple didn't copy any of the previous tablets, why would they? They were all flops. Since Apple's iPad revolution, every tablet manufacturer now bases their tablet designs on the iPad though.
The intelligent person doesn't deny that a revolution took place, it clearly did. They work out what it was about Apple's design that struck a chord with the public. That made it a phenomenal success where all before had been failures.
Re:Revolutionary ? (Score:5, Insightful)
or more simply put:
Asking if Apple is responsible for the "revolutionary" devices like the iPad, iPod, iPhone vs the first devices in the class is like suggesting George Washington wasn't responsible for a good portion of the American revolution but instead it was all some guy in a bar who was bitching about the British before everyone else was.
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In a nutshell, yes. Thanks.
The iPad is an evolution of the iPhone (Score:3, Insightful)
The iPad wasn't a revolution, it was an evolution of the iPhone. Without the iPhone and its apps the iPad wouldn't have been the success it has been. Apple's genius was recognizing that they could extend the striving ecosphere of the iPhone to another device, and thereby kickstart its adoption. That's the major advantage they've had over other people trying to launch tablets, and it's an advantage that they created, so I'm not belittling it. The device in itself wasn't revolutionary.
Re:The iPad is an evolution of the iPhone (Score:5, Informative)
Well, a revolution in one place can inspire a revolution in another, as we saw in the Arab Spring.
You make a good point. But Apple's planning in this is even stronger than you state. In fact Apple had the iPad in development before they even started on the development of the iPhone. It appears Jobs realised that they stood a far bigger chance of success with a new touch based device in the established mobile phone category, than starting in the up to then unsuccessful tablet category. So they ended up doing the phone first, knowing full well that the long game was the tablet.
In a way the two are all part of the same revolution. A revolution against the PC monopoly of computing.
Re:The iPad is an evolution of the iPhone (Score:5, Insightful)
but there is an interview with Steve Jobs from the early 90s in which he says (paraphrased): "I can save Apple. I know what to do. I wouldn't mind helping them, but they're not interested in what I have to say." and then when asked what he would do hey says: "Milk the Macintosh for all its worth to keep going while you're working on the products of the future."
And then consider the statement Jobs made when the announcement of Microsoft's investment in Apple was made: "We have to get past the idea that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose."
I think it's pretty clear from interviews and statements by Jobs both before he returned to Apple and immediately after he returned, that he was focused on the post-PC world right from the start. He recognized that he could never break the market power of the Windows PC, but he saw that improvements in technology would ultimately obsolete the PC as a central, all-encompassing computing platform for most people, and so when he returned, he spent a few years getting the Mac in shape so the company didn't die, and then moved on to the post-PC strategy.
Re:The iPad is an evolution of the iPhone (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it's pretty clear from interviews and statements by Jobs both before he returned to Apple and immediately after he returned, that he was focused on the post-PC world right from the start. He recognized that he could never break the market power of the Windows PC, but he saw that improvements in technology would ultimately obsolete the PC as a central, all-encompassing computing platform for most people, and so when he returned, he spent a few years getting the Mac in shape so the company didn't die, and then moved on to the post-PC strategy.
Jobs never saw Apple as a computer company, but as an experience company. This means that the computer is only the means to an end, which is getting specific things done. So it's only natural that when there's another way to get the stuff done people want to do (like surfing the web, checking emails, listening to music, writing, composing, painting, etc), he'd be the first to jump ship. Many other technology companies (like Microsoft) ask themselves "how can this issue be solved on a computer?", when the real question should only be "how can this issue be solved?".
Re:The iPad is an evolution of the iPhone (Score:4, Interesting)
Presently at 1, your post is way undermodded.
Your remarks about Jobs understanding the nature of the PC market as intertwined with but separate from other computing markets makes a lot of sense. Had I mod points, you'd get my +1.
I also really like your contextualization of Jobs' statement that "We have to get past the idea that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose." From everything I can see, this is exactly the case.
Microsoft, while not the uncontested juggernaut of yore, is in no sense of the word "losing". What has become apparent is that Microsoft has to compete and from what I've seen its consumers who are reaping the benefits.
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In the sense that previous attempts at such devices did not in fact create a revolution, while Apple's did, it seems that the answer is obvious.
What many people find difficult to grasp is that Apple creates a product revolution, not by being the first to make a device of a particular type, but by being the first to do it really well. And they do it over
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In the sense that previous attempts at such devices did not in fact create a revolution, while Apple's did, it seems that the answer is obvious.
What many people find difficult to grasp is that Apple creates a product revolution, not by being the first to make a device of a particular type, but by being the first to do it really well. And they do it over and over again. They don't invent the mousetrap, they invent the better mousetrap.
I thought they invented the mouse!!! But hey look how smart they are, now they make mouses as well as mousetraps, but isn't the mighty mouse too smart to get trapped? Does this mean we get a MousetrAppStore as well?
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No, Douglas Englebart invented the mouse. But Apple's Magic Mouse is by far the best one that I've ever used.
Apple TV is an iPad accessory (Score:5, Insightful)
The iPad now has all the technical bits in place to become the household computing center for most people. It has built in e-mail, web, video consumption, photo and video management, music, basic document creation and, critically, built in always available cheap broadband internet connectivity (via LTE).
The final nail for the iPad is to get decent dependable TV and movie programming. Once that is in place, iPad covers most people's media needs and the Apple TV is an accessory for the iPad like the Camera Connection Kit but for displaying content on a traditional TV.
Assuming Apple gets its programming, the cable (and DSL) companies are going to get wiped out without ever realizing what hit them.
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It still doesn't have a USB port
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Ya I certianly have nothing that uses USB (Score:5, Insightful)
Except my smartphone. And my calculator. And my keyboard, mouse, controller, blood pressure meter, AHCHD camera, calibrator, flash drive, remote, headphone amp, and so on. No nothing at all.
These by the way are just devices laying around my house I can think of. There's more, and more at work as well. USB is kinda of used by, well, damn near everything that likes to plug in to a computer which is damn near everything. As I said, even my blood pressure monitor has USB (so you can download the history of your BP).
But hey if you want to add to the cost and complexity of every device, and reduce the battery life, as well as require an AP for them to work, sure let's go all 802.11.
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You'll find that when a device is designed without something, either the manufacturer or third parties first find a way to work around it then design their solutions for it.
But hey if you want to add to the cost and complexity of every device, and reduce the battery life, as well as require an AP for them to work, sure let's go all 802.11.
You're assuming it doesn't already have 802.11. If the choice is USB only then I'll pass. In your world you claim a device cannot have both without adding to cost, complexity, low battery life, etc. Duh.
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Oddly enough, USB could provide faster networking.
There are all manner of interesting things you can plug into a USB port including cameras, storage, scanners, printers, video capture devices and whatever else someone could come up with.
Not everything is wireless. Nor would you reall want it to be.
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Yes. And they buy tablets for their USB ports. There just aren't very many of them.
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Yes. They will make excuses for this stuff not being built in then they will happily go and buy dongles to get those features.
You won't even be able to use more than one of these at a time. You will have to choose between dongle A or dongle B and if you need to do something else at the same time you will just have to invent some other lame excuse why you shouldn't be doing such a thing.
Apple users are great at NewSpeak.
Re:Apple TV is an iPad accessory (Score:4, Interesting)
It still doesn't have a USB port
Why do you need one? That's a serious question.
With the exception of charging the battery, everything I do with my iPad I do wirelessly. Connecting a cable to it for any reason seems like a step backward.
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Yes, it plays from the USB port that's on any computer on my network, or my wireless router.
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I agree because it's a compliment, and I'll also say it's true the other way around. ATV2 is my media center and everything else is an accessory to it. iTunes and all my iOS devices can play to it, and it can pull media from iTunes, my PC/Mac, NAS or Internet. I don't buy / rent movies or TV shows, but we stream lots 'o Netfix and some YouTube. The screensaver is my photos stored on the Internet. HMDI / Optical audio out. Wireless. Plug and Play. And there's a bunch more stuff I don't use. The kids can use
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The iPad now has all the technical bits in place to become the household computing center for most people.
As an iPad owner myself, I have to emphatically disagree. If people are satisfied by the computing experience offered by the iPad, their expectations are way too low.
It has built in e-mail, web
It's simply not good at browsing the web. It's slow, it's full of ads, it crashes so goddamn much (responding to the Slashdot poll crashes mine about 2 out of 3 times). Compared to a laptop, or certainly a desktop, it's a terrible browsing experience.
video consumption, photo and video management, music
It does video alright, but lots of web video outside of youtube just won't load properly half t
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Yup. No xvid support on the Apple device is a no go either. Funny how I have been streaming movies from a NAS to XBMC (on orig. Xbox) for about 7-8 years now and no device (maybe the WD Live Streaming device) offers something as flexible.
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Yeah. Thinking about doing this. But then again, the WD device does this out of the box so I also get Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc, and I don't have to worry about software updates breaking this functionality.
I do like the UI of XBMC better however.
so the previous one was 720p only on purpose? (Score:2)
looks like the Apple TV 2 was 720p so that the next one would bring 1080p as an incentive for adopters to upgrade or buy a second one.
really? who would believe being limited to 720p was a real technical limitation? I guess you would have no trouble getting 1080p output from a graphics card made in 1999. that said it's a cheap and tiny computer with an ethernet port. it's tempting to get, but does it support the standards (DLNA, samba shares etc.) or is it locked into iTunes, I don't know.
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More likely, the Apple TV2 was 720p because that was the capability of the processor that made it possible for Apple to achieve its price and design goals, and since all of the content then available from Apple and Netflix was 720p, there was no disadvantage. Apple's newer processors now make it possible to bump up to 1080p, using a level of compression that prevents an exces
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it's tempting to get, but does it support the standards (DLNA, samba shares etc.) or is it locked into iTunes, I don't know.
It would after putting XBMC on it ;)
So that's why they sold out in under 8 hours? (Score:5, Insightful)
Pre orders sold out less than 8 hours after its announcement. Just because a few tech geeks can't twist the hardware to perform all their desires doesn't mean it still isn't a popular consumer good with a much larger buying public. You can't please everyone, and Apple runs a business so they please the largest buying group first.
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Pre orders sold out less than 8 hours after its announcement. Just because a few tech geeks can't twist the hardware to perform all their desires doesn't mean it still isn't a popular consumer good with a much larger buying public. You can't please everyone, and Apple runs a business so they please the largest buying group first.
Yup. Hours after the announcement [macrumors.com] the shipping estimate for the Apple TV slipped from "Delivers on March 16" to "1-2 weeks".
Maybe something else is coming? (Score:2)
Simple solution (Score:2)
Buy Roku. ( and any other major competitor ) It works for other huge companions with billions in the bank. Instant customer base.
Still looking for a major upgrade (Score:2)
Clearly, the killer feature for the AppleTV would be access to the App store. But doing it right is not trivial. Ideally, the AppleTV would run most iPhone apps, with the capacity to use a separate iPhone or iPad as a touch (and voice for iPhone 4s) controller (or a separate extra-cost hand-held version of the Magic iPad for those without an Apple touch-enabled device). Specially enabled apps would run simultaneously on AppleTV and iPhone/iPad, providing a dual display.
Maybe with the next generation of Appl
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No, I'm not talking about mere mirroring (with a bit of a delay) of the iPhone or iPad display as is currently possible, but about apps running on the AppleTV itself, and possibly using the iPhone or iPad as a peripheral.
Apple Doesn't Care (Score:2)
Apple doesn't care if this device gets much fanfare. It's user-subsidized research for them. You pay Apple $99, and they put a little media box on your shelf that studies how you use it. This is just a way for them to do a mass-study on how to best go about tackling the TV project. Better to get it right first on a cheap, tiny box than jump straight into selling a big, expensive TV.
The new "app" layout and the fact that Netflix can bill directly to your iTunes account is a pretty clear sign that they're now
I still don't get it (Score:2)
What's the point of e.g. a YouTube channel if all you have to navigate with is the minimalist Apple Remote? And no Bluetooth or USB so you can't connect a keyboard for doing text searches.
Basically, you need an iPad for this to be useful, and then why bother with the AppleTV Youtube channel at all? Just find what you want on the iPad and use AirPlay.
Meanwhile? (Score:2)
didja watch the keynote (Score:2)
they spent about 3 and a half seconds covering the new ATV (2 seconds were spend on the new UI), the rest was ipad demos and bashing phone apps stretched to tablet size (they were not hesitant at talking a few jabs @ Android).
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"Gather round the TV, kids; honey, can you dim the lights? It's time for my Keynote about the JCR family vacation!"
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If it bothers you, stream it directly to the Apple TV.
Re:You're missing the key feature. (Score:5, Informative)
Well except for people like me... I take the train home from work. I'm watching a movie on my iPhone, and it's all over.. all except for the last 15-20 minutes of it. So I get off the train, put on my headphones so I can listen to music from my iPhone/Pandora while walking to my car. When I get to my car, I take off my head phones half way through a song I like, plug in my iPhone to my car stereo, and listen to it on my way home through my car stereo (Kenwood KDC-BY948HD btw). When I get home, I pull into the driveway. Half way through another song, I unplug my iPhone, hit the airplay button and switch the output to my Pioneer VSX-1121 receiver, and now that song picks up exactly where it was only now it's playing in my house. I make make dinner, then sit down in the living room to eat it. I hit the video button, select the movie I was watching on the train, hit airplay, and select "Living Room Apple TV", the receiver stops playing music and the TV starts playing the last 15-20 minutes of the movie I was watching on the train in 7.2 surround sound. If/when that movie is over, I pick another one using the Apple TV remote to stream one directly from my PC in the office.
Could I do that with a laptop/another vendors tablet? Perhaps, I could come up with some bastardization of hardware/software combo that would come close, but nothing I've ever seen comes even close to the simplicity and ease of use, nor one that has a half way decent UI. The Apple TV UI is the best I've seen for a DNLA type player, and I've looked at quite a few.
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I guess with your solution, one of us could kneel by the TV and control the tablet. Then, if the other person wanted to show something, we could trade places and swap the wires out.
Brilliant.
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Yes, because plugging your laptop into the TV is just the same thing as having anybody in the room able to wireless send whatever they want to the TV from the tablet they're holding in their hands.
The Apple TV is a $99 wireless video receiver with excellent quality. The crappy analog ones they sell in Radio Shack that require a dongle on your device still cost $79-200.
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Some people don't want their living room to look like a scene from Brazil. $100 is a small price to pay.
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You're off your rocker. I have a 720p television set. My brother in law has a 1080p set of the same size. The difference is pretty noticeable given the same source.
Now, it is true that not all digital content is 1080p. Watching content that is 720p is not going to be noticeably different on a 1080p television set. Moreover, not all digital content is even 720p. One thing I noticed when I cut my cable subscription was that the "HD" local channels from my cable provider had a lesser resolution than the over t
Re: (Score:2)
People who say there is no difference typically are comparing their 720p set to the cheapest 1080i (notice the i) set they can find. I think most people would have no problem picking out a 720p vs 1080p screen sitting side by side -- given they are of similar quality.
Re: (Score:2)
Well I complained, but to be fair, it was more about the 2nd Gen not being able to play 1080p encoded .m4vs than it was about outputting in 1080p. I don't like to have to have a different encoded video for each device. I'd prefer to have one single version - 1080p with 7.1 DTS-HD, and let each device play it as best it can. The 2nd Gen would choke on most 1080p videos, and those it wouldn't were lower-bit rate than I'd prefer. It also took a long time to "buffer" enough to start playing, and the fast fo
Re: (Score:2)
Lol, yes. Just take their laptop/desktop that set to run 1920x1080 and set it to run at 1027x768 and tell them it's ok, there's really no perceivable difference and watch them start crying.
Re: (Score:2)
That was supposed to be 1024x768, although since that's a 4:3 resolution, 1280x720 would be a better choice if their video card supports it.
Re:Meh ... (Score:4, Interesting)
And yet all they need to do is allow third party development, and in no time there will be 100s of thousands of apps for it. At $99 that would be a hell of a value proposition.
There seems to be no reason that they wouldn't do that. I suspect that they they wanted to get the new icon based interface out first, just in case the blogosphere decided to be critical about it. Let opinions about it die done... in a few months everyone will just accept it as the norm. Then announce 3rd party apps. At that stage, no one can spin it as a bad thing, it would be all good.
Re: (Score:3)
What a load of bullshit.
3rd party developers are already there and making this turd into something useful. They are doing this despite the fact that they aren't even really allowed. They only thing they are lacking is some degree of legitimacy so that non-geek users don't have to "jailbreak" the device first.
Re: (Score:2)
I've had a Roku XS for a couple of months now. I bought it specifically to be an unobtrusive way for me to consume media I already have (either using USB storage or over my local network)....a cheap media jukebox if you will. It's OK for that, but the interface is quite slow and not particularly intuitive to use. Once you've actually found what you want to consume, it's a capable player and has a tiny (think hockey puck) footprint.
As far as streaming goes, I tried it since I can get a lot of content free
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, it's on the back of any PC on your network.
Re: (Score:2)
Is that the sort of decided advantage you were talking about?