iBox Followup?

[MacRumors]

MacOSX.com claims to have more details from "another informant" with an artist's rendition.

Readers are reminded that fakes tend to run rampant pre-MacWorld. This product may resemble a rumor that made our Rumor Reject List from 2003.

[tyson12zoll]

I want this product, but it has to have quality outputs like component, DVI, or better. Optical Audio seems like a must as well.

[restiffbard]

I can use illustrator and photoshop too. why would apple use a left right up down cursor? wouldn't they use the wheel from the ipod?

[Wonder Boy]

ill have 2, thank you for asking.

[crees!]

Originally posted by restiffbard
I can use illustrator and photoshop too. why would apple use a left right up down cursor? wouldn't they use the wheel from the ipod?

Sounds like a nice added touch.

[whfsdude]

I’d love to believe it true but I don’t think so

I'd also buy one.

[Nermal]

All will be revealed next week

[Chaszmyr]

Originally posted by whfsdude
I’d love to believe it true but I don’t think so

I'd also buy one.

My thoughts exactly

[Squire]

This thing sounds pretty cool. I don't know much about TiVO. How would this stack up? Better? Not as good? Or a slightly different market?

I still only have an early Japanese model PS2; no DVD player. This might be just the device my living room needs.

Squire

P.S. Oh, speaking of the PS2, wouldn't this compete directly with Sony's new PSX?

[centauratlas]

I hope they do something like this. Integration with a ReplayTV/TiVo type feature would be a very nice thing. Then if it can run Java then it can run dvarchive (http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvarchive/) which would let it integrate with at least some PVRs.

I'll believe it *when* I see it though.

[Jerry Spoon]

Originally posted by Squire
This thing sounds pretty cool. I don't know much about TiVO. How would this stack up? Better? Not as good? Or a slightly different market?

Doesn't give the program listings and searches that tivo allows, but if this also came with a superdrive in it, that would be cool. Plus, if I could wirelessly pull photos from my mac...this might encourage me to keep using iPhoto. No monthly or lifetime subscription like you'd have with tivo. I like that.

I still doubt this rumor is true though, although I'd buy one in a second.

Anyone know the hard drive sizes in the tivo players?

Anyone know what Apple's '95 prototype actually did with the tv?

[Dreadnought]

Sorry, haven't been following the ibox rumors. It looks like a vcr or dvd player! Or is it more then that? DVD player/recorder with built in HD and tv and radio tuner? Ofcourse with firewire on the back to put it into your mac. Ow and a couple of USB ports for controllers! So you can also play games with it!! And it can all kinds of games, the XBOX, Gamecube, PS1 and 2 (just letting my imatination run wild!)

[Squire]

Originally posted by Jerry Spoon
Anyone know what Apple's '95 prototype actually did with the tv?

I thought Arn said he had one. If so, he probably knows. Unless of course it doesn't work.

Squire

<edit: I doubt it's true but how often is there that much detail in a rumor? It's about 4 pages of text. That's the only thing that makes me think there's even a small chance of it being true.>

[amichalo]

This would be a spectacular device, but MacOSX.com should have placed this "news" item under the "wish list" category.

It does disservice to Apple's brand when people concoct such stories. Inevitably, some folks believe the rumors and change purchasing plans in the hopes of an imaginary device.

Of course, the Mac faithful never purchase in the weeks leading up to MacWorld, and Apple helps by "out of stock"ing many items about the be upgraded.

Still, this fanciful wish would hold more water with me if it were just stated that it was a dream and not reported by "a member of a testing program" - Is this even in Apple's MO? I thought the testing program was Steve's job

[Le Big Mac]

Originally posted by restiffbard
wouldn't they use the wheel from the ipod?

Well, not even the iPod uses the wheel anymore

Anyway, what exactly would this iBox do?

What I'd hope for is essentially a box that allows me to access the media on my computer through a network (wired or wireless) so I could route itunes/iphoto/imovie onto my TV or audio system. I don't want my mac in my living room, and I don't want a bunch of wires running there. One ethernet would be enough. Am I asking too much?

[Jerry Spoon]

Originally posted by Squire

<edit: I doubt it's true but how often is there that much detail in a rumor? It's about 4 pages of text. That's the only thing that makes me think there's even a small chance of it being true.>

I wouldn't doubt that apple might be working on some type of prototype to this, just to explore the possibility. What I really doubt is that it's anywhere near coming out or that it ever will come out. Maybe someone got ahold of some specs to this new prototype.

Hey Arn, do you know what the '95 prototype set did with the tv?

[Laslo Panaflex]

A little off topic.

I personally would not buy this. I just got a PVR cable box from charter that is way better then my tivo at work. With the cable box I can record 2 shows at once and not have to watch the show that I am recording. You can't do that with Tivo, at least I couldn't find out how. It can record 50 hours of HQ video, on what I think is an internal 180gig drive. Best of all I didn't have to buy the box, all I pay is 10 bucks a month for rental of the box on top of my regular cable bill. It's the best thing to come out of charter in a long time.

I don't need another box to connect to my computer wirelessly, I have a 2gig G5, I would rather do all my photo music tasks on that, rahter than through a wireless conected box on my TV that is in turn connected to my computer.

[bograt]

I'm sucked in completely by this one - its probably too good to be true but who cares!

Give the public what they want (at a price of course)

Any idea on if it will even come out in the UK? This is the most important issue - sod iTunes music store - this thing is better.

[Jerry Spoon]

Originally posted by Laslo Panaflex
A little off topic.

I personally would not buy this. I just got a PVR cable box from charter that is way better then my tivo at work. With the cable box I can record 2 shows at once and not have to watch the show that I am recording. You can't do that with Tivo, at least I couldn't find out how. It can record 50 hours of HQ video, on what I think is an internal 180gig drive. Best of all I didn't have to buy the box, all I pay is 10 bucks a month for rental of the box on top of my regular cable bill. It's the best thing to come out of charter in a long time.

I don't need another box to connect to my computer wirelessly, I have a 2gig G5, I would rather do all my photo music tasks on that, rahter than through a wireless conected box on my TV that is in turn connected to my computer.

Shoot! Charter in St. Louis doesn't offer this. Darn midwest! Hopefully soon. I'd love this.

[ITR 81]

Reminds me of this
http://www.2khappyware.com/ibox/

As long as it can play DVD's and record digital tv I'm fine with it.

[macMaestro]

Originally posted by Laslo Panaflex
...With the cable box I can record 2 shows at once and not have to watch the show that I am recording. You can't do that with Tivo...

TiVo can do this. I too however, would not buy this if the only features are those described in the article.


-Recording TV. My TiVo does that, and also offers the guide that this apparently does not.

-Transfering recorded TV to the mac. Some people might find this useful, most would not. I see this as a sweet method to pirate TV over the internet easily.

-Accessing photos and tunes from your computer. I can see tunes as being useful, but I for one would never put a slideshow on my TV. What a waste of energy (electricity, not physical effort).

-Home server-ish feature. How many people do you really think are going to use this? And if you were, chances are you are something of a geek enough to set up one with a cheap PC for much less $$$.

-iBoxRemote. The most un-appleish name I have heard preposed in a while. Plus don't the newer TiVos have something along the same lines?

-SuperDrive. Personally, burning CD's and DVD's is not something I want to do from my TV. I want to do this on my mac. And the ability to watch DVDs is really offset when you consider that you can buy el cheapo DVD player for 50 bucks. I can get a decent player for 100.

-Importing photos from a camera. Who on earth would want to do that from their TV??? That's what a computer is for.

-Playing Tunes. This I have to admit, would be useful. I believe the newer TiVos can do something like this and play from iTunes, but iTunes on your computer playing off a set-top box would be useful.

-Playing Ipod. Useful, but easily done with a stereo and an iPod dock. For $30. As opposed to $600.

-Cell Phone junk. Junk. Period. Worthless feature.

My reasons. Disagree with them, whatever. I would not buy one of these.

[jettredmont]

Originally posted by Laslo Panaflex
A little off topic.

I personally would not buy this. I just got a PVR cable box from charter that is way better then my tivo at work. With the cable box I can record 2 shows at once and not have to watch the show that I am recording. You can't do that with Tivo, at least I couldn't find out how. It can record 50 hours of HQ video, on what I think is an internal 180gig drive. Best of all I didn't have to buy the box, all I pay is 10 bucks a month for rental of the box on top of my regular cable bill. It's the best thing to come out of charter in a long time.

You have a two-tuner "Tivo" (used as a generic name fr DVR; most likely no connection to Tivo the company) inside your cable box, that's all. You can also buy such units, although Tivo doesn't support proprietary and local cable systems (cable systems keep their boxes proprietary to keep people from "hijacking" cable ... not that it works, but you'll rarely see the same cable box technology in use in two different cities). Two-tuner Tivo's can do the "basic" cable channels, but it's fairly unlikely that you'd ever have a burning desire to record both what's on NBC and CBS at the same time ... Two-tuner Tivo's do, however, work with DirectTV. And you can buy/rent them from most other service providers (Dish, cable companies).

Whew. That having been said, no, I doubt that an Apple box will be able to record multiple channels at once, because it is unlikely that it can record non-basic-cable channels to begin with, and putting two tuners in to decode two channels of basic cable at once is kind of silly.

On the other hand, a single-tuner system still works pretty well for the other 90% of the population. I mean, how many VCR's will record a (non-basic-cable) channel and let you watch another (non-basic-cable) channel at the same time? We've been collectively living with that limitation for a few decades now, yet few ever complain.

I don't need another box to connect to my computer wirelessly, I have a 2gig G5, I would rather do all my photo music tasks on that, rahter than through a wireless conected box on my TV that is in turn connected to my computer.

I doubt you'd be doing any heavy editting in the living room. I suspect this would be more of a public display device for what you've done on your little slice of a supercomputer. Personally, I'd buy a couple for just this purpose.

[mian]

This might be an interesting addition.

http://www.1394ta.org/Press/2003Pres...er/12.08.a.htm

[jcroft]

I'm not really buying this rumor, and if it is true, I hope it's inaccurate.

I love the concept of an Apple set-top box, but as described, this iBox doesn't cut it. As has been mentioned, most of this can already be done with a TiVo Series2 with the Home Media Option.

If Apple were smart, they'd use the relationship they've already developed with TiVo to their advantage. They ought to license the TiVo system and build new hardware and UI for it. What I have in mind is basically this iBox, but with TiVo built-in. This is not a stretch -- other companys have rebranded TiVo while adding features (for example, Sony makes a DirecTiVo, which is effectivley a TiVo and DirectTV receiver in one).

My version of the iBox would have these features over the one presented on MacOSX.com:

- Program Guide
- Easy program sheduling and season passes (via Program Guide)
- Ability to pause and replay live TV.


It would have these features over the TiVo Series 2 with Home Media Option:

- Superdrive built-in (coupld play and record DVDs and CDs)
- Optical Audio Out (absolutle must for any DVD player, otherwise surround sound is not possible)
- DVI and Component video out (not currently on TiVo, I don't believe)
- Apple UI to iTunes and iPhoto (TiVo Home Media Option plays from iTunes and iPhoto, but with a TiVo-style UI, not Apple's great UI work).
- Apple UI to all TiVo features (Program Guide, Scheduling, etc.)
- Ability to route media from iBox to computers (TiVo cannot do this), both streaming and downloading.
- Built-in hard drive can be used for Photos/Music etc (TiVo's can only be used for recorded TV)
- External USB and Firewire ports for iPod and Digital Camera connections.

As it stands, the iBox presented on MacOSX.com wouldn't compete with TiVo, and also wouldn't work well with it. TiVo has changed the way I watch TV as much as the Mac changed the way we all used computers. TiVo + Apple is a natural fit. Apple making a half-assed TiVo will go nowhere.

[jeffmc425]

Um, the photo on Macrumors has the old multi colored logo, and this box looks so similar to the one in 1995 that they tried in teh Tele-TV trials in Reston Va. and failed. I think if Apple is doing one, it is gling to look more "aluminum" and a new logo, and most likely will not try to infringe on TiVo's patents, etc and be more like a Digital VCR, and an MP3/AAC playback via rendezvous. Sort of what the Turtle Beach Audiotron was, but with Video recording.

I would be surprised to see this announced at Macworld. But, hey, if they did, I'd buy one. What's another toy in the pile?