Any thoughts on ATV software being updated 9/9/09

[safetyobc]

Anyone think they will update the ATV software on 9/9/09? I've had my ATV for several months now and RARELY use it. My wife and I rented a movie the other night and it was the first time I used it in weeks. I'm thinking about selling it and see what comes out on 9/9/09 (maybe a new iPod if they have great features).

Just curious if you think they'll update current ATV software or just come with a complete revision of the ATV or most likely, do nothing at all with ATV.

Thanks,

Matt

[bbotte]

I think maybe in January.

[Revelation78]

I think we'll be surprised with a new firmware for current AppleTVs and revised hardware in a new model.


**Purely speculation on my part, given recent events....**

[randy98mtu]

Originally Posted by Revelation78

I think we'll be surprised with a new firmware for current AppleTVs and revised hardware in a new model.


**Purely speculation on my part, given recent events....**

I agree. I'm betting on an app store and 1080p playback ability. Maybe they won't advertise the 1080p right away, but I bet by the time iMovie 10 comes out, we'll have 1080p ability.

Not sure if I'll be able to afford a new one right away, but I'll get one by the end of the year. Current model or new, but hoping for a new one with expanded capabilities. I love my current model enough to get another one for upstairs though.

[Aidoneus]

I would think Apple TV is long overdue for a hardware update.

I'm not sure how much more can be done via software update: perhaps they could enable USB Disk access, but I highly doubt that. Maybe allow the purchase of HD films in countries other than the US? (I'm not even sure if you can do that via the Apple TV now. Anyone from the US care to comment?)

I think the following are more likely:
-Larger HDDs- 500GB and 1TB, filling the size slots occupied by the old Time Capsules.
-Beefed up Processor/GPU, largely to enable...
-1080p- While I don't think it's likely that the iTunes Store will start selling 1080p content any time soon, iMovie is able to export in 1080p. I would consider it a huge swing and a miss if Apple TV doesn't play user generated 1080p content with it's next revision.

I think anything else is too much to hope for.

EDIT: Also, I think it's fairly likely the OS will be upgraded from the Tiger-based version it is now, to something based on Snow Leopard, mostly to take advantage of Wake-On-WLAN.

[gugy]

I think there is hope for an TV update on the hardware front at the rumored Sept. 9 event.
With advances in tech, we could easily expect many improvements.
1080p
support for external hard drives for unlimited storage
additional codec support
faster processor
Would be very welcome.

I hope it will happen. It's long overdue. It seems that iTunes 9 is coming and Snow Leopard/QuicktimeX out it could easily pave the way to hardware and software updates on AppleTV.

[ozarkchoir]

an update as well... i've got an Apple TV in my living room and would like to take it to the bedroom and get a new one for the living room. However... I keep hoping for some sort of iTunes Subscription service. Something like Netflix but Apple's version. I'm pretty darn close to ditching cable and a subscription service from iTunes would help me cross that bridge.

[Revelation78]

I see why you some of you are going with larger hard drives, it is the most likely case. The more I think about it, the less I think it'll happen. Unless the AppleTV becomes a "media hub" I can see the appleTV only having a small 10-20 GB SSD for buffering of streaming movies. I envision the AppleTV coming in a smaller, sleeker form factor.

With Wake-on-WLAN that another poster mentions that is in OS 10.6 - I see the AppleTV relying less on internal storage and better utilize remote libraries.

Now, *if* the AppleTV transforms into a "media hub" then I can see larger hard drives internally and external access available.

I would like to see subscription based services. I could see scenarios where you have season passes for new shows and you get to select between the SD (cheaper) and HD versions. I can also see the "netflix" a la carte subscription service for movies. An a la carte type service could work for TV shows, though I'm not entirely sure how; unless they were bundled together.

Then you run into the case of two series you like bundled with one you don't care for. So I hope that's not the case.

If Apple were to go with a Netflix type service, heck even if they didn't, I would realy like to see an AppleTV app that would allow me to select what movies/shows my AppleTV/Computer at home downloads. This way I could select, say the latest "Chuck" episode while at work and it automatically downloads to my AppleTV at home.

The app could tell you what movies/shows you've downloaded and how much time remains before each rental expires. From the app, you could even set parental controls - remotely. Another idea that would be nice is if, say a roommate or one of your kids is trying to purchase a move/show, it'll notify you and you can authorize or deny it from the app itself.

Above is just a couple of random thoughts....

[Macinposh]

I´d be stoked to be able to rent or buy movies and tv series from iTunes.


Will that happen?
Heck no!!!

[GermanSuplex]

Some things I'd like to see:

-Auto-sleep function-
There should be a setting to have the device go standby on its own after 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour of inactivity, or never should you desire.

-Youtube-
Support for HD Youtube videos (unless they already do and I'm just missing it).

-Visualizer-
For playing music. Seems simple and a no-brainer to me.

-Shuffle for Videos-
This seems like another no-brainer to me. Why can this not be done? I've got about 250 episodes of Married With Children that I watch all the time, and I get tired of having to select each one. When I'm working or am on the PC I'd love to start one video and just have it play random episodes. Why the hell can't this be done?

-Store-
It needs a better interface. The interface they have now is very dull and inconvenient. Search function works okay, but browsing is dull and unintuitive.

[randy98mtu]

Originally Posted by GermanSuplex

Some things I'd like to see:

-Auto-sleep function-
There should be a setting to have the device go standby on its own after 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour of inactivity, or never should you desire.

-Youtube-
Support for HD Youtube videos (unless they already do and I'm just missing it).

-Visualizer-
For playing music. Seems simple and a no-brainer to me.

-Shuffle for Videos-
This seems like another no-brainer to me. Why can this not be done? I've got about 250 episodes of Married With Children that I watch all the time, and I get tired of having to select each one. When I'm working or am on the PC I'd love to start one video and just have it play random episodes. Why the hell can't this be done?

-Store-
It needs a better interface. The interface they have now is very dull and inconvenient. Search function works okay, but browsing is dull and unintuitive.

I wouldn't be interested in the visualizer. The biggest "hit" of my Apple TV is playing some background music at parties and family gatherings and leaving the picture screensaver going as the visualizer. Everyone loves the pictures and they are a great conversation starter.

I haven't tried to shuffle TV shows. I have music videos shuffled. I see "playlists" under TV shows and Movies. I wonder if you could make a playlist and shuffle that. I can see your point though that it would be nice to put some shows on shuffle. As many people are using the ATV to replace cable and cable is usually just on for background in my house, this would go a long way.

As for the store, I feel the same way. My wife is always complaining about it when we are looking for a movie to rent. She thinks it doesn't have all the "new releases." They are all there, but for some reason it just doesn't work.

[blackpond]

Browsing the store is a pain. We'll spend an hour just trying to find something we want to watch only to finally give up and just go to bed.

Something that could be easily added is better cataloging through meta information- like Netflixes' movie suggestions, tell me what I want to watch based on my previous rentals.... the current "viewers like you also watched" feature is pretty much useless as is.

[dmm219]

If there is no update in Sept, you guys can keep wishing all you want, the the ATV will be officially orphaned. Apple may have some totally new idea (tablet) to take its place.

Apple has simply allowed itself to fall way too far behind the competition at this point...I think ATV is dead.

[mohanman]

Originally Posted by dmm219

If there is no update in Sept, you guys can keep wishing all you want, the the ATV will be officially orphaned. Apple may have some totally new idea (tablet) to take its place.

Apple has simply allowed itself to fall way too far behind the competition at this point...I think ATV is dead.

Goonies never say Die!

Mo

[zedsdead]

I was expecting something, but not much anymore. I think it might not until be next year. As someone else said, maybe tight integration with iMovie '10 + 1080p. Anything else would be a plus at this point.

[Gregintosh]

Originally Posted by dmm219

If there is no update in Sept, you guys can keep wishing all you want, the the ATV will be officially orphaned. Apple may have some totally new idea (tablet) to take its place.

Apple has simply allowed itself to fall way too far behind the competition at this point...I think ATV is dead.

Kind of like everyone wrote the Mac Mini obituary not too far ago. Yet we got new Minis and Apple has definitely not discontinued or killed them off.

A couple of years ago the AppleTV's specs were decent enough to stand toe to toe to competition. Especially with the slower broadband speeds available to most users not to mention 1080p TV's being a high premium (where as today they are almost standard), there was no need to build a device that does anything higher than 720p.

Today, because technology has gotten so much better and the demand for high definition has gotten stronger especially since the digital transition, I think Apple would be wise to update the AppleTV to compete with some of the newer media center boxes.

My prediction is that if not in the Sept 9 even, then by January we should see an Apple TV capable of 1080p with a decent bit rate.

Perhaps it will be powered by an Intel Atom CPU and/or an Nvidia GPU, or some other technology that will make it a capable machine. It will probably have a SATA interface allowing for up to 500GB of storage.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the two versions were a 250GB and a 500GB (though knowing Apple and how they don't like to make their hardware top of the line, we'll probably get 160GB and 320GB, but it will be hackable to 500GB).

As far as making it smaller, perhaps it will be the same size as the Airport Extreme (so a tad smaller than the current), but I don't see it getting much smaller than that unless it is turned into a purely streaming device.

I would not hold my breath for codec support without hacking it, or adding non supported files to it without work arounds. Apple will not make it easy for people to ditch iTunes rentals/purchases in favor of downloading shows/movies off the internet in HD codecs for free.

[BORIStheBLADE]

Originally Posted by Gregintosh

Perhaps it will be powered by an Intel Atom CPU and/or an Nvidia GPU

I agree, The Nvidia gpu alone would put them on par.

[DELTAsnake]

I'm going to buy an ATV this week, maybe next week. I'm guessing with the 40gb ATV's not shipping right now they will have a new ATV of some description.

Firmware is most likely, a bigger HDD is the most probable hardware update, but a new chipset for 1080p would be nice.

If Apple did a 1080p ATV and made 1080p content available on the store I would stop buying Blu-rays and my PS3 would start collecting dust. But thats just something I hope to see Apple do in the future.

[pacmania1982]

I'm using mine now to stream music from my Mac mini upstairs (and into the kitchen shortly to a nice Sony iPod dock via Airtunes). We use ours daily. I have over 300 movies now, 87 in HD and I'm ripping our TV Shows to the mini to watch on demand any time rather than having to get a DVD out.

We rented a movie on Saturday night on it (State of Play - Great movie!)

I'd love to see a software update, not sure what I'd want though. It does all I want it to do. Oh except Safari and yeah I know about couch surfer, but I don't like the idea of putting hacked software on my Apple TV. Perhaps native external drives via USB - again without having to hack it? I'd like it to have a SATA connector inside if they revamped the hardware - I don't mind hacking the hardware - weird ain't I ?

I guess I knew what I wanted an Apple TV for when I bought it, and make use of it, which is what I find a lot of people on here have a problem with.

pac

[chimpboy74]

if they put safari/web browser on and the ability to connect a USB keyboard and mouse I will be well chuffed. If not looks like I am going to hack with ATVflash.

Internet is about the only thing I would like to add for bbc iplayer etc

[BG-Mac]

Well, 9/9/9 is finally here. I guess we'll see soon whether or not we'll get an ATV update. Fingers crossed, I've been holding out for a while..

[nathanj.massey]

AppleTV needs one thing to make it a hit. App Store + SDK.

Opening up AppleTV as a platform to 3rd party dev's would allow it to do so much more than it can at the moment.

You only have to look at Boxee to see that the idea of app's for a TV-connected device works really well. Not to mention the unparalleled success that is the iPhone App Store.

Imagine the type of app's you would be able to get on your AppleTV!

BBC iPlayer, Hulu, Spotify... I could go on.

My wish for today?

AppleTV Software 3.0 with App Store and SDK

AppleTV 'Nano' - AppleTV with 16GB / 32GB NAND Flash Storage only (to hold the apps). Marketed as a 'streaming only' device.

Current AppleTV upgraded to 250GB and 500GB versions.

[mastershakess]

ATV is dead

[Shoesy]

Guess that's a no new features on 999 then.

Bum.