Apple Reportedly Prepping Revamped Apple TV: iPhone OS, Cloud-Based Storage, $99 Price Point?

[koach]

Why? People have been saying this for years. Like it or not, DVRs are outdated. Why bother recording and storing locally if you can have content delivered on-demand from the cloud? DVRs are power hogs, space hogs, and pump out a lot of heat.

Because most people don't like paying a few per show we watch, nor have to wait until the day after it airs so they can watch it.

I have a DVR so that I can start a show 15-20 minutes after it began airing, so that I can watch it commercial free and end the show at about the same time it ends for people watching live. I wouldn't have wanted to watch the series finale of LOST (even though it sucked bit time) the next day. I wanted to watch it when it happened.

Also my wife and I watch about 8 shows a week. So at $2 per show that's $64 a month for TV, and that's way more than I pay for cable right now. So if I wanted to replace my cable it would cost me more, and I would have access to less, since I couldn't just turn on the TV and surf, or play cartoons for my kids.

The "paying for TV shows and watching them the day after they air" model is a non-starter. People want a set monthly fee and the ability to watch the shows when they air. If Apple can accomplish that then this will be huge. If they can't, then this will be the same old Apple TV (a glorified iTunes extender) except with some apps.

 

[hobbbz]

Easier and less expensive to simply get an external 1 or 2 GIG Firewire drive to your Mac and use as a Movie folder for iTunes. Then stream to Apple TV when needed. It means you always have your movies to take anywhere if needed.

I don't want anything connected to my laptop. I use it on the couch, on my lap.

 

[tlsivart]

You can already use your iphone a remote control: http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/ddcc/

I'm talking about using it as a multitouch input for the Apple TV device running the iPhone OS. A multitouch remote would make sense, but at the price point it seems like they're more likely going to just have some kind of standard Apple button remote.

 

[Digitalclips]

So basically, this is just an Airport hub that connects to your TV and has an OS? Well done Apple! Glaze this in about 100 'beautiful', 'lovely', 'magical' and it will almost seem like a genuinely 'revolutionary' product... Given its dubbed as being cloud-based, the majority of people that have poor internet connections will just love this.

My only Kudo - the fact that they re-using hardware across the same products in order to bring retail prices down, like the iPad etc...

You must have a good airport hub, my AE can't do any of these things. Routers don't generally come with the power to run 1080p movies let alone the video output or the software. Please send me link to where you got yours

 

[iRACK]

Yeah re-reading everything...why are people excited exactly?

Everything its offering you can do RIGHT now and could've done for years.

An xbox360 is $200 for the cheap model and does all of this and more. I guess if you have zero interest in games and want something tiny in your TV rack sure.

But even then...get a $200 nettop and boom.

Thinking it from the wrong perspective.
Think less about you, an informed tech geek kind of person. For you everything is possible if not out off the box you go and tweak it your way.

Think more about average Joe, he she goes into an apple store buying the new apple tv because it is so freaking easy to use.

He goes home, plugs it in, signs up for an itunesnaccount and has a video player, a music player, a gaming console for his kids. He can surf the web, check the weather app.. And see where his neighbor moved to on googlemaps.

All that without any cables and programming or **** like that.

This will be billions worth for apple, and us tech freaks we are not their primary target.

 

[ksgant]

I'd expect a fine product like the iPhone OS app "AirVideo" will update to run on this...that way you can watch your avi, wmv, mpg or whatever, like you can now with the iPad version. Honestly, if it can run that alone, I'd be totally happy. One thing I'm not going to do is be nickeled and dimed buying individual shows on iTunes. They have to come up with an alternative, but with companies like ABC and CBS making iPhone OS compatible apps and content...I don't think I'll have to worry about that too much.

Also, they need to change the name to something other than "iPhone OS" now as it will be running on very different devices.

 

[Digitalclips]

I don't want anything connected to my laptop. I use it on the couch, on my lap.

Ok then you need an iPad and leave the Laptop connected the hard drive You can stream movies right to the iPad from the same source with an amazing app called Air Video (just a few dollars), as well as to a big TV and ATV if required (and any iPhone with a free app by the same name.)

 

[DaveGee]

dupe delete

 

[saxofunk]

Netflix is on other iPhone OS devices,why wouldn't it be made available to an Apple TV running iPhone OS? You are saying this would fail based on the improbable event of an iPhone OS device not having an app store. That makes no sense to me at all.

To have apps, you'll need some type of controller. Based on the current  remote, I'd say apps are unlikely. However, if you could say, use an iPhone/touch or new wiimote-like  device, then I could see the potential. TV will make a HUGE leap ahead of the game if apps are playable on your TV via iphone or touch. It would essentially be the  console we've all been waiting for!

I wasn't trying to say that netflix or apps wouldn't be available, I was just going for; if they're not, this TV will be no better.

 

[DougB541]

Thinking it from the wrong perspective.
Think less about you, an informed tech geek kind of person. For you everything is possible if not out off the box you go and tweak it your way.

Think more about average Joe, he she goes into an apple store buying the new apple tv because it is so freaking easy to use.

He goes home, plugs it in, signs up for an itunesnaccount and has a video player, a music player, a gaming console for his kids. He can surf the web, check the weather app.. And see where his neighbor moved to on googlemaps.

All that without any cables and programming or **** like that.

This will be billions worth for apple, and us tech freaks we are not their primary target.

Good points. But I just don't see the average consumer even getting into this. The average consumer does not have a need for something like this. At least this is the vibe i've gotten.


I could be completely wrong though and this is Apple's wheel house. good technology to the masses.

 

[wizard]

Nice if the description is accurate.

I've been saying for a long time that iPhone OS is a perfect fit for AppleTV. Nice to see Apple agree.

As to the limited storage that does suck a bit but as ling as one caneasily connect to a local server it will be OK. With something like this you could easily have an AppleTV at every TV in the house. If all of these can work at the same time with both your local storage and the web you are all set.

Now imagine the unit running games, YouTube, web and other services from IPhone OS. Plus apps. If this thing isn't supported in the app store it will have been a stupid move on Apples part.

Given all of that the really significant issue is the lack of internal storage. 16GB is not enough even if you movies are store else where.


Dave

 

[Peace]

To have apps, you'll need some type of controller. Based on the current  remote, I'd say apps are unlikely. However, if you could say, use an iPhone/touch or new wiimote-like  device, then I could see the potential. TV will make a HUGE leap ahead of the game if apps are playable on your TV via iphone or touch. It would essentially be the  console we've all been waiting for!

I wasn't trying to say that netflix or apps wouldn't be available, I was just going for; if they're not, this TV will be no better.

I think the whole purpose of using the iPad version of iPhone OS 4.0 is to allow for apps.

And believe me. That Apple TV WILL be using the iPad version of iPhone OS 4.0

 

[HitchHykr]

If it supports Netflix I would buy it. I currently use a MacMini as a media server and a couple of XBox 360 to access the MacMini and for Netflix. I actually bought one XBox 360 just to stream movies. Crazy but it's the best combo for my setup.

 

[paradox00]

To have apps, you'll need some type of controller. Based on the current  remote, I'd say apps are unlikely. However, if you could say, use an iPhone/touch or new wiimote-like  device, then I could see the potential. TV will make a HUGE leap ahead of the game if apps are playable on your TV via iphone or touch. It would essentially be the  console we've all been waiting for!

I wasn't trying to say that netflix or apps wouldn't be available, I was just going for; if they're not, this TV will be no better.

To play content you need a controller...

Using the iPhone OS platform doesn't mean that the UI will be identical either, but it does increase the possibility of an App Store as most of their SDK would already be developed.

Edit: FYI, Apple also has patents on wii-mote like controllers.

 

[chugg]

No mkv support = no care

 

[qbert]

Might be cool until GoogleTV comes embedded in Blu-Ray players.

I want to be able to surf the web.... the entire web on my HDTV, thanks very much!

 

[GFLPraxis]

Let me rephrase my original point. I don't want video on my laptop. I want it on an TV or HD connected to TV. When I download a video, I want to transfer it to that device and leave it there.

With streaming- you put the video on your PC, and then all of your TV's can access and play it from there remotely. The video is only in one place. Why duplicate it by transferring it to the device?

 

[uaecasher]

I hope it's not 100% cloud base.

 

[robotmonkey]

I love how on top of this page I see a tivo advertisement for a new product that is a "cable box, web box, game box, and movie box". Gotta enjoy the irony

 

[Peace]

No mkv support = no care

Nothing personal mind you but can you explain why your whole A/V experience revolves around mkv ?

 

[Lepton]

This is very similar to what I predicted on myallo.com/blog . Note that if there is only wireless net connectivity, and iPad apps, this implies wireless syncing to iTunes, so maybe we can hope for wireless sync of iPhones/iPads as well.

Or maybe the device will have an iPod connector on it? I think not because that means you need a computer physically near it.

Oh, I predicted that all iPad apps would run, but new apps could overlay their output on top of TV, so you could make weather widgets and so on.

 

[Jaro65]

That is very reasonable speculation. You'd expect it then.

As a long-time AppleTV user, I'm eager to see the direction Apple takes with the platform.

If nothing else, this shows us the real potential of the 4th-gen iPhone. Wow - 1080P out.

Same here. That product sorely lacked an update and the above rumor sounds very promising. I would really hope for it to stream Netflix as well, though I can see why Apple wouldn't be very driven to implement that feature.

 

[robotmonkey]

I hope it's not 100% cloud base.

I know what you mean. Cloud SOUNDS like a great idea, but I don't think people realize the implications of not actually being able to hold or store your info and files yourself. Can you say big brother. Also, I seem to remember T-mobile having a major failure with their servers and everybody with a sidekick or something like that could have lost everything (it's cloud based).

 

[Cougarcat]

It needs a USB port to connect it to a hard drive. The Apple could get rid of the flash altogether and sell it for even less.

Nothing personal mind you but can you explain why your whole A/V experience revolves around mkv ?

If you want to watch your ripped Blu-Rays...

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

if you could say, use an iPhone/touch or new wiimote-like  device, then I could see the potential. TV will make a HUGE leap ahead of the game if apps are playable on your TV via iphone or touch. It would essentially be the  console we've all been waiting for!

How would that work exactly? I can imagine games & apps depending on the accelerometer working well, but what about all those that involve touching the screen, clicking virtual buttons, etc? You can't watch the big screen and click the right spots on the little screen. So are you flipping your eyes up to the big screen when there's not virtual navigation interaction, then down to the small screen when there is?

XBox, Sony etc controllers have buttons you can feel, while keeping your eyes on the (one) screen. How's that going to work for iDevice as controllers when you can't feel the buttons?