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Apple Set Top Box (iBox) Rumors Revived?

I think Tivo isn't that popular because people don't understand it. I was at a friend's house and she was backtracking and skipping around and looking at the program guide, and I couldn't figure out what she was doing. I got the impression the user interface was very complicated.

The proposed iBox includes an optical drive to record shows onto. I think this will make a big difference. Sure, it's no 320GB, but people like recording onto something they can take to a friend's house and play.

That said, I don't believe the rumor either. If someone made a Tivo with a DVD-R drive in it, I can't believe it wouldn't sell for less than $800. And I would expect lawsuits from the paranoid anal-retentive MPAA. Since Apple is making nice with the RIAA these days, I don't picture them turning around and tweaking the MPAA.
 
Well, I'm guessing here, but I doubt the Charter PVR will be able to show my iMovies, iPhotos, or play my iTunes. In fact, I don't know if it is networkable at all, let alone wirelessly. Assuming it will be able to be networked over 10/100, I doubt it will play well with my Apple computers. My goal is to be able to stream audio/video signals from any WIFI device (which hopefully will include the iPod soon) to my stereo. I don't have a desktop system to use as a hub, I only have laptops here for portability reasons. I guess I see a lot of room for Apple to work their magic to take an existing technology and improve the heck out of it here.

The nice thing about the cable company PVRs is that if new ones come out I can get one for the same $9.99 a month. If I'm buying my set-top box, I'm stuck with it as the technology matures.
 
I'd like to see someone (Apple) do it ALL *right*. Just like there were other MP3 players pre-iPod, Apple did it right and that is the key. Just like the Mac. They did it right and were copied. And still are being.

I am skeptical that we will see it, but I believe this is a key point for Apple where they can leverage their iPod success into their digital hub success by absorbing a bunch of devices into on - e.g. CD, DVD, VCR, PVR, Photo album, calendar etc. All visible on your TV when you want it, but not when you don't.

It doesn't mean that the TV and computer converge, just like iSync doesn't mean that the phone and computer converge.

It means that you have access to your information where you are. Contacts, calendar etc on my phone via bluetooth. On my TV with this (calendar, DVDs, music, photos, etc). And face it people spend lots of time with their TVs, just like with their phones. Whatever your information is, tying it in to where you are makes it usable.

The key is to make the information you have *usable* to you and to do that you need ease of use and convience.

Your information (photos, contacts, music, calendars, videos, anything digital that *you* find important) needs to be where you are. It needs to be where you are and go with you easily.

The convergance that will occur (eventually) is having all *your* information when you need it, wherever you are and using various devices to get at it: a stereo for music, a TV for your shows or photos, a computer for email etc. Everything available when and where you want it.

Who knows sometime perhaps we'll see the "Home on iPod" feature, with a huge (5TB drive) with a dock on the iBox (or whatever). You plug it in, have all your 'stuff' there. Watch it on that TV, stream it to other TVs in the house, stream it to a computer. Sync it etc.

Replay and TiVo aren't portable outside the house. With an iPod type dock on a ReplayTV or TiVo type device, then they are portable just as MP3s are on the iPod.

Things won't converge (at least not right away) in the sense of TVs and computers being one. But this is a good opportunity for Apple to change a niche "techie" market into a non-techie market as they did with the iPod.
 
Re: Re: Re: TiVo is barely surviving

Originally posted by Flowbee
The question is... with cable companies being able to saturate the market with their own DVRs, where does this supposed iBox fit in? And how well will it integrate with Windows machines and networks?
Click to expand...

The problem is one that centauratlas referred to in another posting. All these DVR boxes rely on some sort of subscription model for TV listings and the data that gets recorded is "closed" in nature. If there is such a thing as this iBox, I imagine it to be sort of a "dumb" terminal with a stripped down version of OS X or at least stripped down versions of the iLife apps running on a Linux OS.

So it doesn't matter if you subscribe to Comcast cable or DirectTV or Dish....whatever AV output you can find to plug into this iBox can and will be recorded, just like if you hit the record button on a VCR. Now, you can hit this button manually, or you can do it virtually over a home network or even over the internet. You can use Sherlock to hook into iCal with some kind of TV Guide-like channel lineup info and schedule when you'd like to hit this record button.

Now that you have something recorded to your iBox, you can then watch it on your TV or any of your Macs or your iBox in the Bedroom or your friend's iBox in Guadalajara. Better yet, you can import the data seamlessly onto your Mac and manipulate it...cut out commercials, make a best of compilation, keep an archive of your favorite Simpson's episodes complete with Menus and Scene Selections a la DVD. Heck, go ahead and burn it to a DVD with your Superdrive and then watch it with your iBox! Ha.

The possibilities are endless...and all without a subscription fee. Well, except for .Mac...which offers so much more than just EPG functionality, which is what you pay TIVO, ReplayTV, and the cable companies for. The iBox could really replace a couple of boxes (DVD, CD, VCR, etc) and complement the existing DVR boxes that will saturate the market. Like with the iPod and its relationship with iTMS, no one makes any money from the service, but the service can drive people to buy another box.

And did I forget to mention network media sharing of iTunes and iPhoto? And it can still play your CDs and DVDs, wash your car, and pickup the dry cleaning?

Network Digital Media boxes are gaining in popularity...witness the Roku HD-1000 which I am watching, as well as boxes from PrismIQ, Neuston, and Audiotron...and others. Not one of these boxes has everything that I am looking for. I think the time is right for Apple to make this EVERYTHING box to drive further adoption of the platform and brand. Apple has a knack for making products that not only do the things you expect, but also showing people unexpected ways of doing those things.
 
Originally posted by cubist

That said, I don't believe the rumor either. If someone made a Tivo with a DVD-R drive in it, I can't believe it wouldn't sell for less than $800. And I would expect lawsuits from the paranoid anal-retentive MPAA. Since Apple is making nice with the RIAA these days, I don't picture them turning around and tweaking the MPAA.
Click to expand...

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4139_22912926,00.html

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pna/product/detail/0,,2076_4139_37530022,00.html

Last I checked, the latter was available for under $800.
 
Originally posted by cubist
I was at a friend's house and she was backtracking and skipping around and looking at the program guide, and I couldn't figure out what she was doing. I got the impression the user interface was very complicated.
Click to expand...

The Tivo interface is very simple to use.
 
another idea is add firewire and then people who want an iPod, but don't have enough money for a computer can rip their cd's onto their iBox and update it like you would if your music was on a regular computer. use the TV as a moniter to organize iTunes, stream other people's iTunes libraries on the same network. this could be the headless mac some people need. with bluetooth, you can use the wireless keyboard and mouse and have mail safari iChat. this could be much much more than people are thinking.
 
Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
another idea is add firewire and then people who want an iPod, but don't have enough money for a computer can rip their cd's onto their iBox and update it like you would if your music was on a regular computer. use the TV as a moniter to organize iTunes, stream other people's iTunes libraries on the same network. this could be the headless mac some people need. with bluetooth, you can use the wireless keyboard and mouse and have mail safari iChat. this could be much much more than people are thinking.
Click to expand...

This all makes me think that Apple should for the 20th Anniversary of the Mac just put a bunch of us in a room and make a box with everything we Mac users want. Unfortunately, there are plenty of us who no matter how many arms and legs we have, just can't do with one less.

The challenge for Apple is finding the right price/feature ratio. Also, as the iPod showed us, Apple is striving to find ways to drive platform adoption. A mac-user showing off how nice this "expensive" box is and how nice that box works can convince a few PC-users to switch. But the better tact is to get a nice Apple box into the PC-user's hands (inexpensive) and show that user how nice a SUBSET of features is and how much nicer the whole package would be with the whole kit and kaboodle.
 
I don't believe this rumor.

As an owner of Tivo, with the home media option, I regularly stream my iTunes and my iPhotos through my Tivo. It is a great setup, which I suspect is made possible through Apple's Rendevous.

Third-party licensing of Rendevous is the path I'd like to See Apple take. This way, they can increase the value of the platform without having to enter entirely new product markets.

My only complaint with my mac/Tivo combination is that Tivo currently doesn't recognize AAC files. So, no ITMS songs. But, I suspect that if Apple cultivates this relationship correctly, they'll add the functionality soon.

I don't believe it. This market is to disparate from the main mission of Apple.
 
quick questions

what sense does it make for apple to enter this digital hub market place (i thought apple found the puter to be the hub while sony and others are betting on the tv). if this must come to pass wouldnt the g4 cube make an excellent sized box? basically i gather that this box is supose to be a computer with a tv monitor. and the problem with product revolution is you cant remember how you lived with out it (but the idea is ingenous and "obvious" after the fact) so as a digital hub (continuing on apples computer based notions) an "ibox" should bring something we all take for granted to a new level (not Tivo) instead the notion of any input instead of subscription is right on the money in my opinion. but i dont think this machine will be a computer nor should it be. instead a device (like some one mentioned before) with ical and sherlock integration and most definately a Superdrive (the dvd kind not the 1.44 in floppy) but i dont think this is going to change the way people live (tivo hasnt done it yet so what would make an apple box any different?) sorry to be a nay sayer but im not seeing this (but then again i didnt see the ipod and now i have 2)
 
Re: TiVo is barely surviving

Originally posted by KevinHoctor
Lastly, the DVR market is alive but not thriving. It just has not caught on with many people because they just don't get it.
Click to expand...
Apple has always done a good job of taking concepts and making people "get it". GUI personal computers, desktop publishing, iPod, 99 cent songs, etc. Maybe Apple can help people "get it" for PVRs.

However... One major problem I see is that the cable and satellite companies want to control this market, and most of them have or plan to introduce their own set-top boxes with hard disks. Apple will have to do a delicate dance with the likes of Rupert Murdoch.
 
Re: Apple Set Top Box (iBox) Rumors Revived?

Originally posted by Macrumors as a all-in-one sort of media device... running versions of iPhoto, iTunes, and iDVD. (though one discrepancy is that Apple has never supported DVD-authoring on a G3).
Click to expand...
TechTV's number one gift idea this year was the Pioneer DVR-810H-S with TiVo. Its primary advantage is that you can archive your recorded shows on DVD, but that also bumps up the price.

Since many Macs shipped today come with DVD burners it would be nice to use Rendevous to zap the recorded shows over to the Mac to store, organize, and archive on DVD. Think of iTunes for managing your recorded video.

Without the DVD burner in the box, Apple could bring down the price of an iBox to a standard TiVo.

Integrate iPhoto, iTunes (apparently already available with TiVo), iTMS, and Apple's marketing, and you could have a winner.

Imagine watching MTV and seeing a song you like. You could archive the video of the song with your PVR, and then you could connect to iTMS and buy the song for your iPod and stero.
 
Originally posted by Timothy
I don't believe this rumor.

As an owner of Tivo, with the home media option, I regularly stream my iTunes and my iPhotos through my Tivo. It is a great setup, which I suspect is made possible through Apple's Rendevous.
Click to expand...
Yes, it does use Rendevous - I believe that is why the Windows manager software is 7 MB and the Mac is only 186 KB (I'd guess that they had to provide the x86 port of Rendevous with it while OS X comes with it already) (see http://www.tivo.com/4.9.4.1.asp )

Originally posted by Timothy
Third-party licensing of Rendevous is the path I'd like to See Apple take. This way, they can increase the value of the platform without having to enter entirely new product markets.
Click to expand...
They don't need to license it; quoting from the Apple Rendezvous page:
"Indeed, all of the technologies driving Rendezvous are open and part of the standards creation process of the IETF, as is Rendezvous itself."
Click to expand...

Originally posted by Timothy
My only complaint with my mac/Tivo combination is that Tivo currently doesn't recognize AAC files. So, no ITMS songs. But, I suspect that if Apple cultivates this relationship correctly, they'll add the functionality soon.
Click to expand...
I'm with you - I also hope DirecTV and/or Tivo get off there butts and get the Home Media Option for my DirecTivo (series 2) box some time before I die too!
 
Originally posted by PretendPCuser
Dude, buy a sticker. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Can't make a sticker glow unless it's a glow in the dark sticker.

I believe in the other iBox listing the box having a G4 processor around 1GHz range.
 
I know it's been said, but so many people are buying into this farce that I thought I should take a moment to make an announcement.





This isn't real. It's not going to happen.



How do I know? If you need me to lay it out than I guess you aren't paying attention the market, the nature of rumors, and Apple's history. Doesn't make it impossible, but this particular story is complete garbage.

Dan
 
Aren't we allowed to dream and vent? I personally don't believe any rumors about Apple, but I still find them especially entertaining. Too many people here get so caught up with who's right and who's wrong, that they forget that the same reason has brought us all here, naysayers and rumormongers alike. It's this curiousity and desire to be part of the unexplainable and sometimes irrational love/hate relationship that it means to be a Macintosh user.

I'll believe this buzz about the iBox when I can order one with my credit card AND it arrives at my doorstep. I remember my first Titanium PB was about 4 months in the coming. I didn't think I would ever get it.

But isn't it fun to wish and hope?
 
perhaps, but...

Put a DVI in/out and an HD Tuner on it (as well as the other goodies other people have mentionned) and it may be worth considering.
 
I doubt that this is too likely. There would be too many copyright issues with such device.

iMovie the VHS tapes ono the HD, and burn them onto a DVD
Click to expand...

How would the ibox know that the content is from a home movie, or something similar. The input would have to be component or S-Video (to allow easy hook up from older systems), and that would make it way too easy to burn and resell copyrighted material. All it would take is one rent or borrow of a dvd for you to "own" it. And as nice as season 4 of the Simpsons on DVD would be, I don't think foxdvd would be too happy with people burning these mixes and reproducing them.
TiVo and other DVRs have been purchaced by whomever is in the market for them, and it would be very suprising to see the cutting edge, different prioritys of apple and bring them to such a stale market. If Apple were to do something like this, it would take us in a totally unexpected direction. Maybe a merge with Nintendo to create the next Gamecube. As XBox proves, Internet Access and a built in Harddrive are useful components of a game system. Wouldn't it be nice to sync that HD with iTunes for background tracks and update your games via the web? I can see Apple taking it in a total off-kilter direction like that before joining the decades-old ranks in Television recording.
 
What would be neat if you could use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and use it as a mac, or at least browse the web.

And there is a market for it, if Apple can price it right.
 
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