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I think the touch part is the new iPad, and the see part means something to watch/look at/etc. as in ATV.

Just my guess, but I'm posting it now so I say I was right if that turns out to be the case.

The 'see' is the retina display...we wont see a true TV from apple
 
If you stream from a central computer, you need a (preferably dedicated) central computer that stays on 24/7 365. Who wants to boot a computer each time they watch TV or listen to music?

So instead of leaving your computer on 24/7 365, you have another computer that you leave on 24/7 365. OK, so its dedicated, but even so. :p

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I know this is pushing it, but it would be awesome if Apple dropped the price from $99 to $79! Everyone will own one then, lol. Even though, thats not a bad idea.

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Haha! True!

I must admit I borrowed that line from someone saying the same thing about iPhones recently. A price drop? You never know - am I right in thinking they've sold a shed load more of these since they dropped it to $99 and made them smaller? Hobby project may be - but surely one of these gizmos in as many homes as possible is a foot in the iTunes rental door.
 
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I'd like to see more Apps...Cough "Hulu Plus"... Cough. Id go out buy one and. Cancle my Cable so fast.
 
If you stream from a central computer, you need a (preferably dedicated) central computer that stays on 24/7 365. Who wants to boot a computer each time they watch TV or listen to music?

If you have multiple TVs in a house, with all people desiring the same content, it's much easier to have 1 central computer/server that stays on 24/7 and many small dedicated boxes (i.e. Apple TVs) at each TV.

If you have one TV, then just hook your computer up to that TV - no need for an Apple TV.

I'm in the first camp - we have 4 computers, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad and 4 TVs in our house. We put all the media (music, songs, pictures) on one main computer in the house, and the other 3 computers, phones, tvs and ipad can have access to the same stuff. I'm glad I don't have to copy files to each device. My daughter bought the Disney DVD 'Tangled' - I copied it to the server's iTunes ONCE, now she can watch on any TV or device in the house.
 
I think if Apple supports 1080P in various formats (e.g. XBMC-like or VLC-like CODEC support), and allows a USB HDD to play local movies without a seperate computer to stream from, then I'll buy two. If not, then I plan on sticking with my XBMC HTPC.

Don't worry... they won't.
 
If Apple does make an actual TV, I'd be interested in seeing the specs & how well it works. My school district is thinking about getting a TV in every room so if we could get Airplay with it, they're would be a lot of happy teachers. Only thing though is will it have VGA/DVI in? Probably not. We really need VGA or DVI in for our document cameras.

Not likely that they will, seems a bit soon for a full TV, but it'd be interesting to see what they see as the future for the TV set. Pretty sure it'd have VGA input... DVI is less likely unless it came in the form of a Thunderbolt port that'd accept adapters.

If they do make a TV it'll be at a premium price point... maybe priced out of range for a school board... or maybe an education discount brings it back in range.

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Will AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion allow for any type of video playback on the Apple TV? For example, if I play an .avi on my Mac would I be able to view it on my TV?

Yes, I believe so.
Better still it will allow you to watch any streaming content that has traditionally been blocked set top boxes - Hulu, etc. Nilay Patel @ The Verge asked in his one on one ML preview if they Networks could stop this (as they had done on Google TV)...
"We don't see how" was the Apple reps response. Nice.
 
Will AirPlay Mirroring in Mountain Lion allow for any type of video playback on the Apple TV? For example, if I play an .avi on my Mac would I be able to view it on my TV?

Airplay Mirroring will mirror your entire display... i.e. anything you can get on your Mac will be displayed on the atv. Think of Airplay Mirroring as a wireless video adapter for your Mac (running Mountain Lion).
 
I'm thinking I will get one of these and use my ATV2 in my bedroom. Will 1080P content play alright on an ATV2? (I know it will be down converted to 720P). And conversely, will DVDs I've ripped using the ATV2 setting in handbrake play alright on a 1080P ATV3?
 
Wishlist:

I'd be happy with the following:

- Ability to stream from AirDisk
- A5 processor
- UK Catch-up TV services (BBC iPlayer, 4OD, 5, ITV Player)

The lack of AirDisk streaming like functionality is embarrassing really.

Considering it's championed as a slick, low-powered simple device, having to keep a PC running within Wifi range is a clunky mess. While they sell a fantastic device (AirPort Base Station) with the lauded AirDisk functionality that allows any number of PC's on your network to view that content. iTunes Match is great but for most, the Apple TV is a device for visual content and that's stuck on your PC's hard drive.

Even competitors have the ability to stream from N.A.S.
 
My guess:

  • Spec bump - A5 (or whatever), more storage
  • Facetime - with some fancy well-designed wireless (bluetooth) camera and a new (bluetooth) remote that has a microphone.
  • SIRI - same mic in the remote

$149.00 with cam, $99 without.

Magical.
 
the Apple TV is a device for visual content and that's stuck on your PC's hard drive

I agree with you. It would be a lot nicer if I could just put all my content on a USB hard drive attached to my AirPort base station.

However, right now iTunes is required to do the streaming. For this to work, Apple needs to create a small iTunes server application that can run on the Airport base station. I bet they're working on it. It would be a lot better than leaving a spare computer on 24/7.
 
TV App Store?

I don't think Apple is going to be announcing television sets quite yet. But I'm betting on an Apple TV app store and Siri integration for the new Apple TV. Give me an app store and I'll buy an Apple TV. Otherwise, it's just not nearly as compelling as a Mac connected to my TV.
 
If they do make a TV it'll be at a premium price point... maybe priced out of range for a school board... or maybe an education discount brings it back in range.

If Apple does release a TV, I wouldn't be surprised if we get one in every classroom, albeit on a phased deployment. The tech department director is a major Apple fanboy. Wouldn't be surprised if he has an altar to Steve Jobs in his bedroom.
 
Will 1080P content play alright on an ATV2? (I know it will be down converted to 720P).

It depends on the 1080p file. Some people swear that it plays great now. Others see stutter. Factors like compression, how complicated the on-screen action is, etc will drive whether you see it looking good or notice stutter.

And conversely, will DVDs I've ripped using the ATV2 setting in handbrake play alright on a 1080P ATV3?

This should be no problem. Better hardware can generally easily handle lighter software. 1080p horsepower should easily be able to play any 720p or SD software.
 
The tech department director is a major Apple fanboy. Wouldn't be surprised if he has an altar to Steve Jobs in his bedroom.

I guess I don't understand today's youth culture. If someone buys an Apple product, likes it, and buys another - they are considered an Apple fanboy, and therefore must think Steve Jobs is God?

That's as far as the logic goes. There can't be any other reason? Maybe your tech department director is just lazy and finds that using all Apple products is easier to (a) research (i.e. maybe I'm stuck in a tech job I don't like, and don't want to be up on the latest technology), (b) pay for (i.e. just one vendor), (c) are guaranteed to work together, (d) administer (less problems if all from the same vendor) - your tech department director probably doesn't want to spend all day and night working on the tech stuff - he probably wants to go home at night grab a beer and watch a movie.

This was done when I was in high school in the 80's. IBM all the way. 'Nobody ever lost a job recommending IBM' was a typical quote. We knew the computer teachers weren't 'IBM fan boys' - we knew that it was 'easier' for them to buy, because usually cost wasn't an issue - the tax payers foot the bill.
 
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It depends on the 1080p file. Some people swear that it plays great now. Others see stutter. Factors like compression, how complicated the on-screen action is, etc will drive whether you see it looking good or notice stutter.



This should be no problem. Better hardware can generally easily handle lighter software. 1080p horsepower should easily be able to play any 720p or SD software.

Thanks!
 
The more I read about the likely hood of an AppleTV 3 the more likely I think there will be no actual TV.

Although Jobs is dead I can picture him saying "Everybody wants a Smart TV. Now everybody can have one...."

Apple can, if they get it right, give everyone a smart TV. No need to pay over the odds when they can do it for $99 or what ever the price may be.

Sign into the ATV with your iCloud account and you will have your mail, photo's and of course your iTunes match music synced with your Mac, iPhone, iPad.
 
I guess some people pre-download.

I like being able to choose on impulse and watch it immediately on demand and decent internet service is cheap here (14€/mo for 16/1 service) and I've never had a problem.

I click on the button, go in, make some popcorn, by the time it is ready, quite a bit of the movie has buffered.

If you have multiple TVs in a house, with all people desiring the same content, it's much easier to have 1 central computer/server that stays on 24/7 and many small dedicated boxes (i.e. Apple TVs) at each TV.

If you have one TV, then just hook your computer up to that TV - no need for an Apple TV.

I'm in the first camp - we have 4 computers, 2 iPhones, 1 iPad and 4 TVs in our house. We put all the media (music, songs, pictures) on one main computer in the house, and the other 3 computers, phones, tvs and ipad can have access to the same stuff. I'm glad I don't have to copy files to each device. My daughter bought the Disney DVD 'Tangled' - I copied it to the server's iTunes ONCE, now she can watch on any TV or device in the house.

So instead of leaving your computer on 24/7 365, you have another computer that you leave on 24/7 365. OK, so its dedicated, but even so. :p


I think you miss the point. You keep the central location for storing the data, only you use an Airport Extreme with lots of external hard drives instead of a dedicated computer. This way, your data is available 24/7 and you don't need to start the computer when you want to watch a movie.

Apple, please let us soft mirror hard drives on the Airport Extreme and please let us use the Extreme as an iTunes server. I don't care if it is a new Airport that costs more, the functionality would be worth more money. (Yes, I know I could run a Mac Mini and get most of the functionality, but that would be one more computer running in the cable room and one more thing to UPS.
 
I'll be sorely pissed if they put out a new Apple TV... I just got mine less than a year ago.

:mad::mad:
 
The more I read about the likely hood of an AppleTV 3 the more likely I think there will be no actual TV.

Although Jobs is dead I can picture him saying "Everybody wants a Smart TV. Now everybody can have one...."

Apple can, if they get it right, give everyone a smart TV. No need to pay over the odds when they can do it for $99 or what ever the price may be.

Sign into the ATV with your iCloud account and you will have your mail, photo's and of course your iTunes match music synced with your Mac, iPhone, iPad.

I've never seen the logic in building a whole television, mainly because it would be the ONE Apple product that would have to win it's buyers on hardware alone (assuming there's a set-top box called :apple:TV3 containing the same- or most of the same- software functionality).

What makes iPhones, iPads, Macs, etc price justifiable is the software experience. The hardware alone can't overly compete head-to-head. Imagine if we could get iOS or OS-X by itself and install them on ANYONES hardware in an Apple-endorsed way. Do we still want to buy only Apple's hardware in that scenario?

A whole television with an :apple:TV built in vs. and :apple:TV hooked to ANY television is asking consumers to pay the Apple premium for the hardware alone- the case, the Apple logo on the front, the esthetics of no separate box or a cable from a separate :apple:TV to the TV. The screen will be made by someone else- probably LG, Sharp, Sony or Samsung. Apple can't possibly pick the right screen size for the masses as only pockets of the masses can be happy with a single size. Plasma vs. LCD vs. LED vs. OLED? Ports or no ports? Apple would be making all those decisions.

Then, whoever Apple paid to build the hardware for them would probably roll out the exact same screen with lots of ports under their own brand for 25%-40% less than Apple's price. Buy that one and get the exact same screen. Add an :apple:TV and get the exact same software. Save hundreds of dollars and get the exact same experience. Unless I'm missing something, maybe one could pry off the Samsung/Sony/LG/etc. logo and put one of those Apple stickers in it's place?

For these reasons and others, I just don't see the whole television rumor actually flying. If it does, I think they have to kill the :apple:TV to reunify hardware & exclusive software to justify the price they'll want. It seems much more sensible to put the experience in the little box and attach that to the HDTVs we already own.
 
To me, one of two things has to happen with the Apple TV:

  1. This update adds 1080p, new content deals, and 3rd party app support as a stepping stone toward an Apple-branded HDTV.
  2. Apple adds all of the aforementioned features and eludes to the fact that this is their TV plan for the foreseeable future.

I know they don't want to show all of their cards, but there are a lot of people waiting to buy an Apple-branded HDTV that may never come. I hope they are clear about the strategy and future of Apple in the TV market.
 
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