Apple to Open Up Apple TV's Universal Search to Additional Apps via New API

[flaw600]

To be clear, though, "opening an API" doesn't necessarily mean that it will be an open API available to any applications. There are many private APIs (the AppleTV3's dev environment had a bunch of them, for example) which Apple has "opened" in the past.

The words are there ("open"), but they don't necessarily mean what we all hope they mean.

I mean the intent of the statement is pretty clear. I'm not evangelizing Apple but they'd get a bad PR hit if they didn't do what they implied.

No, that's not what is keeping a universal provider login API (at least, not one on the more modern ATV4 platform).

Apple has solved that problem already. Think of Facebook and Twitter login in iOS. Think of iTunes store login in iOS. An app can verify that you are logged in to such service, and request that you authorize it to see information on that login. That is exactly what you would need for a universal provider authentication system. However, the main issue (aside from Apple not providing that API) is that the cable companies do not provide a single back-end that ATV can talk with. Comcast makes a deal with HBO to allow HBO to determine if a user login is for that cable company. The interaction model is purely B2B, not B2C, which keeps ATV from easily getting into the mix. And, as a for-the-moment-pleasant for the cable company side effect makes using an IPTV box as your primary source of content extremely painful and keeps people dependent on their cable boxes.

I'm not sure that you understand your own examples. The Facebook and Twitter log-ins are sandboxed. When other apps request your FB or Twitter account to use as a login, they actually go through the respective apps, not the login stored in iOS. Moreover, the logins themselves aren't stored, just tokens that you did at one point authenticate. But going back on point, that's why you see the phone go into the FB or Twitter app for a split second, because it's authenticating through the app.

That said, you are correct in identifying the second major problem - lack of a universal back-end.

 

[Lesser Evets]

Apples and grubs go hand-in-hand. I am surprised they didn't grim a nickel from each video you bring over, by tacking on a grub tax.

 

[benjitek]

It'll be interesting to see if iTunes is the only app the offers Siri to play specific content and the other services are just limited to search. Will the user be able to say "Play the first episode of season 2 of Doctor Who on Netflix" or will they only be able to say "search for season 2 of Doctor Who" and then select Netflix as the source with the remote.

Same with the "what did he just say?" feature -- is there an API for that so other developers can include the function, or will that also be limited to video rented or purchased from iTunes...?

 

[8CoreWhore]

I hope it can search my video files on a Home Share. In other words, my own movie rips on a HDD that is in the iTunes library, if necessary.

 

[deviant]

Probably won't happen. Universal Search probably works via metadata mining, but it's unlikely that your home computer content has recognizable metadata to use.

except my home server has probably more metadata than iTunes and apple has.

 

[Tech198]

why this is a separate API ?

This could mean u could have content available to stream, but decide not use the API, it would not appear in universal search.. I would still like to see searching home sharing local content in Computers appear..

Its the only thing Apple keeps lacking, and frustrates the hell out of me cos i cannot find anything.

I'll make a deal Apple.. u add this in Apple TV 4 and i'll buy one

sound good?

FYI... Apple TV 3 no update for a while now. Apple's probably killed this one on purpose to to force users into the Apple TV 4...

 

[vanylapep]

Apple is giving away more Apple TV for developers. I just ordered mine

 

[Aluminum213]

This is probably the best feature of the Apple TV, when you have Hulu, Netflix, HBOGO, WWE Network.... this makes this very easy to search

now just add Amazon Prime and Vudu

 

[snowmoon]

Does the new Apple TV have a built-in NTSC or CableCard tuner?

TalboTV has already stated they would be supporting the Apple TV with a new app. Their hardware is a network attached OTA DVR that seems to work well enough as a DVR if you believe the reviews.

 

[AtheistP3ace]

except my home server has probably more metadata than iTunes and apple has.

Yea I gotta agree. When I add movies to kodi it downloads tons of data about them. Hope it can be extended to something like that.

 

[anek007]

I hope it doesn't turn into a mess like apple music.

 

[kbmus]

I remember them saying that they were considering bringing FT to other platforms, not open up an API. The former didn't happen due to being too iOS centric. How is that comparable to universal search?

Jobs: "We're going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we're going to make FaceTime an open industry standard."

 

[Jandmtv]

Jobs: "We're going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we're going to make FaceTime an open industry standard."

And your point is? I'm glad apple didn't open up FaceTime. 99.9% of my 246 contacts has an iPhone. I haven't seen a green text in over 2 years. Why help android by opening up FaceTime?

But I digress. I do see your point in why you posted that. Apple not opening up universal search will only hurt their Apple TV sales. But by not opening up FaceTime, they only hurt the competition. See the difference?

 

[kbmus]

And your point is? I'm glad apple didn't open up FaceTime. 99.9% of my 246 contacts has an iPhone. I haven't seen a green text in over 2 years. Why help android by opening up FaceTime?

But I digress. I do see your point in why you posted that. Apple not opening up universal search will only hurt their Apple TV sales. But by not opening up FaceTime, they only hurt the competition. See the difference?

I'm not arguing whether or not they were right to keep it closed. I'm just highlighting the fact that they've reneged on their promises in the past.
I do think that this is a different scenario though. I don't see how keeping the API closed would benefit them in any way.

 

[Good User Name]

Jobs: "We're going to the standards bodies, starting tomorrow, and we're going to make FaceTime an open industry standard."

Wasn't the reason for this not happening because some patent troll prevented things from going forward?

 

[BWhaler]

It looks like Apple is making good, customer oriented decisions with the AppleTV. I am both hopeful and excited.

My only reticence is Apple's poor software quality nowadays. Apple maps, Apple music, iWork's goofy interface, most cloud services, and of course, the mother of bad software, iTunes.

Let's hope the AppleTV team is more like the new Photos app. That team did a great job.

Fingers crossed...

 

[jkichline]

Good. Does this include a guide system? Like a Netflix interface, except for ALL content? Searching is only one method of finding content. We also need a curated guide.

Meanwhile, we also need a system that shows live shows/events.

Live content is where interesting things happen. Recorded content is stale. Plus, you can interact with others during live content broadcasts.

Does the new Apple TV have a built-in NTSC or CableCard tuner?

No. Welcome to the 21st century. Live content will be available in apps for HTTP live streaming technology. Cable is dead and will be so because the cable companies want to own the vertical.

It looks like Apple is making good, customer oriented decisions with the AppleTV. I am both hopeful and excited.

My only reticence is Apple's poor software quality nowadays. Apple maps, Apple music, iWork's goofy interface, most cloud services, and of course, the mother of bad software, iTunes.

Let's hope the AppleTV team is more like the new Photos app. That team did a great job.

Fingers crossed...

I have quite the opposite experience. iWork apps are great. Apple maps is solid and works great. iTunes... no qualms. Photos? That's all over the place for me. I have some content in there and others are not. Many of the things are need to do are not available etc.

 

[Mark Booth]

Dear Amazon, The ball is now in your court! If you don't do an Amazon Instant Video app for the new AppleTV, you only have yourself to blame for not being on the device WITH SIRI search capability!

Mark

 

[highdough]

Plex

I've been waiting to buy an AppleTV until it allowed Plex, since my entire movie and TV collection is on it.

It looks like Apple is making good, customer oriented decisions with the AppleTV. I am both hopeful and excited.

My only reticence is Apple's poor software quality nowadays. Apple maps, Apple music, iWork's goofy interface, most cloud services, and of course, the mother of bad software, iTunes.

Let's hope the AppleTV team is more like the new Photos app. That team did a great job.

Fingers crossed...

I've got to disagree completely about iWork. I always work in iWork when I can and then export to Word or Powerpoint to give it to someone on Windows. I can't STAND Word or PowerPoint and much prefer Pages and Keynote. And so does the other Mac guy at my work.

 

[shadowbird423]

that's what they said about facetime

I remember them saying that they were considering bringing FT to other platforms, not open up an API. The former didn't happen due to being too iOS centric. How is that comparable to universal search?

The scuttlebutt is that it was actually a patent issue that prevented them from open sourcing it (which is what they actually claimed they would do).

 

[sudo1996]

Looks like my dreams are coming true. No need to look through all these dumb, inconsistent apps.

 

[flaw600]

The scuttlebutt is that it was actually a patent issue that prevented them from open sourcing it (which is what they actually claimed they would do).

Oh right! Thanks for reminding me. I forgot about that. But I still fail to see how that relates to the complaint w/ universal search

 

[John.B]

The guide on my Cox STB can't even filter out the channels I don't pay for.

It'd be pretty great to have an ATV guide that would only search through the services I've signed up with.

 

[flaw600]

Yea I gotta agree. When I add movies to kodi it downloads tons of data about them. Hope it can be extended to something like that.

Well I highly doubt most people have metadata embedded into their personal collection. That said, I agree that's conceivable that Apple could extend the function to home content but it's unlikely at this time. Something similar to iTunes Match makes sense, but think about that for a second. Match works because you pay to get your unverified content to be verified. The music industry fell for that line but I highly doubt the movie industry will. So matching with home content would probably land Apple in legal trouble.

No. Welcome to the 21st century. Live content will be available in apps for HTTP live streaming technology. Cable is dead and will be so because the cable companies want to own the vertical.

Cable's going to die? Hardly. Cord cutting doesn't really save you money in the long run since most cable companies are also Internet Providers. So what they might lose in cable revenue they can easily make up in internet revenue. And they do. Cable companies don't die - cable content owners die. There's the difference

 

[dumastudetto]

This is a game changer device. I truly believe Apple just killed all their competitors in one swoop.