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Apple to Open Up Apple TV's Universal Search to Additional Apps via New API
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Yeah! But will it just be an application able to look in the server on your, for example, macmini? Or will it be a native plex server? Would Apple allow this! And is Apple TV able to attach external hard drives or able to use the ethernet that enables to search for other hard drives attached to your network?
"At launch we’ll have iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, and HBO — so we’ll have five major inputs into universal search initially,” Cook said."
I'm a bit disappointed that it seems that Apple has, so far, no success in deviding the content from subscriptions. Meaning, if I search for an specific episode on HBO I can only get results when I have an active subscription with HBO.... In this context Apple TV is more a subscription gathering tv set top box next to a simple but probably nice gaming console.
I'm still intrested in Apple TV tough, that is when Plex could fully function on the device as the makers of Plex have suggested. If that comes out then this would be the main reason for buying Apple TV, for me that is.
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Perhaps. But obsessive personal cataloguers of metadata make up perhaps 0.001% of Apple's customer base. It's their ethos to design for normal people, not extreme geeks.
Really? It's certainly not advertised. More importantly, it's main function is as a game console and is more expensive than any alternative
Versus what? I'm kind of confused as to your complaint. From what I understand, Universal Search checks all available sources but highlights the ones you currently have access to. You can search for HBO episodes, and obviously you know that it's on HBO, but they're also on iTunes.
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I don't know. It's yet another platform where the only thing promised is potential. Who cares about potential anymore?
Yes, the big companies will have some (student, junior, temporarily contracted) developer doing something which uses that API. Fine. Will it be a good experience? Probably not. It's just the average implementation delivering the same content as always in a slightly different way. Is it a better experience? At first maybe yes, but with the global experience with search or siri, you just have another layer forcing you to do again one more step before you get into the content which is the same as always.
I believe users simply do not want to search. That is not what TV is about. They just want to consume.
In the end... I don't know. AppleTV seems... insignificant.
I miss the first implementation of front row. That carried an idea. Everything afterwards was just a GUI.
thanks for trying to make me look like an extreme geek but i'm not. what i was trying to say is that metadata is nothing special and apple is not special for having it. it's not that difficult to obtain in with simple scripts on any system. that's what every media center software does, it's not like you have to input it manually. it just downloads it from 2-3 sources of huge databases, that's all.
Sure cord cutting can save you money in the long run and in my situation it sure is saving me money. If I had continued on with AT&T Uverse TV/internet package I would have been paying $219/month, which is crazy. Now that I have cut the cord I pay $77/month for high speed internet and NetFlix. Even if I had downgraded to a lower channel package with Uverse I would have been paying around $170/month.
I agree that doing it separately is annoying. Especially since the apps seem to forget my ATV a lot and I have to redo it.
But, one problem with universal log-in would be for people that have 2 or more cable accounts. Example, what if I had TV service with FiOS, and most of my TV channels were available through them. But I also have Comcast for Internet, and I was able to get a cheap plan that included HBO. I would have to enter two different cable accounts for the ATV.
Although this probably would not affect many people, but if there was universal log-in without the option to individually log-in per app, it may prevent some users from using channels that they have a sub with.
Apple didn't reneg on their promise so much as they lost a lawsuit against VirnetX seeking to ban FaceTime technology and all sales of hardware using that technology. That killed the momentum of opening up the standard to everyone.
On the surface this seems like good news and i hope it is. The "holly grail" for me is to have the ability to search your own content either through Home Sharing (iTunes server) or Plex or some kind of direct NAS player (like Infuse for example). The problem is, Home Sharing doesn't even do this yet. I applaud the sentiment of getting Universal Search working with everything, but until Apple updates iTunes to allow us to edit the tags to include our own local content via Home Sharing, i'm just going to assume this is all just spin. Until i actually see the API change i will remain sceptical.
Yes this would be nice since we use the same provider log in for a lot of the cable tv apps
No this would be bad if opened. Siri needs to be controlled a bit, and Apple work with individual developers to make it integrated into their apps. I don't' think it will function well if it becomes open for everyone with an app to program for it. You'd be hearing s lot more "sorry I didn't quite get that"
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Not sure what you are getting at but many, many people use FaceTime. It is easy and works always if there is a good connection. Even my grandmother of 86 years uses it without issues to see her great granddaughter.
That is simply not true for twitter accounts on iOS9. I installed the new Tweetbot a few moments ago. It says "Tweetbot would like access to your twitter accounts" say yes and it moves forward without ever going to the twitter app. Facebook does not seem as well integrated, at least last time I checked, but Twitter does exactly what he says it does without the need to open the app.
Siri requires the Internet to work. I assume when you ask Siri to do something it sends the query to an Apple server for processing which is close to other apple servers with content or specialized links to other servers that will give you feed back results that is smooth as butter.
Who knows but maybe Apple also have servers with Netflix/ Hulu etc entire library metadata onsite with theirs which is why it provides an almost instant feedback.
Remember for us it seems like magic and something so easy to do. But we have no idea about the back end querying process actually works.
For something like this to work on your local home network. Your computer will have to be always connected, excellent connection, iTunes always open, and I'll assume have flash storage as a local hard drive takes seconds to search using spotlight vs the milliseconds that will be required.
I'm just guessing but whatever the reason Apple don't include this, it's a very good reason. I'm sure they don't want to deliver a mediocre experience to some. Which is why you can always AirPlay to the Apple TV the content of your choice.
Mine's not bad, but I would have expected Apple to put a cable plug in the back, and I would replace my TV terminal completely with the AppleTV.
That being said, if the channels that I listen to, or my cable provider DO create an AppleTV app, I'll be able to ditch my terminal anyway. And I know it's bound to come
The only thing I'm worried about is : will is cost me Internet bandwidth, or will it be part of my TV plan ?
All I want, is to be able to pause netflix with siri... like I can do with xbox. "Hey Siri, Pause, I gotta go heat up my pizza rolls."
NTSC has been dead for several years (at least in the US). You probably meant ATSC (at least in the US). Other than the brief time when the Mac TV was released probably with an NTSC tuner, Apple has never shown any interested in NTSC or other OTA broadcast standards. They are all into internet streaming technologies now. Once even local channels come on the internet, you may be able to get live streaming.
Apple has not talked about H.265 at all. That is very concerning. VLC player and Mac Media Player already support it. I have a few downloads that are in H.265 and they look great for a very small file size. A 40 minute 1080p TV show with Dolby Digital 5.1 for about 500MB is not bad eh! Amazon has already acknowledged that their new FireTV has H.265 support and 4K support.
Also, ATV4 is the first Apple product that supports Dolby Digital Plus. While Dolby Digital Plus is still a lossy codec, it is newer than decades old Dolby Digital (that iTunes uses) and actually supports 7.1 channels. Support for the newer audio codec require HDMI and HDCP and that is also probably why Apple got rid of the optical audio in ATV4. If they have gone this far, why have then not advertised support for Dolby True HD, and DTS-HD-Ma and just plain LPCM 5.1 and 7.1. These are important advancements in audio that are already implemented in silicon and can be easily bit streamed to an outboard decoder (typically in people's home theater receivers). Even a $50 Bluray player has support for all these technologies.
I hope the developers can probe Apple and the API to get support for this. iTunes movies lack terribly in the audio department (more than in the video department).
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Even with search and Siri this UI still misses the whole point. I want to be able to pin the shows I watch as the very first thing I see on screen regardless of what service they are on.
Yes! And whats more we mostly won't need to use Channels in Plex anymore either as the native apps for Apple TV will be better - best of both worlds is we'll be able to search all of them!
Plex, iPlayer, Netflix, ITV Player, 5, 4 On Demand, Sky Go, all searchable from one beautiful interface? This might now be enough to make me give up the Mac mini has my media centre!
You want to pin the shows you watch which is neat. But then that just brings up the same question as to why not use Siri? Besides each service have a favorite or shows you watch so you can go into the individual apps and then that section.
You want it to pull content from different apps and display it on one page. But then what will that page or app be called? (Favorite?) How would one access it from the home screen?
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Users don't want to search? Netflix, Hulu, Crunchyroll, etc. would disagree with you. Their ways are different but at the heart of it it's a form of searching. The idea behind the Apple TV is that users don't search for particular shows, but particular tastes. Whereas Netflix pushes you towards what they think you'll like, Siri asks you what you like which I find a better way of going about it. Honestly, I rarely choose one of the shows Netflix pushes, and I usually end up browsing categories. Siri would help with that. Now if you don't buy into that vision, then perhaps the Apple TV isn't for you, but then again like all products, it has a target audience.