Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple's Set Top Box

arn

arn

macrumors god
Original poster
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,399
5,843
Hey all,

I thought it'd be nice to post pictures of this item I own:

settopfront.jpg


settopback.jpg


These are pictures of an Apple Set Top box that was created years ago... but never produced into anything... somewhat a curiosity... not sure what the plan was...

Anyhow, we gave one of these away in the early days of Macrumors.com... but I've got one for myself as well which remains in my permanent collection.

arn
 
I bet some fanboy is gonna take these pictures to another rumor site and proclaim this is the "one more thing" we will see on monday. Either that or spymac will post the pics and say they got them from a source deep inside Cupertino :)
 
Apple's Set Top Box was a prototype that was never released, as arn already said. It has nothing to do with Pippin which was released in Japan and the US by Bandai.
 
Interactive TV box for the UK

Interactive TV was supposed to be the next big thing after the Internet started exploding (along with AOL, CompuServe).

I have a Popular Mechanics mag that has an Intel add-in card that would pipe in a TV signal with embedded computer content in it.

Kinda like a broadcast version of DVD (select different audio, text tracks).

The whole thing fizzled. Digital TV will do the same thing and will be the defacto standard in a few years in the US, so the developers of the $5k T.V. set say anyway.
 
Originally posted by asurace
This reminds me of the Mac TV . Same concept I guess.
Click to expand...

Actually, it is a completly different concept. The MacTV was a LC 580 with TV card. That's all.

The Set Top Box was independent from computers and was directly attached to your TV. A better comparison would be nowadays pay-TV decoders.
 
And another thing...

Arn how many of these 'items' are in your possetion (not only set top boxes, but newton's, pippin's etc.?)
 
What I would like in an Apple set-top box

I would love to see it have the following abilities:

1. TiVo-like recording capability
2. Airport enabled to grab MP3s from my desktop
3. SuperDrive
4. Big ass hard drive 100GB
5. USB/firewire ports on the front
6. The intelligence to drive my home theater regardless of make and model of other components.

This would make me happy and I'd spend $1,000 to have it.

- David
 
there were actually 3 different models. I heard that they were mainly used for internet like WebTV. I am pretty sure that this was the third revision of it, and it was the only one they actually produced and sold.:p
 
I just hope whatever apple whips up in the future won't be a flop... and won't be a one shot deal (like the set top box, that never got a proper revision)!
 
Apples future

Consumer (iMac)- continues and profits
Pro (Powermac)- still will be used for almost all entertainment production and becomes more popular due to OSX
OS's- OSX becomes standard (allows Apple to gain support from Linux crowd and non-windows users) OS9 stays as classic but becomes outdated and will end with 9.6 down the road where it stays as stable as ever.
Servers ?- Apple continuse to make them until the Cisco makes that G5 based server which is OSX cabable (Apple servers die out)
iPod- is updated in hd size and a remote (stays popular for 2-5 years)
Other- Apple produces a digital camera/dvc but it fails?
Everything else at apple continues upgrades and so on.
Apple out lives Gateway,Micron,Compaq,IBM (pc's)
Microsoft is overthrown or at least lowered to 50% by AOL OS(dies quickly but hurts Microsoft),Apple
Dell remains with HP as consumer, Sony and Apple as Pro.
 
thats a good vision, and Apple should dominate in the pro line, but as far as for consumers, the iMac basically saved apple way back when, and that was a consumer computer... i need some statistics to back me up, but i dont think Apple will lose its consumer line in the future.
 
Originally posted by me hate windows
there were actually 3 different models. I heard that they were mainly used for internet like WebTV. I am pretty sure that this was the third revision of it, and it was the only one they actually produced and sold.:p
Click to expand...

Actually, they never sold any version. arn's Set Top box is prototype 2 which was licenced to about 1000 test users.
 
Another settop box owner

I have one of these as well and they are a mystery. I managed to get a copy of the the system software for it and there's lots of interesting things in there which explains its operation. One of these days I'll construct a web page consolidating all the clues I've gathered. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, I was unable to boot mine. It powers up and even briefly accesses an external SCSI CD-ROM, but it doesn't boot. Anybody get there's to come up?
 
So?

The two posts before mine are from this March. Hence, the topic caught my eye and I saw that I posted here before. I didn't care (nor look) when the last posts were from.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back