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Initial Orders for New Apple TV Being Prepared for Shipment
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
No, they have to be in just a small selection of formats as chosen by Apple. See the
TV specs for the right formats: http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.htmlIt's not an everything device; it's mostly an iTunes device, heavily aimed at renting content. If you want something that plays lots of codecs and can work with lots of sources of content beyond iTunes & Netflx streaming, there are <$100 devices from Roku, WD, and even some BD players that might be a better match for your needs.
No, there isn't, because there's tons of prior art. Expand my imagination ? You just described the good old mouse cursor. Might want to try expanding yours...
Touching a surface you're not looking at is called a trackpad. We've had plenty of those in the last 30 years. The fact is, the way input works on iOS for touch devices is not how a trackpad works. Both don't really translate well in many circumstances.
The fact is, touch screen input doesn't work if you're not looking at the screen you're touching* unless you get some sort of tactile feedback, which current iDevices lack.
Don't get me wrong, I don't doubt AppleTV apps could be a reality, just not "iPhone apps on AppleTV". AppleTV apps would change my mind on this little device and would make it an insta-buy for me.
You just like to argue. First you say, 'see all these things are out there already you dummy' and then you say 'but you can't do it because you need tactile feedback.' I won't debate whether a mouse cursor is what I described at all (its not) but you are right, there already is visual feedback from a touch sensitive device to another output device...its called Keynote on an iPad hooked to a projector. The iPad is blacked out, the total experience is on the screen, and yet you still use your fingers on the ipad to control it. Looking at the screen. You can even drag a 'laser pointer' around the projected screen using your finger on the iPad while obviously not looking at the iPad.
You won't concede the point but it is exactly where I see this all going.
Ok Like I said in my earlier post it was delivered today via Fed Ex. I had to sign for it. I live in Oregon so closer to China is why I got it so fast? Anyway it is so cool. I've had a chance to play with it and all I can say is WOW. I've got a big Toshiba 65HM167 65" DLP TV (1080p) but the 720p looks like 1080 on it- I can't tell the difference! It does not make any noise. I already have Netflix through my 1080p Tivo and just signed up through the Apple TV and Netflix looks the same. Streaming is fast. Can wait for Apps for this. I'm going to the Apple Store to buy one more for a friend. Damn its small. Remote is cute and simple.
Oh really? Funny, because I'm in Oregon too--right in Portland, the biggest city, and I haven't gotten mine yet, nor have any of my friends. How about you show us some actual photos?
I ordered mine through amazon but still no change on the status. Still states that I will be notified when ship date is available.
I noticed that it is no longer available through amazon so I wonder how this affects my order. Anyone else order via amazon?
I noticed that it is no longer available through amazon so I wonder how this affects my order. Anyone else order via amazon?
I ordered mine at 9:55 pm on Sep 1.
It just changed to "Prepared for Shipment" sometime in the last hour.
It just changed to "Prepared for Shipment" sometime in the last hour.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Do you have any video content in iTunes to push the specs? For example, would you happen to have any 1080i/p content in iTunes to see if it could play it back in spite of what the limits show on the Apple site? If not, would you happen to have a 1080p movie trailer you could put in iTunes just for this test. I'd love to find out that Apple just chose NOT to announce that the horsepower is there for better-than-720p30fps max video quality.
No, they have to be in just a small selection of formats as chosen by Apple. See the
It's not an everything device; it's mostly an iTunes device, heavily aimed at renting content. If you want something that plays lots of codecs and can work with lots of sources of content beyond iTunes & Netflx streaming, there are <$100 devices from Roku, WD, and even some BD players that might be a better match for your needs.
I know its kind of off topic but I hear there are apps for the imac like Rivet or connect360 that can stream as a media streamer all your photos, videos, and music. I just got my forst mac yesterday so I dont know. Any help is appreciated. I was hoping the apple tv would do this?
So rude. And disrespectful. You're basically calling that person a liar. Why can't someone just be believed? What would he/she have to gain by lying? Give it a break, and GROW UP. All this BS on here of "Pics or it didn't happen!" reminds me of a flock of high school girls, chanting idiocies.
To those who don't see a use for this device, here's why I'm buying one:
Photos:
My main goal is to make my iPhoto photos easily viewable on my big screen TV. I do this currently using an old Powerbook G4 permanently hooked up to my TV, running Front Row. I stream the photos from my main computer's iPhoto Library, on a Macbook Pro. Very handy, but Front Row hasn't been updated in a while, and it doesn't have the Events/place/faces features that the new Apple TV does.
Home Movies:
I also like to make my home movies available to stream easily to my TV. Front Row requires those movies either be in iTunes on my MBP or in the Movies Folder on the PB. Don't know if this will change in Apple TV, but if I do have to import them into iTunes (annoying), at least most of my media will be in the same place. (I don't understand why Front Row / Apple TV can stream directly from the iPhoto library, but not the iMovie library?)
Airplay:
My wife and I are both iphone 4 users, and we have a 5-month old baby. Lots of photos and videos on our phones, which often don't make it to our mac until we synch our phones once every 3 weeks+. To be able to show off baby photos/videos on the big screen with just a touch of a button instead of digging for a $50 cable to hook up the phone to the TV will be fantastic. Also, rumors suggest that any video the iPhone can play will be playable on the apple tv via airplay. Could come in handy.
YouTube/Flickr:
I use Flickr alot, and so do my family/friends. this will be an easy no-hassle way to see those photos (and flickr videos?) on the big screen. Sure, I can use AirMouse and my Powerbook to navigate to websites from the couch, but it's more of a hassle, which means I don't use that feature very much. My PB G4 can do YouTube, of course, but it's processor is a tad underpowered to decompress the good quality YouTube clips, so the movies play but tend to look choppy unless I download them to the computer ahead of time, which is too much of a hassle.
Remember what Apple tries to specialize in: Not necessarily doing something first, but making an existing cool feature EASY so that people will actually use it without taking extra time to "make it work".
Regarding the whole 1080p issue: Yes it would be better if it had 1080p, and I expect apple will probably put out a 1080p capable version of this product in a year or two. But at $100, it's not much of a loss to get the next generation of this apple tv for the living room and move the 2nd generation one into the bedroom. Currently, 1080p is a non-issue for me. I have blu-rays and a blu-ray player. I do have a camcorder that can do 1080p, but the movie files take up twice as much storage space as the 720p ones, so I've stopped shooting in 1080p just to save myself time on file management. Plus the difference between 1080p and 720p for home movies is not that significant. Nature documentaries and special-effects movies: yes! Home movies: meh. I'd rather have the extra storage space so I can store more home movies than be able to watch them in slightly higher resolution.
Photos:
My main goal is to make my iPhoto photos easily viewable on my big screen TV. I do this currently using an old Powerbook G4 permanently hooked up to my TV, running Front Row. I stream the photos from my main computer's iPhoto Library, on a Macbook Pro. Very handy, but Front Row hasn't been updated in a while, and it doesn't have the Events/place/faces features that the new Apple TV does.
Home Movies:
I also like to make my home movies available to stream easily to my TV. Front Row requires those movies either be in iTunes on my MBP or in the Movies Folder on the PB. Don't know if this will change in Apple TV, but if I do have to import them into iTunes (annoying), at least most of my media will be in the same place. (I don't understand why Front Row / Apple TV can stream directly from the iPhoto library, but not the iMovie library?)
Airplay:
My wife and I are both iphone 4 users, and we have a 5-month old baby. Lots of photos and videos on our phones, which often don't make it to our mac until we synch our phones once every 3 weeks+. To be able to show off baby photos/videos on the big screen with just a touch of a button instead of digging for a $50 cable to hook up the phone to the TV will be fantastic. Also, rumors suggest that any video the iPhone can play will be playable on the apple tv via airplay. Could come in handy.
YouTube/Flickr:
I use Flickr alot, and so do my family/friends. this will be an easy no-hassle way to see those photos (and flickr videos?) on the big screen. Sure, I can use AirMouse and my Powerbook to navigate to websites from the couch, but it's more of a hassle, which means I don't use that feature very much. My PB G4 can do YouTube, of course, but it's processor is a tad underpowered to decompress the good quality YouTube clips, so the movies play but tend to look choppy unless I download them to the computer ahead of time, which is too much of a hassle.
Remember what Apple tries to specialize in: Not necessarily doing something first, but making an existing cool feature EASY so that people will actually use it without taking extra time to "make it work".
Regarding the whole 1080p issue: Yes it would be better if it had 1080p, and I expect apple will probably put out a 1080p capable version of this product in a year or two. But at $100, it's not much of a loss to get the next generation of this apple tv for the living room and move the 2nd generation one into the bedroom. Currently, 1080p is a non-issue for me. I have blu-rays and a blu-ray player. I do have a camcorder that can do 1080p, but the movie files take up twice as much storage space as the 720p ones, so I've stopped shooting in 1080p just to save myself time on file management. Plus the difference between 1080p and 720p for home movies is not that significant. Nature documentaries and special-effects movies: yes! Home movies: meh. I'd rather have the extra storage space so I can store more home movies than be able to watch them in slightly higher resolution.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
The TV does stream content from your Mac to your HDTV, as long as that content plays in iTunes AND is within the limits of what the TV can handle.
And yes, there are stand alone software packages that aim to make a Mac be a more capable replacement for anTV. A couple of very popular options are called Plex & Boxee.
If someone has formats thatTV can't handle, those may be good options if you don't want to convert other formats to TV versions.
TV does stream content from your Mac to your HDTV, as long as that content plays in iTunes AND is within the limits of what the TV can handle.And yes, there are stand alone software packages that aim to make a Mac be a more capable replacement for an
TV. A couple of very popular options are called Plex & Boxee.If someone has formats that
TV can't handle, those may be good options if you don't want to convert other formats to TV versions.
You don't find it strange that out of everyone who is waiting patiently for their AppleTV and Apple even refunding peoples shipping costs that some how someone got their AppleTV in the mail today? The very day everyone else even commenting on the subject were notified there's just started shipping?
I don't think anyone said anything disrespectful at all, and in today's world proof is needed for anything, that's just how the world works. People will and can lie about anything they want to, people murder people without any motives, I'm sure someone can lie about receiving something in the mail for no good reason...
On a side note I received my iPad2 today, I might update you guys later on how it works, but I like it so far.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
It's good that you see all these applciations for the
TV. It will do all of that very well. The old version does too, except that it didn't get the airplay feature. Other than airplay, Apple has had the ability for you to do all of that for the last 4 years.I appreciate your stance on this point, so I'll offer the counterpoint. If you are shooting all that video with a 1080p camcorder, you might as well shoot those precious home movies (that you'll never get to shoot again) at 1080p. You obviously wanted to buy a camcorder to record best possible video, so deciding to shoot in 720p- while certainly your choice- is somewhat wasting a quality option you'll never get again. I also have 1080 Camcorder- my second one capable of shooting at 1080, and I pretty much shoot everything at the highest resolution so that I at least have the option to watch it when the 1080 vs 720p debate is long gone.
Apple gives us the tool- iMovie- to read in that 1080p content. We can edit it at 1080p, and render it from iMovie at 1080p. Those 1080p video files will import right into iTunes, and play there just fine. Unfortunately, only this last link in the chain- both the 4-year old
TV and the new generation- are gimped by design at 720p MAX. If that's good enough for you, great! And hopefully you are right in that we won't have to wait another 4 years for Apple to finally give us some 1080 hardware in the next-next-generation
TV, for those of us that don't mind the bigger file sizes, etc in exchange for the higher resolution video. Your alternative implies that you'll either be locked at 720p MAX because you shot your master footage at a quality less than you could have, or you'll need to go back and re-render all your accumulated footage by that point in time so that you have 1080p versions when there's a 1080p
TV. Wouldn't it have been nice if Apple had rolled out a 1080p capable TV now, which would have worked for your "720p is good enough for me" opinion and for those of us wanting a little more too? At least you would have had the option to show your best 1080p-shot footage at 1080p, rather than Apple deciding for you- and me- that 720p max is good enough for everyone.Our "baby" is 13 now, and we've been shooting home movies since her birth. Back then, the best camcorders we could get were SD. So we shot those movies with the best available video quality. It's great to have those videos, but we so wish we could step back in time and re-shoot them with our 1080HD camcorder now. They look "OK"- and are certainly better than nothing. And per some of your justification, SD file sizes are much smaller than 720p, but that's small consolation now, nor does it motivate you or us to continue to shoot in only SD resolutions. I never see any of the "720p files sizes are smaller" crowd arguing for the even smaller file sizes of SD video.
Your baby can be captured for his/her early lifetime in 1080, which might be near bleeding edge now, but won't be a few years from now. Get it while you can, because you won't get to come back and reshoot it at 1080 later on, when iMacs are shipping with 8TB drives stock, and a 10GB video will not seem any bigger than a 2GB video today.
I'm glad that you're happy. I've enjoyed my
TVs for 4 years now too. The things you want to do will work very, very well. I just wish Apple had chosen to add more than 6 frames-per-second to the max resolution spec vs. a unit they rolled out 4 years ago. My money was so ready to be spent on a couple of upgrades. 6 frames-per-second, netflix, and airplay was not enough... even at $99.
I won't concede the point because it makes no sense. First there was no contradiction in my post. I pointed out that "touch" devices like you propose are called trackpad and do not work like Touch Screens at all, which is what iDevice apps require for the most part.
Now about your example, does Keynote require you to hit precise spots on the screen ? Or is it just gestures that you can pretty much do all over ? Because for scrolling in Mobile Safari, I just need to flip my finger accross the screen. Anywhere really. Of course, if the screen isn't displaying anything, that still works fine because there is no precision required.
The problem comes when you need to hit precise points. How do you know the exact mapping of Input screen XY to Output screen XY ? I do I know the point I'm touching is the point I'm looking at ? A mouse cursor solves this, but a cursor breaks a lot of concepts of iOS, which was designed around a cursorless input paradigm.
And that's where the whole notion falls apart. For the most part, iOS apps and especially iOS games are all about precise touch, not gestures you can do all over the screen.
Will you at least concede that point or are you like me "just wanting to argue" ?
Pics or it didn't happen.
I won't concede the point because it makes no sense. First there was no contradiction in my post. I pointed out that "touch" devices like you propose are called trackpad and do not work like Touch Screens at all, which is what iDevice apps require for the most part.
Now about your example, does Keynote require you to hit precise spots on the screen ? Or is it just gestures that you can pretty much do all over ? Because for scrolling in Mobile Safari, I just need to flip my finger accross the screen. Anywhere really. Of course, if the screen isn't displaying anything, that still works fine because there is no precision required.
The problem comes when you need to hit precise points. How do you know the exact mapping of Input screen XY to Output screen XY ? I do I know the point I'm touching is the point I'm looking at ? A mouse cursor solves this, but a cursor breaks a lot of concepts of iOS, which was designed around a cursorless input paradigm.
And that's where the whole notion falls apart. For the most part, iOS apps and especially iOS games are all about precise touch, not gestures you can do all over the screen.
Will you at least concede that point or are you like me "just wanting to argue" ?
So has your AppleTV shipped out?
Where I have indicated that I ordered one ? Lack of apps held back my hand from the "buy" button.