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

iOS 5 to Unlock Bluetooth Capabilities of Apple TV?

aduteau said:
-Add Plex series 9 to your mac mini in the living room (witch also works as a server for all your "i devices" to stream movies to them ... you can now play any .AVI files thru the Mac mini)

-Add Boxee to your mac mini ... does much of what Plex does .. but also has the ability to stream TV shows straight from the internet .. and has a much better selection of Apps to watch streaming from websites like Justin.TV

-Add Hulu Desktop ... need I say more

-And then add remote buddy software: http://www.iospirit.com/products/remotebuddy/
This software will let you control and start Plex, Boxee, Hulu Desktop all from your mac mini controller. No need for a mouse or keyboard in the living room.

Boom you got the best Media Player for your living room :)
Click to expand...

Boxee and Plex are alright, but both have their issues. It's TV. People want the simplicity of what all these things offer, but no one seems to have it just right yet. Especially the simplicity part. The plug ins for those hardly ever work, nixing a lot of what they should be good for.

If Apple weren't so... Apple... they could make all those suggestions needless. Most people don't want to have to use 3 different pieces of software and several boxes to just watch TV.

I wish the ATV offered more content like the Roku boxes. Toss in a browser, and it would be the perfect living room item.
 
mcmlxix said:
Could someone educate me about Blue Tooth? What is its range? Is it fast enough for game controllers?
Click to expand...

AFAIK all the current crop of game consoles use Bluetooth for their wireless controllers. So . . . yes. ;)

Edit: Fact checked myself. Wii and PS3 use Bluetooth for their controllers. Xbox 360 uses some MS proprietary protocol.
 
OptyCT said:
Ummmm, so how about an iPad with the Remote app?

Before you respond, let me do it for you: "An iPad's too bulky for a remote control." I can read minds :)
Click to expand...
No. My answer would be that I really have no use for an iPad, so why should I buy a $499 remote control.
 
nate13 said:
a $100 fully functional iOS/ basic computer on an existing piece of hardware? With awesome connectivity to the most popular PC music player/ smartphone/ tablet/ iTouch, access to a wide range of existing application code? FOR $100 DOLLARS!?

I'm sorry, but that would be absolutely genius- we truly are in the Post PC era.
Click to expand...

This is genius... It's the iOS glue that integrates your idevices into your entertainment system.

It's brilliant and Apple is going to rock this fall.
 
Kar98 said:
This means the Mac mini is going away, doesn't it?
Click to expand...

I could see the end of the Mac Mini forthcoming, but not because of this. It's not a big seller. It's only real contribution is it's size and how easy it is to stick somewhere. It's always argued that "well, people usually have a display and a keyboard already" but they're probably old. If you add any of those things, you're at the price of a more powerful iMac pretty much. I always thought the price of the mini would go down... but it went up... and for its parts, not worth it for most people.

Now, if they gave an option to boot the mini into an IOS state ala the Apple TV... that would give it a nice and needed edge.
 
j2-core said:
So if you bought a new Apple TV it has bluetooth but you can't use it until Apple says so? That's innovation at it's best.
Click to expand...

I think your missing the point, a lot of chip makers have combo chips, doesn't mean that the consumers of the chips have to enable all the functionality. I'm sure that the chip chosen for the Apple TV was the best fit for the functionality they wanted in it and Bluetooth is a benefit. Either way, how could this be a bad thing??
 
j2-core said:
So if you bought a new Apple TV it has bluetooth but you can't use it until Apple says so? That's innovation at it's best.
Click to expand...

So Apple decided to include a wifi/bluetooth combo chip in the first revision of the ATV2, to make it more future proof and to support their future product roadmap. And of course their internal plans are not made public. But because they thought ahead to include a chip with this functionality, but have not yet activated it, then you equate it to not being innovative?

I for one am shocked that Apple is not consulting with you for their big decisions, as your thought process seems to be spot on and strategic. Kudos to you. I'm sure Steve will be calling you any day now, so make sure you stay by the phone.
 
Emailed Jobs

I actually emailed Jobs a year ago to suggest using iPhones and iPod Touches as wireless gaming controllers when paired to the AppleTV. Never did get a response from him.

In all likelihood, my email was never read and discarded. It seems like such a natural marriage that I'm sure some engineers at Apple already had the same idea that I had.
 
put in a browser and some apps

and i'll buy 3 of them. One for the living one for the ent room and one for the bedroom. Netflix, hulu, crackle, crunchyroll, whatever (yah i know some of those are on there currently). Even if they eventually block some of those services, at least having a browser would let you surf the web. they prob wont do it since it would chip away at the rest of their market, but at least some widgets that would let me check mail and stuff of the sort.
 
Bluetooth remote

I'd be happy if this was for little more than a bluetooth version of their current remote. My TV has a bluetooth remote, which is great. No concern about direction, location, etc. My Apple TV is the only device attached and I need to leave it visible. Silly since there's no display. I could easily tuck it away if it weren't for the IR receiver. (Yes there are IR extenders, and yes I use the remote app from my iPhone at times, but trying to keep things simple...)
 
Mobile Safari!

To all the people asking for a browser, yeah, I'd love it too. It's what I've been asking for since the 1st gen :apple:TV. But this is iOS, so most likely it will be mobile Safari or some other mobile browser. Not sure that will be beneficial and/or any good. It needs to be full fledged Safari for desktop in order to be somewhat usable I think and be able to install Flash (I know...) and Silverlight. Otherwise I still see myself connecting my macbook to my TV in order to use the *real* Safari.

What do you think?
 
wackymacky said:
Sure, for typing in a simple search string.

But no matter how hard I try I can’t touch type on the iPad effectively while looking at the TV monitor, were as I can type at aprox. 100 words-per-minute on a proper keyboard.
Click to expand...

Given the context of this thread: I don't see users pounding out literature or writing code at 100wpm on an AppleTV.
 
bignumbers said:
I'd be happy if this was for little more than a bluetooth version of their current remote.
Click to expand...

Yes. M'lady's MacBook keeps turning on and doing stuff when I'm trying to use the ATV, as the former does respond to the indiscriminate IR. (Never mind the waving the remote around intervening kids so the latter can see it.)
 
ctdonath said:
Given the context of this thread: I don't see users pounding out literature or writing code at 100wpm on an AppleTV.
Click to expand...
True, but I think the case could be made that Safari (if Apple should add it to ATV) would be easier to use with a keyboard with a built in track pad than an ATV remote or an iDevice. running Remote app.
 
ctdonath said:
Given the context of this thread: I don't see users pounding out literature or writing code at 100wpm on an AppleTV.
Click to expand...

No, but if Apple TV was expanded into a device that had social Apps that you wanted to type with, or e-mail, or other such things then it would be nice to be able to enter text more efficiently.

(My TV already does this (without an Apple TV) anyhow, though I have to either enter txt via the silly TV remote, or once again an iOS device app on the iPhone)
 
HobeSoundDarryl said:
No, apps could lay imagery on top of pictures or video without having HDMI in, much like your iDevice can have pop up notifications from other apps multitasking in the background. That's just a software thing- no special (new) hardware required.

People who want HDMI-in are wanting to hook cables from other hardware to the :apple:TV or have a pass-through option rather than dealing with a separate HDMI switch. They might be hoping such an :apple:TV could record video from other sources (like a DVR) and similar. Or they might be out of HDMI ports on their TV or receiver and desire pass through options rather than having to buy a separate switch or other such new hardware.
Click to expand...

I agree that the current Apple TV could overlay apps on top of the iTunes content that it streams, but most people still use a separate box as a source for their TV programs, so that would be of limited use. Here in the UK the Apple TV doesn't even offer TV programs!

If they added an HDMI in port then the Apple TV could be placed inline between the TV/Console/BluRay/whatever and superimpose content onto any of them. It would encourage people to put the AppleTV as the last box before the display, which would help apps be even more useful.

It would open up all sorts of possibilities. You could overwrite the standard ticker on a news channel with one configured to show the stories that you are interested in from your RSS feeds. Or how about a ticker of sports scores where you can jump to show scores/goals in a game as and when they happen (although almost certainly for a fee)? Or stock prices for just the stocks in your portfolio (for the shareholders amongst us)?

And it's not just useful for apps that provide up-to-date news tailored for the user. I still think an IMDB app with face detection would be great. A simple button press on the remote control and it overlays an actor's name and what they have been in, with links to more information.
 
definitive said:
would be nice if apple tv had a safari browser built in. would go nice with a wireless keyboard.
Click to expand...

The Apple TV already has a browser. ;-) In iOS 5, you can use an iPad 2 and turn on Airplay mirroring. This is hands down the best browsing experience you can have on a TV. I've tried all sorts of options and nothing beats the multitouch browsing capabilities of the iPad combined with the ability of the Apple TV to put it all on the TV using Airplay if you're looking for a great tv browsing experience in the living room.

Using a mouse and keyboard is clunky in the living room and remotes and controllers are an extremely poor interface for web browsing. The iPad+ATV2 combo is killer. I never thought I would ever even somewhat enjoy browsing on my 60" Sony until I tried it with the iPad and ATV2.

Edit: I still rarely use this feature for browsing the web. Only when I want to show something on the web to several people in the room. If it's only a couple of people the iPad by itself is fantastic.
 
Last edited:
shneady said:
It needs to be full fledged Safari for desktop in order to be somewhat usable I think and be able to install Flash (I know...) and Silverlight. Otherwise I still see myself connecting my macbook to my TV in order to use the *real* Safari.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
I think that since media can be served up through Flash/Silverlight, that it would conflict with Apple wanting to be the middleman for media delivery.
 
ctdonath said:
Yes. M'lady's MacBook keeps turning on and doing stuff when I'm trying to use the ATV, as the former does respond to the indiscriminate IR. (Never mind the waving the remote around intervening kids so the latter can see it.)
Click to expand...

You just need to go to the System Preferences, click on 'Security', then click on the "Disavke remote control infrared receiver" check box. Problem solved.

I used to have this problem too. Until I found that system preference, I would intentionally do things like put pillows in front of my MBP's IR receiver so it wouldn't "see" the signal from the remote.
 
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