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New Apple TV to Get Apps?

rfahey said:
What are you talking about? So long as the library on your time capsule is accessible by your PC (or Mac)'s iTunes library it will be able to stream to your AppleTV, just look for your computer's name under "Devices" or whatever it's called, dun remember exactly - it might even be Computers.
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I think he is in the same situation as me. I have an appleTV and a macbook. With the new appleTV I need to have the macbook turned on to be able to stream content that is stored on the 1TB HD hanging on my Time Capsule.

I don't like that you need a running PC to make this work. It would be sweet if the appleTV was smart enough to go grab data from the actual itunes library directly (after setup).
 
johnnyjibbs said:
The new Apple TV now starts to look more interesting.

If they could only create a really good controller. One that has an accelerometer and gyroscope and that is wireless, oh, and a touch screen. And.. oh. Wait a minute - how about an iPhone or iPod touch, or even an iPad?

This would be fantastic. Let's just hope that the SDK will be set up to allow developers to create a controller app for the iDevice that communicates with the Apple TV. The only problem is that it would also have to work with the remote, but the remote sucks.

In fact, the remote has sucked since its inception. Why can't they put just a couple more buttons on it?

Then Apple TV would be awesome.
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*cough* Wii + iTunes *cough*
 
dvswede said:
I think he is in the same situation as me. I have an appleTV and a macbook. With the new appleTV I need to have the macbook turned on to be able to stream content that is stored on the 1TB HD hanging on my Time Capsule.

I don't like that you need a running PC to make this work. It would be sweet if the appleTV was smart enough to go grab data from the actual itunes library directly (after setup).
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EXACTLY! Why must I open any of my computers, to tie to the TC and then AirPlay that over the to the AppleTV. I don't own the old one, just about bought it when the new one was announced. But from my understand and the web, the old one will link straight to the TC. None of this dumb intermediate machine in the middle.
 
This is a pipedream, but I wish Apple would develop something like Plex for the appleTV... or at the opposite end, be able to be hacked to allow streaming movies, Hulu, and Netflix from a desktop/laptop.
 
Before apple tv was annouced, I was really excited. When it finally was announced, the lack of apps is what turned me off. I don't need a media extender. I don't want to encode all my dvd's on my computer and then stream them. I can rent stuff from comcast already.

If they get apps, and some good ones come out, then this becomes something I will probably buy. Without that, I'm not interested.
 
I also don't really see how this would work controller-wise, and no, I don't think Apple can assume that consumers of the Apple TV already have an iPhone or iPad. iOS is also not designed for either remotes or mouse pointers. Since there's currently no concept of "navigating through widgets", it simply need to have had some secret feature to allow this for remotes to work. Even then, few games would for example work, since they're often touch based and not designed for up/down/left/right key presses only. For example, a typical iPad game would have the user point at some place on the screen to move a character there - this doesn't translate to a remote control system at all and there's nothing Apple could do about that since the game would be developed by a third party.
 
Lots of replies already so someone may have mentioned this.

But there has to be local storage on the Apple TV. The Apple TV is a streaming device, yes. But if you rent a movie from iTunes from the device itself. It starts downloading it. It doesn't "stream" it. Streaming isn't entirely true with the rentals. You can't "stream" HD content over most people's internet connection. It has to cache some of it or you'll be constantly getting buffering pauses. My guess is that the local storage on the device is primarily for caching purposes. Local network streaming is easy, but internet streaming is not. If you ever rent a movie on your computer from iTunes you can start watching it shortly after it begins downloading but you need to give it some time to download a reasonable portion of it. But HD content even on my fast connection can't be watched without a good amount of the movie being downloaded already.

Whether the storage will be used for apps is unclear. maybe a small portion of it could be dedicated to apps. But my guess is that this iteration of the ATV won't have apps. Maybe the next incremental version of this rendition.
 
Makes no sense to me. The thing has very little storage, and as shipped, it has only a very limited controller. Plus the market of this device will not grow fast enough to interest developers the way the iPhone has.

Using iOS inside makes sense—it needs some kind of OS! But I don’t see that implying apps.

Apple doesn’t like to do things that are a poor experience. And anything people are likely to want to do on their TV (games, mainly) would be really limited on this hardware. New video sources/partners could certainly arrive, but I’d expect them to be via OS updates, not an app market.

As for people with an iOS touch device... well, they can already hook that to TV directly and have apps and games! (Very few apps support that, but more than you might think.) And those devices actually have storage and a developer base! I really don’t see any kind of app market being viable just for people who have BOTH a touch device AND the new AppleTV. That’s a tiny niche, and it would be cool but also pretty awkward.
 
If it gets apps, expect the future Apple TV after 2-3 further incarnation (2013-14 model) to go against the likes of Xbox and PlayStation.

Seriously, apps on a TV opens huge possibilities for games on the big screen.
 
sswanky said:
No question that gross profit from App Store is tiny compared to Apple's overall gross profit, but $189M (gross profit, not revenue) is nothing to sneeze at. The App Store is a very successful business.
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The App Store and all the software that Apple develops is for one thing only: to sell their hardware. Apple is a hardware company.
 
?

What about slingbox? It seems like that technology would be so easy to add to a box like this. i.e. connecting your phone to your apple tv while traveling so you can view whatever from your phone. Or, would they bypass this with an app and let you do all of the same things that the apple tv can straight from your phone without having to connect the two?
 
gks said:
Lots of replies already so someone may have mentioned this.

But there has to be local storage on the Apple TV. The Apple TV is a streaming device, yes. But if you rent a movie from iTunes from the device itself. It starts downloading it. It doesn't "stream" it. Streaming isn't entirely true with the rentals. You can't "stream" HD content over most people's internet connection. It has to cache some of it or you'll be constantly getting buffering pauses. My guess is that the local storage on the device is primarily for caching purposes. Local network streaming is easy, but internet streaming is not. If you ever rent a movie on your computer from iTunes you can start watching it shortly after it begins downloading but you need to give it some time to download a reasonable portion of it. But HD content even on my fast connection can't be watched without a good amount of the movie being downloaded already.

Whether the storage will be used for apps is unclear. maybe a small portion of it could be dedicated to apps. But my guess is that this iteration of the ATV won't have apps. Maybe the next incremental version of this rendition.
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Jeez! Yes there is internal storage. There is just NO user controllable storage for syncing content.

How else would an operating system exist if there was no storage for it? If there is 8gb of flash storage like the 8gb iphone then there is plenty of space for tons of apps along with the space used for buffering and caching.

My guess Apps were not announced because Apple is not ready with the software yet. They need to finish up iOS 4.2 for the ipad and Iphone and get that all working before focusing resources on getting apps on atv.

Until that day comes I will just enjoy my original ATV
 
nagromme said:
Using iOS inside makes sense—it needs some kind of OS! But I don’t see that implying apps.
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Functionally speaking, this new device has almost nothing over the existing AppleTV. So, why would they invest all that R&D to create a device with a new chip and new OS over the previous version with basically Netflix over the old product (which is *only* a US thing, rendering this device nothing beyond what the old device had outside the US - rentals excluded).

My feeling is that they have plans for this device, and apps make a whole lot of sense.

I have an AppleTV and unless they allow apps on the new one, my device is actually better than the new one (I hacked mine).

What other reason could there be to release a new product with [essentially] equal functionality of the old one?
 
StarBlue said:
PMZ

I have played a lot of games and know timing is crucial. I am not sure what you propose wouldn't have horrible time lags. Something like Scrabble or another game that isn't time critical would be great. But a racing game where it needs subtle inputs constantly would be hard in my opinion.
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If you can use something like Steam on a PC/Mac or play multiplayer games on consoles like the PS3 against people half way around the world streaming on a 6mbps DSL internet connection, I'm 100% positive you can stream games from your iphone or iPad within your own home network running 100 mbps or Gigabit ethernet.

With that being said, I don't think pushing current iOS games to your tv screen make any sense at all. Even if new games are created that allow you to control them using maybe a new controller with real buttons that don't require looking at it while watching the screen, that would make it just like a regular game console so nothing special.

The real allure of iPhone/Touch/Ipad games is the direct interaction you get with the touch based screen where you can directly manipulate things on the screen you're looking at and probably also the portability/immediate access of it. These effects are completely lost when a traditional non touch based screen like a TV set is used for games.

What will be the huge game changer is using Airplay to push video and audio from Safari, Pandora, Netflix, Hulu, ABC, MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, and other video based content apps which will likely come in the future like NFL Sunday Ticket, Comedy Central, ESPN, AMC, Cartoon Network, PBS, Fox, NBC, CBS, etc. if they haven't already.

And for people with .mkv, .avi, and other formats not officially support by iOS devices you will be able to Airplay that video too using the Air Video or Plex apps on your iOS devices.

Mark my words, people will be amazed when they see that they can watch episodes of "Dancing With The Stars" on their big screen HDTV just by Airplaying it from their ABC iphone app and be able to vote and interact right on the iPad. Once that takes off, more content providers will make the iOS devices a must-have source for their content just like they do now with cable, satellite, DVD, and Blu Ray.

Most people just haven't figured out how important Airplay is just yet because they think it's only for iTunes content. Those people are going to be quite surprised at the possibilities once they realize what Airplay can do.
 
newagemac said:
The real allure of iPhone/Touch/Ipad games is the direct interaction you get with the touch based screen where you can directly manipulate things on the screen you're looking at and probably also the portability/immediate access of it. These effects are completely lost when a traditional non touch based screen like a TV set is used for games.

What will be the huge game changer is using Airplay to push video and audio from Safari, Pandora, Netflix, Hulu, ABC, MLB.tv, NBA League Pass, and other video based content apps which will likely come in the future like NFL Sunday Ticket, Comedy Central, ESPN, AMC, Cartoon Network, PBS, Fox, NBC, CBS, etc. if they haven't already.
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What he said: there's no magic with TV-hosted apps. (See also this healthy discussion from pre-announcement.)

There's a business angle, too: Apple TV seems clearly positioned as a value-add to iOS devices. Doesn't anyone remember Steve Jobs showing slides during the original iMac launch about simplifying the product line? Apple TV apps would be different enough to merit Yet Another Store, and that's exactly the type of disfocus Steve took control of Apple to stop.
 
lord patton said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

To those wondering why the device didn't launch with an app store, one word: iPad. They don't yet have iOS ready for their new flagship product, so the couldn't waste resources on a hobby. I think they'll do apps, and would guess devs will see an SDK in the spring.

The interesting thing is how allowing an app e.g. hulu is almost as good as brokering a deal directly with a studios. It's certainly easier to help boxee port an app than it is to oversee scores of lawyers begging Hollywood for tv rentals.

Several years ago at All Things Digital (on stage with Gates), Steve Jobs said he wished Apple were better at partnerships. Well, with the app store, Apple suddenly had 100,000 partners, all of whom can make their hardware more enticing.

One more thing, the app concept may work for games, but for video content it might get in the way. I don't want to search hulu, then launch boxee, then go to the netflix app. I just want to pick a show. All the video serving apps should "speak" to one interface/database that I go to when I sit my ass on the couch.
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That is why I think even though it is $100 more, Boxee is the way to go.

Boxee contains a unified menu that allows you to search for a show and then it tells you where/how you can watch it.
 
F1 is better this year

slicecom said:
... I'd subscribe to get live F1 races and cancel my cable subscription immediately. ...
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Off-topic, but I'm glad to see more on-track passing in F1. I always hated the "fuel strategy" racing of 1994-2009. It was an over-reaction by the FIA to make F1 safer. (But Benetton at Hockenheim in '94 and Ferrari at Singapore in '08 proved otherwise.)
 
I would like the following apps for the UK AppleTV:

BBC iPlayer
4oD
Five on Demand
Sky Player
Lovefilm

Also, the ability to stream stuff from my NAS, as in .avi files and .mkv.
Its not hard and everyone else can do it.

If not, lets hope someone jailbreaks this thing to allow that.
 
vassillios said:
Perhaps your iPhone or iPad will act as the remote...ie you will see the app on your phone/pad and your finger touches will translate to the tv

simple
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Simple, indeed but also likely aggravating to use. The reason being, the whole point of having the TV screen as the output device is that its nice and large and its right in front of you. You don't want to be looking down at the remote all the time just to see what is already being shown to you on the screen. It would be like sitting in front of a computer and having to look at the mouse all the time in order to give the computer your input - it'd be an exercise in frustration.

One possible solution to this that I brought up in a past thread would be for the points of contact your fingers make on the remote device to be mirrored with little cursors - maybe finger-print-shaped or something like that - on the TV screen. But that brings about a new problem. Touch screen applications often require screen taps. But how would you know where your fingers are once you lift them from the screen and your finger cursors are no longer shown on the screen? A touch screen/pad can't track your fingers when they are not touching it, obviously. So, once possible solution to this new problem is that the touch screen/pad behaves differently that whan we are a customed to. Instead of registering taps and "clicks" it would instead register finger presses as clicks. I.e. you keep your finger(s) on the screen at all times so they are tracked on the TV and when you want to click you press down hard in a deliberate manner.

With some tweaking and further development this type of input system would probably work out ok but its far from ideal and it might get confusing going back and forth from this type of interface back to your typical touchscreen iOS experience. Instead, and unfortunately, I think it is more likely that when/if the Apple TV does support apps, they will have to be coded specifically to be friendly to use with its standard input device - the remote. That means interfaces similar to the FrontRow-like one that is currently used by Apple TV front end.
 
pmz said:
Not one single word of this post makes any sense.

1. You say games without a dedicated controller won't be feasible. I'd like to present Exhibit A, the App Store that has existed for 2.5 years. Every game is without a dedicated controller.

2. This is absurd. Apple doesn't expect people to buy iPhones or iPads??? :confused: I assure you, they do. What do you think the killer feature AirPlay revolves around? You're not going to be streaming anything from your aluminum remote to the :apple:TV, I can promise you that.

3. No one said anything about Apps in their current form. That's about as logical as saying the iPad would be only iPhone Apps, Double Pixeled. No, of course not, Apps would be purposely written and designed to take advantage of the situation.

(Sigh, can't believe I have to break this down for people)

- Most iPhone/iPad games center around very basic controls that are not accuracy-based, rather timing-based.. Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Tap anywhere, Double Tap, Swipe Up, Down, Left, Right, etc................

All of these interactions can be done on an iPhone or iPad (DEDICATED CONTROLLER) while the game's imagery and video is pushed out in 720p to your :apple:TV.

This, to me, sounds like it revolves solely around iPhone/iPad development, and won't require Apps to be stored on the :apple:TV. Apps/Games that push their visuals using AirPlay to the :apple:TV, rather than Apps running on the :apple:TV with the iPhone/iPad a wifi/bluetooth remote.
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You sir are 100 percent correct! You hit it on the head bro!

Apple is gonna clean up on this one...rumor has it that they new apple tv has 8gb or 16gb of flash storage in it....
 
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