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Rogers and BCE Already Have the Apple iTV in Their Labs, Controlled with Voice and Hand Gestures

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Apr 12, 2001
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The Globe and Mail reports that Apple is actively seeking launch partnerships with Canada's Rogers Communications and BCE Inc. to offer their upcoming Apple TV.
"They're not closed to doing it with one [company] or doing it with two," said one source who is familiar with the talks. "They're looking for a partner. They're looking for someone with wireless and broadband capabilities."
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According to the newspaper, these companies already have the Apple iTV in their labs.

Siri voice control is reportedly integrated into Apple's new television to help viewers make programming choices. Viewers can then control the TV with voice or hand gestures. Even an on-screen keyboard can be invoked without any special hardware (emphasis ours):
An on-screen keyboard, meanwhile, can also be activated in a similar manner, allowing viewers to surf the web, conduct video chats and use social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook - all without any physical interface.
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The paper isn't clear about the sourcing of the details for the hand gesture control, and later cites an analyst for some other details. They do seem to specifically have a source with knowledge of the matter.

The Globe and Mail is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper.

Article Link: Rogers and BCE Already Have the Apple iTV in Their Labs, Controlled with Voice and Hand Gestures
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2012/02/06/rogers-and-bce-already-have-the-apple-itv-in-their-labs-controlled-with-voice-and-hand-gestures/
Apple iTV

I guess this makes it official. Apple is going to come out with a TV set. I just wonder when.
 
Yep, that looks interesting. I hope all these evolutions end up in macbooks and imacs, too. Imagine a macbook with a ios layer and a lowpower arm chip, just like dual win-android laptops out there, and also with a gesture+siri system. Can't wait for it!! :D
 
Only thing that doesn't make sense is an onscreen keyboard with no physical interface. There's a reason that apple never did a touchscreen mac or convertible laptop - it's not even remotely ergonomic. And if anyone has ever used the Kinect should know that gestures aren't the most fluid of things - especially in a multi window interface. I'm sorta hoping that part is not true - there's a reason they came out with remote for iPad and iPhone (which I use along with my iMac hooked up to my tv and love) and the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad - I would hope they would use what they have.
 
So... Kinect? Not bashing Apple here, but a lot of this already exists on the Xbox 360 with Kinect, so I'm interested if this is in any way more advanced, and, if so, how well it will appeal to people buying a new TV set.
 
WiiDSmoker said:
If Siri doesn't work without an Internet connection then it's already failed.
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If you are partnered with a cable provider, you don't need a specific internet connection. Set top boxes communicate back to the server without subscribing to full internet service. It's just part of the TV service.

arn
 
They can't be that dumb can they? Releasing this information when Apple obviously would not let them and most likely having signed a NDA. Apple would go ballistic if true information about this was revealed.

I don't believe this report.
 
gloomcookie1 said:
Only thing that doesn't make sense is an onscreen keyboard with no physical interface. There's a reason that apple never did a touchscreen mac or convertible laptop - it's not even remotely ergonomic. And if anyone has ever used the Kinect should know that gestures aren't the most fluid of things - especially in a multi window interface. I'm sorta hoping that part is not true - there's a reason they came out with remote for iPad and iPhone (which I use along with my iMac hooked up to my tv and love) and the bluetooth keyboard and trackpad - I would hope they would use what they have.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's hard to imagine such an onscreen keyboard being at all usable. Let's wait and see.

I also like Apple's Remote app. My biggest problem with it is related to wi-fi connections, and the time it takes to become responsive when your iPhone/iPod/iPad has been asleep. You want a remote to be responsive at an instant, and that's not always the case with it currently.
 
I think this is a good solution to many problems people have. For example, a remote control is not only too precise and predictable in operation, but it also responds too quickly with minimal lag.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A405)

On-screen keyboard? I'm not buying it. Steve said a long time ago they tested out vertical touch surfaces and they just don't work.
 
kalsta said:
Yeah, it's hard to imagine such an onscreen keyboard being at all usable. Let's wait and see.

I also like Apple's Remote app. My biggest problem with it is related to wi-fi connections, and the time it takes to become responsive when your iPhone/iPod/iPad has been asleep. You want a remote to be responsive at an instant, and that's not always the case with it currently.
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Bluetooth.
 
I hope Apple surprises everybody with the price of the Apple iTV kinda like how they did with the iPad. I remember websites/analysts claiming "sources" that the iPad would launch with a $1k (or higher?) price tag and then Apple surprised everyone by starting the iPad at $499.
 
I'm still not sold on voice commands. I got to play with a Kinect recently, and...you know...it worked, but it felt so awkward to use. Like I was having a weird one sided conversation with myself.

XBOX! RIGHT! LIVE MARKETPLACE! RIGHT! RIGHT! SELECT BLAH! DOWNLOAD! HOME! SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY, XBOX? JUST CHILLIN? COOL. COOL. NETFLIX!

Maybe Apple will have a slightly more elegant implementation of the concept. Hope so, anyway.
 
basesloaded190 said:
They can't be that dumb can they? Releasing this information when Apple obviously would not let them and most likely having signed a NDA. Apple would go ballistic if true information about this was revealed.

I don't believe this report.
Click to expand...

Steve said he wanted to work on a TV, but this is indeed incredibly sloppy.
 
I am kind of dense I think because every time I hear Apple is partnering with a cable company for content, I think: what content? Cable companies distribute content through cable, the same way Apple distributes content through the Internet (which I realize often goes through that same cable). But if Apple's plan is to do something different than what cable companies are doing now, what do the cable companies have to offer Apple? Can they transfer their licensing rights to various shows over to Apple so that Apple can offer them in a different way? Wouldn't Apple still need to go directly to the producers of the content like they are now? I just don't understand what the cable companies could offer. I'm not saying they aren't—just that I am dense and don't get it.
 
More importantly, are we really going to be permanently stuck with the A4 720p AppleTV box because of this overpriced display Apple wants to shove down our throats?

I think the AppleTV is great as it is, with the exception of its lack of 1080p support. And I get the feeling they won't ever give it to us, because they want us to go buy their 1080p television set when it finally comes out in like October.

Where are they going to put these things in Apple Stores? There is no room to move now.
 
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