I wanted to gather all the rumors and reasonable possibilities in one place. Unlikely that the (Apple TV 2?) will include them all, but I like the idea of just imagining the possibilities and seeing where things eventually land. Of course there will likely be future generations of the device that may add more features over time.
These are just some of my thoughts and speculations as someone interested in the future landscape of the digital TV industry. Feel free to add your own or make fun of mine
Features / benefits:
These are just some of my thoughts and speculations as someone interested in the future landscape of the digital TV industry. Feel free to add your own or make fun of mine
Features / benefits:
- An SDK & App Store: Opens the platform up to innovation from across the developer spectrum. Games, utilities, social, media of all sorts, whatever.
- Universal search (and browse): Allows me to search my iTunes/Hulu/Netflix/HBO/Whatever libraries all in the same place. I never have to open each different app to see which has what. I just search and play whatever I want right from the ATV home screen.
- Siri/remote microphone: Obviously helps eliminate basic text-entry issues and simplified commands. Also could potentially be good for other applications - Karaoke, voice chat, etc.
- 3-axis motion control remote: Huge for gaming, but could be integrated in all kinds of apps in ways that it never could have been on an iPad or iPhone where you need to keep your eyes on the phone screen. Based on developer innovation, this could be huge.
- Ability to sync with iPhone/iPad as additional input/controller: Multiplayer games, alternate/custom remotes, text entry for various apps/utilities/social. (Also home exercise apps using Apple Watch data.)
- Camera: Unlikely, but would enable a whole host of additional apps, including FaceTime, live streaming / video-casting applications, live group Karaoke, even possible motion recognition functions (with app permissions). Of course the negative is that you'd then need to place it somewhere appropriate and point it, but...
- Apple Video “Apple Live?” streaming service: Basically Sling TV on Apple? or the end of Cable TV as we know it? Think of the top 30+ channels out there. And what if service included both live and some on-demand functionality? Or what if news, sports, and local TV were all covered? Depending on how the service works, it could so fundamentally change the game that I can't believe those who own an interest in the current game would ever allow it. Available in 2016, with the old Apple TV (and possibly other iOS & Mac devices) included.
- HomeKit Hub: This has so much potential, it's hard to even imagine all the benefits that it could one day enable. The bottleneck will continue to be on the hardware end, but it seems like having a single universal bridge (which could then also utilize 3rd party hardware not specifically designed to support HomeKit), and a standard secure process for communicating with iPhones, iPads, Macs, etc. will get us closer to that Jetsons-esque future we're starting to believe is within our grasp. What we can likely say with confidence is that commands to "Turn on/off lights when I get home/leave" or "Start the coffee maker when I wake up" or "Show me my front door... Okay, you can unlock it" or "Turn down the thermostat each night to 68" may become much easier and more commonplace. And with a little bit of work, those commands may not be necessary at all. Leveraging the power of iOS 9 to execute or suggest certain common actions when you enter a specific room or sit down at a specific computer/device could make most of those things automatic. (With iOS 9, my car already automatically starts playing my podcasts and tells me how long it will take to get to work and shows me directions with the most up-to-date traffic information. Soon, it may also open my garage door, turn off all of my lights, change my temperature, lock all the doors behind me, and let me know when my kids get home from school - all without me having to do anything at all.)
- Splitscreen/PIP: This might allow me to do things like browsing content while something is playing. I can look for the next show, maybe open another app or control HomeKit while watching -- maybe even picture-in-picture.
- Universal Recommendations/Playlists: The TV’s UI allows me to create cross-app playlists, queues, and it uses their own algorithms to aggregate viewing/user-rating data and to then suggest content. With a universal playlist, after the newest episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones, Netflix’s House of Cards starts playing, followed by Hulu’s Difficult People, followed by CBS’s Big Bang Theory. It knows which episode I’m on in each show. Extra credit: I can ask Siri to just play "whatever" or ask for a specific genre and she surfaces recommendations.
- Handoff: I can watch a show on my iPad and then walk into the living room and hand it off to the TV with a flick mid-show -- and vice-versa. This extends to other apps.
- Web browsing?: Along with mail and other general internet functionality. Hard to imagine a good user experience using just touch pad and voice, but maybe. Especially if I can use iPhone/iPad as an input. (Would hopefully be more elegant than AirPlay currently)
- What else?
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