So what do you do? You're the 2nd person here claiming they don't buy cable/dish but refuse to state how you enjoy your tv experience. What are the services? What are your costs (initial and monthly)? What equipment models, do you use?
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Speculation on Apple's Television Set: Range of Sizes, Device Integration, Premium Pricing
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So what do you do? You're the 2nd person here claiming they don't buy cable/dish but refuse to state how you enjoy your tv experience. What are the services? What are your costs (initial and monthly)? What equipment models, do you use?
The problem with TV is that it's passive entertainment. TV has been shown to be poor educators in some circumstances
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm
There's little interactivity and little to no social networking. A 21st Century TV experience could be.
Social enabled- so that that showing of The Amazing Race can be discussed in real time with other fans/friends.
Space Shifted - My content should follow me around the home...from iPod/iPad to Mac/PC to HDTV and even over at a friends home all enabled by iCloud
Informative - Metadata metadata metadata - Watching video content becomes more enthralling if I can obtain good background material in some cases. Metadata embedded within some programs would make a difference especially for History or Documentary based shows.
Computing - I should be able to pull up documents and other computing content for proper display. I should be able to play games as well right from my TV complete with excellent social interaction.
Communication- Webcam, Siri and app support for making the HDTV a more central device within our home.
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You'd be amazed at how much of your life you get back when you're not plunked down in front of the boob tube. You actually have time to be creative in other areas. In the end some of us have realized that
A. Roughly 30% of what you watch are advertisements
B. The Cable industry only follows the cellular industry where it comes to designing packages to to spread out the content you "really" want across multiple premium offerings.
C There has been little innovation that let's me find the right content at the right time nor utilize my expensive TV in other areas beyond watching rank and file video content.
http://www.med.umich.edu/yourchild/topics/tv.htm
There's little interactivity and little to no social networking. A 21st Century TV experience could be.
Social enabled- so that that showing of The Amazing Race can be discussed in real time with other fans/friends.
Space Shifted - My content should follow me around the home...from iPod/iPad to Mac/PC to HDTV and even over at a friends home all enabled by iCloud
Informative - Metadata metadata metadata - Watching video content becomes more enthralling if I can obtain good background material in some cases. Metadata embedded within some programs would make a difference especially for History or Documentary based shows.
Computing - I should be able to pull up documents and other computing content for proper display. I should be able to play games as well right from my TV complete with excellent social interaction.
Communication- Webcam, Siri and app support for making the HDTV a more central device within our home.
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You'd be amazed at how much of your life you get back when you're not plunked down in front of the boob tube. You actually have time to be creative in other areas. In the end some of us have realized that
A. Roughly 30% of what you watch are advertisements
B. The Cable industry only follows the cellular industry where it comes to designing packages to to spread out the content you "really" want across multiple premium offerings.
C There has been little innovation that let's me find the right content at the right time nor utilize my expensive TV in other areas beyond watching rank and file video content.
Not sure what your point is. DCAS is fine as a software solution, but it 1) is just historically a newer technology equivalent to CableCard, and more importantly 2) is really just another example of the cable industry pissing around. The cable industry has no intention of taking any of these technologies seriously when they can profit off of renting you a box and claiming they'll wait for the next great CableCard equivalent.
The most unreliable and unnecessary technologies out there are provider sourced cable boxes and converters.
Reading posts of the skeptics who don't get it is just like back in 2006, when people were unable to understand how Apple could possibly innovate with a phone.
It gets worse after they announce the incredible product and people are still spewing their venomous disdain for it. It's not until they see it, touch it, smell it, and use it that they finally understand that something *new* and *different* can actually be better.
People just have trouble seeing things outside of their current context, but eventually they get it.
It gets worse after they announce the incredible product and people are still spewing their venomous disdain for it. It's not until they see it, touch it, smell it, and use it that they finally understand that something *new* and *different* can actually be better.
People just have trouble seeing things outside of their current context, but eventually they get it.
There's no over-the-air channels where I live and no Hulu or similar since I'm in Canada. All I can use is iTunes when I want to see a TV show, but even with season passes it's too expensive.
Not to mention the low monthly cap from my ISP, even if I had easy and cheap access to such services I couldn't enjoy them every day.
So I ripped most of my DVDs and I watch those. Once in a while I borrow DVDs from friends. And about once a month I'll rent a movie from iTunes, especially the 99-cents rentals. I'm thinking about getting Netflix but that 35GB monthly cap is just too low to allow it.
I use my old 12" PowerBook to "watch TV", but I'm setting up a 23" widescreen monitor I got last christmas along with an
TV 2 that I got as a gift from a friend.Watching TV is a very passive medium, there's no fun it in. IMHO personal projects are much more satisfying. I don't care if you're into electronics, coding, woodworking, arcade cabinets, model airplanes or whatever. Everyone has an interest in at least one topic besides "watching TV".
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Here's another "all in one" comparison.
How did Apple do when they released their own iPod boombox? Yeah, that's what I thought. Apple completely owned the mp3 player market, totally redefined the entire music industry. But just imagine if they had tried to do it by releasing an Apple Stereo. It would have been a total flop, people already have that stuff and want to be able to replace it independently. Same goes for a TV - some basic commodity items like Netflix and Youtube are fine to have built in but in general people want the flexibility of getting a box that does what they want and hooking it up to an input.
How did Apple do when they released their own iPod boombox? Yeah, that's what I thought. Apple completely owned the mp3 player market, totally redefined the entire music industry. But just imagine if they had tried to do it by releasing an Apple Stereo. It would have been a total flop, people already have that stuff and want to be able to replace it independently. Same goes for a TV - some basic commodity items like Netflix and Youtube are fine to have built in but in general people want the flexibility of getting a box that does what they want and hooking it up to an input.
Umm... a manufacturer can't just *poof* a new standard for content. do you know how long it took content providers to get on-board with HD/Blueray? Just because you have a high res platform does not make content suddenly exist for it.
You have any idea about Cablecards? THEY ARE THE WORST!!!! I was a tech years ago and for every 1 cable card job you did, you bring 5 cards and pray 1 of those 5 works. They are garbage and the TV manufactures are not consistent on any set up either. Every TV maker has their own way of setting them up, THEN you get these idiot customer who think they know more and add their own splitters and not tell you and think "oh gold splitters, they must be better because they are gold". Cable cards are more touchy than a modem for internet for signal also. So before you bash people, think again about what people really go through.
I bolded your quote to show emphasis: I sure hope you're not suggesting I watch a lot of tv or that I need to get a life! I watch possibly 1 hour of tv a week at best...literally...and have so over the past 5 years...prior to 2006 I would watch maybe 3 hours a week. The only exception is a Red Sox game or a Patriots game. The non-sports shows I watch are Seinfeld or Discover/NatGEO/History Channel. All of my viewing habits are identical for my wife. My son watches 1 30min episode of Barney Mon-Fri.
Sadly, there is a huge population of folks who watch 20+ hours of tv a week.
Actually I just want to chime in - a little bit.
My average TV consumption ranges to below 30 minutes a day - and is mainly attributed to news.
My Samsung LCD should be replaced, as the 32 inches were quite costy 5 years ago (when I bought it) but as a matter of fact I mainly use this TV as a display for my XBox or PS3 - which both happen to stream other media content from my Mac.
I'm a frequent user of the Zune marketplace though I rather go to a brick&mortar rental shop for DVDs.
Yes - call me a bloody pirate for torrenting some TV shows as soon as they air - but alas, they don't air the same day in Europe, most time synchro into other languages sucks and it takes a little time before I can buy the BluRays of the current season.
But I don't feel bad about torrenting Dexter as
a) Showtime made their money in the US due to being PayTV
b) Michael C. Hall and the producers still get my money when I buy the BluRay
In short - No, I don't really need a TV and I sure as hell don't need an Apple branded one.
They need to strong-arm the TV business into delivering cheap content the "Apple way", just like they did with music.
... Otherwise it's not even worth making the TV.
...just like piracy did with music.
There, FTFY!
No not at all Eric
I just think there's still a pretty big divide between passive entertainment and active entertainment.
A lot of geeks I know now what TV and have their mobile device on hand to discuss what's going on TV in real time. How does Apple take that and make it palatable for the general public? Do they even try? I can't wait to see.
I just think there's still a pretty big divide between passive entertainment and active entertainment.
A lot of geeks I know now what TV and have their mobile device on hand to discuss what's going on TV in real time. How does Apple take that and make it palatable for the general public? Do they even try? I can't wait to see.
There's no over-the-air channels where I live and no Hulu or similar since I'm in Canada. All I can use is iTunes when I want to see a TV show, but even with season passes it's too expensive.
Not to mention the low monthly cap from my ISP, even if I had easy and cheap access to such services I couldn't enjoy them every day.
So I ripped most of my DVDs and I watch those. Once in a while I borrow DVDs from friends. And about once a month I'll rent a movie from iTunes, especially the 99-cents rentals. I'm thinking about getting Netflix but that 35GB monthly cap is just too low to allow it.
I use my old 12" PowerBook to "watch TV", but I'm setting up a 23" widescreen monitor I got last christmas along with an
So what you're saying is...you don't watch tv. Sure, you physically LOOK at a tv, but you watch dvd movies and every blue moon you spend 99 cents on a tv show via iTunes. You are in the 0.000000000001% of "tv viewers". Which is fine. But you're truly don't "watch tv".
Twice price.....
Seriously!
I read twice the price as sub-par TV, with superior software. Bit like the original iPhone, now that i think of it. If they can put forth a low-end panel, and sell it in the (semi) high-end segment, they can easily double the price - and with Apples marketing, probably get away with it too.
In this particular case I don't think it's people not getting it, it's people not buying into:
a) It has to be a TV as opposed to a box, and
b) It will cost twice as much as the competition
I think if they do a box version (either instead of or in addition to a TV version) and price it competitively it could sell like hotcakes.
Wouldn't be a waste of money if it was backlit. But... i somehow doubt that someone going from plasma to led at 23yo would think about such a thing -- and the odds of it being an environment thing, well... slim to none.
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Did you know that MSFT have a bigger pile of cash* than Apple? Despite being one of the best dividends companies in tech? Despite 170bn going back to share-holders over the past 10 years? No... no surprise there.
* cash = cash = cash. nothing more, nothing less.
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Why? Because Apple likes money, and will amp up the margin as high as they possibly can. Further, integrating the software in the TV (and scrapping the ATV-box) allows for higher margins. So yeah.. thats why.
Cool...and yes, agree on the divide. Personally all I really would love to have my tv do for me:
1)watch some great tv shows/channels at extremely cheap rates. I (as well as everyone else on the planet) hate the $70+/month 900 channel lineup with 6 channels that I actually watch...including the main CBS/NBC/ABC channels. If I could pay, say, $10/month per channel, a la carte, that would be very nice. Paying $1/15-year-old-Seinfeld reruns is not for me. Paying $1/premium, brand new weekly-show is ok. Yet paying $1/each show on NatGEO would make it VERY expensive for our household. Something flexible where I can choose NatGeo channel for flat $10/month or show-by-show on NatGeo for $1/episode. I dunno the prices but make it very cheap.
2)want all my programming in 1080. The cable operators, channels, and tvs have been advertising 1080 HD since 2001 and still in 2011 most of of the channels/shows are non-1080.
3)Better/faster movie access. Current streaming performance model stinks. More movies please.
4)1 charge per household...not extra fees for extra boxes for extra tvs. I don't pay my water company more money when I add a bathroom...or my electric company when I begin to use a new plug or use a splitter or install a new outlet. I don't pay my phone company more money because I installed a new phone jack or bought another phone.
Unless you are a complete tv junkie, $70+/month is so expensive for tv.
You know they have to preserve those margins. I'm sure they get at least 70-80%. Their not the biggest company in the world (by Market Cap) for nothing.
Years ago I had a Sony that featured Picture-in-Picture. I didn't buy it for that, it simply came with the TV that I preferred.
After using it for an hour, I was completely sold on the fantastic advantage of being able to put two channels up on the screen concurrently. Being able to move them around, size them as I pleased, split the two down the middle, the feature was just outstanding.
Much like having multiple windows open on ones computer, this is a great feature.
The reason I can imagine Apple building an entire TV is to have a presence in customers living room with the Apple Logo, it's a big advertisement for Apple and bragging rights. Let's face it there are a lot of fanbois what would buy them just to brag, or be seen with them. To wow their friends.
Unless it had some truly spectacular feature, of much greater significance than just Siri, I have no desire to buy one. Especially if it includes the typical Apple Tax, then it would be so pretentious I'd want to distance myself from it. Apple is too polarizing of a company to deserve a spot that large in my home.
ill buy it if i can hook my mbp up to its thunderbolt port and the ps3 and still have the high resolution
27in tbd or 42-60 tbd?
27in tbd or 42-60 tbd?
I agree, this Apple TV (if it happens) is for max profit and mindshare.
A huge "Apple In Your Face" advertisement.