Steve Jobs on an Apple Television: No Need for 'All These Complicated Remote Controls'

[kevinfulton.ca]

Apple is slowly going to kill themselves. Well at least for intelligent people, they'll probably be real popular with the general pop though.

What does intelligence have to do with anything? So every character on Star Trek was stupid when they asked the computer to find/ calculate something for them or make their food? Last I checked there are entire conventions full of people that want that. lol! It's not about intelligence it's about getting technology out of the way so you can do what you want. If there's a fast, more efficient way to get what you want why would that be for stupid people?

 

[samcraig]

What does intelligence have to do with anything? So every character on Star Trek was stupid when they asked the computer to find/ calculate something for them or make their food? Last I checked their entire conventions full of people that want that. lol! It's not about intelligence it's about getting technology out of the way so you can do what you want. If there's a fast, more efficient way to get what you want why would that be for stupid people?

Star Trek's world wasn't perfect. For one - they constantly ran out fuel and power. Second - you'd think that far in the future they would have had something that cured baldness.

 

[pooryou]

My Harmony remote only requires pressing one button labeled in clear english to configure the whole system for whatever activity is desired. Simple and effective.

 

[kevinfulton.ca]

Star Trek's world wasn't perfect. For one - they constantly ran out fuel and power. Second - you'd think that far in the future they would have had something that cured baldness.

HA!! NICE!!! Maybe they're running Windows on the Enterprise and Picard is a distance relative of Steve Ballmer I seem to remember their was an entire episode dedicated to developers....................developers.......developers, developers, developers!!! DEVELOPERS!!!

 

[nylonsteel]

re original article

mr jobs was right - too many remotes, too mamy wires = too much clutter

 

[jent]

How does an Apple Siri based TV solve the "multiple" remote problem ? My TV only has 1 remote, the others are for the different boxes that hook up to the TV...

Apple could potentially create a TV where all the secondary boxes that hook up to it pass through a Siri-enabled remote (perhaps your iPhone or iPad itself) instead of having their own remote. I firmly believe only Apple is in a place to implement such a vision. The companies that make TVs currently have never been successful (many of them haven't even attempted seriously) at removing interface and remote clutter, and don't have the level of integration and similarity between their products that Apple does. I would be thrilled if Apple made a TV that simplified the user experience by having everything go through a single Apple device instead of having each company clumsily try to develop its own interface and remote.

 

[JAT]

You won't speak directly to the TV set -- there will still be a one-button remote, with voice recognition capabilities and a screen to confirm your command.

That one button will have SEND engraved on it and using it will be quicker than locating and pressing the buttons on a remote as we know it.

I find that useless. I'd rather have the Harmony, or the next "generation" that manages to beat it. (bluetooth is the only upgrade I can imagine, with 2-way communication) Otherwise, it needs to be full-on Star Trek, completely capable of deciphering conversation from commands. I'm not holding my breath.

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Star Trek's world wasn't perfect. For one - they constantly ran out fuel and power. Second - you'd think that far in the future they would have had something that cured baldness.

Esp for a hologram.

 

[MacAudioPro]

What's complicated with pressing a power button the changing the channel or the volume. Talking to your t.v is dumb. "Change channel" "The increase volume" "The go to channel 34". What a joke.

Besides to the person above there would be a remote with athe button to let siri know when to listen.

I don't know either but if you spend enough time here you will hear the long time Apple fanboys whining about "how complicated television remote controls are". I guess us Windows converts are a little ahead of them and have figured out the "highly complex" television remote controls while long time Apple Fanboys require that they are limited to 2 or 3 three buttons to be able to understand them.

 

[kas23]

So now it changes. Jobs didn't "crack" it, he "licked" it.

 

[manx1979]

"No need for any complicated remote controls ?????"

"No need for any complicated remote controls ?????"

OK Mr Jobs (des).... tell me how are we supposed to give feedback on what we watch ???

A 3 column x 5 row set of buttons would allow users to pick feedback from 'I' to 'V' based on how they like/rate the TV programme.

Also room for the alphebet (keypad) as you have 15 x 3 (options) buttons (26 letters + other char.'s)

Anyone else thought of this GREAT invention yet

Let me know

Private Message Me 2 Be A Millionnaire.

Thanx.

 

[AidenShaw]

I hope this isn't going to be plagued by Apple's simplicity. It's a blessing and a curse.

"No need for any complicated remote controls ?????"

OK Mr Jobs (des).... tell me how are we supposed to give feedback on what we watch ???

Apple TV will have four channels:

• One is very small and simple - it has two shows that play over and over. There's a BTO option to get three shows.
• Channel Two is a portable version of CHannel One. It starts with three channels, with higher end models and BTO options for more channels.
• Channel Three is more powerful, but no more flexible. If a new channel comes out, you have to trash the entire TV and buy a new one, because it's all-in-one.
• Channel Four is what people expect - power and flexibility to watch what you want. It hasn't had a significant update since 2009, and is very big and expensive. Apple will probably EOL Channel Four, since they've made it so unattractive. (Channel Four is the only channel with porn, by the way.)

 

[lfc]

All this talk about "Siri I want to watch (insert name of show ) From yesterday or last week.

The only major problem with that is a vast majority of television viewership likes to watch LIVE television.

Live television is the bread and butter for the studios and networks. They need that commercial money.

Take commercials out of the equation and you have a losing product.

Not too hard, if anything Siri could make live television even easier.

Scenario 1:
"Siri, let me know when the next Liverpool match is on."
Siri gives you the details, and then taking advantage of iCloud, it pushes a notification to your iPhone five minutes before the game starts.

Scenario 2:
"Siri, when is the next Liverpool match on?"
Non-disruptive notification pops up on screen with the details, Siri reads it out, asks if you want to automatically record or switch to that channel when the game is about to start.

Scenario 3:
"Siri, change the channel for me when the next live Liverpool match is on"

 

[AidenShaw]

More likely....

Scenario 1:
Scenario 2:
Scenario 3:

Scenario 4:

Siri: I like scuba diving, please fetch or record all tropical island vacation travelogues.​

Next day - you have all 98 episodes of Gilligan's Island waiting for you to watch.

 

[Revolutionary Y]

Hmmm, I'm sure we are all wondering what they have planned.

Only time will tell.

 

[The Captain]

You're referring to the dumbing down of society which I agree with. As technology becomes more accessible - it's a slippery slope of how best to use these tools and at what sacrifice.

Jobs believed in simplicity. But does that train people to be lazy? I'm not saying it does. I'm just stating a question.

It's great when you can create something that even a child can use. But at the same time - how is that intellectually stimulating for people who are not children?

I'm not suggesting things should be complex and that everyone should be a techie. But having the right skills is important.

That's why I find Steve Jobs such a contradiction. Such a proponent of education and creating smarter minds - but his products also pander/market themselves from his control-freak mentality of not wanting the user to do anything he didn't want them to do.

Perhaps I am not articulating this well. Perhaps I'll get downvoted. As much as I love having easy-to-use devices - there's something to be said about learning how things work.

Steve loved engineers. But with his products, you aren't creating a world of engineers because he didn't want you to tinker with what he made. So how does the next generation of engineers get their training?

my .02

You articulated your point well. And I agree.

I think Apple has taken the idea of simplifying tasks too far into the realm of having just the option of simple tasks. For instance it should be easy for me to stream movies from my computer to my TV (regardless of what computer that is), not just have the option to watch streams from Apple (if that is where they go with this). Sure that would be "simpler", but it removes options for people.

Or it should be simple for me to set up my entertainment system to seamlessly integrate all the devices I want to incorporate into that system, rather then having a limited number of devises I can incorporate in the first place. But TV manufacturers (and even stereo head units) are already well on the path to doing this. Actually the stereo head unit makes more sense to do this task anyway. Does Apple think the TV is supposed to control my stereo? Will this "simple" Apple remote work with the many high end surround sound systems? And how will the TV control what speakers and settings I use when listening to music rather than watching a movie with the TV on? Sure an Apple "universal" remote could do it, but by their nature universal remotes usually have less control over the finer functions of individual components.

 

[koobcamuk]

Live TV is a dying format. I dropped my cable subscription about a year ago and have found TV to be a surprisingly more enjoyable experience. I think this will be the next big revolution moving all content to on demand.

The majority of people watch new programs by complete chance, or after seeing them advertised. If everything were on demand, how would I know about a new sitcom?

 

[AlterEg0]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

It's just as well an Apple TV won't have a remote - the batteries would only last 3 hours

LOL.. me me..

Its just as well an Apple TV wont have an antenna - it probably wont receive a signal if you kept it indoors. Only if you kept it on your roof at a certain angle, would the reception not be affected

 

[kdarling]

Heck, my late father (and millions of other dads) had the whole "remote control" thing figured out decades ago.

You see, some of us remember actually _being_ the remote control when we were kids

Mom & Dad would sit on the couch, while us kids sat on the floor near the TV.

Whenever Dad wanted to change channels, he would simply speak the command: "Son, change to Lost in Space!" and it would magically be done for him.

(And that included adjusting the fine tuner, the horizontal and vertical holds, and even the tint on color sets!)

 

[AppleScruff1]

Heck, my late father (and millions of other dads) had the whole "remote control" thing figured out decades ago.

You see, some of us remember actually _being_ the remote control when we were kids

Mom & Dad would sit on the couch, while us kids sat on the floor near the TV.

Whenever Dad wanted to change channels, he would simply speak the command: "Son, change to Lost in Space!" and it would magically be done for him.

(And that included adjusting the fine tuner, the horizontal and vertical holds, and even the tint on color sets!)

And moving the rabbit ears to get better reception.

 

[wordsmith27]

so iTV 1 will come with siri 1.0 but when siri 2.0, 3.0 etc comes out iTV 1 will not be able to support the new "features" of the updated siri... so you'll have to buy a new iTV 1s at 2,000 plus taxes a pop but you get a half off ipod touch for your trouble and the tv's will be thin and beautiful and magical so you'll want to stand in line just to get them... only negative is retina display looks bad at anything about 24inches so all iTV's will be that size. but its by apple so it's ok and automagically better than anything else in fact apple invented tv's and will wipe out a new patent saying just that...oh and porn will automatically be blocked no matter how you try to load it it's blocked and siri will lecture you...


lol

 

[Bangalorebob]

Apple tv

I am going to wait for the mind controlled TV. Now that will be revolutionary.

 

[CFreymarc]

Going to be a game changer.

I am sure they are talking about what many call the "Harry Potter Remote" akin to his wand in the books and movies. It is an extension of the Wii accelerometer remote but a lot more sensitive and recognizes standard jesters that goes like this:

1) Pick up the remote: alpha blended menu screen pops up with alpha ratio based on history of movement

2) Move remote up and down: menu options list, press the single button to select menu items

3) Shake remote erratically: undo

4) Move remote left to right: content channels scrolled, single button press switches content

5) Move remote in a circular manner: systems controls such a volume, stereo balance, screen brightness etc.

6) Swipe remote to corners: show multiple content channels

This was shown at various public demos by several people from various media lab research groups for the past few years. It has not had much publicity outside of research groups. Also, since you have Siri now, why not just use voice recognition with a PTT to keep the dog barking from shutting down the TV or switching channels?

Then again, since your iPhone has an aceel and wireless, why not use the iPhone / iPad as your direct remote?

 

[OllyW]

Then again, since your iPhone has an aceel and wireless, why not use the iPhone / iPad as your direct remote?

Might cause a problem when you go out and no one else in the house can use the TV because you've taken the 'remote' with you.

 

[mutantteenager]

Not available in Scotland....

I reckon the remote will be your ipad or phone. But if it is voice activated the Kinect by Microsoft seems to have got there first.

 

[CFreymarc]

Live TV is a dying format. I dropped my cable subscription about a year ago and have found TV to be a surprisingly more enjoyable experience. I think this will be the next big revolution moving all content to on demand.

Yes and no. About the only TV programming that has not has a significant ratings drop in the past twenty years are sporting events. The biggest loss in ratings have been local evening news programs. Broadcast shows have become more and more diluted in audience.

Also, local and national television has been very very hesitant to do live breaks for news stories for fear of upsetting the audience and losing them to the net. I know people following a handful of network shows on sites like hulu not caring if they area few months behind the first run.

IMO, the entire concept of a television network is approaching obsolescence. In just a few years, you will see production houses distribute new programming via search engines with adds in Google and Yahoo promoting new TV shows with more ad revenue that television networks.

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Might cause a problem when you go out and no one else in the house can use the TV because you've taken the 'remote' with you.

Good point. I'm not saying it replaces the remote but you can use your iPhone instead of the remote when you are around. I can easily see a pecking order over who's remote / iPhone gets priority of use when everyone is on the house. Geek dad will trump kids and techie kid will upset grandparents and neighbors across the street that didn't change the default PIN code.

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Not available in Scotland....

I reckon the remote will be your ipad or phone. But if it is voice activated the Kinect by Microsoft seems to have got there first.

The Kinect is a wonderful UI device. Saw "raw" demos of it where the IR detected the shape and distance of your hand's palm and fingers was alpha drawn in a corner of the screen. It even drew the hand and finger wireframes derived for the heuristics that the firmware was detecting for jester translation.

A mix of this and the Harry Potter remote could make it. So where is the API?