Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Steve Jobs on an Apple Television Set: 'I Finally Cracked It'

dagamer34 said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A334)

Get rid if cable channels? As much as we'd all love for that to happen, you KNOW there are too many special interests to make a product like that work the way it really needs to right out of the box. Not unless you plan on buying all of your content from iTunes, and that can get rather pricy if you aren't careful.
Click to expand...

The same was said about the potential of Apple releasing a phone. Too many special interests in the telecommunications business. How did that turn out? ;)

An AppleTV is near ready to come to market with the pieces put in place in the iCloud wave of releases. iTunes in the cloud is already making this happen. When you buy a tv show or a movie or a song on any of your devices, it becomes available on your TV. No downloading, you bought the rights to it, stream it whenever you like. Simple.

For live tv, partnerships with networks for live news. A CNN app is entirely possible. Some networks already have live streaming to iPhone/iPad with AirPlay putting it on your big screen.

For sports, partnerships with each major league/association. It's happening with NBA, MLB and NHL apps already available on AppleTV. NFL is missing but will quickly fall in line once this takes off.

The basic principle is that instead of paying cable operators for a ton of channels with stuff you don't watch, you pay the actual content creators for their particular product (i.e. movie studios, news channels, sports leagues).
 
darster said:
If I want everything in one unit, the TV itself better be the best in HD quality. Right now, that's still in the $5000 to $7000 price range in the form of the Sharp Elite series, or the now defunct Pioneer Elite series Plasmas.
Click to expand...

Samsung makes some bitchin' displays, and they're not in that price range. I have no idea what Jobs had in mind, but it seems that a "dumb" display (e.g. a computer monitor) with easily upgraded software/hardware could be the solution. All I know is something like that is WAY overdue...
 
Big TV

Originally Posted by mactvman
soo....he wanted to make the tv cost about 4 times more than they do now?

kinda hard to imagine people would fork over 4-6k for a tv....then again this is apple, people will give their left nut for it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I think the first big flat screens cost 8K, they sold a lot. I do not think we will have to pay quite that much if/when the iTV arrives.
 
Tip for readers: If you don't want to know what's in the Jobs biography then don't read the stories about the Jobs biography. I know this will take self-control but complaining about such stories is getting really old really fast. I'm sure some of the "leaks" may not even be true or accurate so I'm sure there will be some little treasures remaining in the book for you.
 
Photoshopper said:
Samsung makes some bitchin' displays, and they're not in that price range. I have no idea what Jobs had in mind, but it seems that a "dumb" display (e.g. a computer monitor) with easily upgraded software/hardware could be the solution. All I know is something like that is WAY overdue...
Click to expand...

I think what Steve has in mind is simply a smart TV like Sony's new models, but with a better interface.

What he did with the iPod, iPhone and of course Mac is take something and make it much more easily usable. Most TV interfaces I've seen so far are horrible even though if the picture quality is top notch. So it'd be actually nice to have a TV with an interface as good as the iPhone's in terms of ease of use, and which would seamlessly connect to everything else in your home.

I certainly would't buy an Apple TV no matter what, since I don't own and use a TV. But I'd buy one for my parents house if they make one. :)
 
I can't imagine what a TV might look like after Ive does his magic, but I know one thing for sure, Samsung will have independently and innovatively came up with the same look and feel about the same time. Genius is like that! ;)
 
Really? An Apple TV would just be a Samsung TV with the existing AppleTV guts built in. Since Apple has NEVER got the AppleTV right (all versions), why the heck do they think they'll do a full TV right?


Also, it they create a TV that is rectangular with a black bezel around it that displays a picture in the middle and also has apps in it, Samsung should sue them. :)
Tony
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile/9A334)

A tv that syncs everything with my phone is a lame idea. At least it's something I would hate. My entire family uses the television and with the direction Apple has taken syncing (complete syncing between devices and absolutely no collaboration between people nor sharing any information between people on different accounts) I don't see their step into the fray as anything worthwhile.
 
darster said:
Exactly. It's one thing to shell out $200 every 20 months for a new iPhone, but not $2000 for a new tv. The market is much smaller. And right now, the all in one tv's already exist.
Click to expand...

I normally don't hold back on first generations, but an Apple Television might be a product to do it on.

The second generation would add some of the ports we fuss about being missing on the first generation.

A TV is so much harder to get rid of too. An iPhone you can pass on, sell easily, etc. A TV can be hard to even move around the home depending on the size.

It seems a perfect Apple TV might be a better solution. Nevertheless, it's hard to make much money on Apple TV as people have shown they don't want to spend much on that product. A product that is the TV too, some might be more likely to give it a go if they need a TV anyway.

$1000 bedroom TV sounds like a much better fit than your primary widescreen.
 
So voice activated TV with in built sdd, access to iTunes, Facetime, play your music from the cloud, siri on demand, internet access and all packaged in an Apple designed skin...and probably about a £1k...

...I think I may start queuing now.

:apple:
 
darster said:
Not really, because a $999 HDTV is really a poorly made tv with sub par HD quality. If I want everything in one unit, the TV itself better be the best in HD quality. Right now, that's still in the $5000 to $7000 price range in the form of the Sharp Elite series, or the now defunct Pioneer Elite series Plasmas.
Click to expand...

The cost of the TV would be subsidized by the itunes services attached to it. Channel subscriptions, gaming and movies...
 
iBug2 said:
I think what Steve has in mind is simply a smart TV like Sony's new models, but with a better interface.

What he did with the iPod, iPhone and of course Mac is take something and make it much more easily usable. Most TV interfaces I've seen so far are horrible even though if the picture quality is top notch. So it'd be actually nice to have a TV with an interface as good as the iPhone's in terms of ease of use, and which would seamlessly connect to everything else in your home.

I certainly would't buy an Apple TV no matter what, since I don't own and use a TV. But I'd buy one for my parents house if they make one. :)
Click to expand...


You got me thinking with the interface thing! Siri. Siri might be Steve's crack into the TV business. "Siri, please put on my favorite ABC show (since you only have a Disney deal right now)."
 
Wow, this news is huge. I'm shocked Steve Jobs divulged this to the author considering how secretive he was about future products.

I can't wait to see what Apple has come up with. The simplest interface I can imagine is flicking my finger in the air to scroll. The TV would use Kinect type technology. I don't want to have to "talk" to my TV to navigate using Siri...
 
darster said:
Exactly. It's one thing to shell out $200 every 20 months for a new iPhone, but not $2000 for a new tv. The market is much smaller. And right now, the all in one tv's already exist.
Click to expand...

How often can you really improve a TV display? I would expect that most updates would be of the software variety. You dont even need storage updates wince it all lives in the cloud. Maybe they would let you buy their latest chip and just slide it into the back?
 
He was probably on Morphine drip.
I've been on Morphine drip and let me tell you, it made me giddy as *ell!
I didn't even care that my stomach had been ripped open!
When my mom was on it, she was hallucinating like all get out!
He also, probably wanted everyone to know that if an Apple TV set really did come out, that he was the one responsible for it!
Still wanting adulation near his death bed.
Godda love the STEVE!
 
When I look at the stack of remotes on my coffee table which seems to breed and increase each night, I think that someone has to have a better idea for brining all of this stuff together. I mean, I need four hands to fire four remotes when I turn on the system and that doesn't count the lesser used remotes. I bet Steve really did have a better idea. He must have been disgusted with the stack of remotes too.
 
Methinks he was just talking about the Apple TV tech they've already released. You know, the little black hockey puck thingy. I could maybe see them licensing that tech into other manufacturers TVs, or maybe even coming out with their own, I guess, but I'm thinking it will be the same basic UI/featureset that the current Apple TV box has (or will have, via upgrades).

Personally, I'd love to see them buy SiliconDust and integrate their HDHomeRun Prime tech into a box which does on-the-fly transcoding to MP4 format so that you can watch live TV / DVR on your Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, etc. But I suspect we're more likely to see them move more in the direction of simply selling individual TV shows (though hopefully negotiating better pricing), or possibly introducing some sort of monthly subscription service a la Hulu. I could possibly live with that instead of the SiliconDust/cablecard route, if the pricing made sense.

One other missing piece is NFL Sunday Ticket.
 
darster said:
Exactly. It's one thing to shell out $200 every 20 months for a new iPhone, but not $2000 for a new tv. The market is much smaller. And right now, the all in one tv's already exist.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and they are called iMacs.Love my 27" iMac with its retina display. ;)
 
FuNGi said:
Tip for readers: If you don't want to know what's in the Jobs biography then don't read the stories about the Jobs biography. I know this will take self-control but complaining about such stories is getting really old really fast. I'm sure some of the "leaks" may not even be true or accurate so I'm sure there will be some little treasures remaining in the book for you.
Click to expand...

That's impossible. The "leaks" are fully described in the story titles so even skimming a web page outs the story...
 
Steve is letting out a lot of info in this book. Very uncharacteristic of him. He knew he was going to die and wanted to put his ideas for an ideal Apple world in writing. I'm looking forward to reading the book. It appears he's going to set the direction for technology for many years to come.

On a lighter, half joking note, I wouldn't be surprised if he had Stevenotes recorded for the next 10 years. Virtual holographic Steve on stage introducing "One more thing"... :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back