Because that's not Apple's MO. If it was they wouldn't have a $100 billion stash.
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Time Warner Willing to Cede Control of User Interface in Potential Deals for Apple TV Products
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Because that's not Apple's MO. If it was they wouldn't have a $100 billion stash.
Better than paying dividends to shareholders.
While I agree with all the points you've made, there is that little problem that we still need those cable guys for our HiSpeed internet connections. So even if APPLE came up with some nice, sleek, all-encompassing UI/set-top-box with SIRI, fully integrated with iTunes and coupled with a reasonably priced a-la-carte menu, those cable companies would still have us where they want us with their bandwidth charges. Unfortunately, as things stand now, we are going to pay, either way!
Having said that, many people are tired of forking over $50 to $150/month for a couple of hundred channels of which they only watch a fraction. You'd have to be chained to your TV 24/7 to get your money's worth. In the long run, I believe Cable Cos will have to be reasonable. If they are too greedy, the marketplace WILL find a way around them, and they will become irrelevant as far as content distribution is concerned. Just as record companies learned the hard way. At first they had zero interest in changing their business model to digital downloads, but later were decimated when Napster and the like came along.
Change isn't going to come overnight, but I'm optimistic for the future.
legalities. Especially when the cable company basically owns the network and the studio that provides at least a major chunk of that content.
as I've noted before, HBO has 3 of the 4 top torrented shows and yet they continue to post legal downloads like iTunes 2 months after the dvds came out. not to mention that's US only and the prices are a tad ridiculous
It sounds like this article is basically describing an Apple version of Google TV. . . which was not really a major market success. ("plug your cable box into our extra set-top box and get your cable company content (which you already had) through our UI!")
Can someone explain why this would be useful? It is of no interest/use to me because I don't pay cable companies for TV at all. And, frankly, the DVR UI's I've experienced with TWC and Dish Network are just fine, so if I WERE paying for cable TV I probably wouldn't spring for the extra Apple UI unless it was no additional cost. Any tangible improvement in having an Apple-designed interface on a TWC DVR is marginal at best.
I set up my system with Apple TV's to completely avoid having to pay a monthly fee for a cable service. Instead, I use EyeTV on my mac to record shows off my OTA antenna and then serve them to my Apple TV's. The ATV is also jailbroken so I can do Hulu (free) and Free Cable streaming of TV shows from the content-providers' web sites.
Can someone explain why this would be useful? It is of no interest/use to me because I don't pay cable companies for TV at all. And, frankly, the DVR UI's I've experienced with TWC and Dish Network are just fine, so if I WERE paying for cable TV I probably wouldn't spring for the extra Apple UI unless it was no additional cost. Any tangible improvement in having an Apple-designed interface on a TWC DVR is marginal at best.
I set up my system with Apple TV's to completely avoid having to pay a monthly fee for a cable service. Instead, I use EyeTV on my mac to record shows off my OTA antenna and then serve them to my Apple TV's. The ATV is also jailbroken so I can do Hulu (free) and Free Cable streaming of TV shows from the content-providers' web sites.
Since you don't have cable service at all at this time, you've probably forgotten how terrible most set-top boxes are. Unresponsive, unreliable, and unintuitive - they can make watching TV a PITA.
I was hoping when AT&T released U-Verse (IPTV over their DSL service) that the AT&T and Apple partnership for the iPhone would turn into an Apple IPTV device. Nope. But if Apple produces a set-top-box for TWC, I'll think very hard about ditching my minimal DTV service and go with TWC.
if they are a legit cable company then there are laws that actually help them. Laws that stop companies like Time Warner from letting other cable companies have access to Warner owned networks like HBO.
But Apple is not currently considered a cable company. So they are in the position of having to take things on the comgloms terms until they can get leverage.