Angry Birds? Flappy Bird? And millions of those shovelwares already on mobile devices? Let me know when they actually start supporting quality gaming.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Upcoming Apple TV Product Will Include Video Game Support, Launch Date Unclear
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Let's look at what's exactly wrong with these two points.
Making iOS <->Apple TV compatible software is not going to happen. I can assure you from my experiences with GoogleTV software on SmartTV's that you absolutely do not want a "click the button" nor "gesture" type of interface on such a device. It may be possible to build software that is AppleTV aware, but consider that the major input device for AppleTV is an Infrared remote with 6 buttons, 4 which are arrow keys. It has the same level of input as a Sega Master System controller.
Apple needs to standardize on some kind of bluetooth/usb controller, so that any/all game controllers used with iOS/AppleTV/MacOSX devices have the same input, otherwise we're going to have a repeat of the "gameport" joysticks, where the only constant between any specific model is an X and Y axis and two buttons, where games has to write their own drivers for any joystick that was on the market, and anything that came out after the game was released was useless.
We have a semi-standard right now that is still based on the Super Nintendo layout (of which the PSX,PS2,PS3,PS4,Xbox,Xbox360,Xbox One,NDS,3DS, Gamecube, and Wii Classic controller all share) of two axis on the left, 4 buttons on the right, and two shoulder buttons. Later consoles added two analog controls that operate as a button, and an additional pair of shoulder buttons.
Apple's documentation is, at best suggestive, that the minimum is SNES level input, and the maximum is something less than PS3/Xbox360.
Not sure I don't personally use PlexConnect, just know it exists. Though I believe if you use the universal transcoder in Plex Media server it will find PGS subs embedded in MKVs.
Apple TV + Airport Express = a winner
It is getting near time to replace my oldest 11g Airport Express, which I use as an Airplay receiver for my hifi system from iTunes and to provide Airplay sound when I am playing a movie from my MBP to my flat screen TV via an hdmi cable (my Philips TVs own sound is totally hopeless). It would be great to have a combined Apple TV and Airport express as that would simplify my whole system and enable me to remove one level of Airport Express signal boosters. Sadly the online movies are of little use or interest to me, due to the slow broadband in rural UK, which means an HD movie takes close to a day to download. Hopefully it will not be too long in coming out.
It is getting near time to replace my oldest 11g Airport Express, which I use as an Airplay receiver for my hifi system from iTunes and to provide Airplay sound when I am playing a movie from my MBP to my flat screen TV via an hdmi cable (my Philips TVs own sound is totally hopeless). It would be great to have a combined Apple TV and Airport express as that would simplify my whole system and enable me to remove one level of Airport Express signal boosters. Sadly the online movies are of little use or interest to me, due to the slow broadband in rural UK, which means an HD movie takes close to a day to download. Hopefully it will not be too long in coming out.
Indeed, and they would be willing to sacrifice sales of their current AppleTV as a result of such an announcement - as it would kill sales of lots of competing products as well.
So sell of existing Apple TVs via some form of promotion, then announce the future availability of the New Amazing Ultra Apple TV Game iBox. Who would subsequently buy a "high-end" streaming media box in the meantime without checking what Apple would bring to the table in six months time?
Without pre-announcement, that potential sale is lost for a long time (the potential customer got the Roku/Tivo/NowTV because they compare favourably to the current Apple TV), so you want to delay it until you can sell what they want to them. Or you try to tempt them with the promise of fee content now.
----------
Ideally, and yeah, fantasy, it would come with an A7X quad-core and 2GB of RAM, and out-perform the Wii U, and come with a massive game market (App Store games optimised for Apple TV use rather than touch-device use). It might have a camera, for video calls, and Kinect-style motion detection (didn't Apple buy a company that did that?).
But ... cost.
I can't wait!
I would LOVE for them to work with Tivo and bring that Netflix app to Apple TV, though. I think that is the absolute best layout for Tivo ever.
Also a better remote with more buttons like skip forward/backwards (15/30 sec. skip would be nice for Netflix), etc.
I would LOVE for them to work with Tivo and bring that Netflix app to Apple TV, though. I think that is the absolute best layout for Tivo ever.
Also a better remote with more buttons like skip forward/backwards (15/30 sec. skip would be nice for Netflix), etc.
I'd like to see a more elegant streaming solution.
I'm used to the idea that the computer needs to be on - but occasionally, kids will close itunes. I guess my whole 'close un-needed programs' preaching has paid off!
Allowing the apple TV box to wake up, or launch itunes would be nice... Or maybe just allow the apple TV to use the main computer's drive, like NAS, to just get the media files it needs to do it's playback...
Having hdmi pass though (I think xbox one has this) see like an idea to make it more family friendly.
I'm used to the idea that the computer needs to be on - but occasionally, kids will close itunes. I guess my whole 'close un-needed programs' preaching has paid off!
Allowing the apple TV box to wake up, or launch itunes would be nice... Or maybe just allow the apple TV to use the main computer's drive, like NAS, to just get the media files it needs to do it's playback...
Having hdmi pass though (I think xbox one has this) see like an idea to make it more family friendly.
Cable companies?
You really think Apple can work with thousands of cable companies all over the world, with dozens of different standards? And those same cable companies are just supposed to roll over and play dead?
----------
If they can bring those features to the next AppleTV, they'll just steal the low-end market and turn potential Microsoft users into Apple users.
With the iOS7 gamepad feature, gaming is almost guaranteed. They already have the next three running on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and AppleTV also runs iOS, so the work is already done, in a manner of speaking.
You really think Apple can work with thousands of cable companies all over the world, with dozens of different standards? And those same cable companies are just supposed to roll over and play dead?
----------
If they can bring those features to the next AppleTV, they'll just steal the low-end market and turn potential Microsoft users into Apple users.
With the iOS7 gamepad feature, gaming is almost guaranteed. They already have the next three running on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad and AppleTV also runs iOS, so the work is already done, in a manner of speaking.
Apple as an ISP
Something quite interesting is the possibility of Apple as an ISP:
It is a fact that Apple technically is an ISP today in Cupertino and provides infrastructure to its buildings with internet speeds up to 1Gbps. Also, interestingly, Apple actually "owns" the #17 IP address prefix. Any corporate issued computer sports this unique IP address.
Couple this with reports that Apple is acquiring infrastructure at an accelerated rate and opening more data centers, it leads one to a plausible future of Apple being your ISP and providing you with enough optimized bandwidth to stream 4K tv, uncompressed audio and many other exciting services.
Something quite interesting is the possibility of Apple as an ISP:
It is a fact that Apple technically is an ISP today in Cupertino and provides infrastructure to its buildings with internet speeds up to 1Gbps. Also, interestingly, Apple actually "owns" the #17 IP address prefix. Any corporate issued computer sports this unique IP address.
Couple this with reports that Apple is acquiring infrastructure at an accelerated rate and opening more data centers, it leads one to a plausible future of Apple being your ISP and providing you with enough optimized bandwidth to stream 4K tv, uncompressed audio and many other exciting services.
Steve was refering to his iPhone screen.
_____________________________
rMBP & iMac late 2013, Apple TV x 2, MBP 2012 SSD, iPhone 4, iPhone 5, iPhone 5s, iPad Air & rMini, HacPro 3,1
If Apple does pull this off then Xbox and Playstation are both dead. Game over for all consoles.
I saw a video not too long ago that even 3 titans on a highend Core i7 gaming rack couldn't keep up with a decent frame rate at 4k resolutions while running off display port, barely did over 35 to 40 FPS on high settings, not ultra. It only achieved 60+ FPS at low to medium settings.
I've loved my Apple TV for a long time. What I really want now is to be able to jailbreak the new one and put XBMC on it. Once that can happen I'll buy a boatload of them! Well, actually just one, but I'll tell my family to get em too.
If this happens, I'll NEVER attach anything else to my TV EVER again!!
The level of iOS graphics is perfectly acceptable: just look at "Modern Combat 5", FFS!
Add to that all the other goodies, plus non-game apps -- a web browser, maybe? -- and you have a "desktop" computer for the 21st century!
C'mon, Tim!
Time's wasting!
The level of iOS graphics is perfectly acceptable: just look at "Modern Combat 5", FFS!
Add to that all the other goodies, plus non-game apps -- a web browser, maybe? -- and you have a "desktop" computer for the 21st century!
C'mon, Tim!
Time's wasting!