

Joe Hewitt speculates on the future of Apple TV - iamclovin
http://joehewitt.com/2011/10/25/airplay-tv

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Timothee
I completely agree with him on AirPlay's potential.

When AirPlay came out, I was thinking that it would be great to take advantage
of it outside plain audio and video. I figured, if CPU allowed, it'd be
possible to create a video stream on-the-fly with whatever UI you'd want in it
and push it to the AppleTV. (I'm no hardcore developer, so this never went
much further than a theoretical dream)

Then Apple announced AirPlay Mirroring, which is pretty much what I was
thinking with the advantage (I believe) that it's managed in big part through
hardware, making CPU usage lower, thus doable. My Twitter stream is witness of
my excitement about that.

I'm convinced that when games start to really take advantage of it, this will
give Apple access to gaming in the living-room. And not only racing games,
first-person shooters, etc. but board games, games à la TV-game show, etc.
Having two screens, one being private, can lead to very interesting apps and
games. For example, you can have Pictionary/Taboo-style games where one player
has an iPod with some info, and the rest is shared on the TV. And you can also
take advantage of other iOS devices nearby.

Now, I was not convinced about Apple going to the expense of building TVs when
the AppleTV (box) already has much of the benefits of what I would think an
Apple TV set would do. But Joe made some good points about improving the
current TVs: no need for a remote to turn on/off, no need to switch inputs,
possibility to improve the network connection with the devices… (e.g. like
AirDrop does with a dedicated channel between two Macs)

Finally, regarding his last line _"If I were an iOS developer, and I'd start
investing in AirPlay right now."_ , my understanding is that it's actually
very simple to implement:
[https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/Au...](https://developer.apple.com/library/safari/#documentation/AudioVideo/Conceptual/AirPlayGuide/EnrichYourAppforAirPlay/EnrichYourAppforAirPlay.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40011045-CH6-DontLinkElementID_7)

You can get a notification of a second connected display and use that screen
to build your UI in exactly the same way you would your main interface. The
only thing that seems to defer is just the window object it's applied to.

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joebadmo
I'm not sure I agree about the necessity of building this into a tv. I have an
ATV2, and the TV just stays on that input, generally. This would be more true
if there were more content apps. Also, my TV goes to sleep when the ATV does.
So I just leave it on, and when I want to watch something, I hit the ATV
remote, and everything turns on.

Mirroring is actually not what I want from Airplay. I want full mirroring only
as an option. Usually, I want the TV screen to display _just the video_. I
want all the UI to be on the iPad (or iPhone or iPod). I also want to be able
to queue up video, manipulate video, and do other stuff on the iPad _while the
TV continues to play video_.

I'm also not sure about games. Maybe casual gaming, but not serious gaming.
When playing a serious game, you don't want to have to look at your
controller. Your eyes should stay on the screen at all times. The controller
should become an appendage. With a touchscreen this is never really true
(which is also why typing on a touchscreen is never quite as satisfying or
accurate).

I think this certainly opens up new and interesting interactions, just like
the Wii did, but I don't see it becoming a viable control system for serious
games, and I also don't really see Apple releasing a console-style controller.

~~~
Timothee
_Mirroring is actually not what I want from Airplay._

I think Apple made a mistake by calling it that. Yes you can mirror your whole
screen, which is interesting, but the really cool thing is when you do what
you're describing (see my other comment too): you show one thing on the TV and
another on the iOS device.

As for your comments on games, I think it has the potential of competing more
against the Wii than Xbox/PS3. "Real" gamers will probably want a controller
(though some will argue that real gamers will play on a computer :)), but for
the rest (which is a majority of people), a tactile controller can be enough.
Remember that it's not only tactile but has a gyroscope and accelerometer…

~~~
joebadmo
I know individual apps can sort of do what I'm describing. What I'd like is to
be able to is leave video running while doing other things on the iPad. Right
now, if I'm playing a youtube video, when I leave the app to tweet or queue up
another video, the one on the TV stops playing.

I'm probably asking for too much, though.

As for games, yes, I agree that this is a real disruptive threat to Nintendo,
but not to Xbox/PS3. But how big of an industry is casual gaming compared to
'serious' gaming? I would have assumed that casual gaming was bigger, just
from the demographic size, but from what I understand, one of the Call of Duty
Modern Warfare games broke theatrical box office records.

