
Apple TV graduates from hobby/accessory to product line ahead of major changes - rkudeshi
http://9to5mac.com/2014/01/28/apple-tv-graduates-from-hobbyaccessory-to-product-line-ahead-of-major-changes/
======
IBM
This is how it's going to play out:

1\. Updated Apple TV launches

2\. Tech pundits and gadget blog commentators pan it because of limited
content deals but most likely not living up to some pie in the sky ideal

3\. Apple TV sells well

4\. Apple keeps iterating on product adding new content as they get more
leverage

5\. Console gaming gets accidentally disrupted because they don't take the
threat seriously and "it's just Angry Birds on your TV, not the good games
like Call of Duty"

6\. Installed base gets too large for Activision (and other large game
studios) to ignore and launches Call of Duty on Apple TV

7\. Another leg on the stool for Apple

~~~
magic_haze
I don't get it. This is the exact same model Roku, Google, Xbox, Ouya et al
are trying to follow, and so far, they've all had limited success. Even
Netflix and Amazon had to give up chasing after content and had to resort to
making their own. What makes Apple's attempt so different from all the others
in this area? (No sarcasm intended, I'm genuinely curious.) What leverage do
they have that can guarantee them the kind of instant success that the
idevices had?

I guess integration with their other products is one advantage, but really,
most other consoles have smartphone apps as well, and they're nothing special.
The integration with Airplay that TFA touts seems rather dubious... isn't that
just normal QOS any old router can do?

EDIT: The most obvious advantage, I guess, is the large corpus of devs who are
willing to rewrite their apps to target a new form factor. No other company
right now commands that sort of manpower, and that, indirectly, may be enough
to convince content owners and game publishers to target their platform.

~~~
bradbatt
_What makes Apple 's attempt so different from all the others in this area?_

Because literally with the press of a button you can make the video playing on
your iPhone or iPad appear on your HDTV.

Because you just plug in the Apple TV and hook it to your wireless network and
it shows up on your iOS devices instantly as a recipient for video and music
streaming.

No setup. No confusing configuration. It just works.

It's the same reason that Apple was the first company to really get video
calls to work. Other vendors and phone companies tried to get video calls to
work...and some of the tech crowd certainly made use of it. But Facetime was
the first video calling system that made it ridiculously easy for non-
technical folks to use.

~~~
ripter
This.

I have an AppleTV and a ChromeCast. I have a bunch of (legal) rips of the
Simpsons.

On the ChromeCast I have to load a single video in the Chrometab every time.
The playback isn't always smooth.

On the AppleTV, I drag VNC to the display, hit full screen and watch all day.
The playback is smooth and hassle free.

The ChromeCast is more portable, but not by much. If the AppleTV was USB
powered I would consider traveling with it.

------
jmelloy
Our Apple TV is the main way we watch TV, but frankly the channel options are
a bit bizarre, and half of the interesting ones require a cable contract. It'd
be nice if they put a stake in the ground for ESPN, Disney, HBO Go, etc and
didn't require a cable subscription. Seems like such a backwards model.

~~~
eob
I'm in the same situation and completely agree.

My guess is that Apple is trying to build channel momentum any way they can.
Unable to pre-negotiate deals and launch with a huge splash, as they prefer,
they're doing it from the bottom up, starting with content providers like
Crackle that probably get a lot more out of it than Apple does.

But as we've seen, Crackle begets Smithsonian and Smithsonian begets PBS and
PBS begets ABC. So it seems like it's working.

I bet in the next year, we'll see some sort of foldering option for home
screen icons.

~~~
127001brewer
_...PBS begets ABC._

Actually, Apple has a relationship with the Walt Disney Company[1], which owns
the ABC, ESPN and the Disney channels - and many more. Perhaps these
additional TV apps were added after _enough_ content creators agreed to
whatever terms.

Also, interestingly enough, there is a show on Disney Junior that first
premiered on the Disney Junior iPhone/iPad app before it was shown on the
regular Disney Junior TV channel. Maybe this is a new model to _beta test_ new
content?

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walt_Disney_Company#Disney_Media_Networks)

------
kposehn
Welp, time to start figuring out a business to build around the Apple TV.
Should have started that a while back, but I was waiting for a sign they are
moving.

This is the equivalent to a highly telegraphed right hook from a boxer - that
also happens to be heading directly for an opponent dazed, on the ropes.

Sweeeeeeet.

------
doomlaser
"We’re led to believe that the game integration will utilize existing iPads,
iPhones, and iPod touches as controllers"

This wouldn't come as a surprise, but using a buttonless handheld touchscreen
as a controller would be a terrible interface for gaming on a tv.

~~~
siglesias
If you're trying to model something like an Xbox controller with a touch
surface, then, as you say, no chance.

If you're trying to model something simpler like a WiiMote, then I think you
might hit closer to the mark. Let's keep in mind too the fun possibilities of
asymmetric information games that are possible because of the display (think
poker, football, Scrabble, Wii U type-games, etc).

------
james33
This lines up will with what I wrote about a month ago. Everyone's focus is on
the Xbox One and Playstation 4, but the real challenger in the console space
is an upgraded Apple TV (and other emerging products).

[http://goldfirestudios.com/blog/121/Why-the-Xbox-One-and-
PS4...](http://goldfirestudios.com/blog/121/Why-the-Xbox-One-and-
PS4-Aren%27t-the-Future)

------
jareds
I just spend $1300 on a MacBook Air, but if the part about integrating with
digital cable is true it looks like Apple will be getting even more of my
money. As a blind person the apple TV is the only accessible set top box. The
ability to actually have an accessible TV guide would be worth a couple
hundred dollars to me especially if there was some kind of DVR functionality.

~~~
kgermino
>As a blind person the apple TV is the only accessible set top box.

OK, I'm curious. As a blind person, how much value do you get from watching
TV? Do you just listen to the audio? What do you (for lack of a better term)
watch? It seems like scripted shows typically have a lot of content that is
only shown, not said; and most other content such as news and sports would be
easy to get on the radio, which would seem preferable.

Care to enlighten me?

~~~
jareds
Some sitcoms are fairly easy to follow. I watch a lot of documentaries on
Netflix and Hulu. I also make use of airplay quite heavily especially for
listening to sports games through radio apps on the iPhone.

~~~
kgermino
Interesting.

Thanks!

------
benologist
I really hope they merge it with airports, it's always nice to have one-less-
device. I hope they put a ton of storage in it as well so it can be used for
time machine and not have to always stream the movies I buy.

The gaming is also a really exciting possibility, iOS has an amazing gaming
ecosystem and I miss it a lot when I'm playing stuff on my kindle and phone.

The only thing I'm not enthusiastic about is it will still be too locked down
to replace my media pc.

~~~
bluthru
It really needs to be able to work without a computer or iOS device. Right now
you can't use just storage attached to your router and the AppleTV. Annoying
limitation.

~~~
rahimnathwani
Hmm... but how will they make money from the content on your external storage?
If you bought the content from Apple, then (assuming a fast internet
connection) they could let you stream it, without requiring a computer or iOS
device. If you got the content someplace else, then that place is Apple's
competitor.

~~~
bluthru
You can already do what I'm describing. It just requires that you have a
computer with iTunes running or an iOS device.

~~~
rahimnathwani
What you're describing is "use just storage attached to your router and the
AppleTV". You cannot already that.

I acknowledge that you can work around that limitation by using AirPlay from
Mac/iOS, or adding media to your iTunes library.

My point is that there's no incentive for Apple to add the specific
functionality you (we) would like, i.e. playing stuff from a USB mass storage
device or from an SMB share.

~~~
bluthru
>or adding media to your iTunes library.

Yes, which doesn't require the iTunes store.

~~~
rahimnathwani
My point is simply that, although there are already ways for you to watch non-
iTunes-store content onto your Apple TV, Apple has no incentive to provide you
with an additional method like USB mass storage or SMB streaming.

------
Geee
_Now_ I get it. I'm hundred percent sure that Apple TV integrates iBeacon
powered mobile payments. How else do we pay for the on-demand content on TV?
Just scan your fingerprint and there you go. Maybe even buy an advertised
product that you see on TV, just like that.

"This channel requires subscription, please verify your payment with your
iDevice, thank you." Fantastic.

------
ChuckMcM
Nice, this is very much a space about to get crazy. We started the process of
keeping a journal of what we actually watch/use in our current satellite
subscription and it was pretty revealing. Easily 80% of everything was
available elsewhere in a more useful format.

------
KeepTalking
I have 2 Apple TV devices and have loved the product in general. { Disclaimer
- I am far from being an apple fan boy }

Couple of things that require fixes.

\- Content: Frankly the current content is pretty lame. ABC has a sheepish
presence catering to its prime TV shows. ESPN seems to use this as a vehicle
for ESPN3.

\- Itunes: I had such a bad experience with itunes movie rentals over the
weekend. Utterly bad streaming/buffering experience. Unacceptable.

\- Radio: Come on .... Do you know they have internet radio support?

-Keyboard: Searching is such a pain. Try using the search on the youtube app.

\- Remote: The remote interferes with your Bluetooth receiver on your mac
book.

\- lack of local storage

------
127001brewer
I think that the Apple TV is best _misunderstood_ product that Apple makes
(and perhaps it's misunderstood, and sometimes frustrating, because it's
dependent on another device - your TV).

------
tehwebguy
Hopefully that means better software support. The newest update has a bug with
video playback after using iTunes Radio, video plays "through" the UI and no
way for me to downgrade.

------
acgourley
Looking forward to this - the current design makes mirroring fail for most
people, and mirroring is very important for our app.

~~~
berberous
Why does mirroring fail? I'm curious because it usually fails for me. Are you
just talking about the supposed new integration of the wireless AP with the
Apple TV?

------
seivan
I knew this would happen when they demoed Mavericks streaming. That's the
coolest feature from Mavericks.

~~~
lstamour
I figure their new Thunderbolt Display will be actual Apple TVs, and they'll
justify the set-top box by integrating the Airport Express product so it can
fulfill a standalone use if you're successfully upsold.

------
criswell
I hope Apple loosens up their design guidelines. The Netflix app is terrible
on Apple TV.

~~~
greg5green
Maybe I'm just being silly but I really hope not. AppleTV is the only Netflix
device I know of that won't automatically keep playing TV episodes (with no
way to turn this "feature" off).

~~~
criswell
I'm not asking for continuous play really, just that it only be one click when
the credits begin to roll ( or however they determine when to pop up that
little modal for the next episode ).

~~~
mirkules
The Wii version of Netflix also does not play automatically - it's pretty much
the only thing I use the Wii for.

~~~
greg5green
Unfortunately the Wii doesn't do 1080/720p stuff either though :/. The
increase in quality is well worth spending $100 on some other type of
streamer.

------
izzydata
The first thing that caught my eye on that page is "apple hdmi to hdmi".

I immediately face-palmed in disgust.

~~~
rayiner
It's not an (Apple HDMI) to HDMI cable. It's an Apple (HDMI to HDMI) cable.

~~~
Geee
This is a funny example of how people tend to see what they want to see.

