
Apple's October TV Surprise - yannickt
http://joe-steel.com/2016-10-28-Apples-October-TV-Surprise.html
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manacit
There is some that I agree with in here, and some that I disagree with.
Ultimately I think it's fairly well thought out, though I am personally
excited about the new apps for Apple TV.

The lack of 4k/UHD/HDR support in the Apple TV is, I agree, not cool. When the
ATV4 came out, it was excusable - there was not a lot of 4k content, and 4k
TVs were more expensive than they are now. In the interim, they have gone down
in price and there is much more content available in UHD.

As far as the new TV and Live TV apps, I am very excited. The ATV is my window
into all of the media consumption that I do on TV - I use Plex to stream
things from my NAS, Netflix to watch Netflix, ABC, CBS, ESPN, etc. apps to
watch on demand TV, and I am mostly very happy with it. These new apps are
going to make that a much better viewing experience - syncing up all of my
logins, and providing a central point to browse and stream. I view this as a
pretty big win over the experience on other devices.

Even though Netflix (and I'm assuming Plex) won't be included, it's still a
big step up from having to use the Fox, Fox Sports, CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC, etc.
apps to know which channel the college football game is on (usually ESPN,
sometimes Pac 12 Network or CBS), or what channel airs a particular TV show.

Ultimately, I have a 1080p TV, so I'm not missing the inability to stream in
4k. My next device will undoubtedly be 4k however, and I would be very bummed
if Apple did not have a device that was capable of producing 4k video.

~~~
crooked-v
Netflix won't be included. [https://www.wired.com/2016/10/apples-new-tv-app-
wont-netflix...](https://www.wired.com/2016/10/apples-new-tv-app-wont-netflix-
amazon-video/)

~~~
harryh
This is just me guessing, but it kinda feels like Plex won't either.

~~~
crooked-v
Unlike Netflix, Plex doesn't have any interest in directly controlling
content, so I'd be really surprised if they didn't participate. tvOS/iOS TV
app integration would be a great selling point for the Plex Cloud and Plex DVR
premium features.

~~~
madeofpalk
Well it depends if the TV app is available through an open API, or whether you
must be invited in by Apple much like their TV Siri and universal search
integrations.

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martinald
I agree with this. I get the feeling that Tim Cook cares a lot more about
shareholders than Steve Jobs ever did, and he's really trying to optimise for
average selling price (and with that, gross margin) of devices.

MacBooks have went up substantially in price. AppleTV (as this article shows)
is really expensive vs competition. The $10k Apple Watch was a laughable
misstep.

The iPad Pro is very expensive for a tablet also.

If I had more balls I would short AAPL stock. I have never been so confused
after an Apple event than this one. They are all over the place and it
suggests that they really don't know what customers want in 'mature' product
categories.

~~~
dmd
"Tim Cook cares a lot more about shareholders than Steve Jobs ever did" ...
"If I had more balls I would short AAPL stock."

Can you expand on this? Those seem at odds to me.

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busyant
I think he's saying that focusing on shareholders is (counterintuitively) a
bad sign for company health in the long term.

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xenobioticants
Didn't work out for Kodak, Blackberry or Microsoft. It's a very bad sign for
tech companies.

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pfarnsworth
I love my Apple TV but mainly because it makes using Plex and a couple of the
other apps so easy. Plex with the Apple TV is simply an amazing experience.
Also, because of the Apple TV, I've gone "legit" and bought a ton of stuff
from iTunes because it's so convenient.

But most of the apps suck. I can't use any of the TV station apps like NBC,
etc, without already having a cable subscription, which basically misses the
point. I can't wait for DirectTV to come out with a streaming version, it just
be good enough for me to switch to that permanently.

~~~
Klibarchu
Netflix + CBS All Access + Youtube + Others like twitter for NFL = 16/month
for streaming.

It helps that OTA HD stations are free!

~~~
pfarnsworth
I live in a valley so I can't get any signals from the OTA stations.. it
sucks.

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klodolph
Poor site seems to have died.

[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zm6AW02...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:zm6AW02rK6QJ:joe-
steel.com/2016-10-28-Apples-October-TV-
Surprise.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

~~~
jewbacca
ctrl+f mirror

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greedo
I still don't understand why the ATV doesn't have gigE. The BOM differential
for 100mbit vs gigE can't be more than $1...

~~~
givinguflac
While I always like to see the best specs on everything, there's nothing you
could stream that even approaches 100mbit never mind gigabit. For something no
one has anyone use for outside of a check mark on a specs sheet, saving $1 per
unit is a huge profit increase when you sell 10 million of something. Crazy
shit has been done by manufacturers to save pennies, never mind dollars. Not
surprising.

~~~
klodolph
In _theory_ you could get upwards of 108 Mbit/s if you were streaming a UHD
Blu-Ray over the network. Sounds a bit ridiculous just saying it, though, and
I would have saved the $1 if I were designing it.

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insulinrocks
This page causes a "Network Disconnected" error on Safari for iPad. There is
no loss of connection whatsoever, and every other site/service works for me.
What on earth is going on?

Edit: replicable across multiple networks, too.

Edit 2: fixed itself somehow. Weird.

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kylesethgray
Nice

