
Apple television rumored to come in 3 sizes, including 32" and 55" - evo_9
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/12/05/apple_television_rumored_to_come_in_3_sizes_including_32_and_55.html
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MichaelApproved
I don't understand why they want me to buy a whole new tv. My tv works fine
and I'm unlikely to replace it for a while. Its easier for me to justify
buying an adding device to my existing setup than to replace my perfectly ok
tv.

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dmbaggett
Maybe they plan to push display resolutions, the same way they've done with
the iPad. Apple is one of the few players with enough clout (and bandwidth) to
push 4K resolution TV into living rooms. This could allow them to establish a
manufacturing barrier-to-entry and de-commoditize the TV market.

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ConstantineXVI
I highly doubt they'd go 4K at launch:

1) 4K panels are still ridiculously expensive. Apple's mastered the supply
chain, but not the laws of physics. Also keep in mind that anyone Apple could
source 4K displays from at any useful volume will be putting them in their own
TVs first.

2) Apple might have the bandwidth to handle 4K streaming. Your average home
connection most certainly doesn't. Even if we're very generous and assume
everyone has guaranteed 100Mb/s lines, that's still a few hairs under 3x Blu-
Ray's bandwidth. You'd almost be able to pull it off if you went into
overdrive on the compression. (and no other activity on your line).

And perhaps you meant iPhone 4? The iPad's resolution in terms of DPI isn't
significantly higher than a decent notebook.

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jerf
"You'd almost be able to pull it off if you went into overdrive on the
compression."

To a first approximation, a Mbps is a Mbps is a Mbps when it comes to image
quality. Just because you push the 4K button on your compressor doesn't make
it a high quality image if you don't spot it enough bitrate to actually paint
distinct pixels. You'd be far better off measuring image quality in Mbps than
resolution. (Except in pathological cases where the video is overshrunk, but
I'll let you know when I encounter the video stream that is just too jam
packed with quality. Hasn't happened yet.)

My camera claims to take 1080P video, but it's a dirty rotten liar, in as much
as I'm able to take the video coming out, cut the resolution in both
directions by 2x _and_ cut the bit rate per pixel when I reencode it, and
produce a video that is indistinguishable from the original when zoomed full
screen. (If you are thinking to yourself "why, that means the original video
must not so much have pixels as blotches of color when looked at at the pixel
level"... correct. It's what gave me this idea in the first place, and it
turns 1.5GB videos that are even today somewhat annoying to store into 200MB
videos that are much easier.) And I only stopped at 15% of the original size
because I don't care about the last few percent and it's better to still be a
bit fluffy than start cutting into real quality, but I suspect I could get it
to fully 10% of the original size with only minimal quality loss.

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mkramlich
I love Apple but I dislike the rumor industry surrounding it. I can't buy a
rumor. Wake me when a real product is available. Saves time and less false
expectations. Plus the real product will likely rock anyway. Anybody with me?

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sjwright
I'm with you! Let's start a rumor to this effect!

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sjwright
I'm hoping that Apple do this -- the TV industry is screaming out for someone
like them to come along and shake up the market. My only concern is to do with
obsolescence. Apple could put the key electronics into a replaceable
cartridge, so that it can be upgraded every year or so.

In fact, the way I imagined Apple could get into the TV business would be to
partner with an existing manufacturer to make TVs that are basically glorified
iPod docks, and Apple would make an Apple TV "3.0" that fits into that dock.
The TV supplies it power and an infra-red signal, and the Apple TV supplies
the picture. Sony, LG or Panasonic could be a launch partner, but the aim
would be to have every manufacturer clamouring to make compatible sets (as
happens now with iPod speaker docks).

For the TV manufacturers, the advantage is they have another feature bullet-
point to promote their hardware (TV manufacturers love their bullet-points and
overly hyped feature names).

For Apple, it means they can stay in the business of selling $100 enabling
devices for the iTunes store, rather than selling heavy, bulky TVs with razor
thin margins.

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polshaw
If you think apple are going to go out of their way to avoid obsolescence,
especially over an all-in-one, clean experience, you have been watching a very
different apple to me over the last 10 years. (and i have an iPod with a flat
battery to sell you).

And to be honest, the kind of electronics involved in this stuff isn't that
expensive (to make). More so by the time you're ready to buy your second.

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wmf
_the kind of electronics involved in this stuff isn't that expensive_

That's the problem: a $1,000 LCD panel that works fine coupled to $50 worth of
obsolete electronics isn't a good idea.

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shawnjan8
Is it just me, or does this smell like the perfect opportunity for Apple to
enter into the "console" gaming arena. Provide a gaming controller and voila!
They are competing with the likes of Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. Difference
is, you release a game on the iTV, and its playable on your iPhone and your
iPad. Oh man, talk about owning your entire stack...

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kmfrk
I don't really know whether to lend any credence to these kinds of rumours
that tend to crop up, but it's a bit of a punch to the gut, if the iPad really
is slated for a mid-year release instead of March, as I was hoping and
expecting.

At the very least, the article opened my eyes to the possibility that we might
not get an iPad in late Q1 to early Q2.

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cpeterso
Will the Apple TVs just be 55" iPads? ;)

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sjwright
Scaling a 600 gram iPad to 55" would cause it to weigh about 12 kilograms,
without taking into account any extra material needed to strengthen its case.

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resnamen
Makes sense, my friend's TV screen is covered with greasy hand-smears from his
kid who was weened on touchscreen gestures. :)

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bane
The best part is that they'll own consumers on two screens (iPad and TV)
instead of just one.

