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Apple TV wish list?

Chodite

Chodite

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 23, 2007
586
0
Baltimore, MD
Sorry if posted already, but I don't see any sort of "We'd love to see ____ in the next software update!" discussion in this forum.

Big things, little things... what would you like to see in future updates to Apple TV?

I just picked mine up last night and one thing I'd like to see would be the ability to subscribe to YouTube channels/users; and not just the ability to add single videos to your Favorites list.

Also, how about iPhoto streaming integration? Right now, all we have is the ability to drag and drop photos into iTunes and have Apple TV pull from those photos. Full iPhoto integration, being able to browse events, etc. would be great.

What else?
 
Oh and this (quoted from another thread):


needthephone said:
Yes one thing when you use the aTV is that you feel detached from the world somehow- and that may not be a good thing.

I'd like to see some real time news updates or even a count of how many people are watching their apple TV's. It just feels a bit dead when you browse the menu, some music and or commentry or something would make you feel more "connected"

Probably just me! They have the opportunity of creating a social network too with all the people watching and hooked up to their apple TV network.

One thing about TV is the water cooler conversations it generates. Did you see so and so last night. This is gone with things like aTV . Just an observation
Click to expand...

It all does sort of have an empty & disconnected feeling.
 
iTunes Extras and iTunes LP content. Not only do I have a few purchased items, but I've been working on my own custom made ones for a few albums I have.
 
App Store!

Fix the bug where watched podcasts/other content show up as "unwatched".

FaceTime capabilities with added webcam.

Fill suggested podcasts with only video podcasts. Seriously, I typically don't want to listen to just audio on my Apple TV or any set top box for that matter, I want to watch something!

Better realization of how frequent users interact with YouTube:
1. Default search results should be ranked by view count. Most likely, users search for popular videos.
2. On the other hand, "show more from (author)" shouldn't show most watched videos first. If you care about a user on YouTube, you usually want to see their most recent content. This is especially true of vloggers who comment on the news of the day. You usually want to see what they said yesterday or something.
3. Link multi-part videos together better, or at least show full titles. YouTube users split long videos into multiple parts, but Apple TV is bad about linking them together (usually they're chronologically ordered), and the names are truncated, so a title like "Obama's big speech to the nation part 2 of 4" shows up as "Obama's big speech..." along with three other randomly sorted videos.
 
My .02:
  1. Better organization of TV shows. I should have one listing for Seinfeld at the top level...not one for each season.
  2. Apps
  3. Ability to stream video from any site on the internet
 
1. Apps (BBC iPlayer App :D)
2. Streaming video from MAC DVD Drive
3. UK version of Netflix
 
1. App launcher (which will make apps possible)
2. App store
3. HD/Dolby Digital support for Netflix (yes, I know this is Netflix's call to make, but needs to happen nonetheless!)
4. 2-way content-pushing via Airplay ( as is, it can only push TO the ATV)
 
On a side note ... Until apple says that the apple tv is not a hobby ... I dont see an app store coming ... They are going to have their hands so busy with the Mac app store that this isnt coming no time soon im affraid ...

I would love to see an app store thats for sure .. I would be my top priority.

also if this is still a hobby for apple ... I feel like the updates for this product are still going to be slow coming ... :(
 
aduteau said:
On a side note ... Until apple says that the apple tv is not a hobby ... I dont see an app store coming ... They are going to have their hands so busy with the Mac app store that this isnt coming no time soon im affraid ...

I would love to see an app store thats for sure .. I would be my top priority.

also if this is still a hobby for apple ... I feel like that updates for this is still going to be slow coming ... :(
Click to expand...

I disagree, about the update thing that is. With Google TV coming out, and with the integration of Mac OS X and iOS, I think we will see Apple pushing development of the Apple TV platform. I don't know if we'll get a full-fledged app store, but I think that Apple is going to have to either convince all the major studios to go with their rental scheme or be forced to open the ATV up to apps like Hulu, BBC, NPR, etc. In fact, there's no reason not to let some of those streaming services (the ones that don't directly compete with what Apple is trying to rent to you on the iTMS) on the Apple TV right now.
 
spice weasel said:
I don't know if we'll get a full-fledged app store, but I think that Apple is going to have to either convince all the major studios to go with their rental scheme or be forced to open the ATV up to apps like Hulu, BBC, NPR, etc. In fact, there's no reason not to let some of those streaming services (the ones that don't directly compete with what Apple is trying to rent to you on the iTMS) on the Apple TV right now.
Click to expand...

The networks are blocking GoogleTV from accessing their streaming videos on the web, right now. Do you think the AppleTV would be able to access these? I'm not sure how GoogleTV is being blocked, but I'd imagine if it can be done to the AppleTV, the networks would do it. Maybe Apple's working on getting approval?
 
Chodite said:
Also, how about iPhoto streaming integration? Right now, all we have is the ability to drag and drop photos into iTunes and have Apple TV pull from those photos. Full iPhoto integration, being able to browse events, etc. would be great.
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean.

YOu can choose the share all photos option in iTunes and then browse events on your Apple TV.

You don't have to drag and drop photos at all.

You can also select only specific events to share or the last 12 months photos for example.
 
trip1ex said:
Not sure what you mean.

YOu can choose the share all photos option in iTunes and then browse events on your Apple TV.

You don't have to drag and drop photos at all.

You can also select only specific events to share or the last 12 months photos for example.
Click to expand...

Didn't even know! Thank you for the tip.
 
all I want is the ability to play avi and mkv files. I'm sure that won't be done by Apple, but once it's hacked to allow that I'll pick one up in a second. Ideally I'd like to connect an external hard drive with all my shows saved to it. Or connect the external hard drive to my computer and stream it to ATV. Either way works.
 
Tilpots said:
The networks are blocking GoogleTV from accessing their streaming videos on the web, right now. Do you think the AppleTV would be able to access these? I'm not sure how GoogleTV is being blocked, but I'd imagine if it can be done to the AppleTV, the networks would do it. Maybe Apple's working on getting approval?
Click to expand...

Apple recognized this problem early on: none of these options are sustainable if the content providers (the networks) are not satisfied. So while Boxee and Google are trying to build workarounds (they add a web browser, but then the content providers detect the device type and block the device from accessing the streaming web site. Then GTV or Boxee find a hackerish workaround, then the content providers block it again, etc.), Apple is trying to reach a better iTunes agreement with the content providers. It's a long term strategy that has been gradually evolving since Apple first started providing TV shows via 5 or so years ago. It's just that now there are other players (hulu, boxee, google), and so the networks are feeling more pressure and getting more defensive.


That said, there are SOME content providers that are apparently fine with letting you access their web content on your TV. TBS, for example, re-did their website so it would look good on google tv so people could watch conan via the web, so they apparently would be ok with us using ATV or GTV or whatever to get their content on our TVs.

Apple should do the following: Provide a browser or some other means by which we can use ATV to get free web content from those networks/cable channels willing to provide it. For the big block networks that aren't willing to provide it, pursue the 99cent rental deals (as apple is already doing).
 
Wish list item:

Better organization for home movies.

I already use iPhoto and iMovie to organize my home movies, and yet in order to watch them on apple TV, I have to import them one-by-one into iTunes, and none of the metadata (title, description, tags from iPhoto) carry over. This means I have to organize/label my home movies twice: once in iPhoto (or iMovie) and once in iTunes.

ATV should treat the iMovie library like it treats the iPhoto library: let us check a box in iTunes and then have ATV respect the organization we've already done on our computers. That or include the movie clips that are managed by iPhoto in what is playable on Apple TV.
 
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