AppleTV Future Expansion

[ipedro]

TV is a diamond in the rough. I hope to see more changes as it develops.

Perhaps more sites will join on like YouTUBE and Flickr did.

LastFM would be an amazing add-on to TV.

Facebook could also potentially see itself on TV: View friend's albums and videos from your couch.

Another killer app would be exporting Webclips to the TV via iTunes. You'd be able to see clips of your favorite websites at a glance. On that note, other Dashboard apps could be made available such as the weather, ski report, Fandango, etc.

The possibilities are endless and it would be nice if Apple provided an API to developers for adding apps to the AppleTV. Right now it's only using up a very small bit of its potential.

Any other ideas? Discuss.

 

[grahamtearne]

What I found interesting was that Apple admitted they had failed with the Apple TV and thats why I think we are seeing such a big push for it with the price drop, new features etc. I think as long as they continue to push it it will succeed and more sites will follow.

 

[ipedro]

What I found interesting was that Apple admitted they had failed with the Apple TV and thats why I think we are seeing such a big push for it with the price drop, new features etc. I think as long as they continue to push it it will succeed and more sites will follow.

Exactly. I was almost shocked to see Steve Jobs admit to it being a failure. Admitting something is wrong is the best start to making it right.

Before going to other sites, Apple should really leverage what they have in house: OS X

Add a tab in the AppleTV iTunes menu for OS X applications export

Safari: Webclips - The TV is already web aware. Allow it to display dynamic clips of a section of your favorite websites.

iCal: Display a simple application showing your appointments for the day/week

Address Book: integrate your contact list into TV. Allow users to use their TV's to look up contact info.

iChat: Use that USB port at the back for something. Include a simplified iChat for voice and video chats. This could be a whole new market for Apple. TV telephony. Select a contact with the simple remote, hit play and then select either Video or Audio chat and voilá, you're chatting with somebody on your big screen from your couch.


oooooh the possibilities....

 

[vegasvic]

It wasn't that long ago that I carried a phone, an MP3 player, an email device, and a laptop for internet browsing/watching movies. I now do all of these things quite nicely using my iPhone.

Apple TV could bring us a similar consolidation to the living room. I'd like to see it's capabilities expanded to:

1) Replace my cable box and it's crappy UI
2) Add DVR capabilities (maybe even archive to Time Capsule)
3) Include a Blu-Ray HD-DVD player
4) Let me access it remotely/wirelessly (iPhone catcher?)
5) Allow me to play games

Even one or two of these would make it a killer app.