Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

I Guess Apple plans on keeping the Apple TV around just a little bit longer

Chris Rogers

Chris Rogers

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 8, 2008
875
0
my house
That was my first thought when I saw this but maybe not so much after clicking?

http://www.apple.com/startpage/

“Apple TV is a genuine must-have for iTunes users”
May 29, 2009
In its 5-star (out of 5) review, Stuff.tv calls Apple TV a “hot buy.” “The whole interface is stunningly slick and pretty,” and Stuff.tv found…
Learn More



When you click learn more you get: Oops, we can’t seem to find what you’re looking for!
 
I expect they're prepping a major update for Apple TV for the yearly September Special Event. All the rumor mongering about the Apple TV being discontinued is overblown.

It's Apple's only living room device. You bet they want to develop that market for the future.
 
jaw04005 said:
I expect they're prepping a major update for Apple TV for the yearly September Special Event. All the rumor mongering about the Apple TV being discontinued is overblown.

It's Apple's only living room device. You bet they want to develop that market for the future.
Click to expand...

I really hope they do... I love mine but think it could be improved.

What do you think they'll do?
 
Oliver.m said:
I really hope they do... I love mine but think it could be improved.

What do you think they'll do?
Click to expand...

Well, they have a slew of DVR patents they haven't used.

And hard drives are around 10x as large as Apple TV hard drives now, so that had better happen.

The hardware will also get better, so we'll finally be able to do 1080p.
 
Mentioned:
Pros A joy to use. Brilliant on-demand content. Excellent sound
Cons Downloads aren’t cheap. Slightly limited format support
Click to expand...

So yeah, "brilliant on-demand content" for a price. Interface is sure snappy but then again Plex is as well (most of the time).

As Tallest said, hard drives are cheap at higher capacities so why in the world they'd have a $250 ATV with a 40GB hdd is beyond me.

I still doubt we'll see DVR. I feel that would slow much of the "on demand" content you can purchase for a price in the iTunes store. Why would they want to do away with that at all? :confused:

ATV does what Apple needs it to do, give you iTunes in your living room and the "buy now" urge each time you use it. I know they got lots of cash from me because of the ease of use.
 
Tallest Skil said:
The hardware will also get better, so we'll finally be able to do 1080p.
Click to expand...

No kidding. I can see Apple making the argument (internally at least) that their iTMS offerings are only 720p, so 1080p isn't necessary. But with more people wanting to stream their HD home video over the ATV, the current hardware sucks. It can't even handle 720p/30fps Flip Mino clips!

Apple is always going on about the "digital hub," but their one way to get that content to your TV set is really lagging.
 
Tallest Skil said:
Well, they have a slew of DVR patents they haven't used.

And hard drives are around 10x as large as Apple TV hard drives now, so that had better happen.

The hardware will also get better, so we'll finally be able to do 1080p.
Click to expand...

Thanks, that pretty much what i was hoping for. Either a bigger hard drive or the ability to expand it with an external... i suppose both would be the best option!

It makes sense because all of these improvements wouldn't take much on Apples part. I suppose its just a waiting game now until we actually find out :(

jessica. said:
Mentioned:


ATV does what Apple needs it to do, give you iTunes in your living room and the "buy now" urge each time you use it. I know they got lots of cash from me because of the ease of use.
Click to expand...

As with most Apple products i suppose. The 'ease of use' is the ultimate selling point for it. Before i got mine i told my friends about it and they said it was a waste of money / waste of time.

Now they've been round and used it their opinions have changed dramatically. It's not so much what it does, but the way in which it does it.
 
Yes but now apps like Plex and Boxee make life easy too ... and you get a whole computer to boot if you go the MacMini route.
 
In this case, its not as much of an issue of what Apple would like to do. I'm pretty sure Apple would like to do an TON of things with the ATV and iTunes. 1080p, tv rentals, more content, streaming live tv...etc...etc...the limiting factor here isn't, and never has been, Apple. Its the studios. The is ample data and evidence that show Apple does not have the same kind of clout with the studios, as it did the the record labels.

If we get an update, the details of it will rest solely on the negotiating prowess of Apple executives. They recently lost a big one by being forced to change their itunes pricing structure in order to allow non-DRM music...
 
Me want better hardware. Nothing against the current aTV, but it has old hardware (I mean seriously, 160 GB maximum?) I am already hitting 100 GBs in movies and dam well have 30 GB in TV Shows... I need more space.

1080p will surely do nice.:)
 
jaw04005 said:
It's Apple's only living room device.
Click to expand...

That's the one reason why I'd say it's not going anywhere. In addition, each time you use it (without 3rd party software) it does tempt you to buy something. To tempt people into buying one, they should offer free content. Like what? I dunno. It really is a great device with tons of potential

It would also be that much better if it could do something else. (like a mini)

In terms of hard drive space, the price difference between the 2 shouldn't be that much $!
 
the ATV is a convergence device...Its Apple's way of getting YOUR content to your TV. The model changed when you could purchase from the device and I believe it will change again soon. They always referred to ATV as a toy or a project, prolly because there was a vision of what to accomplish but its changed as the HT market is changing. Personally, I'd like to be able to buy ATV with no HD and pick one up and use it as a movies server. I don't mind streaming music, but movies doesn't make me itchy.

On a similar note...I am starting to think there will be another such convergence device linking your home Apple products to the external products...ala Verizon's Hub but better....who knows
 
I love the device personally. Apple needs to up the storage, 40GB? Come on. Then again, I don't have 40GB of MPEG4 media (I have DIVX). The fact that I need to encode my DivX content to MPEG4 is a hassle, so I did the hack to it and now it can mount network shares and play DivX, and HD MKV media. Man, this thing is now much better. Apple needs to add the ability to mount a network share to the system if they want it to be more useful. I have over 1TB of media content, and trying to decide what content I want on the 40GB drive is just a PITA. But beyond that, the device is way better than a DVD player and looks great in the living room.
 
jessica. said:
I still doubt we'll see DVR. I feel that would slow much of the "on demand" content you can purchase for a price in the iTunes store. Why would they want to do away with that at all? :confused:
Click to expand...

They should build an OTA DVR because it will only increase iTunes sales. Think about it... All of the stuff you receive OTA is free anyway. People could finally find an a la carte cable alternative for all the shows that aren't OTA. The people who collect shows will still buy them from iTunes and the new a la carte viewers will buy and rent movies from iTunes. Apple will finally be able to consider the AppleTV a box replacement, and not a box addition.

The more fully functioned the hardware is, the better the sales are. The better the hardware sales are the better the iTunes sales will be. Not even getting into the BR argument here... First and foremost, the AppleTV needs a DVR.
 
The 360 just got a whole load more convergent... twitter and facebook right to your tv. *AND* full 1080p movie downloads.

Stick that in an Apple TV and I'll buy 2.
 
Lorenz0 said:
The 360 just got a whole load more convergent... twitter and facebook right to your tv. *AND* full 1080p movie downloads.

Stick that in an Apple TV and I'll buy 2.
Click to expand...

Tweeting on your TV? May I ask why? I get the whole social networking thing, but when I go on my 360 I want to play a game. To me, using Facebook on it with Twitter is silly. Again, just me. 1080p would rock though, its a shame the Apple TV practically explodes when trying to play a 1080p show.
 
uberamd said:
Tweeting on your TV? May I ask why? I get the whole social networking thing, but when I go on my 360 I want to play a game. To me, using Facebook on it with Twitter is silly. Again, just me. 1080p would rock though, its a shame the Apple TV practically explodes when trying to play a 1080p show.
Click to expand...

+1 I'm with you.
 
There must be a hardware update coming - firstly, a console older and cheaper than the ATV is about to have 1080p TV shows streamed to it and by all measures, the new iphone will have the ability to process 1080p video and download videos directly.

At this point it almost makes sense to adapt the iphone OS to enable the next gen ATV simply be an ARM cortex processor (ie the new iphone chip) with 8 gb of so flash memoey (for the OS) and a swapable 3.5" drive for storage. This way you could use the apple remote as now, or a new remote app to directly control the new ATV with soft keyboards and play/pause/skip/volume etc and time bars/info showng up on the iphone/ipod screen. Integration is everything.

Oh, and the home server for streaming to multiple computers and allowing syncing to iphones/ipods would be nice too!
 
I love my appletv so much. I remember reading a Macworld magazine back about 1.5 - 2 years ago that said Apple was going to unleash an all out war on getting its place in the living room. I would like to think they are well on their way, I just want appletv to be updated. If it could support the latest resolutions and offer something just a little bit more than the other products I think it would be hard to beat. So far, its the best "whole home solution" I can find for my home, because simply its easy to use! My mom and girlfriend can use it! If they can use it, anyone can.

Mo
 
I still don't get the appeal of the apple tv for people that are serious. I mean doesn't a plex box cover it all? I understand when people use them for their kids movies or if they wait.... I can't think of any other reasons lol.
 
jakerules133 said:
I still don't get the appeal of the apple tv for people that are serious. I mean doesn't a plex box cover it all? I understand when people use them for their kids movies or if they wait.... I can't think of any other reasons lol.
Click to expand...

Nice that you got the LOL in there...

Actually, I was pretty happy with mine and I like to watch serious movies! I think where it really comes up short is if you want to use it as a source for disparate formats but fortunately there's now a hack in case you hadn't heard. For those of us that aren't so acqusitive and like the rental HDTV model - it's been the most serious piece of kit for a long time.

Having typed all of this I will agree that it's a bit wanting in some areas and that at full retail may not be the best value - that's why I picked up a Mini :)
 
Unfortunately i do think they are waiting for the fruit (har har) of Apple`s PA Semi purchase. Which is most likely in the new year.

AppleTV currently runs so hot and is so limited by expensive (comparatively) intel hardware that Apple does not enjoy their 30-50% margin`s (before retail). This limits the amount of developer time the product currently enjoys.

I can envisage a arm cortex based chip that can run the gamut from iPod touch/iPhone/iTablet/AppleTV.

ie. extremely low standby, powerful enough to decode 720p and possibly 1080p and mass produced in the millions for this range of embedded consumer electronics. Extend the App store concept across the range and you now have 4 killer platforms.

However as i said unlikely before 2010. :(
 
I'd just be happy to have my atv's work consistently and quickly at the basics before they start adding more features.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back