only thing stopping me from buying the tv is the lack of disc drive. and with rumors of both being axed, extended, etc., it seems reasonable to simplify the product line by merging the two - tv gets a drive, and mac mini's capabilities are extended.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Merge the AppleTV and the Mac Mini
- Thread starter ///alpinepower
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Don't look now, but there's be a couple of Rumors floating around that you may see an upgraded ATV with an optical drive for the Christmas season.
Who knows, maybe it is the next generation Mini.
Who knows, maybe it is the next generation Mini.
And that is what I think is the key - especially considering Apple's philosophy of things "just working".
The Mac Mini with Front Row is obviously a more extensible and capable media center, but it is also a more complicated one because it is a computer running the Mac OS.
An
tv is like a Tivo or a DVD player. You just highlight your content and click "play". No worries about software (or software version) incompatibilities; no kernel panics; no possible virus infection vectors; just content playing when you want it to. So I think there remains a market for both, but adding a DVD player to the
tv might be nice because it would allow folks to remove on extra component from their system. Since the majority of folks who buy an tv are likely not going to rip their entire DVD collection to H.264 beforehand.
I'm not sure if AppleTV will ever be a full blown computer. The concept behind AppleTV is a network bridge. For the same reason we don't package 4 port routers into client workstations, I don't think it's useful to bog down a multimedia bridge with processor operations not relating to the serving of content over the network.
The patents Apple has been filing in relation to AppleTV and future iterations thereof revolve around this detached "head unit" idea where, in the future, AppleTV will bridge multiple input and output devices over the LAN. These may include streaming content to and from iPhone, multiple televisions throughout the house, PDA devices, subnotebooks, etc. This is the way to do it... having resources wholly dedicated to bridging the content and providing global onscreen menuing functions to output devices.
The idea here is that if you want to add functionality like a DVR or a DVD player, you can do it modularly, leaving AppleTV alone. Not everyone, myself included, wants to take the step backward and incorporate removable media into a network based media distribution system. I prefer to keep all content stored on hard drives and streamed locally and globally. It might even turn out that AppleTV will help facilitate streaming of LAN content to mobile devices connecting to the net through WiMAX/4G, etc.
This is Apple's vision for the future... extending the boundaries of the "digital hub" strategy out to your car, your pocket, anywhere...
The patents Apple has been filing in relation to AppleTV and future iterations thereof revolve around this detached "head unit" idea where, in the future, AppleTV will bridge multiple input and output devices over the LAN. These may include streaming content to and from iPhone, multiple televisions throughout the house, PDA devices, subnotebooks, etc. This is the way to do it... having resources wholly dedicated to bridging the content and providing global onscreen menuing functions to output devices.
The idea here is that if you want to add functionality like a DVR or a DVD player, you can do it modularly, leaving AppleTV alone. Not everyone, myself included, wants to take the step backward and incorporate removable media into a network based media distribution system. I prefer to keep all content stored on hard drives and streamed locally and globally. It might even turn out that AppleTV will help facilitate streaming of LAN content to mobile devices connecting to the net through WiMAX/4G, etc.
This is Apple's vision for the future... extending the boundaries of the "digital hub" strategy out to your car, your pocket, anywhere...
no, no, no, no!
Thats a very very bad idea! The Mac Mini, with 10.5, will do everything the ATV does, plus a full blown computer....the price for ATV can come down, alot, merge it with the Mac Mini and prices will be sky high!
Thats a very very bad idea! The Mac Mini, with 10.5, will do everything the ATV does, plus a full blown computer....the price for ATV can come down, alot, merge it with the Mac Mini and prices will be sky high!