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Wish list, what did we get?

P

petteri

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 4, 2006
72
0
Well a while ago I put together a "wish list" of improvements that people were clamoring for. So how did Apple do? Here is the list (bold wish granted!):

1: On the fly playlists
2: Shuffle within an album
3: Enable USB port (keyboard, additional HD storage, bluetooth, external Blu-ray, HD-DVD)
4: 4:3 support
5: Better control of what syncs and what doesn't (ie. sync all my music except...)
6: Internet Radio
7: No cropping of the top and bottom edge of a playback
8: Ability to sort movies by genre
9: Subtitles support
10: Option to turn off "most popular stuff on iTunes store" from the menu
11: iTunes visualizer
12: Ability to play multiple music videos in a row, either by shuffle or playlist
13: Song ratings
14: 5.1 (or multichannel) audio support
15: Streaming photos
16: Group TV shows by season
17: RGB output option
18: A - Z flip (better management for large music collections, select by first letter)
19: Volume control
20. Search and/or Filtering
21. Stretch or zoom 4:3 content to 16:9
22. Streaming internet video (NASA TV, Joost...)
23. Unshuffle (I'm listening to a song, and decide I want to hear the rest of the album)
24. Direct purchases from iTMS
25. Add more screen savers (based on opening theme?)
26. Direct support for podcasts

We'll have to wait for the actual roll out of the new software to see for many of these items. So far, not much.
 
I thought some combination of 25 and 15 was announced, too (moreso 25). I'm still not clear on what the Flickr integration does (whether it downloads or streams).
 
Well there may still be hope for using Apple's new external superdrive for the USB port. Maybe with a later software update.

EDIT: Idea, add the superdrive and allow people to download content to ATV like music etc. and burn it directly to disc. No MAC required.
 
15 has been available since summer. (Streaming photos)

5 can easily be done through smart playlists and syncing that one.

4 and 17 ain't happening. :) Among your list, 6, 9, 12 and 18/20 (basically letter based searching) are the most important for me. Subtitle support (9) is probably not going to happen until iTS movies actually start carrying subtitles. Bummer...
 
Are SD movies in the iTMS 4:3? Are were they at least? I seem to remember everything from the iTMS being 640*480 - I've only used it once or twice, though.

Anyways, the fact that they were selling 4:3 content but not supporting 4:3 display devices always seemed pretty odd to me.
 
I suspect 9 has been granted too. Subtitle support has found its way into iTunes, Quicktime and both the iPhone and iPod Touch.
 
You did not list this- but this was one of my big wants:

Use AppleTV as a streaming destination for AirTunes from a computer.

Which according to Engadget is included in the update - although thats the only place I have seen that mentioned.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/apple-tv-take-2-ipod-touch-and-iphone-yep-more-details-her/

Apple TV updates

  • The update adds AirTunes support for the Apple TV for streaming directly to the device.
  • Your average HD movie download for the ATV is going to be about 4GB -- but if you've got a reasonably fast connection it should start streaming and playing within a minute.
  • Standard SD movies should be a bout 1.2GB.
  • Just to be clear about how rentals work, they can't move OUT of the Apple TV if acquired ON the ATV. If you need to finish your movie on the go but bought from ATV, you have to rent it again on iTunes with your computer.
  • You've also now got "favorites," which act as pseudo-subscriptions. These aren't synced or the same as the subs in iTunes.
  • Front Row is NOT undergoing any UI changes (at this time). Don't expect it to look the same as the new Apple TV.
  • Search isn't alphabetical, it's predictive and recommendation based. So if you're looking up a letter, the results will seem out of order, but will actually be calculated to be the most likely hit based on popularity.
  • There's Dolby Digital 5.1, as we saw, but otherwise there are no codec changes in the ATV.
Click to expand...
 
FreeState said:
You did not list this- but this was one of my big wants:

Use AppleTV as a streaming destination for AirTunes from a computer.

Which according to Engadget is included in the update - although thats the only place I have seen that mentioned.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/15/apple-tv-take-2-ipod-touch-and-iphone-yep-more-details-her/
Click to expand...

This isn't what I first thought. AppleTV can't play its audio through an Airport Express. I was hoping that I could stream my AppleTV audio to another room.

I guess what ended up being adopted -- AppleTV as an AirTunes destination -- is also pretty cool. If you have multiple AppleTV's in the house, you can stream music from your MacBook to them.
 
ipedro said:
This isn't what I first thought. AppleTV can't play its audio through an Airport Express. I was hoping that I could stream my AppleTV audio to another room.

I guess what ended up being adopted -- AppleTV as an AirTunes destination -- is also pretty cool. If you have multiple AppleTV's in the house, you can stream music from your MacBook to them.
Click to expand...


I think I might have gotten it wrong and your initial thought was correct... according to AppleInsider you stream from AppleTV to Airport Express:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article...itunes_movie_rentals_photos_video.html&page=2

Another new audio feature is support for AirTunes (below). Using an Airport Express Base Station, Apple TV can now wirelessly stream audio out to the same speakers used to distribute music from iTunes.
Click to expand...
 

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mrgreen4242 said:
Are SD movies in the iTMS 4:3? Are were they at least? I seem to remember everything from the iTMS being 640*480 - I've only used it once or twice, though.

Anyways, the fact that they were selling 4:3 content but not supporting 4:3 display devices always seemed pretty odd to me.
Click to expand...

It's mostly 4:3 now, yeah. Apparently you CAN use Apple TV on a 4:3, as long as it has component video in.
 
imlucid said:
No, Apple TV shows up in iTunes just like an airport express. You cannot stream FROM the Apple TV.

However, you can control the playback through the Apple TV to a limited degree (pause/resume, track skip).

Kevin
Click to expand...

You're going to have to find some evidence on this. It seems very odd to me that, while synced, you'd be able to control, through pass-thru, a remote Airtunes from the ATV itself.
 
Superman07 said:
You're going to have to find some evidence on this. It seems very odd to me that, while synced, you'd be able to control, through pass-thru, a remote Airtunes from the ATV itself.
Click to expand...

Odd or not, that is the way it works. I have evidence all around me...

:D

Kevin
 
imlucid said:
No, Apple TV shows up in iTunes just like an airport express. You cannot stream FROM the Apple TV.

However, you can control the playback through the Apple TV to a limited degree (pause/resume, track skip).

Kevin
Click to expand...


So what is that screen shot of then? Is it for allowing the AppleTV as an AirTunes device? [Either way Im happy - I have both and now will be able to play my music throughout the whole house instead of just 1/2 of it;)]
 
FreeState said:
So what is that screen shot of then? Is it for allowing the AppleTV as an AirTunes device? [Either way Im happy - I have both and now will be able to play my music throughout the whole house instead of just 1/2 of it;)]
Click to expand...

Its just a submenu to Airtunes options (turn it on/off, set a password).

Kevin
 
Although the software hasn't yet been replaced, it seems that the focus here has been adding features, rather then improving the interface. While I think this update looks really nice I was hoping for much more in regards to music playback;

I'd really like to be able to create a play list right on the :apple:TV.

I'd like to be able to add to that play list as it plays.

I'd like to be listening to my entire collection on shuffle and then be able to unshuffle and listen to the rest of the album from where the currently playing song is from.

I was really hoping for betters tools to navigate a large music collection.

We'll soon see, if any of these are added.

As far as 5.1 support goes, I'm not sure that you can't say that it isn't supported if it doesn't work on anything other than iTMS store purchases. This thing was designed to work alongside the iTunes model. If iTunes could rip a DVD or a 5.1 audio track then I think more of an argument could be made that it should play 5.1 audio from any source. That said, I really hope that there are NO limitations on any play back of 5.1 audio.
 
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