Whoa, this came out of left-field. Amazon just announced that its Video on demand service will be serving up $.99 ABC and Fox rentals just like Apple wait, no, these are $.99 per episode — like you actually own the content rather than just having a short window to watch. Plus, it’s not just limited to one platform as Amazon Video on demand is widely available a bunch of products. This could be huge and might take some sales away from the new Apple TV. → Read More
I’m going to just assume that if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with torrenting and the like. It’s pretty much commonplace now and while I’m not here to argue its legal ground, it’s a fact that many people get their TV and movie content this way. Yes, it’s illegal, but the fact is there are products specifically geared for that market. The Apple TV isn’t one of them.
Oh no, the Apple TV is for those on the up and up. It’s clearly for those that for one reason or another, want an easier or legal way to get on-demand content on their HDTV. I can’t think of a single device that makes renting TV shows and movies easier. The Roku? Well, it has Netflix and Amazon Video On Demand, but even those require one or two more steps than the new Apple TV — and you can’t get the latest TV episodes, either. Its dead simple interface and feature set are the Apple TV’s main draw and, I suspect, why it will be successful. → Read More
Okay so you want to buy Apple TV but you are in Europe. You got used to the fact that in Europe everything costs the same in the Apple Store as in its brother in the U.S. just in Euros which is like a lot more. Not any more. The Apple TV in Europe costs MORE than in the U.S. It costs 119€ ($152). You would think that you actually get more or at least the same stuff right? Well, no. No Netflix for you, friend! You can buy a box to stream stuff from YouTube and iTunes for $152. → Read More
The new Apple TV, is, well, boring. Sorry, it is. But more on that later. Right now, I thought I should point out that there’s already a well-developed product on the market that not only competes directly with the new Apple TV, but in many ways, is vastly superior: The Roku.
Update: Amazon just leveled the playing field for Roku (and others like TiVo). → Read More
“You’re going to be able to be watching a movie, push it to your TV, and finish watching it there. You’re going to be able to push photos from your iPad to your TV… it’s going to be pretty cool.”
– Apple CEO Steve Jobs, September 1st, 2010
Many people noticed that Jobs’ “and one more thing …” intro today was reserved for Apple’s “hobby,” Apple TV. Jobs also referred to Apple’s TV venture as a “hobby” back at the D8 conference in June with significantly less tongue in cheek. In an interview with All Things Digital’s Kara Swisher, the Apple CEO implied that he had given up on it with the dismissive “smarter people than us will figure it out.”
“The problem with innovation in the TV industry is the go-to-market strategy … Ask TiVo, ask Roku, ask us. … ask Google in a few months. It’s not a problem of technology, it’s not a problem of vision, it’s a problem of go to market strategy. [TV] is very tower of Babel-ish, it’s Balkanized.” → Read More
Chances are Apple is releasing an updated version of its Apple TV product today, but it might not use the heavily rumored iTV name. Instead, the new product might keep the original name of Apple TV. At least that Australian Macworld is saying, which makes us wonder where the iTV name came from. → Read More
Perhaps you’ve heard: Apple is having an event tomorrow. Normally, this means that a sea of tech bloggers descends upon the Bay Area to cover it live for those sitting by their computers at home. But this time things are a bit different: Apple is actually streaming the event live — something they haven’t done in a very, very long time. Cue Double Rainbow: what does this mean?
It’s been so long since an Apple event has been live streamed that no one can seem to agree when the last one actually was. The consensus seems to be that it was a Macworld keynote (which IDG put on but Apple produced) back in the 2003 or 2004 timeframe. But what’s interesting is why Apple streamed one of these last ones: as some recall, it was at least in part to show off their then-new streaming technology — QuickTime Streaming Server. Might that be a hint about the intentions for tomorrow’s event? → Read More
Including access to Netflix on the rumored iTV seems like a no-brainer at first — every set-top box worth its salt has it. It’d be suicide not to, right? But then you start thinking about how Apple would probably like nothing more than to launch a full-scale competitor to Netflix in the form of 99¢ rentals. Chances are it was actually a difficult decision to make: it’s like acknowledging that Netflix has something Apple needs, and I’m sure you can imagine how much they like that idea. → Read More
Apple has an event on the books for this coming Wednesday and it’s widely expected that Steve-O will announce new iDevices, specifically an iOS-version of the Apple TV and new iPods. Most of the pre-iTV news is purely speculative as we really don’t know much about it, although it should hit at a lower price point and a new cloud-based iTunes should debut alongside the device. Forget about the cable TV assault for a quick minute though. Let’s talk about these new iPods. If things go down as the leaks seem to say, you might actually want a dedicated PMP device again. The iPod is set to have a second coming. → Read More
Google, Apple, Microsoft, Netflix, Amazon — when you hear these names, you usually think about how these tech giants all compete with one another. But what if they all teamed up for one cause? They’d be unstoppable, right? We’re about to find out.
All of these companies are currently sitting in the same boat about to storm the beaches. Which beaches? Those belonging to the the cable television providers in the U.S. It has only just begun, but the assault is underway.
Let me start by saying that of course the cable companies aren’t about to go away. Even if the mega assault by the tech juggernauts is successful, it will be many years before everyone’s addiction to cable gives way to something else. But it will. And that something else will be content served over the Internet. → Read More
When looking at the current incarnation of Apple TV we find a tragically flawed device that overshot and underperformed at the same time. Essentially an iPod Classic with HDMI out, the Apple TV had a pitiful hard drive and a useless OS unless hacked. In the end, it was more expensive and more underpowered than anyone liked and competitors quickly filled the niche, offering format agnostic streaming boxes with Netflix support and devices like the Xbox 360 that allowed UPNP access to content on your network.
In the end, I got rid of my Apple TV even after hacking it to oblivion. I tried to love it. I really did. Unfortunately, however, I probably won’t be going back to the platform, even if the $99 mini-iTV Apple TV thinger appears on September 1st. Here’s why. → Read More
We’ve just received an invite to an Apple event taking place on Wednesday, September 1. Yes, next week. The event will be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco at 10 AM PT.
While Apple will only say that this is a “special event,” the image above makes it clear that just as with their events every September, this one will be mainly about music — or at least the iTunes ecosystem. At this event, Apple is widely expected to unveil (or at least talk about) their new iTV device — the next-generation Apple TV. And they may have a thing or two to say about an iTunes television show rental service. → Read More
The wheels are in motion. The rumors have persisted for a while now that a new Apple TV (soon to be called “iTV”) is approaching. It’s thought to be a cheaper, smaller version of the current device that puts an emphasis on streaming rather than storage. The killer app of such a device could literally be apps — as in, the iPhone/iPad/iPod touch variety. But don’t forget about the iTunes content.
While apps (and particularly games) will be great to have in the living room, that room first and foremost remains the place that people consume Hollywood entertainment. A ton of it. While Apple was successful in getting the music industry to bend to its will, they so far haven’t been able to do the same with Hollywood. But they’re going to need to with this new Apple TV. So now they’re apparently calling on an old friend in their latest attempt to make that happen: the trusty $0.99 price. → Read More
It can be argued that Apple eventually dominates in every consumer electronic market it enters. I’m sure I don’t need to point out the history of iPod, iPhone, and iPad. They are market leaders. However, the one exception is with the Apple TV. It didn’t exactly flop, but the media streamer is far from the blockbuster hit of its iDevice brothers.
That may change once the rumored $99 iTV hits, but analyst Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray indicated in a note to investors that the iTV is just the beginning. He believes the cloud media service hints of a true Apple HDTV: a flat panel HDTV that’s designed to be a stand-alone TV, allowing users to give up their game console, Blu-ray player, media streamer, and most importantly cable TV. The only thing is, Gene’s wrong — at least about the physical HDTV part. An Apple TV would go down in history as the biggest flop in the company’s history. → Read More
As soon as the rumor broke that Apple would be renaming its struggling Apple TV to iTV, to better fit with the company’s i[Device] naming system, I thought to myself, “Isn’t ITV the name of a television network in England that always misses key goals in soccer games?” Yes, yes it is. In fact, the network isn’t too keen on Apple using the name iTV, and has promised to “vigorously defend” its IP. → Read More
The next version of the Apple TV is coming soon. There’s been a few rumors over the last month that the next version will be around $99 and feature some sort of cloud-based streaming. But that’s about it. Well, the crazy kids over at Engadget apparently have it on good authority that those two rumors are correct and the next Apple TV, or as it will be called, the iTV, is right around the corner. Like it or not, this might be the device to finally spring media streamers from a niche market to the mainstream. Just in time for the Boxee box and the Popbox to swing in and steal the show. → Read More
The Apple TV might suddenly be part of the next big thing from Apple. We’ve heard that there’s a major retooling underway and Apple shifted some of their best people on the project. Updated hardware is likely, but new services will likely be at the forefront of the relaunch.
The latest rumor states that Apple is in contract talks to bring TV show rentals to the platform. They would probably work like the movie rentals by giving users 30-days to start playing the show after downloading and then 24-hours after starting playback until it expires. Except there’s one big difference: the shows are said to be streamed. Combine that with the rumor that iOS will power the next-gen Apple TV for a cocktail of dreams and possibilities. → Read More
Imagine this, but much better According to the Blog of Record, Apple is bolstering its collection of engineers dedicated to the Apple TV. The sources, who “refused to be identified,” naturally, said ATV may be getting an OS update to iOS instead of the stripped down OSX kernel it is currently running. The rumors are pretty much what you’ve already heard: that the new Apple TV will be an entirely new animal, a $99 box will be more in line with the current Roku or Western Digital video sharing devices than the original Apple TV. The expectation, in fact, is that this new device will not have a hard drive and will instead stream from the Interworld. → Read More
Last night, as we waited to pre-order the new iPhone 4, Apple had a surprise for us: a new Mac mini. Never having owned a Mac mini, normally this wouldn’t get me excited. But this one is different. This time, Apple decided to include a HDMI port and is highlighting the fact that you can easily hook it up to your HD television. In other words, it’s like an Apple TV on steroids. And it looks like Apple knows it.
If you go to the Apple Store website right now, you’ll notice that every big piece of Apple hardware is highlighted except one: Apple TV. If you’re looking for it, you’ll either have to do a search, or you’ll want to look way over in the lower left hand corner under “For iPod.” Yes, Apple is now classifying the device they’ve famously belittled as a “hobby” for so long as an iPod accessory. Ouch. → Read More
When Google TV was announced at Google I/O there was a lot of excitement surrounding it. Unfortunately, there were also a lot of questions. And the glitchy demo they did on stage certainly didn’t help matters. Today, Google has released a simple two and a half minute video to explain the service and show exactly how it works.
This video makes the value proposition of Google TV much more clear. They probably should have just shown this at I/O. It’s really about having the Internet (and Android apps) in your living room alongside your existing television set-up. (Though unstated, it’s also obviously about ad-reach.) This differentiates it from competitors like Apple TV and Xbox 360 (though they all will battle for the living room). Watch the video below. → Read More
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