“When I heard Steve Jobs’ ‘special’ announcement about a new product for 2007 called the ‘iTV,’ [I] just rolled my eyes thinking ‘you’ve got to be kidding me,'” Cynical IT Guy blogs for Business 2.0. “I guess Steve Jobs thought he’d really get away with it. I mean, sure, what kind of pissed off freak would remember something as obscure as that from 11 years ago and then nail him on it today?”
“The MacTV inspired another product (other than my performa) that is virtually unknown and will amaze you. And in 1995, I repeat 1995, this amazing product was called the ‘Apple Interactive Television Box,'” Cynical IT Guy writes.
Cynical IT Guy writes, “It was designed to stream content into a television. And this product looks awfully familiar to something Steve (11 years later) invented and called the iTV. But I guess when Steve Jobs announced the iTV, he must have forgotten that his own company had already made the iTV over a decade ago.”
MacDailyNews Note: “Stream content into a television” via wired connection, not wirelessly.
Cynical IT Guy continues, “It’s called iTV. That’s a codeword. We need to come up with a better name. -Steve Jobs quote from the iTV announcement speech. Aren’t you excited? It has a ‘codeword’ because it is so new that no one has even figured out what to call it yet. Now, I’m a nice guy, so when I hear Steve Jobs say that he’s trying to think of a name for an 11-year-old ‘new- product, I get confused and just want to help. So Steve, how about calling it the ‘Apple Interactive Television Box’ like Apple did in 1995. It’s catchy huh?”
Full article with more photos here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Michael” for the heads up.]
Wikipedia says:
Since the box was never marketed, no official technical specifications have been released by Apple. The following describes a typical unit:
• A/V ports include composite video on an RCA jack with two additional RCA jacks for stereo sound, an S-Video port, two RF coaxial cable jacks, and two SCART jacks.
• Mac-like ports including a Macintosh serial port, an RJ-45 ethernet port, and a SCSI port.
• The front of the unit has an Apple logo and an infrared receiver, apparently for interface via the remote control.
• The unit contains a 68LC040 CPU, and 4 megabytes of built in RAM, but no hard drive.
• An internal expansion slot of a type not found on other Apple products. There is speculation that this may be based on Apple’s PDS expansion slot.
Apple intended to offer the set-top box with a matching black ADB mouse, keyboard, Apple 300e CD-ROM drive, Stylewriter printer and one of several styles of remote controls.
“Apple Interactive Television Box” via Wikipedia here.
Related articles:
Apple’s new iTV universal remote control patent application published – October 12, 2006
Apple’s iTV will be much more like an upscaled iPod than a downscaled PC – September 30, 2006
Apple’s iTV: Where’s the DVR? – September 27, 2006
Intel’s Conroe-L the brains behind Apple’s iTV? – September 22, 2006
Cringely: Apple’s iTV strategy is iChat on steroids – September 22, 2006
The Motley Fool examines Apple’s iTV victims – September 22, 2006
Disney CEO Iger: Apple’s ‘iTV’ has ‘small hard drive on it’ – September 19, 2006
Disney sells 125,000 movie downloads via Apple’s iTunes Store in first week – September 19, 2006
The most exciting feature of Apple’s ‘iTV’ may be its USB port – September 15, 2006
Cringely: How Apple plans to own your living room – September 15, 2006
LA Times: With iTV+iTunes Movies, Steve Jobs stumbles over the last 100 feet – September 14, 2006
BusinessWeek: If anyone can make bridge the great divide, Apple can with ‘iTV’ – September 14, 2006
The Beeb asks: Would you buy the Apple iTV? – September 14, 2006
Three markets that are different today after Apple’s ‘It’s Showtime’ event – September 13, 2006
Cramer: Apple’s ‘iTV’ all about ease-of-use; Apple shares are going higher – September 13, 2006
Apple + Living Room = Logical Marriage + Boon for Stockholders – September 13, 2006
The Register: Apple event more like ‘No Show’ than ‘Showtime’ – September 13, 2006
The Telegraph: Steve Jobs’ genius making people desire gadgets for which they have absolutely no use – September 13, 2006
The Guardian: Steve Jobs needs ‘a charisma download, Apple risks being left behind’ – September 13, 2006
Mark Cuban: Things that are special about Apple’s announcements – September 13, 2006
Apple’s ‘iTV’ strategy – September 13, 2006
How will Apple’s ‘iTV’ work? – September 13, 2006
Apple eyes living room market with device codenamed ‘iTV’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV model ‘the gold standard for the digital home of the future’ – September 12, 2006
Analyst: Apple ‘s iTunes+iPod+iTV ‘will be hard for other players to match’ – September 12, 2006
Apple gives sneak peek of ‘iTV’ set-top box to debut Q1 2007 (with images) – September 12, 2006
Apple’s QuickTime stream of Steve Jobs special event now live – September 12, 2006
Apple debuts iTunes 7 – September 12, 2006
I guess that’s why he is the “Cynical Guy”. Someday he’ll see the genius and simplicity of it.
Glad I’m not the only one who remembers that, but it wasn’t Steve and it wasn’t released. It was also ahead of it’s time. Here’s a product we’ve allowed the PC world to play with and we’ll perfect on the Apple side.
so when apple releases the iphone, they’ll just say it was a 15 year old product called the newton and the cell phone. i wonder when apple will think of something original. </sarcasm>
What a jerk…
IT Guy seems to miss the point entirely, it’s not about who thought it up first, It’s about the implementation and usability of a devise.
There were MP3 players on the market before iPod, yet Apple stole the market, based on the iPod & iTune implementation and usability.
Finaly, to put a positive spin on this (shit) story, this article and the accompanying picture finally prove that Apple is the ultimate innovator, in that they had the insight to come up with a device that has taken 11years make a reality
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
H
What “cynical IT guy” doesn’t take into account is that 9/11 changed everything.
Heck, I have been dreaming and hoping of somebody doing something this for around 20 years…
Thats Steve jobs for ya, what an imbusill he is.
Yeah, and not only is the iTV a recyculled product, but when the iMac came out they acted like it was a new product….those liars had been making computers for yeers.
And those stupid so-called CDs, they are just redikulis small records, not very orijinul.
And the “mouse” I had one in my garage all the way back in 1975, and that thing was actually alive….way better than the computur ones.
9/11 was an inside job.
You don’t know the history of cynicism, I do.
what a bunch of BS….. First and foremost, there was never a product for streaming movies to a TV, and the technology for doing so in 1995, was primitive at best. Apple did have a product called “Pippin”, that was destined to be a set top box, but primarily for games. Pippin was never released.
This goon thinks that no one else would remember 11 years ago, but I’ve got a newsflash…. Get over yourself and quit making up stories to make yourself seem important!!
Calling it the Apple Interactive Television Box is not the Apple way. Making up ridiculously obvious and pseudo-techincal sounding names is what Microsoft does.
Besides, there are many ideas that are way ahead of their time. It would be stupid to not do this just because it had been tried before and the market wasnt ready for it.
“What “cynical IT guy” doesn’t take into account is that 9/11 changed everything.”
Rofl. Thanks for this Jooop.
@ Joop.
huh? 9/11?
Jas–9/11 was an inside job.
Yeah–Inside a mosque.
The contention is bogus. The product was never released and the iTV sounds worlds different than what was being designed in 1995. Amazing how people can’t see the obvious when they want to troll for hits.
4MB of RAM and a 68LC040 CPU?! Wow, it IS the iTV!
wouldn’t ‘bitter boy’ be more appropriate
Just goes to show: Apple – 11 years ahead of the competition
Great ideas never die, they just get reserected when the time is right…
I remember these back when I worked at Oracle. We had a bunch of these set-top boxes from different manufacturers like Scientific Atlantic, General Instrument, Motorola, Apple and others. They were connected to an MPP (Massively Parallel Processing) Oracle Media Server for some interactive tv trials.
Apple made good-looking, elegantly designed products even in 1995 when Steve Jobs wasn’t working for Apple.
If Dell, Gateway, HP, Bill Gates, et al, came up with something as innovative back then, there would be racing stripes, cup holders, and gazillions of endorsement stickers on the thing.
Jooop,
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!
That guy is just sick!
Yes, there may have been made products, which build on the same basics as iTV, but none of them, is just like it. Many things we didn’t have 11 years ago, we have now, soo the product is no where near the same today, as then!
It’s like saying: “Hey! that car looks just like mine! the engine is even sitting in the front, just like 11 years ago!!! YOU BASTARD!!!!!
See what I mean?..
ron,
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t wait for itv. It seems so obvious, you’d thing some one would have it out already.
Obiusly, this guy get the notice from some one else becase the iTV was mede a long time ago and this guy just note it today? Hey pal, why don’t you just try to watch TV or internet once in a while?
Good one, Ron!
The big difference now is that Apple is on top of the digital content
game. Content and distribution control mean a lot.
That just means Apple (even without Jobs) was thinking 11 years ahead of the technology and the public mindset that would make the product successful. Newton was way ahead of its time, but it was released too early and inferior products that came later became more successful. Apple thinks now is the time to make such a product successful. Like with MP3 players, Apple is not going to be the first to do such a product, but it will probably the company that can execute it successfully.
This post by the Cynical IT Guys shows exactly what is wrong with the Ameican education system today. The guy quotes the dictionary definition of innovation as being something “new” and then promptly alters the definition of “new” to mean “first.”
Example. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich was in its own right an innovation. Peanut butter and jelly had existed for decades, but no one thought of putting them together until World War II, when they were both packed together in K-rations for GIs because PB&J proved to be a high protein, high calorie compact food.
The point? Neither peanut butter nor jelly were new inventions, but what was new was putting them together in a sandwich, which took nearly 40 years after the invention of peanut butter for people to figure out. The rest is history.
Secondly, there is the fallacy of assuming that something dervied or depending on an earlier innovation is itself non-innovative. By that logic, sliced bread would not be innovative because it relied on the innovation known as bread. Nevermind that sliced bread totally changed the way bread was marketed and consumed.
In other words, people like the Cynical IT Guy are so upset that the iPod is the juggernaught it is today when it wasn’t the first MP3 player that they fixate on trying to prove Apple is not innovative by pointing to superficially related predecessors. You might as well say the vaccuum tubes that powered ENIAC, the first all electronic computer, were just glorified lightbulbs and totally non-innovative.
Idiocy knows no bounds.
May Apple laugh all the way to the bank. Cynical IT guy does have a point, Microsoft keeps releasing the same NT-based garbage for the past 14 years.
who the F had content on their macs 11 years ago to do ANYTHING with an iTV…?
Gee I wonder why it was… never released…
Nice ‘typical specs’… totally baseless
well it has kinda been done before but not done right. also this was apple when Steve Jobs wasnt with the company when they were trying to just make anything with the Apple logo on it which turned out to allow them to waste money over and over again. there also was not a program called iTunes back then so everything this guy is saying has no relevance to anything except for him being an idiot.
I don’t think the new device is going to look anything like what is pictured there from 10 years ago. And wired and wireless are two different worlds.
Hey, ITs Miniscule Guy
There is Steve Jobs, and there is snow jobs. What is the point of this story? Is Jobs lying? Taking credit for someone elses idea? Or are you trying to impress by linking the two boxes because they are sqaure and video goes through them? That is a snow job.
The wheel is thousands of years old. What’s Goodyear trying to pull!?!
Yeah, right… The guy just “rolled his eyes” when Jobs announced iTv…. That’s why he waited more than 2 months to write about it.. Most likely, he just heard about this and decided it might make a story.
huh? this guy is wrong.. that Apple Interactive Television Box, I believe was supposed to be new product to compete with webTV but it never came out (according to the wiki site) you see that the spec mentioned mouse, keyboard, printer such like that
and the 90’s was the Interactive TV era. and WebTV cornered the market and Apple decides not to release it like Apple decide to scrap Pippin because PS1 and Nintedo was so popular and hard to beat.
As for iTV, it is different beast, because it just stream content from your mac to tv which can be musci, movie, tv shows or whatever. not the way AITB was intended to.
You could say that iTV may be superior product than Eyehome.
Ane we know that iTV will be sold eventually under new name instead of the codeword “iTV”
Check this one out:
apple-history
And this one:
apple-history
MDN Magic Word: quite
As in It’s quite obvious that Apple has been dabbling in this sort of thing for years.
“Yeah, right… The guy just “rolled his eyes” when Jobs announced iTv…. That’s why he waited more than 2 months to write about it.. Most likely, he just heard about this and decided it might make a story”
More likely is that it took him 2 months just to write his “article.”
simply proves – beyond ANY shadow of a doubt, Steve Jobs is so far ahead of his time … he is … the Leonardo Da Vinci of our century.
Perhaps, in addition to being avant-garde, he was also perceptive enough top realize that it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. Sure the Newton was in the same category and maybe shouldn’t have been released at that time but hey, this is how you gain experience.
And that experience is saying….now is the time.
Apple had the right idea in 95 but their were no Intel Core 2 Duos, 802.xx, OS X, iTunes Store and USB 2 around back then. Today it’s a whole new ball game! This one will be a winner.
I always thought Apple should design a cable box. Whether cable or satellite, TV is only going to become more interactive and require a better box. The maker would have to be partnered with the content provider for decryption purposes. The current boxes supplied by the cable companies are slow and the GUI is terrible. There is a market here.
Steve Jobs wasn’t even with Apple in 1995.
I would like to propose not to hold back until you earn enough money to buy all you need! You can take the home loans or auto loan and feel free
I think it’s curious, because it bring to view a very academic-focussed attitude. Preserving the honestness of the academic system seems to be a greatest importance, although directly disallow remunerated ads for such a service seems a forceless response. When the company is known by your friends who were satisfied with the results of the collusion, about this address that for the dissertation writing service quality.
To compose essays supposes to be not effortless but you cope with that. When any single writer was as good as you are, all people will ne’er have got problems with the term papers.
Have just started blogging and I have to admit it is important pleasure but not making any money from it…yet it is simple, but people should closely examine your paper writing needs.
This sould be very practicable to purchase essay thesis about this post from the dissertation service particularly when people do not have time.
You do a great job. I have already recommended your material to friends because I find it very helpful especially when you need some information on your essay or term paper. Thanks again.
Different people would have to create high quality essay or custom research paper, if are willing to get high grades in future academical career. However, if some of them do not have writing skillfulness, it would be correct to buy essay at research paper writing service.
The expository essay can be of fantastic, however you must acknowledge a lot just about the research papers online service, I tell.
The right way to make your facts just about this post, more famous, is to use of the article submit service. We hope, this proposition helps you to go this way!
In the writing service it’s easy to see the facts and custom writing just about this post . To do better the career buy essays and use your time of rest!
Thanks for all the distressing attempts over the years. It was always a appreciated resource course having you blog. It is ambrosial to transport one’s self into the intention of the erstwhile, to see how a knowing fellow has thought before us, and to what impressive highness we have at last get to. Best of luck in your new endeavor if you’ll have a need out of conception, always assume research paper writing. Please keep it up! Cheers.
We want to thank you a lot for a supreme topic and also, would like to give you the monophonic ringtones in the best ringtones download sites.
Lots of students do not really know how to compose the miscellaneous essays paper. Therefore, from this moment they have a possibility to come along your amazing thought just about this good topic and just write the most perfect research paper of all time.
Thank you, it’s very admirable information it might be very hospitable for students. For example last year when I had a difficult of time at the end of semester with a continual flow of academic assignments and job, I had a astounding idea to buy it somewhere and than use online plagiarism. I was so tired that I did not care for what can crop up when my academic work was written by other side person. To my admirable surprise, research paper was deserving the price I paid for it. I was so happy with the quality and now everytime i use this service.
Perfect university students are able to write the homework help of really good quality. However, very oft they are lack of time for such issues. Then they would have to buy dance essays, which seems to be really comfortable solution for occupied guys.
A kind of top theme close to this good topic must be taken by writers job service, I guess.
Hey, what we can watch? Same kind of superior story like this topic we took for article submission service.
If you’re in the corner and have no money to move out from that, you would require to take the business loans. Just because that will aid you for sure. I get term loan every single year and feel myself fine because of this.
Everybody wants to get assurances that the customized essays they order at the research paper writing service are great. Moreover, that’s important suff.
Get great prices ordering written by professionals customized papers at the providing buy research writing company. Aim to more benefits ordering term papers in the web!
Consequently, that is better to buy essay, especially when you don’t have time to compose academic papers.
I do not guess that your professor should be happy if you submit bad quality essays. Nonetheless, you can modify such a situation using the writing services in uk and placing you r order there.
If settle to write the pre-written essays, you will have to know that it demands a long period of time! Some people fail their custom essay, just because they don’t have writing skillfulness! This is sorrowful, but the order an essay service will support such kind of people any time.
Cooperation with good writing firm will get you some advantages. As example you have a chance to buy custom papers for affordable prices.
Good term paper usually includes good conceptions, definitelywritten thoughts, and supportive testify. You can be assuredyou are getting best quality of work accessible from productive essay writing services.
The customers believe this
resume service cause they are the most responsible! The service produces resume service to suit the precise field of study you prefer.