“A few weeks ago, my colleague Paul Boutin observed in these pages that Apple had once again failed to release a home media center. He argued, persuasively, that Apple was sitting this out because the dream of a holy ‘convergence’ between computer and home theater system is misguided. ‘When you use a computer, you want to lean forward and engage with the thing, typing and clicking and multitasking,’ he wrote. ‘When you watch Lost, you want to sit back and put your feet up on the couch,'” Steven Johnson writes for Slate.
MacDailyNews Take: How original. “You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on… The problem is, when you’re using your computer you’re a foot away from it, you know? When you’re using your television you want to be ten feet away from it. So they’re really different animals.” – Steve Jobs, Apple Computer CEO (Macworld, February 2004)
Johnson continues, “I think Paul’s absolutely right about the limitations of media center convergence. That doesn’t mean Apple shouldn’t bring an iTV to market, though. Apple has an opportunity here, but it is not a matter of merging the computer with the home theater system. Their opportunity lies, simply, in fixing the way we watch media from the couch—because today’s home theater systems are fundamentally broken.”
Johnson writes, “The iPod, after all, wasn’t a fusion of the Mac and a digital music player; it was its own new thing. In many ways, Apple is uniquely positioned to transform the home AV space the way they transformed the music industry. They have the best interface designers on the planet, and they have immense consumer electronics credibility and brand loyalty thanks to the iPod. They’ve also developed the open Bonjour standard that enables different components on a home network to communicate effortlessly. Bonjour is central to Apple’s AirTunes feature, which lets you stream music to speakers over Wi-Fi using Airport Express stations. This is a great example of what a smart AV network should look like. When you insert an audio cable into an Airport Express, it automatically appears as an option for audio output in iTunes. If Apple built an iTV that worked this seamlessly, that consolidated all its functions around a single remote and established a standard for communication between components, they might well have an iPod-sized hit.”
Full article here.
I want to see a new Apple PVR device with integrated 1000BT router, airport base station, 500GB HD and remote control. And maybe enough intelligence to run a version of iTMS on the TV.
I’d buy that!
Don’t forget iChat AV!
An iPod dock would also be nice – be able to play tunes, maybe transfer files from the device to the iPod…
…and Front Row, of course!
Oh, if I could combine the iChat idea with PVR, maybe I could watch a TV show I’ve recorded from another location online!
You guys are crazy. Apple would never release that. It would eat away from Mac sales!
I still want wifi in my car and have an iPod integrated which updates wirelessly when it’s parked in my garage!
If I had lcd screens in the back seat for the kids, maybe I’d want to sync tv too (but don’t tempt me to put video on my navigation screen on the dashboard, that’d just be dangerous!)
The obstacle to Apple being able to pull of such a device is the fact that there are too many cooks in the kitchen.
You have,
Television Manufacturers
Cable and Satalite Providers
Content Creators
All fighting desperately to be relevant and have control over their little slice of the digital livingroom.
Apple being able to create a device that sits atop all these other devices and services and have it work transparently is near impossible.
Anyone who thinks that Apple isn’t cooking up something sweet in the home media arena will be in for a big surprise – maybe even before Christmas.
I’m usually on the computer while I watch tv – either the real tv, or another window on the screen streaming something or playing a DVD. I hardly ever watch DVDs on the TV anymore, even when I have company – ‘course this 23″ display is pretty decent for that!
Anyway – my point: Am I switching my brain off and on at the same time? Backburnering the tv while I surf? Or is it the other way around?
“”A few weeks ago, my colleague Paul Boutin observed in these pages that Apple had once again failed to release a home media center.”
LOL Apple failed to release a product that they have never said they were even working on, that the media has created in its own collective conciousness in order to drive readership and page hits.
What’s next? Apple failing to deliver a perpetual motion machine and a cure for cancer?
Maybe the merger people have been talking about Apple making with their large purse should be Elgato, as talked about before this year.
Elgato make elegant, Mac specific, products that would incorporate nicely into any of Apple’s current form factors. Even their Digital Broadcast antennea seems small enough to be incorporated into an iPod sized device, if not just as an accessory.
What would it take for them to really enter the home entertainment market? Maybe, $10 billion?
ISTR Steve Wozniak long ago created a type of souped-up remote control that worked through walls, pointing in the opposite direction of the TV, etc…
But it still got lost in the couch cushions.
What Apple needs to invent is a remote control that has some kind of tracking device. Like you press a button on the media hub thingy and the remote goes “bleep! bleep! bleep!”
Steven Johnson is one smart dude.
Wrote “Interface Culture”
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465036805/getamac/002-2170852-7232023
and “Emergence”
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0684868768/getamac/002-2170852-7232023
I hope Steve listens.
“You watch television to turn your brain off and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on… The problem is, when you’re using your computer you’re a foot away from it, you know? When you’re using your television you want to be ten feet away from it. So they’re really different animals.” – Steve Jobs, Apple Computer CEO
Well Steve Jobs! How do you explain my 30″ Apple Display, my multiple EyeTV’s windows in HD, my USB extension cord to the keyboard in my lap while my feet are resting on my desk?
Sony has come out with a HDTV/computer device, why can’t YOU?
If Apple were to create a device to provide A/V entertainment in our living rooms, one important consideration would be to consider what it looks like and how big it should be. If the colour was wrong, some people wouldn’t want it alongside their stuff of a different colour and if the size or shape was wrong, that would also annoy some users.
So the answer is to make it invisible. But of course that poses difficult technological challenges, so the next best solution would be to make it so that it can be situated anywhere and doesn’t actually need to be in your living room if you don’t want it to be there.
So now we’re basically talking about a server. As it happens, I’ve mentioned before on MDN that there is a gap in Apple’s line up that would be beautifully filled by a personal server.
The A/V sources could be external modular devices specific to the standards of the country you live in and would connect via FireWire ( or USB2 if you really must ). It would be very convenient for Apple if they had within their management a key figure from a company like Elgato ( golly gosh – I do believe they have such a person too ). The TV screen or speakers would be fed via AirPort by using a higher-bandwidth variant of AirPort Express.
Then look at what else could be done with a personal server. All your music could live on it and be accessed by any device on the network, the same goes with all your photographs and there can be no doubt that a similar system will cater for movies too. Many of Leopard’s features work well with a server ( look at iCal for instance ) and Apple’s server version of OS X is reaching the point where you don’t need to be a professor of geekery in order to operate it.
Leopard includes Time Machine. Backups for all your Macs can be performed onto a server, so they would always be available, but could be accessed wirelessly. That in itself is pretty cool. But when you consider how large those files will be and how large the movie, iTunes and iPhoto libraries are, the wisdom of having a personal server is obvious.
Another advantage of using a personal server would be that tiny Macs with relatively small flash drives would be practical, as the bulky content that they might want to access could be stored on the server and accessed anywhere where you are on-line.
Then to control it in the home, you’d need some sort of small battery-operated remote control with AirPort facilities, a nice video screen and some way of controlling it. iPhone anyone ?
The spooky thing about this idea is that I’ve been thinking along these lines for a few years and it seems like every time Apple brings out a new development it seems to fit nicely into this jigsaw puzzle.
Sorry guys, already too many cooks in one kitchen with this group of commentors. The reason the iPod worked was because everyone could use it. It wasn’t a complicated server based AV solution that routed music through fancy connections or offered buyers a million different custom settings. Simply put, I never had used an Apple product before and it took me 2 seconds to figure the iPod out. Apple should stick with this mindset if they’re developing a media center. Imagine an Apple display with an internal DVD/CD drive and a high wattage tuner to power usable internal speakers (with the ability to attach external speakers, too). Imagine a like a supersized iMac with an iPod HiFi. Put in a camera for conferencing in your living room and Internet connection for VOIP, too. Airport could network with all computers running iTunes, so music could be played that way. It wouldn’t replace anything in Apple’s current line up, but it could integrate with existing components, while adding many of the features found on laptops and desktops. However, it’s not about computing power, but building simplicity into it. With all that stated above, Apple could come out with an awesome consumer product for under $4,000. A bit more expensive than same size plasma sets, but with waaaaaay more functions and features.
Allen, I’m with you.
I think a super sized iPod with a 30″ display would work just fine.
People who have 2 HD eyetv windows, on a (or 2) 30″ ACD, as well as their mail and maybe a safari window…and itunes…arent the people this is about.
Its about Ma and Pa Average that goto the local electronics retailer to buy a DVD player. They go, they buy, come home plug it in and thats it. Done.
Thats what Front Row is about. Turning the computer into ‘Toaster Simple'(Copyright Me 2006) device.
There is NOTHING complicated about Front Row.
I would be extremely suprised if Apple released a device with an inbuilt tuner. Most importantly because they SELL TV SHOWS on iTunes. There IS a market to buy shows even if you can record them free, that is proven now (EyeTV and iTunes combo). But if they make it too easy to get it free, you wont pay for it.
Proof? Its easier to open iTunes find a song and click buy than it its to screw around with a P2P program and get it for free.
P2P isnt easy for Ma and Pa Average.
MW:forces, there are more forces at work here than we are all aware of. What Apple has planned will suprise us all i’m sure.
AlanAudio, I said the same thing here years ago. Apple’s ‘media hub’ will fit under the stairs or out in the garage, next to similar ‘services’ like the electricity and gas meters. In fact thinking about a gas meter provides a good clue about how a media server will work… Invisible box that streams ‘data’ to differing points (or clients) within a building. Each point (when activated) will call on the data, process it and use it in different ways specific to the type of point it is – TV, Audio, Computing, Telephone, even controlling heating, light etc. All data will either be stored on the server or ‘invisibly’ streamed in from the outside world (or out to the outside world). All server/client connections will be wireless.
BTW, I bought an eyeTV over a year ago. It was one of those irresistible ‘must-have’ purchases. It made perfect sense to me to use my 20″ iMac for TV as a replacement for my old 14″ CRT box. Lasted about 2 weeks until I got fed up with closing down the iMac, unplugging it, carrying it through to my living room, hooking it all up again and tuning in. Apple is right – TV is about clicking a switch and slobbing out on the sofa. eyeTV now collects dust and the old 14″ is back in full service.
Apple iWanker
Camera + iChat AV + TV
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Instant homemade CyberSex
That would be THE cadget for the masses. Oh wait.. That is the iMac. Darn 🙁
Apple iWanker
Camera + iChat AV + TV
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
Instant homemade CyberSex
That would be THE cadget for the masses. Oh wait.. That is the iMac. Darn 🙁
My 2 cents:
Apple should consider a small device for the living room, with the only interface being front row.
This device will be capable of displaying and recording video from multiple sources (internet download, digital terrestrial, satellite), all controlled via the simple Front row interface. Each connector type will be an optional extra (only one conector per device).
For those that have a Mac, there will be seamless integration with iLife to allow photos to be displayed in the living room (talk your parents and friends through the latest holiday snaps), music to be played and video to be streamed via wireless nework to the device.
I also think that Apple will release software to connect non-Macs – yes PC’s – via the same technology. This new software will connect to Photo libraries, iTunes and video libraries on a PC, but will be not as seamless as the Mac integration.
They should make an ipod with a built in camera.