“The Apple TV just may be the missing link that will pull together the pieces of the digital living room, according to industry watchers,” Sharon Gaudin reports for TechWeb. “People who haven’t wanted to bother with downloading a movie from iTunes and watching it on their iPod or computer just may be swept into the age of the streaming movie or TV show if it means they can watch it on their wide-screen televisions.”
Gaudin reports, “‘The way movies and music are being distributed is obviously changing, and the Internet is the new efficient way to get movies and TV shows,’ says Gene Munster, a senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray. ‘The problem is that this experience has been limited to your computer. Apple TV opens it up to your television. Even sharing movies or music between friends is going to get easier. It can wirelessly be beamed to their TVs.'”
Gaudin reports, “Apple had teased information about the Apple TV, or iTV as it’s been known for the last several months, back in September, but officially unveiled it at Steve Jobs’ keynote at Macworld Expo in San Francisco Tuesday morning. Jobs announced the Apple TV, receiving great applause from the audience. But when he later announced the arrival of the iPhone, the applause was replaced by cheering and yelling from the thousands of Mac aficionados in the audience. From that moment, the Apple TV was overshadowed by the iPhone.”
Gaudin reports, “Munster, though, says the Apple TV will come into its own, propelling the digital living room ahead, and at some point in the future hooking up with the iPhone to create a greater personal entertainment package. ‘The capacity of the iPhone will increase in the future,’ he says. ‘You’ll have all of your content in your pocket and just carry it into a living room. Your whole identity and preferences are going to be on this device, and then you’ll just stream it to whatever TV you want.'”
Full article here.
Related articles:
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Apple premieres Apple TV: movies, TV shows, music & photos on your big screen TV – January 09, 2007
We don’t own a tv, only 6 macs and one PC, 5 iPods and several Newtons.
I am streaming with excitement right now.
First?
iTV will take over when they offer the following:
* Movie subscription service
* 1080i and 1080p
Does anybody know if there are hardware limitations preventing iTV from being 1080i/p? If so, then that would prevent some people (me, at least) from buying it. If it’s just a software thing, then one presumes Apple could update that later.
Also, does anybody know any details about the USB hard drive feature on the next Airport Extreme? Can one put an entire iTunes library on it, which multiple computers could access? is it that cool, or is it something else?
I buy a lot of DVD’s and like to own the disc and case, so I won’t be downloading much if anything. But, this Apple TV device will be really nice for watching streaming TV shows (primarily those that were canceled off TV and are only airing on network websites). When the price is down around $99 in a couple years, I’ll jump all over it!
I haven’t had a chance to watch the keynote. Can you download (ie. buy) songs, movies, etc. from iTunes through the ATV (via your computer obviously) or do you need to do it on your computer first and then have it streamed?
@hairbo
It’s ment for sharing hard drive space. It might be able to work as a shared iTunes folder but why not just use the iTune’s sharing feature since you’d be on the same network anyways. Plus if you had a laptop, you couldn’t get to it outside of that network.
Movie subscriptions at 720p HD would be just fine for 9 of 10 customers..
Computer first, then have it streamed.
this is out in feb in UK yet still no tv shows let alone movies on out itunes store yet, meaning the average person will see NO use for this yet
“Steve Jobs moves to control the living room with Apple TV”
I walk into my living room and go to sit down. Steve is suddenly in the corner saying ‘no, you can’t sit there’.
It’s a great day to be a Mac fan!
The Revolution continues!
Oh, by the way, streaming is so much better than squirting!
1080p is so over rated. 98 out of 100 people couldn’t tell the differnce between 1080i and 1080p if both were produced equally well. On top of that, there is at the time of this writing no home device that can send a true unaltered/uninterlaced 1080p signal to a HDTV. Neither Blue-Ray or HD-DVD do it. Both of those machines take a 1080p signal and they interlace it for processing and 3:2 pulldown for non true 1080p produced content. Then they deinterlace it back to 1080p, and send it out to your HDTV. There isn’t one single true 1080p playback device made in consumer electronics, so stop bitching about 1080p. I’m so sick of know nothings.
@Rob stated: “I buy a lot of DVD’s and like to own the disc and case, so I won’t be downloading much if anything. But, this Apple TV device will be really nice for watching streaming TV shows (primarily those that were canceled off TV and are only airing on network websites). When the price is down around $99 in a couple years, I’ll jump all over it!”
I am not much of DVD buyer, but I seem to have collected quite a few none the less. Keep in mind that you can rip the dvd’s using handbrake and store on a hard drive your entire library. Teamed with iTunes and Apple TV, you can then browse your library from your TV and immediately play the movie at your convenience. Keep your dvd’s in a big box in the garage so you don’t have to have closets full of them. Pretty neat just for the wow factor. Just my 2¢.
“[…] at some point in the future hooking up with the iPhone to create a greater personal entertainment package.”
That’s one of those things I thought was interesting. The iPhone supports “Wi-Fi”, but does it support 802.11n? It’s a neat idea. In the demo yesterday, Phil wandered in with his iPhone. But it would be cooler if Phil could have walked in with his iPhone (or 80GB iPod) and had it stream to AppleTV.
This is my prediction –
Studios want to sell DVDs. Most people would rather own DVDs, but you can’t rip DVDs to iTunes yet. Now, I may *want* a DVD, but what I really *need* is to watch Kill Bill on the plane*. So I might buy it on iTS, and maybe I’ll get the DVD and maybe I won’t. I’m guessing most consumers won’t. Sure, the quality is better and blah blah blah – but poor quality didn’t stop Dell from becoming #1. People will buy what they can use.
After some time passes, the studios will notice their DVD sales dropping off, of course. And there will be Steve Jobs, telling them that all they have to do is let users rip DVDs and people will start buying them again. Whether people buy DVDs or from iTS is really trivial to Apple, they make their money on the player.
Of course, when the quality and utility of downloaded movies is BETTER than a ripped DVD, it’s pretty much all over. But this hasn’t even happened for music yet so it might take some time.
-c
MW: ‘took’ (the money and ran)
* sadly, they don’t you carry-on your Hattori Hanzo any more.
I hardly ever buy DVDs, I’ll hardly ever buy a downloadable movie. What I would instantly sing up for is a netflix killer sort of deal. 15-20 bucks a month to have up to 3 movies downloaded to your registered drive at a time. When you download a new one you choose which of the 3 gets overwritten.
I live in the UK and have more than enough content coming into our iMac via the eyeTV hybrid.
My kids are getting more selective in their viewing now rather than just watching ‘anything’ on FreeView. We then dump it automatically into iTunes. I wish I could then have it automatically delete from eyeTV and also from iTunes once watched once, only keeping it if it is marked non-deletable. Maybe soon.
My only turnoff with AppleTV is that its tied to iTunes and therefore only streams movies compatible with iTunes, leaving a whole bunch of streamable content (EyeTV, WMV, Ripped movies) unaccessible. It won’t get my dollar unless it allows me to stream anything I want. If I can play it on my Mac there’s no good reason to inhibit streaming it to a TV.
We already have that in France, streaming content from the PC/Mac to the TV wirelessly, it’s called Freebox HD and it’s provided for free by one of the biggest Internet Access Provider in France (Free).
Ah, that’s good news … from my favourite amphibian! I’m jealous.