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Jul 26, 10 - 02:48 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

You maybe seeing the first leaks here about the next market that Apple is going to dominate.

So, what can Apple bring to the TiVo world. Apple can supply a Mac mini with HDTV output or a iOS 4 device that can record and push the HD video to their BILLION DOLLAR SERVER FARM that the built in the Carolinas. Could stream to the HDTV, your Mac or PC, the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or any media device that can hook up to the internet or your home network.

Thinking different here. Apple could buy TiVo with it's petty cash or take over the market share of the world's DVRs. Apple takes over world markets and only buys companies when they have something Apple needs. TiVo is like AT&T when it said yes to the iPhone sight unseen. It may be time for the next "Just one more thing" that Steve Jobs said was coming again this year!

After rotating iPad and then back again, headlines and body of particular story are 90 degrees out of phase. Rotating again does not solve issue.

Jul 26, 10 - 02:51 pm Comment from: Jay-Z

Apple will only be able to revolutionize television when content providers allow them to do so, which may be never. It's that simple. Even TiVos have restrictions... Many channels are now copy protected (depending on the cable market you live in), meaning you can't view them on another TiVo or copy them to your computer.

Jul 26, 10 - 02:52 pm Comment from: deepdish

I use to have Tivo about 8 years ago.

I have had several types of DVR services since then.

The Tivo UI is still the best I have ever used. I really miss using Tivo.

My cable's DVR service is clunky compared to it.

Jul 26, 10 - 02:52 pm Comment from: Snow Leopard

Apple needed to license Tivo-patented technology. No big surprise there.

Jul 26, 10 - 02:53 pm Comment from: silverwarloc

@Jersey_Trader:

Interesting observation, you have. It would be sweet if this will ever happen. I will most definitely buy one.

Jul 26, 10 - 02:59 pm Comment from: TowerTone

...mystery app

Jul 26, 10 - 03:03 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

silverwarloc, Apple wants to make the hardware that runs on their OS X and iOS 4 products. TiVo does not make the boxes that they use. They are made by Cisco or Atlantis something. TiVo could offer an Apple device and Apple does not have to battle the content suppliers. TiVo already does that. As a device maker, TiVo, my cable supplier, or what ever the source is deals with the problems.

Think internet digital VCR storing the data in a cloud or on local storage. Apple can bang out these devices without issue of how it is used the same way a VCR was done!

Jul 26, 10 - 03:10 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

TowerTone, yes TiVo could do an app any time they want to but again, Apple wants to make the hardware that runs on their OS X and iOS 4 products. There is no new product just a new application of what they already developed and invested in. Just mix around the already developed technologies Apple is using in the products and services.

Apple will take over several markets a year doing this. Think, car entertainment, home and office security, medical devices and services, ... Think Different!

If Apple made a stand alone cable card DVR I'd be all over it. The Verizon FiOS interface just sucks.

Wow! I still have some TIVO stocks!

Here's the new mystery app for iLife 10 or 11. It would be the last piece of the digital home entertainment puzzle. Record at home and store locally or record and store in the Apple cloud with your MobileMe subscription. An even better idea wold be that Apple records it for you directly to its server with no extra hardware needed at home. You see an ad for a TV show you'd like to watch while on the train? You just log into your MobileMe and let Apple do the work. I'm not sure how to handle the local affiliates but the national cable networks would be easy enough.

Jul 26, 10 - 03:30 pm Comment from: BillD

@ Ben Guasto: If rotating your iPhone doesn't solve your issue, try rotating yourself relative to the iPhone.

That would be awesome! I love my TiVo!!

This is probably just TiVo building into their DVR system the ability to export recorded content to iTunes. This would be similar to what Elgato does now with EyeTV.

Jul 26, 10 - 03:43 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

Yes Sarasota, we would get several before years end. The iDVR device would not require a card, it could just pull it from the cable company. This device could be less that $150. Think iPod touch without the touch screen. People could get that new wireless track pad that Apple is about to come out with. Get more than 1 to use as game controls.

Jul 26, 10 - 03:52 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

Yes RokJohnson, it could be but TiVo could sell a lower energy no moving parts device made by Apple and capable of doing so much more.

Try powering down your old school DVR PC box. Takes several minutes, my iPads and iPhone power up after being shut down in 1/4 the time. I bet 3 or 4 minutes is a touch down or home run if you are recording a game after a power failure.

How about watching the recording or live channel while on the road?

As per Yahoo Finance, TiVo's market cap is roughly $1B.

As such, it is potentially plausible that Apple could "buy their way in" to the streaming media contract by buying out TiVo with their existing contract.


-hh

No way Apple ever sells a DVR or the bag of hurt Cable Card or Blue Ray. Apple is moving toward the future of on demand streaming, not backward to recording a live broadcast.

Jul 26, 10 - 04:09 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

-hh, why buy TiVo when they could be the customer buying the iDVR device. The same way Cisco and Atlantis Scientific sell boxes to all the media suppliers around the world (I assume). So, why buy TiVo when you can takeover the DVR market without the regional conflicts.

Jul 26, 10 - 04:11 pm Comment from: Jersey_Trader

Jeff Zacharias, Apple can still sell and stream or you can store on their cloud service. Open an account. How much cloud storage do you want to pay for per month?

Jul 26, 10 - 04:30 pm Comment from: Mac-nugget

Unless Apple flat out buys TiVo, I don't see the happening. Apple likes to own and control the whole widget.

I went to my Apple retail store last week to have my iP4 checked by a Genius and got into a discussion with him about Apple TV.

Began with me saying that I thought I was finally going to take the plunge and buy the hobby gadget because I wanted to watch some stuff on TV I couldn't get on TV without my MBP, Mac Mini, or an Apple TV hooked up to it.

Looking over his shoulder, he told me - don't do it, they were expecting something soon that would make it possible to lose the 'hobby' label.

I call bullshit.

Just B.S. to pump up TiVo stock one last time.

TIVO/DVRs are designed around network programming grids (timetables). Under no circumstances is "setting recording times" part of Apple's vision of what the best user experience is, no matter how habituated you are to recording shows off a grid.

The TiVo and Mac mini-as-DVR crowds jump through those hoops but it's not "Apple design" to make people slog through an arbitrary schedule to clumsily record content (with ads and ugly network slug overlays). Apple isn't going to be just a pretty VCR.

TiVos focus: Network: Time: Content (Record)
Apple's focus: Content

This will NEVER happen. iCal it.

Jeff Zacharias

What's wrong with recording a live broadcast to watch later?

I don't think it'll happen.

Apple is ONLY interested in making it easy to enjoy content they sell.

Notice the lack of a DVD drive in AppleTV. Why? Because Apple doesn't sell DVD's, it sells the streaming equivalent, which doesn't require a drive. Likewise, with no radio tuners in iPods. Why? because Apple can't profit from the content.

Now I'll admit that it might be possible for Apple to construct a new method of delivery of live content over IP, to join the ranks of broadcast, cable, and satellite, but I don't see that any of that would require TiVo technology.

I can't see it. TiVo is about recording broadcast media. Why would Apple want to use up their data farm real estate having people store broadcast media on it for viewing later? First of all, you would use up space with myriad copies of the same broadcasts - this wastes data warehouse space and bandwidth (first, recording up to the cloud thousands of copies of the same show; then streaming it back). Why not have a single copy of the show and stream it to millions of subscribers? I think that will be the eventual model. The problem is the elephant in the road, namely the broadcast revenue players (ad supported content owners, and cable companies who would rather keep double and triple billing clients for the content pipe - TV broadcast, plus wired and wireless Internet).

It is possible that Apple could enter the TV content ecosystem in a much greater way than the current iTunes pay per show model by offering TiVo in the short term - until the content owners become more open to change. However, this is not the kind of strategy that Mr. Jobs follows, namely adopting an old tech paradigm. He likes to lead the market into new delivery paradigms. Also, such a TiVo play would not really give Apple any new leverage to coax the content owners along into the future we, the consumers, desire - any content, any time we want, on any device we want.

@Varth Dader

Well put. I completely agree.

Further thought - the only benefit of an AppleTV / TiVo play would be to get the AppleTV box into many more homes (as many people currently desire this feature as useful in the present), then switch them to a cloud-based subscription model of streamed content, once all the pieces are in place.

"Likewise, with no radio tuners in iPods. Why? because Apple can't profit from the content."


ERRRR Try Again. SEE: iPod Nano

Jul 26, 10 - 05:42 pm Comment from: FutureMedia

Apple should buy El Gato and integrate EyeTV into Apple TV. Forget TIVO. ElGato has them beat in spades. 

As a devoted TiVo fan, I've always said that TiVo plays the part of the Mac to the cable companies 'PC' DVRs. Yes, they perform the same function, perhaps there is a bit of a (perceived) price premium, but TiVo is just more useable, more enjoyable, just better. And you really have to have owned and used one to grasp this.

The parallels between the questions people ask me -- "So why don't you just get a box from the cable company?" -- and the ones I used to answer about owning a mac 7 or 8 years ago are extensive.

When TiVo was really on hard times a few years ago (maybe this hasn't changed), I hoped Apple would write a check and just buy the company.

This is one rumor I really, really hope has some meat to it. I wonder if the associations with amazon and netflix that TiVo has already established will get in the way.

MDN MW - "course" -- 'Of course! This just makes sense!'

Jul 26, 10 - 07:25 pm Comment from: Macinfo

TiVo would be a poor choice

Jul 26, 10 - 07:39 pm Comment from: GaryKPDX

Last February, TiVo came out with an irresistible offer of a lifetime subscription for (certain) owners of TiVo Series 3 boxes. It was a $99 lump sum or so vs. the 12.95 monthly charge that prevailed. At the time, I calculated that I would break even as of October. So it was an easy choice. However, it was SO attractive that I wondered if there was something happening--cash flow problems, merger, etc.--that would explain why this almost too good to be true offer was made. Maybe this is it. Note that TiVo's lifetime subscriptions are for the particular box you own--not for future purchases and not transferable AFAIK.

For geeks, there are lots of options that may be more attractive then TiVo, but in the realm of mainstream TV consumption/time shifting/Video on Demand, TiVo "just works" and is silly simple for everyone. In the last couple of years, TiVo has added an attractive mix of Video on Demand options including Netflix, YouTube, webcasts Blockbuster and even Amazon VoD. And it's all easy to figure out. I have always thought that if Apple were to get serious about TV, then the acquisition of TiVo technology would be wonderful for all involved--consumers, content providers, and shareholders.

Jul 26, 10 - 08:37 pm Comment from: TheMacAdvocate

I called this out as one of the pieces of functionality that would transform Apple's living room presence from "hobby" to "market stomper".

http://themacadvocate.com/2009/05/20/unsolicited-suggestion-for-apple’s-cash-1505/

Obviously, I am seeking a small animal to sacrifice to secure this particular rumor. This would change *everything*.

Jul 26, 10 - 08:41 pm Comment from: TheMacAdvocate

*sigh*

Apostrophes don't play well in comments. Apologies for the bit.ly:

http://bit.ly/dgHnM2

It would make more sense if TiVo was adding iTunes as a media provider. It would greatly simplify things if I could stream iTunes purchases to the TiVo or rent movies from the iTunes.

Jul 26, 10 - 11:24 pm Comment from: breeze

Confirmation:

You got a big mouth.

Jul 27, 10 - 12:49 am Comment from: disposableidentity

Everything I ever bought on iTunes I could have recorded off my cable if the technology was easier to use.

I've often wondered why Apple didn't buy TIVO just to threaten the networks to offer online/on-demand tv shows at a better rate on iTunes. In other words, if you won't sell shows to iTunes users, we'll make it so easy to record them it won't matter.

AAPL should buy TIVO.

Although I think this is unlikely, Apple doesn't support technology for using media for free ... they want you to rebuy everything via iTunes store. So I agree with jltnol above.

The killer app for that is some kind of Slingbox-like place-shifting app that runs on OSX and iOS.