New Apple TV…I mean Mac mini
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Apple TV, Mac Media
Apple has introduced an all new Mac mini featuring a new uni-body aluminum casing, as well as HDMI port and an SD card slot. Which makes it sound to me like they have introduced a new Apple TV, this time with a DVD drive, which I think is an excellent addition. Certainly a better addition to the product than it’s $699 starting price tag, which does make it more expensive than most standard Blue-ray DVD players and the new TiVo Premeire XL.
That doesn’t bode well considering it can’t be hooked up to cable or satellite without some sort of third party jerry-rig such as El Gato’s EyeTV line of products. The EyeTV also allows you to channel surf on your Mac in the same way that a TiVo does. It stands to reason that a cable input with a cable-card slot would have been a killer application for this product. By the way, the EyeTV capable of recording HD cable/satellite to a Mac is an extra $200.
However, putting the lack of native DVR functionality aside, why is it that this machine doesn’t come with the Apple TV software. As far as I can tell, it only comes with the standard version of Mac OS X with the standard version of Front Row which looks like the Apple TV back in 2007. Why not make Apple TV a Mac OS X application that replaces Front Row? Steve Jobs himself as called the Apple TV a “hobby” in the past and it doesn’t seem like it would hurt their margins in any way. Steve Jobs had a lot of interesting things to say about this at the recent D8: All Things Digital conference.
Clearly, Apple added an HDMI to the new Mac mini for the hobbyists who have been asking for it since 2008 or so. But, it looks like thos same hobbyists will have to turn to interfaces such as the EyeTV or my personal favorite for this application, Boxee which allows development of applications such as for TWiT.tv and NetFlix streaming.
Speaking of which, is anyone at Apple paying attention to my idea about apps on the Apple TV? That also applies here.
App Culture and the Apple TV
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Apple TV
Poor little Apple TV, how your daddy ignores you as his oldest son’s career takes off, and his other children come into their own. And it can not help that there is a new baby on the way. When will daddy and his team of engineers and marketers ever have time for you?
Well, maybe you need to become more like your other siblings. What if, and I am just throwing this out their as an idea, you started running on the iPhone OS? Obviously I’m not telling you to grow a touch screen and a GSM antenna, I’m just saying maybe you should start running apps.
Now that our cars and printers have apps along with our cell phones, it only makes sense that a device that you connect to the TV or even the TV itself would have apps. With devices like the Roku player and the soon to be released Boxee Box which can run different applications to gather content from different sources online, no wonder the little Apple TV isn’t doing so well. Talk about a bad hobby.
Clearly, as the App Store on iTunes indicates, Apple knows how to do applications on dedicated devices. They are the leader in the cell phone app market by a long shot, no one else comes close right now. And now, the app store will extend through the iPhone, the iPod touch and the new iPad. Why not add a third device? Doesn’t it make sense that Apple TV be open to things like apps from TWiT.tv and Revision3 as well as an app for weather and stocks?
Heck, if Apple adds bluetooth to the Apple TV, there is a whole new market for games on the Apple TV. And it would allow people to use the Apple TV to do email and web surfing as well. Nintendo is already hurting so much from the portable games market on the iPhone and iPod touch, that they have to publiclybelittle the iPad saying it’s not surprising. And Apple could probably convince people to spend $50 extra on a bluetooth game controller for each Apple TV they sell.
It seems like Apple has every little piece that they need to make the Apple TV a smash success, and they aren’t able to put them together. But, maybe Steve Jobs doesn’t think that there is a market for such a device, or maybe he doesn’t want to compete with devices like the Wii and the Xbox 360. Whatever the case is, I wish he would reconsider, because I would like to buy an app supporting, game supporting, iTunes media extender.
Is the Apple TV a failure?
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Apple TV, iTunes
I was recently listening to the Thanksgiving edition of CNet’s Buzz Out Loud, the one where Tom, Molly, and Jason (their Producer who is following in the footsteps of Veronica Belmont by continuing to intrude the recording of the podcast, it won’t be long before his name and picture is on the podcast and they start putting him in front of a camera and he leaves the company to work for some Jason Calacanis start up, but thats a whole other story) are picking their “tech turkies.” Basically, they were choosing the subjects of the year so far that have really turned into blunders (Windows Vista being an excellent example).
Tom’s first choice was the Apple TV. He owns an Apple TV, and I don’t (but would like too), so he would probably know better than I do. But is the Apple TV really a failure? I think that’s a little over dramatic. Apple needs to pay more attention to the product, that’s for sure. Other then adding the YouTube functionality, they haven’t really improved the product at all.
Apple should pay more attention to it simply because it is a growing market. SanDisk just released the TakeTV , EchoStar just acquired Sling, NetGear and Linksys are entering the market as well. And the demand will only go up as downloadable content from services like Amazon and iTunes as well as video podcasting continue to become popular.
Apple needs to just do two or three things to really get the Apple TV train rolling. First, give us a software update that gives us the ability to purchase movies and TV shows through the device. This would sell more devices and sell more content, both good things for Apple. Next, upgrade the 40GB model to 80GB and cut the price to $199 and $299 for 160GB, a lot more reasonable price points. I hope that Apple doesn’t just give up on this like they did with the iPod Hi-Fi, they have a great product with great potential.