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Apple TV Packed with 8GB of Flash

Karen — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 02:37:03 +0000

Even though the Apple TV is a Flash device, it has 8GB of flash memory, which is used for buffering content and saving user settings, etc. This was one of the many findings of iFixIt when they tore down the newly released Apple TV. It also has 256 MB of RAM, and pretty much every other electronic organ found in the iPad, minus the screen. The real interesting thing here is that all this is packed into a $99 device. It’s hard to imagine that Apple could be able to produce such a powerful device and still turn a profit selling these little guys at $99 without a service contract subsidy.

The hook for Apple must be the potential in iTunes revenue. However, paying for content seems like a tough sell in a world of pre-roll ads. But Steve Jobs knows best.

Gizmodo.com via iFixIt

The new Apple TV: Still just a hobby

Karen — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:12:21 +0000

When Steve Jobs first mentioned the updated Apple TV at yesterday’s “special event,” it sent excited murmurs across the industry. Would this be the true TV 2.0 experience that consumers are asking for? It could have sent shock waves to knock Google TV, and Roku, and Boxee, and Xbox 360 on their heels. But it didn’t.

With everything good about the new device, there is something bad. So it’s good that it is smaller at a mere quarter of the size it was before. But this size reduction – a reduction that few people will care about, really – came at the cost of a hard drive, which means that you can’t store content on the device. Sure, everything will be available in HD, which makes sense, but “HD” on Apple TV is 720p, where “HD” on Xbox 360 offers instant-on 1080p. And although Apple introduced $.99 TV show rentals, they announced that there would be no purchasing content on the Apple TV, only renting, an option that is entirely un-American.

But there were two real opportunities lost. The first was not bringing the iOS to Apple TV. The reasoning behind this is likely a matter of input device – the Apple TV doesn’t have a touch interface. So a majority of apps that were developed for a touch interface would be deemed useless. But it would allow for people to develop for the device, likely casual games. And apps could be developed to use an iPhone as the remote control, basically making the gesture controls on a phone run your TV. Without iOS powering the device, it looks and feels a full generation behind http://www.google.com/tv/.

The second big opportunity lost was a lack of content. Apple is currently the most powerful consumer electronics company in the world. When Steve Jobs didn’t want Flash on the iPad, the entire world jumped on the HTML5 bandwagon. But even Apple couldn’t get more content providers on board – just NBC and FOX. This is perhaps because the revenue margins would be so low at $.99 per rental. But it also may be because they still are treating it as a hobby, investing their resources and bartering power in the devices they take more seriously.

So the new Apple TV will be nice for anyone who has always wanted to carry around a set-top box in their back pocket. But for the rest of us, Apple TV is little more than entertainment while we wait at the Apple Store for Genius Bar to tell us why our iPhones’ battery drains so quickly.

So that happened, Apple’s “Special Event”: An Overview

Shaun — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:08:04 +0000

If you were already a member of the Apple family before today you had the unique opportunity to live stream the Apple Special event. I tuned into the event on my iPad and was immediately impressed with the pre-event production values. The number of cameras and the way they panned the crowd reminded me of an award show. Instead of focusing on celebrities the cameras were turned to all the different apple devices audience members were using. They did show a lot on the Woz though. Now, having access to this live stream made me think for a brief moment that I should live blog the event … but only for a brief moment.

Many rumors were confirmed today. Steve Jobs presented some iOS updates, including 4.1 which will be coming next week and 4.2 which will be out in November with an iPad focus. One of the bigger updates coming next week is the inclusion of HDR photography which actually takes three images; one in normal mode, one over exposed and one under exposed. Then the images are combined to optimize the image. Both the normal image and the optimized image will be saved in your pictures. Next weeks update will also see bug fixes, HD video upload over WiFi, TV Show rentals and Game Center. iOS 4.2 will finally bring the iPad up to speed introducing a couple handy features including wireless printing and AirPlay which will allow you to stream content to your Apple TV.

The iPod line was refreshed from head to toe. The Shuffle has buttons again and is smaller than ever. The Nano had a drastic change, switching to a small multi touch display and including many features from the Shuffle including the clip. As expected the iPod Touch is taking on many iPhone featurs including cameras for face time and a retina display. The Touch will also take advantage of all the iOS updates. Each device boasts enhanced batter life.

We were expecting some kind of move from iTunes toward the cloud and social. What we got was the introduction of iTunes 10 and Ping, “Facebook and Twitter meet iTunes” the music social network. iTunes appeared simplified and streamlined many of the social features mimicked the kind of interactions we can expect on Facebook, but oriented around music. iTunes 10 and Ping will be available to today so you can jump in to the music social network with two feet.

The second generation of Apple TV debuted and was presented as a “hobby” but kept its old name. This version of the product boasted a much smaller form factor than the previous generation, almost a quarter of the size, and a much smaller price tag, $99. This generation ignores storage and focuses on a rental model for content. First run movies will cost $4.99 per rental and HD TV shows will be $.99 although only two studios have signed on for that pricing model, FOX and ABC. Jobs did promise that others will follow. The Netflix integration appeared seamless and superior to the experience on PS3 or XBOX 360 and the AirPlay feature in iOS 4.2 will allow smooth media transitions between iOS devices and Apple TV.

The whole event can be watched here (assuming you have a Apple device to watch it on) including a closing set by Coldplay’s lead singer, Chris Martin, who at one point was commended to play “another one” by Steve Jobs.

Did anything surprise you from the announcements today? Was anything missing?

Apple TV Re-branded as British Network ITV? Fight!

Shaun — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 21:59:47 +0000

Rumors have been flying about the next iteration of Apple TV this year. Yesterday Engaget released more details on the upcoming product from a “reliable source”. The gist is the new device will be styled more like the iPhone 4, only out put to 720p and like everything else in the world, support apps. In addition to the product updates, the name is getting a refresh. Apple TV will be called iTV, so it will get along better with all of the other Apple “i” products.

The British television network, ITV, is not pleased with this rumor. Pocket-lint got an ITV representative to comment without saying anything directly about the Apple rumor, but emphasizing that they have “vigorously defended” IP in the past.

In summary, there is a rumor that Apple is changing the name of one otheir products that happens to be the same as certain British television network and the network doesn’t like that idea at all.

What will be the future of iTV/ITV? I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to find out!

Only $99 For The Next Apple TV

Simon — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:43:44 +0000

Along with Google announcing its TV solution, Engadget reports that the next version of the Apple TV is on its way. This project has been in progress for a quite some time, long before Google TV was announced.

The Apple TV will be capable of full 1080p HD. It can be used to watch videos from Netflix along with all the content that the current Apple TV shows, like YouTube, podcasts and more.

The Apple TV will run on the same internals as the iPhone 4, down to that A4 CPU and a limited amount of flash of 16GB storage. It is said that the device will be small, just a power socket and video out. Essentially, it will be as small as the iPhone but without the screen.

The size is not the only thing that’s changing. Apple is also moving away from the model of local storage to cloud-based storage. Users will also have the option of using a Time Capsule as an external storage component.

The best part of the Apple TV is the price, $99. With a price tag that low, Apple is going to make a lot of fan boys very happy.

[via Engadget]