Apple iTV

You may know me as a techno-phobe, but that isn't true at all. My van has power sliding doors and my MP3 player produces music in my garage. I am behind the curve, no doubt, but I didn't realize just how far. I own Apple stock, although not much. I own it because I know stuff like this will sell. I don't, however, want, any of the things the author talked about:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/100470286

CNBC said: Apple needs a television because Apple wants to be a way of life — a management platform to improve the "user experience" of living.

Nothing surprising in there - it's basically mentioning a shift from a broadcast to a streaming model. And as part of that comes targeted advertising.

Is this such a bad thing? It's already there in Hulu, for example. How many people here listen to Pandora instead of FM radio?

It means you'll get ads for things you might be interested in instead of ads for everything. I'm personally not all that interested in shampoo or drug commercials, but cars and tech might catch my interest. So if I don't have to sit through another commercial with stock footage implying that if I buy a certain boner pill my truck won't get stuck, I'm fine with that.

Keith Tanner wrote: " So if I don't have to sit through another commercial with stock footage implying that if I buy a certain boner pill my truck won't get stuck, I'm fine with that."

Boner pills and bottled water fix what caused your Camaro to overheat in the first place.

Honestly, this bugs me. this already exists by other manufacturers. why are they probably doing it? so they can sue companies for making something before apple, but it was obviously apple's idea.

^One of the reasons I never liked Apple. GNU/Linux-powered uber-geek devices FTW!

If you hack um, you get everything for free.

GameboyRMH wrote: ^One of the reasons I never liked Apple. GNU/Linux-powered uber-geek devices FTW!

Apple products are BSD/Unix based.

The broadcast TV model, where you have a TV guide that lists what program is on at what time and everyone watches it together is an artifact of 1950s technology. Nobody really likes it, and ever since the VCR was invented, people have been trying to find a way around it. In the computer/networking world, we've been talking about "video on demand" since the early 90s, and about 3 or 4 years ago it finally arrived.

The current TV advertising model depends on the broadcast technology model, where people are forced to watch ads because they're shoved into the middle of live content. It's already showing cracks (DVRs with commercial skipping features, for example) and it's fundamentally not viable long term, except perhaps for live sports coverage.

So if you like watching "CSI" and the like, then yes, these sorts of tech developments are huge because they're the only way that kind of free-to-view content is going to get funded in the future.

And you'll get a better viewing experience because of it - TV when you want it with ads that you're interested in. It's here today, called Hulu.

I've got an Apple TV. I wasn't required to pay anything more to watch because of it. I already had Netflix. I can stream Hulu via Airplay to the TV. It sure is a seamless little thing. The only thing I wish it had was Pandora - and when you think about it, that's exactly the same model that we're talking about with broadcast TV. Targeted ads (or at least the capability to deliver them) paying for streaming, personalized content.

I'm the sort of guy who once patched together a demo at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association trade show in Vegas using a bunch of different platforms and languages and servers all over the country, all duct tape and bubblegum behind the scenes. I'm not afraid of a DIY setup. But let me tell you, having a Macbook, an Apple TV and an iPad is just SO FREAKIN' EASY. It's how it should all work.

Keith Tanner wrote: And you'll get a better viewing experience because of it - TV when you want it with ads that you're interested in. It's here today, called Hulu. I've got an Apple TV. I wasn't required to pay anything more to watch because of it. I already had Netflix. I can stream Hulu via Airplay to the TV. It sure is a seamless little thing. The only thing I wish it had was Pandora - and when you think about it, that's exactly the same model that we're talking about with broadcast TV. Targeted ads (or at least the capability to deliver them) paying for streaming, personalized content. I'm the sort of guy who once patched together a demo at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association trade show in Vegas using a bunch of different platforms and languages and servers all over the country, all duct tape and bubblegum behind the scenes. I'm not afraid of a DIY setup. But let me tell you, having a Macbook, an Apple TV and an iPad is just SO FREAKIN' EASY. It's how it should all work.

Update your firmware, the Apple TV supports Hulu natively now.

And of course you could do Pandora via airplay if you wanted as well.

It's always supported Hulu. But not for free, only Hulu Plus. So, remember when I said I didn't have to pay anything more to watch because of the Apple TV? That's because I stream Hulu via the laptop

Yes, I can do Pandora via airplay using the laptop or an iThingy. It would be nice if I didn't have to run the secondary device, that's all. First world problems.

I've got Apple TV and love it for Netflix and just about anything you can find on the internet, including youtube, etc. You can also throw whatever you have on your ipad/iphone on it, including all apps, etc. Makes sharing pictures, videos, or showing someone a map on the screen really easy. You can play game apps on your iphone and see the result on the big screen, almost like using the iphone as a controller.

Hasn't replaced our cable connection, but we find we buy a LOT less DVD's than we used to.

OK looks like I am alone in this crowd. I am not afraid of this, I just don't want it. I literally cannot imagine wanting it. Any of it.

When someone talks about the "user experience of living" it makes me want to punch them in the face and live out in the woods. Civilization isn't worth it.

As you were.

We're pretty close to pulling the trigger on an Apple TV. Honestly, we probably should have done it a while ago. Maybe this weekend.

Do eeeet! We have 3 and I'm planning on never paying for cable my entire life.

I don't always want to spend the energy, time and effort figuring out if I want to watch something, then go find it or spend endless hours surfing crap to figure out if it's worth watching or not. Generally, I like the simplicity of apple controls - I sort of like their products, but the long term quality seems to suck. I don't necessarily want to be stuck paying a micro fee for everything (somehow grates on me, even through I'm basically doing exactly that by paying a cable operator a bigger monthly fee). I'm mixed about it - no current intention of buying one.Just don't care enough yet.

Meh, I prefer the Netflix/Spotify model.

Let me PAY for service WITHOUT the ads.

I HATE ads on TV. I DESPISE them. It's not like there is ever really going to be the type of ads for a GRM audience that we want to see, we are too small for companies to make TV ads.

I have a roku box and an Apple TV. I got the Apple TV as a gift.

The roku box works well and has pandora.

The Apple TV is faster, has better picture quality, menus are easier to navigate and is plain easier to use. However it dosent have pandora. Yaaaaarrggghhh

The lack of Pandora doesn't thrill me. Question, though: I can play my iPad's iTunes library through the Apple TV, iRight?

In reply to David S. Wallens:

Yes.

Thanks. Anything else I should know?

As mentioned earlier, you can stream Pandora (and pretty much everything else) off your Mac or iPad. This includes things like YouTube - I once streamed the Bathurst 1000 live onto my tv using the thing. It was AWESOME. The Mac hookup does give it extra powers, it just means you have to have the computer on.

Z31, are there no products anywhere in the world that interest you? Nothing you buy?

Thing is, I want good television.

Seems like the only producer of good television programming is either BBC or Public Broadcasting.

I don't want movies, I don't want reality tv. I dont want my tv to play music, nor do I need it to surf the web. I like the TV for cramming my brain full of good information. News and Nature. I want Nature and Nova and Neil Degrass Tyson, oh and three English Blokes rambling about cars. That's it. Charge me 10 bucks a month for everything produced by those two channels, and you'd have a customer in me.

Won't happen.

Yeah, I still dont get it. I mean, I get it I just don't find a fit for it in my life. Got an Apple TV from my employer for christmas. Still sitting in the box. As far as I can tell my "smart" TV from samsung does the same stuff, streaming Netflix, Hulu, etc and I dont use those features with it either.

PHeller wrote: Seems like the only producer of good television programming is either BBC or Public Broadcasting.

I agree. I found a trick to watch some BBC content at....

http://lifehacker.com/5978591/hola-unblocker-gives-you-access-to-iplayer-netflix-pandora-hulu-and-more-regardless-of-region

......good for some current season Top Gear.