The Apple TV Thread

Yes, another good point.

Bottom line is that the personal DVR model is looking towards the past, which is not what Apple is about. The future is for all content to be available on demand for streaming through the various rights holders and distributors, based on a subscription service. Essentially a giant DVR in "the cloud" where they record everything. No need to do your own recording.

 

Exactly. The cloud, not in your house.

 

Thanks. I ordered one this afternoon, so I'll get to set it up and try it out Friday evening. Looking forward some angst-free AirPlay usage.

 

I can do that now with my Samsung smartphone or PC via DLNA, so it's not really a killer or a unique feature.

 

They don't seem to ask Tivo for additional licensing revenues. I'm only asking for something that already exists in other forms. They established a long time ago that it's perfectly legal to record programs off-air. This is an Apple problem, not a technical or legal problem.

To me, the biggest problem with Apple these days is that they've become a cellphone company that makes bad headphones and ostentatious wristwatches, and only makes computers as a small side-business.

 

I can already do that with my iPhone to my panasonic plasma using DLNA if I wanted. Sure, AppleTV may make the process smoother, but it isn't necessary with the right smart tv.

 

I'll certainly agree with you about the ostentatious wristwatches. I think it's their jump the shark moment, and this is coming from an Apple fan since 1984.

 

I'm not an apple fan, never have been for numerous reasons, but the watch thing is not a case of jumping the shark. It will make them a truckload of extra cash and help to further entrench iPeople's reliance on the Apple ecosystem as the watches are pretty useless as standalone devices - you also need an iphone to make it semi useful. Personally, I think these watch devices are absurd (from any manufacturer) as I suspect you do, but it will be lucrative for Apple.

 

We'll see. I honestly don't know a whole lot about what it does, and I'm even an iPerson. What I do know is that while the guts are the same, the most expensive models have been blinged out to attract the 1%. It's the same kind of stuff that Jobs put a stop to before he came back in the 90s.

 

It's all a part of their push into the lucrative high-end fashion market, now that they've got the 'luxury' tech market covered.

 

I have a smart panny too but HBO go would be a welcome app.

 

The Apple Watch essentially runs apps that are stored on the user's iPhone. The watch itself is a paired remote control of the phone, so texts and phone calls from the iPhone come up on the Watch.

I think somebody could do a very good editorial cartoon showing noises from Steve Jobs' grave, as he spins upon the news of the Apple Watch and Beats Headphones. To me, this is yet another example of how Apple is going off in weird directions these days. I think the company has clearly lost their way. But... purely from a stock point of view and a money point of view, the company is doing better than ever.

 

Apple stopped being a computer company when it dropped the word computer from its name. Its main source of profit is perceived value which is commensurate with high margins and shiny things. This has enabled it to become the worlds biggest company with a market cap of some $750 billion.

The natural trajectory is to continue to expand its brand into the luxury/fashion sector to become synonymous with other luxury brands like Rolex or Cartier. To what extent they will succeed I'm unsure, but they are quite serious about it, no doubt with an eye to becoming the first company to reach a staggering one trillion dollar market cap! (wonders how much tax they'll end up paying).

 

Hey if this other crap funds them to still make their great computers I'm in for the long haul.

 

I wonder how long it's going to last. I really like my iMac, but there are minor annoyances with the OS that should have been fixed ages ago. Same with the latest iPhone. I'm finding I'm spending more time troubleshooting than I used to. I hope they don't go into cars or TVs like the rumors keep saying . That's just crazy.

And don't get me started on the disaster that's iTunes 12.

I do like the AppleTV. It's the best box I've tried; a good, simple interface without too much clutter. It's worth it just to be able to use it to stream the Apple Lossless files in my library - it's been years since I put a CD in the player. I just wish it had a better way to browse albums.

 

Does it do audio too, can it send 24/96 thru a hifi?

 

I'm truly glad so many of you like it. I'm a huge Apple fanboy....have Apple stuff all over the place. But the Apple TV sucks pretty good unless you really want something to tie into your iTunes account. It is slow, and doesn't have near the channels some others have. And if you have Amazon streaming because you have Prime, it won't work. I got a Roku 3 and it kicks the pants off the Apple. The Apple TV is painfully slow with only one processor. We now have three Rokus in our house...far superior. For an innovative company that I really respect, I just don't understand how they let everyone else get so far ahead. The HBO exclusive is for a very short window. They should have introduced a new model at the same time and got people like me, who buys a lot of content, back.

 

I'm not saying my appletv is perfect and other products like Roku may be better. But ive never had issues with speed.

 

My experience w Apple TV is listed to me ex having it. But it certainly Is not slow. At least in her case.

I'm sure roku as stuff Apple doesn't have and visa versa.

 

seems a big thing about any apple product ,is they want you to buy stuff from their store ,they don't sell High Rez audio ,so you can't play it Can you even stream video from your computer ??

 

You can, from what I've read. That's a cool use in theory, but as far as I know it doesn't work the way I'd like it to. Usually this involves screen mirroring when what I really want to be able to do is to multi-task: to watch a film stored in my computer's library on my TV while my kids play Minecraft on the iMac. If Apple could manage that then I probably would buy one.

 

If the film were in the correct format, .m4v, and in your iTunes library, you'd be able to do that.

 

No thanks. I'm waiting for something to come along that will be able to snag an mp4 file from an external hard drive, open it using VLC Player, and then stream it to my TV. Until that comes, I'll keep putting the files on a flash drive and playing them through my blu Ray player.

 

That's never going to happen unless they allow the installation of third-party apps and things like Plex.

 

You're probably right, but they're going to lose out to the first company that comes along that does.