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Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

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Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#21

Post by jakewalker »

jrockway wrote: post #9
wccrawford wrote: post #5

My Samsung TV has most (if not all) of that, and already has Hulu Plus. And Hulu Plus was a huge disappointment. For those that don't know, ONLY 'plus' content can be streamed to a device directly. You can't watch the vast majority of Hulu's catalog directly on your TV/PS3/whatever. It cost me $10 to learn that.

Also, doesn't Hulu Plus have ads? I will pay $10 for a bunch of ads when hell freezes over. (This is why I don't read magazines.)

You say this, but isn't this exactly what cable is? Only instead of $10 it's $70+ a month? Maybe you won't, but lots of people will.

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#23

Post by jbuzbee »

ugh wrote: post #2

The funny thing about buying a TV roughly every two decades (currently a twelve year old Sony Trinitron is doing its duty) is that I just don’t know that there are TVs which can do that. It seems that TVs have turned into twins of the bloated laptops Sony likes to sell. I’m not sure whether I like that. Is that software at least user friendly?

The position of the TV manufacturers reminds me a bit of the ISPs. The ISPs don't want to be just a dumb-pipe so they add on "features" that few want. And the TV manufacturers are the same way. They no longer want to be just a dumb monitor, so they're embedding these features that would be better implemented in an external box that's replaceable.

As far as user-friendly, my experience is that the interfaces look flashy on the surface, but once you dig deeper, you'll find poor integration, bugs and rarely a new release. All the better reason to rely on an upgradeable, external box for these types of features.

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#24

Post by basicxman »

Towle_ wrote: post #20

Apple TV is an experiment. They're trying to find a market fit, so to speak. If you're comparing anything Apple is doing to an existing product, you're looking at it the wrong way.

Agreed, and at the $99 dollar price point, you can tell they're trying to make it work. Unfortunately, I don't know anybody technical or non-technical that would enjoy it.

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#25

Post by petercooper »

refulgentis wrote: post #17
petercooper wrote: post #4

Apple has missed a trick it should have learned from the iPhone in the value of allowing controlled third party apps on to a platform. Apple TV + downloadable/purchasable iOS apps aimed solely for TV use would be awesome. Or maybe they're hoping to pull the same idea off using the iPad->Airplay->Apple TV integration coming later in the year?

You hit the nail on the head – if I was a betting man, I'd put as much money as I had on a 'surprise feature' of 4.2 being that you can use the Apple TV as a screen for outputting from an iOS device. Why do I think this? http://twitter.com/lllucas - Apple employee, apparently worked on Airplay (note the "happy airplay day!" tweet) Joe Hewitt (of Facebook) tweets "If only iOS apps could use AirPlay to stream their own…

I think they already announced that, actually (?): http://www.apple.com/ipad/software-update/

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#26

Post by jsz0 »

refulgentis wrote: post #17
petercooper wrote: post #4

Apple has missed a trick it should have learned from the iPhone in the value of allowing controlled third party apps on to a platform. Apple TV + downloadable/purchasable iOS apps aimed solely for TV use would be awesome. Or maybe they're hoping to pull the same idea off using the iPad->Airplay->Apple TV integration coming later in the year?

You hit the nail on the head – if I was a betting man, I'd put as much money as I had on a 'surprise feature' of 4.2 being that you can use the Apple TV as a screen for outputting from an iOS device. Why do I think this? http://twitter.com/lllucas - Apple employee, apparently worked on Airplay (note the "happy airplay day!" tweet) Joe Hewitt (of Facebook) tweets "If only iOS apps could use AirPlay to stream their own…

Maybe OpenGL network transparency?

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#27

Post by refulgentis »

petercooper wrote: post #25
refulgentis wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hit the nail on the head – if I was a betting man, I'd put as much money as I had on a 'surprise feature' of 4.2 being that you can use the Apple TV as a screen for outputting from an iOS device. Why do I think this? http://twitter.com/lllucas - Apple employee, apparently worked on Airplay (note the "happy airplay day!" tweet) Joe Hewitt (of Facebook) tweets "If only iOS apps could use AirPlay to stream their own…

I think they already announced that, actually (?): http://www.apple.com/ipad/software-update/

It's definitely in Apple apps, and I imagine that 3rd party apps will get it for "free" using the standard media player classes. The issue is if apps could send arbitrary video data, because then your $99 Apple TV turns into a game console if you have an iPod touch.

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#28

Post by naelshawwa »

wccrawford wrote: post #5

My Samsung TV has most (if not all) of that, and already has Hulu Plus. And Hulu Plus was a huge disappointment. For those that don't know, ONLY 'plus' content can be streamed to a device directly. You can't watch the vast majority of Hulu's catalog directly on your TV/PS3/whatever. It cost me $10 to learn that.

you're missing the point I think, and so did the Author of this post. Its not about the bells and whistles, or features that came built in. Its about the apps that YOU may want to install on it, and not what the manufacturer gets to say you'll get. Who cares if the Sony Bravia has Netflix, YouTube, Pandora and even Hulu bundled in if the Apple TV or Google TV will allow you to install the apps you want. Just like what happened with phones in the past couple of years, its no longer about features, its about how many developers you can bring to your platform to build all the creative applications. If Balmer got one thing right, it would have been this: Developers, Developers, Developers.

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#29

Post by naelshawwa »

petercooper wrote: post #4

Apple has missed a trick it should have learned from the iPhone in the value of allowing controlled third party apps on to a platform. Apple TV + downloadable/purchasable iOS apps aimed solely for TV use would be awesome. Or maybe they're hoping to pull the same idea off using the iPad->Airplay->Apple TV integration coming later in the year?

I think that is coming. It doesn't make sense if the AppleTV isn't an iOS device nor if it can't get apps from the app store. You know, it'll be a Jobs moment next year when he says "oh btw, app store for ATV is now available. I don't think they missed any trick, they're playing it by the book with any new device, first version doesn't do everything you hope for, but just enough to get you to buy.

Ex. iPad, no camera? really? next generation for sure then!

Re: Sony beat the Apple TV without Google TV

#30

Post by naelshawwa »

basicxman wrote: post #24
Towle_ wrote: post #20

Apple TV is an experiment. They're trying to find a market fit, so to speak. If you're comparing anything Apple is doing to an existing product, you're looking at it the wrong way.

Agreed, and at the $99 dollar price point, you can tell they're trying to make it work. Unfortunately, I don't know anybody technical or non-technical that would enjoy it.

the market is already there, every iPad, iPhone, and iTouch owner will get one. God its cheaper than an iPod nano.
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