AppleTV, Did Apple Forget This Existed?

The last time I can remember being really excited about an Apple launch was when AppleTV was introduced. It represented a change, a possibility, and perhaps even a vision of future that I had started to believe might be slowing exiting from Apple’s headquarters on Infinite Loop.[...] Thanks to idisappointment for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

TnTBass: For me, I’d love to see it support lots of different codecs and media types. Right now, my hacked XBOX works way better for me than the Apple TV cause I can play anything in my massive media collection.

I could see it improve with a few updates though, and if it does, it’ll be a great product. Right now, it’s just yet another media player.

papamac: 1 word. DVR.

geekee: Anyone who thinks an optimal model for movies and tv is to buy them on your computer and stream them to your tv with an expensive piece of hardware needs their head examined. How many shows are people even going to watch more than 1 time? Why should I need to go to my computer to download them instead of ordering right on the tv screen? What we really need is a pay-per-view model that works right on your tv, and allows rental or purchase.

Henwood: What was exciting about it, XBOX 360 does the same for less + plays games.

postalblowfish7: anything that REQUIRES an HDTV is going to be dead in the water. most people can’t afford them, end of story.

scooter72: Forget AppleTv… All you need are the new $50 Apple component cables
http://www.gadgetgrid.com/2007/09/06/apple-component-av-cable-converts-your-ipod-into-appletv/

macslut: I hate to suggest this, but a deal with another satan could really help the Apple TV get traction…yes, I’m talking about Comcast. Integrate Comcast’s on-demand features and allow the Apple TV to act as a DVR. Also allow the Apple TV to include the cable modem and an optical drive. Further increase the size to allow for a 3.5″ hard drive, give it ports to work on any TV. Include an iPod dock.

Allow it to be controlled with an iPod Touch or iPhone.

Wander: I have about 6 Xboxs all over the house running XBMC. But on my main TV I have an AppleTV. Why, because the Xbox is old, it can’t play 720p video. Of course, I hacked my AppleTV. I can play anything I care about, including Divx, Xvid, h.264, and movies still in .iso format. I can watch a lot of great video pod casts, and can mount my windows and mac drives, so I don’t have to copy anything to the puny 40 GB hard drive.

It has a remote with two buttons. It is the easiest interface you will ever see. I for one, could care less if Apple discontinues it, or comes out with a better version, for now I am extremely happy with it.

searchbuffet: The AppleTV is totally useless as is. Put a darn DVR in the thing Apple!! Or start your own cable subscription service because nobody wants to pay per-show like you have it now. TOTALLY USELESS as is!
Put a DVR in there!

leptons: This is typical of the Apple “Hype-and-Release” cycle, where they come up with some 1/2 baked product (AppleTV, iPhone, etc), then hype the hell out of it using music video directors to make their products seem sexy and revolutionary. When Apple releases these products, they initially sell a lot of them, mostly to their apple fan-boy user base and some to the curious & misinformed. Then once the public realizes the thing looks nice on the outside, but is only half of what it should be on the inside, sales drop off and then Apple quietly and slowly pushes the device lower in their priority list. They tend to focus their workforce on the next hype machine that will make them some quick cash. As far as i’m concerned, Apple is a fad.. albeit a long running one, but still a fad.

Kitsune818: Sooo, his argument is that to do it right, give it the exact same feature set as the TivoHD? (Substituting iTunes for Amazon unboxed)

SirBotchness: cause it sucked. No space, no HD content, over priced.

paulsmith288: apple tv as a mythtv frontend. That could be a winner

skellener: Apple needs to add HD content to iTunes or AppleTV is a dead product. Period.

OGla: Just wait for the Leopard update. Guessing what extra functionality will come by then:
- iTunes store on AppleTV. Buy a movie from your TV couch.
- Safari for AppleTV. Bluetooth added. Buy a keyboard and a mouse for surfing from your couch.
- Timemachine functionality – backup your purchases.
- Games!
- Widgets. Weather, clocks etc.
- Bigger hard drive.
- Plug ins support. Divx etc.

Is Steve Jobs Sick Of The Cell Phone Industry Already?

Job’s keynote, riddled with anti industry comments, topped it all off with a big middle finger to AT&T by introducing the iPod touch. We’re with you man.[...] Thanks to Shimoniskey for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

juliajj: maybe he should enter the car industry…
http://digg.com/apple/Woz_founder_of_Apple_creates_Spoof_of_Car_Ad_and_is_Selling_for_100k

amanj: one thing is certain, if he’s indeed sick with the cell phone industry, all the future updates of iphone’s software wont effect the unlock stuff. thereby he would be able to sell more phone’s and more profits for his company, far outweighing what he could have earned from at&t deal.

skellener: > Is Steve Jobs Sick Of The Cell Phone Industry Already?
What makes you think Steve Jobs ever liked the cell phone industry in the first place? The whole reason Apple even created the iPhone was because Steve HATED his cell phone! The same reason the iPod was created. He went to look for an MP3 player and all he found was crap. So he went back to the Apple labs and said create me the best MP3 player – ever! Same thing happened with the phone. He never liked the industry in the first place.

zmigliozzi: The first step is actually selling some. And apple has yet to do that. 146,000 in the first two days of its release… Apple has no right to be pointing finger’s especially when they designed it and only marketed it to AT&T. They are trying to take the blame of their poor sales out on someone else, when it’s their problem.

kidlinux: Seems to me a lot of people are missing the fact that the iPod Touch is wifi enabled. All you need is a microphone and you’re making phone calls through Skype or some other VoIP provider. You think Apple is going to stop at selling music from those Starbucks hotspots? That’s the big deal here.

I’ve never had an iPod, but I’ll buy the Touch the second VoIP calling is possible and I’ll throw my cell phone out the window and tell my service provider where to go and how to get there. That’s the big deal.

cscofield: If Apple can’t wait to open up the iPhone to other wireless carriers, why on earth would they have agreed to an exclusivity deal with AT&T in the first place?

dallasjfreeman: I don’t see why the iPhone was exclusively available to AT&T to begin with. For starters, it’s a smaller market as compared to EVERYONE. Stupid idea! I don’t think phones and MP3 players should be integrated to begin with. What happens with your iPhone goes flat cause you’ve been listening to music all day, you can no longer make calls, can’t surf the net, no one can call you. I think the iPod Touch is a perfect addition to your pockets without having to worry about your phone contract and who it’s with etc etc.

godisdead: Classic Steve Jobs. Seduce and abandon.

SPThom: I don’t think he’s tired of it… He’s just sticking it to this industry the same as he did to the music industry.

Kelmon: Buried for being total nonsense. 2+2 Banana. The Internet is great for giving everyone a voice but it also means that we also get to hear from a load of idiots.

blacklilyninja: i will never buy a cell phone.

i will buy an iPod touch

ilovemaria: haha! stupid cult. your master screws you again

siglesias: This guy is a moron. It doesn’t take a genius to see that the iPod touch is simply a false demand satisfier, meaning that (much like a video nano is, because, let’s face it, few people actually watch videos on their small-screened iPods, though demand it nonetheless) consumers need its existence to put into perspective the value of the iPhone, which is FAR more profitable for Apple. In fact, Apple makes back its $200 price cut in mere months of AT&T kickbacks. Jobs believes in communication technology. No way he’d be sticking it to his mobile carrier for the next four years, and I also think that exclusive carrier allows Apple to play out its uniformly styled product releases. Having multiple carriers would be the sloppy, plays-for-sure, Microsoft way.

fLUx1337: umm….WHY did Apple go with one network provider?

I know just selling unlocked phones and telling you to use what you want can be a bad idea, things wont work, and it wouldn’t be a true Apple experience – forums would be full of “Howz do I get SMS working on the blah network?!” but surely they could add a list of the top world providers, with different settings for each!

Apple don’t need AT&T, no matter how much money is involved….

HappyScrappy: I think perhaps the author is projecting his own feelings onto Steve Jobs.

The 16GB/iPod Touch thing is easily explained.

The Touch is needed for countries like Japan where the iPhone can’t be sold (GSM doesn’t mean crap there) and also for people countries like the US where some customers don’t want to switch to the sole provider of the iPhone.

As to the 16GB thing, well, just look at the iPhone price cut. It would appear the iPhone is selling slowly (this the need for the price cut). If the iPhone is selling slowly, they probably have current model iPhones on hand (or at least parts on hand for them). If you have parts on hand for current models, you don’t want to introduce a new model until you’ve burned off most of the old stock. Expect to see a 16GB iPhone a bit later, once they’ve sold off all the 4GB and most of the 8GB units they already have.

Whiny Techies, I

A bit of advice for all those who rushed out to be the first on their block with a new iPhone and are now bellyaching because Apple reduced the price:[...] Thanks to SeaMowse for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

enzomedici: No company can afford to piss off their loyal customers. That’s a death sentence. Between choosing AT&T in the first place, iPhone price decrease (should have had refund announcement on hand), half-assed AppleTV and the newly fucked up iMovie , Apple is on a roll of fucking things up as much as they create cool shit.

Clearly somewhere in Apple there is an idiot in charge that allow these things to happen. Find him or her and fire them asap before they fuck up something else like Leopard.

err404: All that “whining” got me $100 in store credit

ggolem: Since when are people who buy a consumer product “techies”? Perhaps when people who ride in taxis became automotive engineers…

Chesh: His whole column is just an experiment to see if he can troll digg without actually posting here.

spinlock99: His first point is well taken but he’s way off the mark on Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is not about bandwidth at all. It’s about looking inside packets and determining that “I will send this packet because it’s for the WWW” and “I won’t send that packet because it for BitTorrent.” If Net Neutrality hadn’t been the Internet policy since the beginning, we’d all be digging on Gopher instead of the World Wide Web.

Challaud: Hey I love all the passionate talk this article raises,
The issues it deals with are in a way up to everyone’s own personal view point, but everyone wants to be right!

On the Iphone price decrease and the subsequent 100$ credit I love the wording and general idea: “Tech Whinies, get a life” (…and enough already on the issue!). It totally clouded a yet another pretty amazing Keynote announcement full of news worthy of Apple devoted legion’s of fans. The only way these guys chose to respond was to bitch about a current practice in the Tech Bizz.
I believe Jobs is right when he says the more under the Iphone tent the better for Iphone owners… Look at all of the Ipod Ecosystem it generated and look how advanced Itunes’ features are compared to other similar services… Thanks to the sheer numbers and different needs of the vast community of the Ipod owners.

I don’t know if this guys knew how the Daily Show is popular on the net but he surely didn’t intended on a popularity vote with this… But literally it make sence, If you only get your source of News through “the Daily Show” or “the Kos” then you most certainly need to broaden your web surfing pattern…

On NET neutrality I’m afraid its a little of a misconception for many people… Duh, off course the Net should remain independent of political, ideological, religious, (…) direct influence… But the subject of NET neutrality as it is in fact truly being currently discussed is a lot more complex than just these simplistic views. He kinda launched another larger debate which needed a little more depth of argumentation…

But overall Dugg and Re-dugg… It’s a far cry from that Kansas journalist a few days back…

trinest: Pfff…Iphone is gay. PEople are stupid

headphonedude: Why would you want to be the guy complaining about complainers? Don’t listen to or encourage this guy’s interpretations. “Normal” people just understand that whiners are a part of life, just as much as this hypocritical bastard is too. Breathe, Ignore it, move humanity on. I personally don’t think the price drop was necessary, but kudos, its nice to see a company being proactive with their customers. That aside, wtf, online free lunches? You really think the united states internet service providers aren’t making enough money? I completely understand having markets that provide jobs with good pay, but all I can think about is how Japan’s internet services compare to our own. I’m referring to http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/techpolicy/2007-06-25-net-speeds_N.htm . I wish there was a way to charge them for being so shitty.

Furthermore, what does watching the Daily Show have anything to do with what he’s talking about. I don’t think anybodies arguing that you only need to watch the Daily show to understand net neutrality or economics. The only point the Daily Show wanted to make during that episode is that the representative in charge of regulating the internet doesn’t know jack shit about the internet. I don’t think that makes him less of a person, just probably not someone you’d want influencing decisions on that particular matter. Wake up!

Finally, what does he think he’s accomplishing by supporting tiered internet. Does he think by having other people pay more, he will be charged less? It’s nice to see a company like Apple moderate their greed, its nothing I’d expect from an ISP though.

I don’t know whats more disturbing about this article; the inaccurate content, or people actually believing this asshole. I personally want to believe that people recognize this on their own, but I know far too many people who don’t pay attention and don’t understand why they need to care.

P.S. I’m not an apple fan if thats what you’re thinking.

jun8119: The business aspect of the article was right on but what does this guy know about “techies.” What true techie do you know own an iPhone? 1-0 jun8119.

Sidzilla: For all of the sad little Apple fanboys who thought Steve was their friend and the Jesus Phone was going to make their cocks a little less pathetic.. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mc4_a: FW:
To: Molly Wood

cheekybastard: “Whiny Techies I” should have been titled “Early Adopters need to STFU” and “Whiny Techies II” needs to be retitled as “All I Ever Learned About the Internet Was From Corporate Press Releases”

kbro: Is it true that Net Neutrality is turning into a mandate that all people pay the same rate, regardless of how much bandwidth they consume?

ArchonSG: I was dugged down hard for predicting this before the iPhone was launched, and I will probably be dug down again for stating Apple is out to make money and no matter how much you think you love Apple, all Apple cares is that fine line between profit and loss and how much profit they can make from the products that they sell. You can defend, apologize or vilify Apple but the fact is that if they are going to stay in the Phone business they will have to come up with newer better improved phones because for all the advances that the current iPhone has, it has a lot of faults that many who are wowed by the iPhone’s hype refuse to see or admit. Also the other major cell phone makers will not be sitting still and will come up with products that will challenge the iPhone’s “coolness” if not the cost of owning one which is the reason for price “drop”. Apple’s marketing aren’t run by fools so they know price has to come down to sell off the current stock to make way for the newer 3G versions and later models with fuller capabilities. What the time line for this is anyone’s guess but I am pretty sure they don’t have all the time in the world if they are serious in establishing a real foothold in the cell phone business.

Or Apple could just say “screw this” and bail out on the iPhone altogether. Sell what they have now, complete what they are already developing and call it quits. Either way, as long as they recover the cost of R&D for the phones its a win for them.

natesnotjewish: I somewhat agree with this old, whiny douchebag. Early adopters always pay the premium, although the price drop came much earlier than expected. Even with the $100 credit Macfags the world over are still up in arms about it, and we all know a macfag can’t shut up.

Several Apple Products Seeing Constraints in Channel

Component shortages continue to limit supplies of some iMac and MacBook Pro models, sources report, while Apple’s new Bluetooth wireless keyboard will only start shipping to customers towards the end of September.[...] Thanks to supernova17 for providing this nice story on Digg.

What other users say about this:

Alegoo92: This title confuses me.