"Cracking" the TV (Apple or otherwise)


Technology


This seems like the place to open a rambling discussion about the latest Internet obsession about Apple making a TV better. I'm sure we've all seen the 30 Rock clip by now... If not I'll post it later when I'm at a better location.

As I've said in other threads I still think Apple will not make a full TV. It's a rather cut through market with very low margins. The problem is (as has been pointed out with the 2010 All Things D Jobs clip) with the settop box and the need to rebuild and unify them....

I'll go a step further and include DVD, BluRay, and for those old fuddie duddies like me who still have VHS as "Set-top" boxes. How in the world can Apple "fix" all of those? While Jobs and Apple likes to build End-To-End devices there is no way they'd get people to pay again for that several hundred dollar BluRay player, no would they bundle VHS support.

So, how? This brings up two key issues in the home theater.

1) UI replacement. Unify all those conflicting and butt ugly UI. Even ones still lurking about from the 80/90s VHS players.

2) One Control. Condense 3 or 4 or 5 remotes to 1.

And 3) for Apple, do it in a way the consumer doesn't even really notice past easy setup.

Well, I'm going be like every other nut job commentator and blow hard by saying "I think I know how." This may not sound elegant at first go but hopefully the existing technologies and logical extrapolation will out.

I'll start at 2) as it is the easiest technology to grasp and has been around for years. Universal remotes were supposed to "solve" this multi-remote mess but it didn't really take off. Partly because they "don't just work", I know I've tried to set them up before and to quote me, "eat UI for breakfast." It's a mess because you have too switch them back and forth between different settings and even then they may not work well or miss functions.

Enter a "smarter" system like an AppleTV with a powerful IR broadcaster that can bounce the single off the wall behind you and back to the defectives its going to be bossing. It can quickly switch to the right blink patterns, have access to a wide (Apple held) database, and do it in a way you don't notice.... Unless you can see IR beams. Apple TV becomes your universal remote for all "set tops" you've got hooked up.

This brings up another question, how does it know which devices are there?

Back to 1), both the way to unify the UI and take a base pass at figuring out what "set tops" you have. This requires a bit of knowledge about iPhoto and FaceTime/Photo Booth Apple programs.

Apple toutes it's "Face" recognition software and even recently played it up for the latest iMovie. If you have an algorithm that can ID faces, not an easy task, you can turn it to ID visual UI, which are more static and regular then faces in photos. Throw in an A5 or A6 apple iOS processor with a dedicated GPU and you should now have the processing power to interpreted UI elements.

I bring up FaceTime becaue of its ability to overlay things like an animted roller coasters or static images on top of a live video feed it is getting from a camera. Good for college kids trying to hide their messy room from helicopter parents. As with the "Face" recognition the system can ID different elements of a live video and then selectively replace them with other images/video/User Interfaces.

And that is what I see. Using existing, proven technologies, to knock down the problems of integrating different "boxes" into one interface point. Assuming its an Apple TV, it IDs the other incoming box/player based on its UI (which you have to show it first), downloads the correct "driver" for it's "universal remote", and for ever after replaces all UI with its own brushed Apple one. Throw in Siri voice command (and IMO depth-camera/Kinect tech) and you have one box to rule them all.

No fighting with different country standards, no messy battles with content providers, it just works. Maybe this is not the direction Apple will go, maybe this wouldn't even work well if done. But that's my take on making the seemingly impossible possible.

P.S. .... It could even turn on the TV that it's attached to :P

Liberty's Edge

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Rumor wise I worry about a few thing with this.

Price, the rumor is it is going to be very expensive, way beyond the current TV prices.

Type, I am hearing it is going to be an LCD, I am over LCD, Though LCD and LED are still good, It still IMO does not match Plasma, especially for Gamers. Price will most not likely stop me from getting it, but if it is an LCD, that will.

I have not heard anything about 3D, but I don't find any issue with that.


I'm curious to see the final product. Rumors say the earliest it would be available is 2013.

Since technology in 2 years will continue to evolve, some of the features it will have may not even exist yet!


If I was Apple I would center the experience around the iPad3 where they come up with a the ability to stream, wirelessly, 1080p and Dolbie 5.1 Surround sound.

This way the TV becomes a "dumb terminal" and all the smarts are programmed into the device, in this case the remote + iTunes downloading/renting + brain that is the iPad3.

However they get this streaming ability working would then be "license" to "Apple TV <insert name>" products...kind of like how they did with AirPrint printers.

It would be a flaw for Apple to actually create a TV from the ground up.

Besides I'm still waiting for the wall-to-wall screens that we saw in `Total Recall`.


Apple iTV Television Concept

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