Here’s an interesting quote from Apple CEO Tim Cook to Brian Williams:
“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”
I wonder if Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster experienced an euphoric rush at that moment.
The Joy of Tech™ sums it up perfectly:
Hint: Chicken Little is Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster.
First some specs:
Judging by the specs above, this appears to be a $300 Apple TV competitor, with deep integration with Google services rather than Apple iTunes. With the exception that it is made in the USA, I am still trying to wrap my head around why this is worth $200 more than Apple TV.
Saw this over at 9to5Mac:
If implemented, this feature will be great for me, since I would prefer the Podcasts icon to be next to Netflix. Why else would you want to move icons unless you have a ton of them available? Makes me wonder if Apple is planning something bigger, like native Apple TV apps.
I wrote an article last year discussing how there were already Apple TV apps available via streaming from your iPad or iPhone. While passable as an option, having them baked in would be great. No longer would you require an accessible and fully charged iOS device to run apps on your TV.
According to 9to5Mac, Hulu Plus is ready to be deployed on the Apple TV, but Apple has yet to green light the implementation:
While there are no technical issues standing in the way of the Hulu Plus release on Apple TV, there appear to be some political ones. At some level at Apple, there appears to be some consideration that the Hulu Plus app could eat into iTunes TV sales on the Apple TV. Where Netflix tends to run older programming, iTunes is the Apple TV’s only outlet for current TV programming.
There is a workaround: iPad 2 and iPhone 4S users running iOS 5 can use AirPlay to mirror the Hulu Plus app content on their 2nd generation Apple TVs. One limitation of this method is only standard definition (SD)—not high definition (HD)—video will be mirrored to your television.
As for content licensing, I wouldn’t be surprised to find that only part of the web-accessible catalog is available on the Apple TV, much like what we have seen with the iOS apps and PS3. You may see this disclaimer more often than you would like to admit:
We currently don’t have the rights to make this show available on TV or mobile devices — request to be notified if it becomes available in Hulu Plus.