Comments on: Apple TV predictions for “It’s only rock and roll, but we like it” event

By: YodaMac

YodaMac — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:11:20 +0000

I like he Tablet tie-in with AppleTV. Hadn't thought of that before.

By: gordon

gordon — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 18:07:47 +0000

Several thoughts:

re: DVR capability – I suspect it would anger those same companies Apple has deals with to provide the shows in iTunes for $2 a pop if Apple added free ability to record. Its silly but I think Apple is placating them and choosing not to rock the boat. I doubt we'll ever see it, or if it does, that it comes late to the game.

App store to appleTV is hard to predict – the games aren't designed for that large a screen and apple would never sit side by side with something superior (all game systems even second gen PS1 would look better) ….without a full scale re-launch of the games platform and new SDK to developers – I doubt its coming any time soon. I suspect the real focus there would be tablet which is more likely to get apps.

Now that the event is over – I suspect the next focus should be Tablet since that will lead a new focus on the living room (seriously its gonna be the ultimate couch / tv watching companion) and will therefore become a natural tie in with apple TV which would likely get some sort of refresh when the thing comes out.

By: BrianE

BrianE — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:41:42 +0000

I think they'll drop the 40GB and introduce something larger than 60 GB. Not that it matters to me, I use Boxee and stream from my NAS.

@ $1.99 per episode I've purchased some TV shows with the intent of only watching it once. I'd like to see a monthly subscription to TV and movies.

By: grega

grega — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:04:47 +0000

When you say bigger capacities and lower price – does this mean you're predicting the delayed purchase times for 40GB AppleTV reflect it's discontinuation, and the 160GB will become the base model?

I largely agree with your predictions, unfortunately .

However, I'd have to think Apple has an AppleTV running on ARM chips waiting in the wings. It's cheaper hardware, but they may be waiting for their own internally designed chips to be ready before they take the plunge. As such, I don't think we'll see an AppleTV App Store for an Intel AppleTV.

ps. I agree with Yodamac, that TV rentals is a critical step. (not the last piece to the puzzle, but a huge one). Good timing now too, a week before the new TV seasons start. I wonder if we'll get lucky

By: yodamac

yodamac — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:17:03 +0000

I agree that tomorrow's event will be iPod/iTunes music centered and I think we'll be “lucky” if the AppleTV is even mentioned.

And while I'd love to be able to subscribe to rental TV shows, I have no interest in a Rhapsody rental system for music. So my hoped for announcement would be some form of TV rentals/subscription. That's really the last piece of the puzzle missing as far as I'm concerned. Apple won't get into the Cable TV/DVR business… ever.

I'd love to squeeze out one more software update to my existing AppleTV before new hardware comes out, but if a new AppleTV box was announced – I'd buy it as soon as it's available. (assuming it was more than just increased storage since I stream everything anyways)

An AppleTV App Store might be awesome!