Despite the rumor mill's
best efforts at pinning Apple down to a "true" media center offering, Apple has seemed content to offer up handy ways to browse you computer's library via Front Row and
Apple TV, but not so interested in really going head to head with Windows Media Center Edition or other similar apps. That all might be changing, but it's still a long shot: Apple applied for a patent in 2005, which was just published today, that refers to a media center comprised of a "module controller" and various "media components" working together in glorious harmony. The most optimistic reading of the patent points a sort of modular utopia, where various media components plug into a central hub, letting pretty much anything connected to the network control and display media -- fan faves like the iPhone and Apple TV come quickly to mind. Apple still isn't too explicit about actual inputs, such as DVD, HDTV and HD discs, but we'll keep hoping it figures out the fact that iTunes media purchases don't quite cut it for quenching the average consumer's media thirst.
[Via
Unwired View]
posted Apr 12th 2007 10:35AM
It wouldn't be too stupid to imagine SSD, HDD, HD/DVD or Blu-Ray add-ons to the Apple TV...
Again, this is only a published patent APPLICATION, and not a patent. Apple has not "patented" this, nor is it correct to refer to this document as a patent.
Nice reporting work, Paul!
In any case, all that talk of controllers, displays and media sources seems not too dissimilar from UPNP AV which is already out there in use, albeit under promotoed and usually hidden under some proprietary branding.
@JT
apple has signed with the bluray media group so there would be no hd dvd.
I expect Apple will eventually have a 'media center' but it will develop and introduce its features incrementally so that the market is spared the complexity shock. They will perfect each feature and let the consuming public familiarize themselves with it before they introduce the next key feature. It will just be a natural extension of the iPod-iTunes-AppleTV-iPhone progression.
Apple will certainly not take the Windows MCE route which sent grown men screaming out of the room when MS pulled the covers off that indecipherable blob of hardware and software.
@tundraboy: You must know some real girly men. :)
I didn't scream at all, let alone run out of the room. All I had to do beyond a normal PC setup was plug in my cable, tell it who my TV provider was, and it worked.
This was over a year ago with MCE 2005. When the extension for the 360 came out, all I had to do was write down an 8 digit code and give that to the 360, and then THAT worked flawlessly too.
The url below shows a video in which Steve Jobs unvails new Apple technology which should really shake things up... a media center solution??? You be the judge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHty_S0TU0
ed
Apple applied for a patent in 2005, which was just published today, that refers to a media center comprised of a "module controller" and various "media components"
I have one of these. It is called XBOX 360.
The fan on that Xbox makes it impossible to watch a movie on, I know cause I own one. Please stop with this Xbox 360 as a consumer media centre shit already. Families don't by Xbox, but a family would buy a set-top box from Apple if it connected to an iTunes iPTV service.
I hate Apple. It is beginning to look a company who would even patent the comb-over, I see a patent troll in the making, having learned a painful lesson of dishing out $100 million for stealing other people ideas.
I am part of a family (I am the dad) and I bought an XBOX360 and I watch movies on it. I agree the fan is loud but my speakers are louder.
Heh, you and 12 other uber machos who are using Windows MCE. :-)
The proof is in the pudding. Windows MCE has never caught on because most people (who are not techheads) didn't want to bother. It's an inescapable fact. MS products are too complex for ordinary people who as we all know can't or won't even set the time on their VCRs.
Microsoft is used to selling to corporations who have whole divisions of IT staff to babysit the end user. MS would be doomed without them.* MS does not know how to design a product that can be operated by a person who does not have access to this army of techheads. Unfortunately for them the action is moving out of the office and into the living room.
*It's a symbiotic relationship. Tens of thousands of IT support staffers are relying on the unremedied ineptness of MS for their continued employment.
@tundraboy: Can you explain exactly WHAT complexities someone who buys a MCE machine are such that they'll run away screaming?
Like I said, mine set up with no fuss whatsoever. If you want to start a Mac/PC flame war, by all means go ahead. I've got better things to do, like run Spybot and Ad-Aware.
:p
MCE was selling well all last year, and I personally know 5 people with MCE PC's.
'Microsoft sees rapid Media Center sales'
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6052115.html
How the heck does someone writing for Engadget know what the "average consumer" can and can't deal with? The same "average consumer" who cant set the clock on their outdated VCR that they keep around so they can watch Terminator?