Apple TV (Take 2), iPod touch, and iPhone: yep, more details here, too
By Ryan Block 
posted January 15th 2008 5:48PM
posted January 15th 2008 5:48PM
- The iPhone 1000 SMS limit is now lifted! Huzzah!
- You can now "pre-type" with two thumbs on v1.1.3 now (i.e. type, type, lift thumb, lift thumb -- instead of the usual type, lift, type lift, which is a big slow-down). Thanks Dan L.
- Gmail IMAP is now officially supported! Thanks, Niall.
- iPod touch can still geolocate, but using Skyhook only (since, naturally, it doesn't have cell tower access like the iPhone + Google).
- The update adds AirTunes support for the Apple TV for streaming directly to the device.
- Your average HD movie download for the ATV is going to be about 4GB -- but if you've got a reasonably fast connection it should start streaming and playing within a minute.
- Standard SD movies should be a bout 1.2GB.
- Just to be clear about how rentals work, they can't move OUT of the Apple TV if acquired ON the ATV. If you need to finish your movie on the go but bought from ATV, you have to rent it again on iTunes with your computer.
- You've also now got "favorites," which act as pseudo-subscriptions. These aren't synced or the same as the subs in iTunes.
- Front Row is NOT undergoing any UI changes (at this time). Don't expect it to look the same as the new Apple TV.
- Search isn't alphabetical, it's predictive and recommendation based. So if you're looking up a letter, the results will seem out of order, but will actually be calculated to be the most likely hit based on popularity.
- There's Dolby Digital 5.1, as we saw, but otherwise there are no codec changes in the ATV.
Apple TV Take 2 hands-on
More details on Apple's iTunes movie / HD rentals
Video: iPhone firmware 1.1.3 doing its thing
The skinny on iPhone and iPod touch firmware 1.1.3
iPhone firmware 1.1.3 update announced: it's just like we heard
Why are the iPod Touch users the only users getting screwed, by paying $20 additional dollars to download something that was stripped down from the iPod Touch in the first place.
People please contact Apple and complain about this issue! It's not just about the $20, it's the principle as well.
Well doesn't apple get a cut from the contract and bill that iPhone users pay every month? If so, then it seems fair, iPhone customers already pay for the service, might as well give them the updates for free. I am not saying that iPod Touch owners don't deserve free upgrades, but it makes sense that Apple wants money for their applications that iPhone owners have already paid for.
I've posted this elsewhere, but here you go anyway:
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/070510/aapl10-q.html
Relevant paragraph:
In March 2007, the Company began shipping Apple TV and expects to begin shipping the iPhone in late June 2007. For Apple TV and the iPhone, the Company plans to provide future unspecified features and additional software products free of charge to customers. Accordingly, the sale of the Apple TV and the iPhone handset are accounted for under subscription accounting in accordance with Statement of Position ("SOP") No. 97-2. As such, the Company defers the associated revenue and cost of goods sold at the time of sale, which will then be recognized on a straight-line basis over the currently estimated 24 month economic life of these products. Costs incurred by the Company for engineering, sales, and marketing will continue to be expensed as incurred.
the point being that Apple is not using a subscription revenue model for the iPod touch and there are all kinds of accounting issues with providing free stuff later when you've already recognized the revenue...
You know what, CraigJ? I'm not buying it. And the reason why is the AppleTV, in part, and also a new ability of the Touch in firmware 1.1.3.
Consider: they just farmed out a HUGE update in functionality to all users of their AppleTV platform, both new users and previous purchasers, and didn't charge the early adopters one cent. The biggest new feature here is the ability to play rented movies on the platform.
Oh, crap - firmware 1.1.3 did the same thing for the iPod Touch! By this justification (and my understanding, but IANAL) they have now provided, in a firmware update, "new features" for nothing. I'm not even talking about the iPhone app ports; playing downloaded movies, webclips on the Springboard, and the ability to rearrange apps (and have multiple pages) are CLEARLY new features which are being provided for free. If their accountants can make those disappear, they could make the added apps disappear too (financially speaking).
That bullshit justification they're trying to use doesn't work both ways, and you should stop making excuses for them. This is money grubbing, pure and simple.
As someone who writes software for a living, I can't quite see how asking people to pay for software is "money grubbing".
iPod touch owners paid a certain amount of money for a device with certain capabilities. Everyone knows that the next version of any piece of consumer electronics will have more capabilities at the same cost. There's just this dumb idea that because improved software doesn't have the physical presence of, say, a faster processor or higher capacity flash memory, it's somehow conjured from thin air for free.
Devices that get free updates are generally devices that represent significant ongoing revenue streams. Microsoft would be less generous with XBox 360 updates if they weren't getting a cut of every game sold for the platform, and if the updates weren't also being used to shut down hacked consoles and widen the market for paid downloadable content. Similarly, the Apple TV update wouldn't be free if it wasn't giving Apple a few thousand eager early adopters for its HD rental service.
The fact you can't touch software, and the fact that often it does make good economic sense to give it away, often leaves people with a misguided sense of entitlement.
I always thought the 1000 SMS limit was stupid. I'm glad it is gone.
Me too! How stupid am I for deleting about 600 old messages the other day!! lol
I really "needed" to keep those too..
It's not that I needed them, 1000 messages was an arbitrary restriction that phones with a tiny percentage of the space of an iPhone had to deal with. I bought an 8GB iPhone and I should be able to have 8GB-worth of text messages if I so choose.
Limits on SMS are always stupid. It's nice that Apple is finally listening to their customers, though the garbage where you can't use cash to buy the stupid phone should be illegal.
Thanks for comparing MBAir to the Sony Vaio, Mr. Jobs!
Now I know which one to get: The one with 2 USB ports and Blu-Ray Drive.
Your Reality Distortion didn't work on the smart people!
Yep you're right. And at least double the weight and half the power. Good call!
There is a TZ with a blu-ray drive? Really?
MACBOOK AIR DOESN'T LOOK GOOD WITH FAT AMERICANS.
hahaha so true
BUT IT DOES LOOK GOOD TO STUPID EUROPEANS?
> BUT IT DOES LOOK GOOD TO STUPID EUROPEANS?
"STUPID" Europeans??? Take that back, you ignorant American!
Apple's Industrial Design team is comprised of EUROPEANS!
European heads serving US economy. Sad.
HA! will my fellow americans pleas loose some weight.
signed, a skinny person
How long will it be before they hack rental downloaded movies on ATV/iTunes for permanent ownership?
I'm assuming that to use the geolocation feature with the ipod touch you have to be connected to a wifi signal, not just near the signals in Skyhook's database. Is that correct?
Not exactly, Skyhook documented wifi hotspots with a GPS so they have a location in their database. But with the iPod touch you will also have to be connected to a wifi signal inorder to get the map data.
maybe they have the wifi hotspot database included in the new map.app, so no internet connection is required, i think.. (hope)..
but you still need a valid wifi for map data gathering... which is still useless if wifi signal is encrypted and you're on the go...
When Jobs did the iPhone update presentation, one slide said "Languages" on it..does 1.1.3 add even more languages than 1.1.2 did? 1.1.2 added English, French, German, and Italian keyboards. Any Asian keyboards added?
"Just to be clear about how rentals work, they can't move OUT of the Apple TV if acquired ON the ATV. If you need to finish your movie on the go but bought from ATV, you have to rent it again on iTunes with your computer."
Er.. no. I think you can NOT rent via iTunes.
i've got the ipod touch update, and how does google maps know what street I am on from my home wireless network? does it geolocate the ip address or something?
I believe, during the keynote, he said rentals sync back to your mac, so you _will_ be able to transfer to other devices if rented on appleTV.
and _YES_ you can rent via iTunes.
you CAN finish movie rentals on your Ipod if rented on ApleTV, As long as its not an HD rental. HD rentals are the only rentals that wont synce back to Ipod if you rent them on APT. i asked a bunch of the apple guys at the expo and this is what they told me.
WHERE THE FUCK IS MY CUT AND PASTE JOBS?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
What do you mean "the average HD download will be 4GB?" - If that were the case you could get a HD movie onto a single layer DVD with room to spare. So is it actually 40GB (the capacity of a Blu-Ray disc? - OR - Is el Jobso plaming us off with standard def as HD - OR - Is it 1080p, but so compressed it will look like crap on a 50" TV?.
nope, your not dreaming...
720p h264 at an average of 5Mbit/s for 100min is around 4GBi. That will still look much much better than a MPEG2 encoded DVDs (at similar bitrate, MPEG2 is, by many, many factor very inferior to h264)
bluray/hddvd are 1080p 15-18Mbit/s when encoded in h264. Which is better !
In quality, I think the apple 720p H264 will be in between hddvd/bluray and live HD by cable/satellite, which isn't that bad.
but you're still right, most the 40GB of bluray/hddvd are needed for MPEG2 encoded HD movies that need a much higher bitrate, and for the extra content nobody wants.
720p h264 movies could be sold on DVD media - just see what is the size/quality of DRM-free HD content in the parallel universe (not that bad, but illegal)
In this market, it's NOT about what is technologically possible or even about what the customers want, it's about the paranoia/denial of the entertainment industry and what they don't want.
BIG miss on not supporting 1080i/p on the "new" ATV. Keep it at the same price and add that and I'm sold.
Anybody got the specs on the HD rentals? Native 720p? AC3 or any DTS etc...
If Skyhook drove up your street and your LAN broadcasts it's SSID (99% of everyone does) then you are in their database and yes it should pinpoint you even from your home network.
Question: I have a jailbroken Touch with the iPhone's apps. What do I have to do in order to use google maps with the geolocating feature? Thanks
Any news in the iPhone in Japan???
Confused about "The update adds AirTunes support for the Apple TV for streaming directly to the device". I know what AirTunes does but why would you stream to your ATV when it sync's with iTunes already?
its probably for watching the movies on your appleTV before it finished downloading in your iTunes.
you can't sync before it's finished !
So can stream music to your receiver without using the TV like airport express, I hope.
I was really hoping this meant you could stream to airport express-connected speakers FROM the Apple TV.
Wait.. maybe you CAN!
"Another new audio feature is support for AirTunes (below). Using an Airport Express Base Station, Apple TV can now wirelessly stream audio out to the same speakers used to distribute music from iTunes."
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/01/15/first_look_apple_tv_2_0_and_itunes_movie_rentals_photos_video.html&page=2
There are still so many thing's to add to the iPhone, why are apple spending so long adding these small updates. Only if they could add silly things that have been missed out - like when receiving MP3's and not being able to save them to the iPhone iPod, or save a Word Doc/ PDF from a email so each time you want to look/ listen to something you have been sent you don't have to sift through email's and emails. And why can iphone sync to airtune's? Yeah triangulation is great, but why can't you have it on constantly so when your driving it continually updates. These are such minor things and there are so many more that i assumed would add and fix. MacBook Air looks great, but i wish they could concentrate on products that people have already purchased.
The geolocation is a disappointment. Its accuracy and precision are vary greatly...so its not a replacement for a GPS system. Guess I'm stuck toting around 2 phones still, my iPhone and LG Voyager, till the iPhone with 3G, Picture messaging, and TV finally comes out. Seriously APPLE how hard is it to allow picture messaging on the iPhone.... its def not the all in one device the ads tout, altho I hope version 2 will be.
A friend tested it last night and said its much more accurate when you're in an area with several Wi-Fi hotspots. Skyhook, FTW!
I noticed something I hadn't before with 1.1.3...accented characters by holding down the respective letter while typing (ùúûüu, for example)...is this new?
No one has mentioned this: I lost my custom ring tone (installed with iToner). I couldn't understand why my phone went in to vibrate only mode. Nothing I did would make it ring. Then it hit me - I chose a built-in ring tone and it started ringing again. Any fix?