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SlingCatcher to tread on iTV vapor trail?
In the first of what will probably be several moments of Macworld/CES friction, there are reports from Engadget, among other sources, of the latest Sling Media product: the SlingCatcher, a remote receiver for Slingbox streams that will work as a set top box for TVs. With wireless networking and an internal hard drive for storing hypothetical purchased content, this begins to sound very much like a preannounced product we've heard about.It was too much to wish that everyone else would stay out of Apple's way while the iTV finished baking; perhaps the shadow of SlingCatcher and similar devices on the horizon caused the atypical WWDC "It's Showtime" preview of unreleased hardware. If you knew that the simplicity of the iPod/iTunes combo was on the way for your video streaming, would it be worth waiting for? Or would you go Sling instead?
The PC2TV EchoView FM ... think iTV but not by Apple
Think of the Addlogix PC2TV EchoView FM as an iTV -- Apple's tentatively titled set-top box -- except that it doesn't come in white ... and it has a DVI output. The "codex agnostic" device will wirelessly receive video (up to 720p they claim) at 30 frames per second over 802.11g from any WiFi-enabled computer. Anything you can view on your computer you can stream to a display wirelessly (or wired, if that's your thing), so long as it accepts composite, component, or DVI input. We're not sure when Apple's going to launch the iTV or what they're going to charge, but expect the EchoView FM to hit in February for $199.99.
Ask TUAW: What are you most excited for at Macworld 07?
It's obvious that Erica is more than a little fired up for the iTV at Macworld 07, but we want to hear from the rest of you. Granted, there's the obligatory portion of anticipated products that might not even exist, but who cares! If you're hoping for an Apple phone, then by golly you have every right to. Or is iLife '07 at the top of your list? Quad-core iMacs and MacBook Pros, perhaps? Whatever you're jonesing for the most, we want to hear from you. I'll tally your comments this weekend and post the results of what you dear readers have at the top of your post-holiday wishlists.
Apple iTV rumored to be passed over at MacWorld
Take it for what you will, but the latest AppleInsider rumor to chew on is that at MacWorld next week Stevie J will not be officially introducing the iTV. It's been kind of a given that since last year's "It's Showtime" event when the iTV was informally announced, that Macworld 2007 would be when we all got to have a looksee at the final product. According to AI, however, Apple is still working the kinks out of the device software, and will delay its launch until late January or early February. Whether it'll make it through the fog of development still dubbed "iTV" no one yet knows, but we'll be honest, it's what we don't know is coming down Apple's product pipeline that we're most interested in right now.
Will iTV be ready for Macworld?
Steve promised us iTV at Showtime. Now AppleInsider suggests that the Apple wireless media hub might not be ready for January's Macworld, possibly shipping in February or later. iTV, by whatever name it will get rebranded, promises to offer a wireless living room link to your iTunes library. If, as our Victor Agreda predicted, Apple begins to offer high-def titles at the iTunes store, the draft 802.11n wireless connection speculated upon as the core of iTV by many rumor sites may be pushed to its technical limits.
TUAW predictions for Macworld 07
It's the new year boys and girls, which means (amongst other things) that Macworld will soon be upon us. As such, it is only fitting that we dust off TUAW's crystal ball to envision what we think will be unveiled both on and off stage. Now we don't have any insider information - this is all simply logical deduction sprinkled with some wishful thinking, so don't bet the bank on any of this. That said, we present you TUAW's predictions for Macworld 07, in order of blogger's last name:Victor Agreda Jr. Google integration (iTV + YouTube) API's for iTV (for El Gato, in particular). Maybe that's a wish; I really, truly doubt Apple and El Gato will play in the same sandbox HD content on iTunes ('07 is the true year of HD) A gold nano - for Steve, as he announces retiring in 2008 Some sort of Spreadsheet addition to iWork 07 .Mac will "somehow get better" David Chartier I agree with everyone else: iLife and iWork 07 are a sure thing No Apple iPhone - mostly because, if true, it could possibly go down in history as one of the most hyped yet never announced fanaticware products of all time I've been hoping for a video update to the AirPort Express, but it seems like the iTV more or less kills that idea; I predict it ships at Macworld On Leopard: I again agree with everyone else on a ship date being announced Laurie A. Duncan The Mac mini will get a Core 2 Duo upgrade - although not necessarily across the line. I wouldn't put it past them to keep the sub-$600 model a single Core Duo A major iTunes-related content announcement Hopefully a new stand-alone iSight camera because as much as I dig the convenience of having one built in to my iMac and MacBook, it's not terribly convenient for scanning my many shelves of books into Delicious Library, for instance (I still have my old FW iSight for such occassions, but a shiny new one would be nice) I am fairly certain we'll get to hear what the "iTV" will actually be called, along with a ship date and I'm pretty sure we'll hear a Leopard ship date I'm not seeing an iPhone(y) (aka iVox in the pretend world where I am in charge of such things) in my crystal ball, although I suspect there will be a number of jokes about it Mat Lu Leopard released earlier than expected iTV finalized revised iPods no iPhone CS3 released earlier than expected Dan Lurie Release date and complete feature set for Leopard iLife/Work '07 iTV release date and complete feature set. iPhone (You have no idea how much I want this one to be right) Scott McNulty iLife and iWork 07 Refreshed Cinema Displays Leopard ship date announced Michael Rose Likewise on Leopard release date Minimum of three additional studios for iTunes movie store "iTV" official announcement, integration with Elgato products for capture Major digital asset management product announcement for pro video space, stemming from Proximity acquisition One more thing: 8-core Mac Pro One MORE more thing: iPod Phone - multi-service chat presence included Erica Sadun iLife and iWork 07 iTV ships Leopard ship date iPhone announcement iDogCow - because every good prediction should have an absolutely wrong item in it. Viva Clarus. Moof! There you have it - we'll just have to see next week which of our crystal balls is the clearest. What do y'all think? Are we off the mark, or did we miss anything you're betting the house on? Gambling habits aside, feel free to share your own predictions in the comments.
Is this the iTV remote? Please, God, no
So, the word on the street is that the monochrome-display sportin' Ruwido VEXO remote depicted above is a dead ringer for Apple's upcoming iTV remote. While we're all about minimalism, this strange combination of sexy scroll wheel and ugly, complicated monochrome display just really isn't doing it for us. And we know you're taking notes, Apple -- say it ain't so! Peep another pic of the not-an-iTV-remote after the break.[Via Digg]
Freeview HD trial a resounding success story
It's no secret that Americans can't get enough of that HD goodness once its graced their eyes, and apparently the Brits feel the same way in their own homeland. Following a six month trial in London which broadcasted HD content over Freeview, surveys showed that a vast majority of individuals adored the service and are now chomping at the bit to get more. BBC, ITV, and Channel 4 all reported positive results, as a whopping 98-percent of the 450 partakers felt that "OTA HD service should be available now." Moreover, 90-percent of the trialists felt "the public broadcasters should be responsible for HD development," and desired to have "at least" seven HD channels available to them. Of course, there's always the critics, and a paltry five-percent of participants felt that the HD experience didn't exactly live up to their lofty expectations, but considering some broadcasters apparently compressed the feeds to squeeze more channels into their limited bandwidth, we can't exactly blame them.
Rumor: Apple's iTV product to have TiVo Inside
The latest in pre-Macworld rumors is another case of wishful thinking with no shred of credible evidence to back it up. An anonymous tipster told PVRWire yesterday that "Apple will be licensing TiVo patented technology for iTV. Also, the name iTV has changed to Mac Media Capsule." Wow! Really? Um... no. Haven't we been here before? Oh wait, it was debunked then, too. If Apple and TiVo ever do hook up, I'll be ecstatic since they are two of my favorite brands, but there's nothing to indicate that's happening anytime soon. It was a better bet two years ago when I hinted at it.
New survey reveals exciting TV possibilities
Sony has been sending out some really interesting surveys lately. First, they asked which features could be removed from the PSP (hopefully, users said none). Now, they're asking users if they're interested in mobile television for the PSP. They give users two options: streaming using LocationFree player, or by subscribing to a mobile TV service for $10 a month. Personally, the latter seems much more enticing.Considering how Japan has an official PSP media download service called PTV, it makes sense for Sony to expand that to other markets as well. What do you think: should Sony offer portable TV for you? And would you subscribe at that price?
iTV not Apple Interactive Television Box
Yesterday Digg was all abuzz with the news that Apple's forthcoming iTV wasn't a new idea at all, in fact, Apple had tried the very same thing in 1994! PVRWire's Chris Tew gets to the bottom of this, and corrects the Digg crowd.It would seem that Diggers found out about Apple's ill fated Apple Interactive Television Box, which was a set-top box that you plugged into your TV. It featured fast forward and rewind capabilities like today's DVR, but the content wasn't stored locally. The Interactive TV needed to connect up with a cable channel (this device was developed in partnership with British Telecom). There were plans for game shows, children's shows and the like for the interactive TV but the project was abandoned.The iTV, on the other hand, is used to stream media from your Mac onto your TV. There is some talk that the unit will have a hard drive, but no one is sure if that will be for buffering or if the iTV will be able to store media.After the jump check out a picture of the remote that was to come with the Apple Interactive Television Box, it isn't as simple as Apple's current remote.
Apple sneaks draft 802.11n card into MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo
The Core 2 Duo MacBook Pros are hitting the streets and MacRumors is reporting that the wireless card is identified as a D-Link RangeBooster N 650 which is described as "Up to 650% Faster & 5X Farther than 802.11g".Since another "draft 802.11n" card was found in the Core 2 Duo iMacs , there is added speculation on the rumor sites that the upcoming iTV product will also support the unfinished 802.11n protocol, granting us faster speeds and greater range than the current 802.11g standard. Let's hope!if you haven't gotten your paws on one yet, here are some unboxing pics to salivate over and some initial hands-on reports in the MacRumors forums.Thanks, Trevor!
Switched On: Apple's DVR dilemma
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment: Both Microsoft's Windows Media Center and Apple's Front Row provide a "ten-foot" interface for music, DVDs and photos. But, when used with a compatible video card, Media Center includes the ability to record television shows. In fact, small USB ATSC tuners now available or coming soon from the likes of Pinnacle are recognized by Windows Media Center. Apple has eschewed such a feature, probably for a variety of technological and business reasons. Modern Macs don't include TV tuners and adding them would increase cost. Setting up DVRs to work with set-top boxes via infrared blasters can be cumbersome and unreliable. Much of the complexity of Windows Media Center remotes that Apple has chided is due to their more comprehensive control and recording of television. And CableCARD – the ailing standard in which Microsoft and TiVo (to name a couple) have placed great faith for simplifying tuning by bypassing the cable set-top box -- is far from a universal solution. Meanwhile, the increased distribution of subsidized and well-integrated (if sometimes impaired) DVRs from cable and satellite providers makes the market a challenging one. Apple's omission of DVR functionality has also been relatively easy to understand or justify until now because of the iTunes store. Apple's novel channel for selling video has facilitated bringing television shows to PCs and iPods, emerging platforms for video. Despite Windows Media Center and other PC-based DVR products including Windows pioneer Beyond TV from Snapstream, Linux favorite MythTV, and consumer electronics crossover ReplayTV, DVRs remain overwhelmingly in the living room. And so it has stood -- iTunes-purchased shows local on the PC and recorded shows local to the TV. For Apple, though, that wall will melt like the transition effect in a sitcom flashback next year when the company releases the product known for now as iTV. The digital media adapter, which resembles a slice of Mac mini, will bring a Front Row-like interface to televisions.
Nokia has a WiFi video streaming device in the works?
As a natural followup to their Wireless Audio Gateway AD-42W (pictured), it looks like Nokia might be getting into the video streaming game with a new WiFi device for streaming video from your phone. The rumor comes courtesy of T3, and deets are slim, but we're sure Nokia can figure out some nifty functionality for such a device if it does turn out to be real. We'd love to see such a unit act as a DVR and prep videos for your phone, but blurry and pointless camphone vids streamed from your Nokia onto the big screen will be nice too. We're not quite sure we'd be naming this thing a direct iTV competitor, but between this, a Slingbox, a Media Extender, an iPod video loader and an iTV, our TV setup is starting to look more device-laden than our desktop, so we're thinking something's gotta give.[Via atmaspheric]
Apple to enter the flat panel biz?
Whatever Jobs & CO. slaps that little white apple logo onto seems to turn to gold recently so what would happen if they enter the flat-panel TV business? Home Depot is doing it so why couldn't Apple? They already have amazing flat-panel LCD monitors, a chain of successful retail locations, a distribution network that should be able to handle other large objects, and don't forget about their upcoming iTV. For the most part, a mid-range flat-panel is a mid-range flat-panel and Apple wouldn't have to produce a slew of these products in order to be successful. Two product lines would be 'nough along with a few different sizes in order to turn a profit. Carl Howe takes a look at the question at hand here and comes to one conclusion: it's not a matter of if Apple will enter the flat panel market; the only question is when.
Core 2 Duo Macs including 802.11n Wi-Fi cards?
Upon installing and booting into Windows Vista on his new 20-inch Core 2 Duo iMac, a forum poster known as Peace at Mac Rumors noticed that Vista identified the wireless card in the iMac as a Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter. Check out the Wikipedia's entry on 802.11n for some details, but it is essentially the next generation in wireless standards, offering increased range (reportedly up to 1/4 mile) and a much faster data thoroughput, up to 50x greater than 802.11b and 10x faster than 802.11a/g.If this is true, and Windows isn't simply mistaking the hardware it's reporting (like that's never happened before), this is quite an intriguing move for Apple, as the actual 802.11n protocol has quite a ways to go on its journey to becoming ratified as an industry standard. Further, this is dumping fuel on the rumor fire that Apple will be using 802.11n in the iTV to achieve HD streaming. After all, the upcoming device has all the fixins for handling HDTV, and Mac Rumors is also observant in pointing out that Mr. J said the device uses "802.11" on stage, without specifying which version.That's about all we have for now. We'll keep our eyes out for iMac and Mac Pro dissections to see if anyone can find cold hard evidence. [via digg]
My theory on why Apple isn't including Blu-ray drives in Macs
Engadget HD linked a theory from Robert X. Cringely as to why Apple hasn't included Blu-ray drives in any of their Macs yet (it isn't even an option in the Mac Pro), despite being on the board of the Blu-ray Disc Association. Mr. Cringely more or less links the lack of Blu-ray in Macs to movies and Apple's strategy with downloadable iTS content and the upcoming iTV. The thinking goes: if Apple can sell you a downloadable movie through the iTS and an iTV on which to watch it - why undercut that model with a Blu-ray drive built right into the machine?I disagree. There's plenty of other uses and potential (heck, they can hold up to 50GB) in these warring next generation optical formats (Blu-ray and their mortal enemy, HD-DVD), and that's exactly the point: these formats are in the middle of an industry polarizing war, and I think Apple hasn't committed to including either in their machines because they don't want risk leaving their customers high and dry once the dust settles and (dear lord, finally) one format wins out. The iTS/movie downloads/iTV theory doesn't hold water in my book also because that would mean they should eliminate CD and DVD drives from their machines - after all, those drives can undercut their iTunes Store music and movie purchases, right? These discs can hold a lot more than simple movies.This ridiculous Blu-ray/HD-DVD situation is Betamax vs. VHS all over again, and while Apple is known for pushing the envelope on which technologies they adopt, I believe they're simply waiting for an actual standard to emerge. The only question is when these camps are going to get over themselves and stop forcing consumers to stock up on Advil for every trip to the electronics store.
Amazon working with TiVo for Unbox integration?
There's nothing confirmed yet, but the New York Post is reporting that Amazon and TiVo are currently in talks regarding a feature that would allow the playback of Amazon Unbox videos on TiVo's set-top boxes. If something like this works out, it would give Amazon a substantial advantage in arena of getting online video to the living room, since Apple's "iTV" device is still in prototype mode. Amazon already has a bit of a leg up on Apple in the online movie space, since they've got rights to films from a lot more studios, but Apple's iPod ensures a substantial customer base that won't be downloading PlaysForSure files anytime soon, so studios will have to cave sooner or later. TiVo really seems like a natural fit for Amazon, and hopefully they can get this functionality in the hands of consumers before iTV steamrolls the market, but we'll have to wait and see how legit this rumor turns out to be.[Via Tech Gadgets]
Macworld on what you need to know about iTV
We may not know when Apple will be shipping the iTV, or what it will be called, or what all it can do, but that won't stop us from talking about it. I mean, we know even less about the iPhone and lots of Mac websites parrot on about that ad nauseum (TUAW being no exception).Jason Snell and Dan Frakes, of Macworld, have written up a guide to thats the things that we know (and can infer) about the forthcoming iTV. Now, they say that the iTV doesn't seem to have a hard drive but a certain Disney employee disagrees. I suppose we'll know as soon as Apple posts some more info about this puppy.The only thing I want to know is: when can I order one?
Disney CEO says iTV will come with a hard drive
As everyone well knows, LL Cool Stevie J is so secretive that it inevitably leads to reams of rumors before any big Apple event. The problem is the companies Apple works with sometimes seem to be confused by the three letters: N, D and A -- we're lookin' at you, Lionsgate. This time, however, it looks like they're taking a slightly different approach; Disney's CEO, Bob Iger (whom we last spotted sharing the stage with Steve Jobs at the most recent Apple event), recently revealed at a Goldman Sachs conference that the iTV would, in fact, have a hard drive. According to a transcript of the conference purportedly obtained by iPodObserver.com, Iger said: "It can also stream it live through the box to the TV or it has a small hard drive on it so they can download what you put on the device on your computer, on your iTunes, through the television set." So much for keeping cards close to the vest, huh Steve? We understand maybe this is their way of making sure people buying their movies on iTunes feel secure about their purchases knowing a whole Apple entertainment platform awaits them in the future, but Steve, we hope that should you reconsider that fleeting thought of duct taping an iTV across Bob Iger's mouth, you just send it our way instead, cool?