Where the Christmas Lights Go

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 15:25:18 -0500

While perhaps imperfect, efforts like this give me hope.
Merry Holiday Season.
-d

on the matter of the inevitable apple television

Thu, 8 Dec 2011 10:17:32 -0500

Someday I would like to create a dedicated blog for my thoughts, predictions, inspiration, and general musings. Today is not that day. However, I am going to start by posting this here and the eventually, hopefully, I will one day migrate it to it’s proper home on the web.

The matter on my mind is the inevitable Apple Television set. First on why it is inevitable, and then on how I expect it will work.

Apple will build a television based on what I loosely call the “three screen idea.” That is that there are sufficient reasons to own three screens. One that fits in your pocket, one with a larger screen but is also mobile, and a third which is rather large and doesn’t move an inch. In the same way that the iPhone was inevitable, that MP3 players had to meld with phones (and then some), so to is the inevitable blending of televisions and the web. Obviously this has already started to happen.

As has been well documented, the Apple strategy is to observe an emergent technology and then fix most of what is wrong with it. The Apple TV heretofore, the little boxes that plug into televisions to enhance capability, are simply a beta; a means to test the waters, collect data, and refine strategy without fully diving into the ridiculously competitive TV set market. Arguably the same could be said of the iPod as the necessary precursor to the real device, the iPhone. The primary difference simply being that the iPod was wildly successful. In any event, Apple will act in the next year or so and begin producing a television because the market will force them to. Apple likes to best, and preferably first in introducing major technological paradigm shifts. The good news for Apple is that no one has gotten it nearly right so far, but decent efforts, primarily from Google and Microsoft are on the horizon.

The question then is what might an Apple Television look like and what will it do to separate itself from the competition? Of course it will be beautiful and minimalistic. It will be made of quality materials (long shot guess here, but maybe glass and aluminum?) have virtually no bezel (which will be equal width around the IPS display) and be rather thin, though not as thin as the LED TVs that currently cheat by putting the components in the base thereby making them not wall-mountable. The Apple Television will have wifi and bluetooth built in, a power cable and maybe 3 hdmi inputs. The television will run on Apple silicon, maybe the “A6” chip assuming the TV is a 1080p device and not an extension of the iMac line (4K). It will have an HD camera and microphone built in and touch sensitive buttons.

The billion dollar question is the software. It will of course run iOS with the main difference being, just like the iPhone relegated making calls to an app, so to will the Apple Television relegate watching live TV to an app. The question then may be what the “TV” app does. I suspect it will enable you to control your cable box. I wouldn’t put it beyond apple to make their TV software compatible with all HD cable boxes out there. This will simplify DVRing things, setting up favorite channels, shows, etc. I am not sure what the UI will be, but I would guess the included remote will be a magic trackpad, just in case you don’t have an iphone or ipad. The TV of course won’t be a touch screen, but touch UI will be available through the track pad, or “i” devices. You will have access to all the same content as the current AppleTV (iCloud, Netflix, iTunes, Flickr, etc). You will also have access to the app store and all the apps you have already purchased. Although, like the iPad, you will be able to run all apps using a pixel doubling algorithm, but you’ll want the “HD” apps that have been formatted especially for TV screens (16:9 horizontal). This will practically sound the death knell for external console gaming systems. If you want to use a keyboard, any bluetooth will work, though Apple will highlight the convenience of using your iDevice’s keyboard.

The TV will turn on near instantly. There will be arguments over features Apple left out, such as a coaxial input, but it will only work in Apple’s favor.

With regards to the AppleTV as a gaming system, there are a few options as far as which direction they go in for controllers. They could release a magic trackpad with a gyroscope and accelerometer in it so that the bundled remote got you access to game play. They could sell wii-like game controllers separately, or they could build in a kinect-like tracking system. I know almost nothing about gaming so I wouldn’t try to hammer this one out, though my gut says they will go the kinect route. For that matter it is possible that the TV will have a kinect-based UI, along with...

Siri will be built in.

It will be expensive but competitively priced compared to other TVs, but an amazing value for what you get. The integration of hardware, software, and content with a slick UI will make it damn near impossible for competitors to duplicate. Apple will convince people to spend a bit more because other TVs will seem cheap and lacking features by comparison. It will further increase the value of the other screens Apple sells and the benefits of buying into the Apple system.

People will joke that it is just a huge iPad, and they will be right (save for the touchscreen part), and it will sell like crazy.

The stock is at $393 right now and there is a debate going on whether it is wildly over or under-valued. I vote under. If I were a man of means I would put my money where my mouth is.

There is much more to discuss, such as where OSX plays into all of this, if at all. Also, will the iMac be a stepping stone device? I could go on, but I need to do some homework. I just wanted to get these thoughts down as a record before the announcement.

To be continued.

Levi’s First Bottle

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 19:55:47 -0500

Levi had his first bottle the other day. Fortunately Tobias was there to help out.

Keeping it simple with the posts these days. Good to be posting something though.

Smiling Little Levi

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:41:39 -0500

This was shot in the hospital when Levi was 3 days old.