A member of The Verge forums posted a series of intriguing images depicting an à la carte heaven where the Apple TV box serves entertainment from pretty much any source imaginable, be it DLNA devices on the local network, your cable or satellite provider web sources like iTunes and YouTube – even premium channels like HBO and Fox. Regardless of the source, the concept calls for a unified interface bringing together all the different media sources in one central place, with voice-activated search, electronic program guides and other perks…
The Verge credits its forum user “Knowledge” whose take on the future of television doesn’t take into account the politics, economics and complexities involved in securing broad rights to premium content.
I mean, even Steve Jobs once claimed Apple couldn’t innovate the television market because cable companies are giving away set-top boxes for free. He called the market balkanized, with no clear leader in sight.
This is what an electronic program guide might look like.
Siri on your telly (there’s also a mocking video for that). He’s envisioning lots more uses for Siri on the iTV: from scheduling recordings, setting and changing reminders to changing channels and playing media to opening apps, finding content available for purchase in iTunes and so forth.
You may remember that BGR editor Jonathan Geller incorrectly predicted apps for the current-generation Apple TV hockey puck ahead of WWDC.
You’ll recall that BGR editor Jonathan Geller incorrectly predicted that Apple would at WWDC 2012 launch third-party apps for the current-generation Apple TV hockey puck.
Of course, Samsung’s Smart TVs can run a growing selection of apps like Facebook and Angry Birds, with the pricier models featuring gesture control Minority Report style.
Browsing the iTunes Store for movies and television shows. By the way, what’s up with the linen background? It’s fugly as hell, even if “Knowledge” mentions he is not a graphic designer. Hopefully, linen texture is never gonna happen on our TVs under Jony Ive’s watch.
Easy access to Purchased iTunes movies right from the item’s page.
The concept is certainly intriguing and will give you food for thought.
Noticed how the top image depicts the FaceTime icon?
That’s because the concept calls for hardware features like a FaceTime camera, HDMI, Bluetooth, USB, AirPlay, DLNA/Miracast, optical audio out, Thunderbolt (“I would love the ability to connect a hard drive with large storage capacity and the ability to play content from a connected drive even if recording to it is disabled”) and built-in DVR with 1TB of storage.
By the way, wanna see why you cannot get HBO or Showtime without paying for cable?
Watch this TimeWarner ad.
“But the ad does speak to the tight, profitable symbiosis between the network and the guys who run the pipes”, says Peter Kafka of AllThingsD. “The Internet isn’t going to break that up anytime soon”.
That’s all fine and dandy, but what if talk of an Apple-branded HD TV set is just a pipedream?
For all we know, the mythical Apple television could be just an intelligent remote.
Lots more renderings are available over at The Verge so do check them out before sharing your impressions with fellow readers down in the comments.