Apple TV+ - page 117

On Tuesday I went to a party at San Francisco’s Cafe Du Nord to celebrate the launch of Fuze For Mac, a nifty cloud-based videoconferencing tool from FuzeBox.

I heard several interesting things about Steve Jobs and some intriguing Apple TV rumors. One of the rumors made me think that Tim Cook’s new Mac — the one that is going to be made in the U.S.A. — might actually be a big-screen Apple TV.

Here’s what I heard:

• The software was developed at the behest of Steve Jobs himself, who persuaded FuzeBox to make the software not just for the Mac, but for an upcoming Apple TV.
• Steve Jobs gave the company a special dev lab on Apple’s campus.
• According to FuzeBox’s CEO, the upcoming Apple TV has a 60-inch screen. It has no inputs whatsoever, except an AC power cord. No wires. You can’t plug in a cable box or a game console. Nothing.
• It does have Gigabit wireless Wi-Fi and gesture controls, equivalent to Microsoft’s Kinect accessory for the Xbox.
• And finally, the story of how FuzeBox got an ultra rare meeting with Steve Jobs is worth telling — details below.

Now, I’m the first to admit that not all of this adds up. I got it from Jeff Cavins, FuzeBox’s CEO, who told a good tale, especially after I’d had a couple of pints. While I was fascinated and entertained, it didn’t get to pin him down on details. The party was loud and crowded, and we were constantly interrupted. So mostly for entertainment purposes, this is what he said:

Apple CEO Tim Cook practically never grants interviews, and rarer still, one where he talks with such candor about the future of Apple, the legacy of Steve Jobs, and why Apple products aren’t currently made here in the USA, but soon will be.

Join us on our newest CultCast as we discuss Mr. Cook’s recent interviews, his frank comments about Apple’s “intense interest” in TV, and why that new Apple-stamped mystery set could be built right here in the U.S. of A.

All that and more on our newest CultCast! Subscribe now on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Remember those goofy VHS interactive video board games they had back in the early 90s? I had one, based on Star Trek: The Next Generation. It came out in 1993, so you can pick one up from eBay for about $24 these days. I remember being just super excited that I could play a board game and fake-interact with klingons on the television set, remote in hand to pause, fast forward, and rewind as the board game told me what to do.

Imagine my surprise now when I can have a party at my house with up to 15 iOS device owners, playing a drawing charades game on a huge flat screen TV with nothing but a tiny computer that everyone brought into the house with them, their fingers, and a tiny hockey-puck sized device connected to the television. Now that would feel like science-fiction.

Draw-It, Push-It, a new game for iOS devices, purports to do just that.

Apple CEO Tim Cook just didn’t talk with Businessweek today in an unpredecented interview, he’s also going to be on NBC’s “Rock Center” tonight talking to Brian Williams… and in a new preview of the upcoming episode, Tim Cook has hinted strongly that Apple will be entering the HDTV market sooner rather than later.

Since Apple released iOS 5.1.1 for the Apple TV last week alongside iTunes 11, many users have reported problems updating to the new software over an ethernet connection. This appears to be the result of nasty bug in the latest Apple TV OS. Some Apple TVs even failed to boot back up after the update wouldn’t stick.

If you’ve been having problems updating to 5.1.1 on your Apple TV, then try updating over a Wi-Fi connection or manually restoring in iTunes.

Apple unleashed a slew of software updates this afternoon, including an iOS update for the second and third-gen Apple TV. Today’s  5.1.1 update brings full support for iTunes 11 and a number of stability improvements.

iTunes 11 has a music queuing feature called “Up Next,” and the Apple TV can now interface with Up Next to show what’s about to play. The new iOS Remote app also lets you manage your queue from an iPhone or iPad.

The Apple TV has become a mythical creature. Sustaining itself off the delicious nectar of Gene Munster’s wishful rumors, its remained hidden for years and who knows if it’ll ever make an appearance in the real world.

The latest rumor is that Apple will announce their TV set next year. If Apple does make a TV it’s likely to bring some huge changes to the cable television industry, and Time Warner’s CEO can’t wait.

If there’s anything more illusive than the iPhone 5 jailbreak, it’s the third-gen Apple TV jailbreak. While real progress is being made on cracking Apple’s latest smartphone, hackers are having a harder time jailbreaking everyone’s favorite living room hockey puck.

The current Apple TV set-top box just doesn’t cut it. We all want more from Apple, and hopefully we’ll get the perfect TV experience one day. Until then, there’s only the imagination.

Content distribution and management is a convoluted mess right now, especially in the living room. That’s why I’m floored by the beautiful simplicity of this Apple TV concept:

While you all were picking the choicest dark and white turkey meats for your plates and piling high glistening mountains of mashed potatoes, we here at Cult of Mac were stuck in our broadcasting dungeons recording another brand new CultCast, cause guess what? We’re just. That. Professional.

Ok so we actually recorded Wednesday. But with so much great Apple news and topics to cover this week, we just had to hop on the mics before the holiday gorging commenced.

Apple’s Black Friday sales; Oprah’s love for the iPad; Tim Cook’s favorite Thanksgiving accoutrements—it’s all that and more on this gravy-smothered over-stuffed CultCast! Subscribe now to The CultCast on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes and to learn how you could promote your product or service on one of our future episodes.

Apple TV is just a hobby, but it’s still a pretty great product that beats most of the other low-cost entertainment service set-top boxes on the market. It turns out that Microsoft may want in on the action and is building there own Apple TV type of device to compete with Apple.

Sources at Microsoft have confirmed to The Verge that the Redmond company has plans to introduce a low-cost alternative to its Xbox console that will compete more directly with the Apple TV.

Priced at only $99, the Apple TV is a pretty awesome deal. But if you thinking streaming movies from you Mac to your LED Plasma 3D Ultra High-Definition TV isn’t worth that much, then maybe you just need a cheaper Chinese knockoff solution.

Xiaomi Box looks pretty similar to an Apple TV, it’s cheaper than an Apple TV, it even comes with the ability to use Apple’s AirPlay protocol like an Apple TV, but it only costs $64.

On Thursday, Jefferies analyst James Kisner revealed that the much-anticipated Apple television, the product we’ve been talking about for well over a year, is almost ready to make its big debut. In fact, Kisner said its launch was “imminent.”

According to sources for AllThingsD, however, it’s not quite as close as Kisner would have you believe. While Apple has indeed held talks with a number of large cable companies, it seems it hasn’t yet spoken to TV programmers. With that in mind, it seems the Apple television is some way off just yet.

Apple’s primed and ready to take over your entire world of media; Microsoft’s paid cavalcade of celebrity Windows Phone endorsements make us sad; and the big plans Apple has to fan the flames of employee innovation; as you’ll soon hear, no topic is safe from discussion on this week’s CultCast. We even dive deep into the ancient practice of platonic male hand holding.

You think I’m joking…

All that and a Faves and Raves controversy meltdown! Subscribe now to The CultCast on iTunes, or easily stream new and previous episodes via Apple’s free Podcasts App.

Read on for the show notes and to learn how you could promote your product or service on one of our future episodes.

Apple has been trying to get some sort of new TV product off the ground for quite some time. We’ve seen prototypes of an actual Apple iTV, and there’s also been speculation that Apple will introduce a TV set-top box that streams live broadcasts over the internet.

While licensing agreements still need to be reached with Hollywood studios and cable companies, Apple’s mythical TV device is gearing up for an “imminent” launch, according to a new report.

At a Techonomy conference today, two of the four panelists called out Apple as “most likely to succeed” at a session discussing how advertising could affect existing media companies.

While the session itself didn’t spend a lot of time on Apple, according to Techcrunch, the panel ended with an answer to moderator Dave Morgan’s question on predictiong the world’s most powerful media company in 2020. Digital agency AKQA’s Tom Bedecarre said that Apple would take the top spot, due to the several media delivery platforms that it owns or controls.

Another panelist and CEO of SocialFlow, Frank Speiser, agreed, adding that the time was ripe for a company like Facebook or Twitter to team up with Apple to help improve discovery, thus giving the partnering company a leg up in the media landscape.

Apple’s current “hobby” — also known as Apple TV — doesn’t tell us much about Apple’s future plans for the living room.

It’s a good product under the right circumstances. But five years from now, living rooms are going to be transformed by all-encompassing systems that turn TVs into video phones, gaming systems, home automation control centers and artificial intelligence assistants.

Does Apple have what it takes to compete in the living room? 

A coalition of higher education IT folks petitioned Apple last August to make Bonjour, AirPlay, and AirPrint work better on large campus networks. The petition currently has 750 signatures, which may have helped Apple take notice.

This week, the Cupertino-based tech company responded to the petition by proposing a new industry standard that will fix issues with its “zero-configuration” networking technology–Bonjour–to let it scale better and be more secure across larger networks. At an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting in Atlanta, Apple and other vendors, including IBM, claimed support for the creation of a new working group to improve the current networking protocols, of which Bonjour is one.

According to a new rumor, iPhone assembler Foxconn Electronics is discussing plans to build manufacturing plants in the U.S. Possible locations for the new plants include Detroit and Los Angeles, but Foxconn may be conducting evaluations in other cities as well.

Foxconn and Apple have come under fire over the last few years for terrible working conditions in assembly plants. The assembly of the iPhone and iPad being conducted in China rather than the U.S. was even a debate point in the recent presidential election. Bringing manufacturing jobs into the U.S. may help heal Foxconn’s reputation.

Legendary entrepreneur and businessman Mark Cuban knows a thing or two about the TV industry. Besides owning the Dallas Mavericks, Cuban founded HDNet Movies and is subsequently the chairman of AXS TV on the HDTV network. He also appears in Shark Tank, a reality TV show starring prominent entrepreneurs and business executives.

It’s no secret that Apple has been trying to reach agreements with Hollywood to create a totally new kind of TV experience. Negotiations have reportedly been ongoing for quite some time. In a recent interview, Cuban explained how Apple’s software integration with the cable companies would be a “game over” move. The TV industry would never be the same.

Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony, Google and all the big-screen TV makers want to own the the all-purpose living room entertainment system of tomorrow.

Smart TV systems, which will incorporate movies-on-demand, gaming, web surfing, videoconferencing, home automation and more (even TV shows!) are likely to become the next big opportunity for content-driven platform companies.

But is time running out for Apple to make its move?

The surprising answer is: No, not really. Apple’s got plenty of time. And there’s no need for Apple to make a TV set, either.

Here’s why.

During the Q4 financial call today, Tim Cook was asked about the future of the Apple TV and whether it will continue to be a hobby, or maybe something more. Of course Tim Cook wouldn’t talk about any future plans for the Apple TV, but he did explain why Apple is slower to make improvements to the Apple TV.

If you don’t have an Apple TV but want to look at all your pretty iPhone 5 pictures on your HDTV, then Apple just came out with some new Lightning adapters to help solve all your problems. For $49 you can get a Lightning to HDMI adapter, or Lightning to VGA adapter from the online Apple Store.

The new adapters ship in 2-3 weeks and would probably be pretty useful for people who are always tech their tech gear with them on business trips, but seems how the Apple TV only costs 50 bucks more to beam your content to your TV, we think it’s a better investment.

When Apple holds a press event to announce its latest gadget, the vast majority of us are frantically refreshing our favorite websites in an effort to keep up with the news as it’s breaking. It’s not often we get to watch the event live.

But sometimes, Apple treats us to a live video feed. And it’s doing that today for the much-anticipated iPad mini event.

What is Apple’s perfect recipe for the living room TV experience? The tech industry has been asking itself that question since rumors of an Apple-branded TV set started circulating months and months ago. While ‘iTV’ rumors have died down recently due to the iPhone 5 and iPad mini hype, Apple has quietly been trying to work out licensing deals with Hollywood for a mysterious iCloud, TV-ish service. Will it be baked into iTunes, the current Apple TV, or come packaged in a totally new device? These are the questions.

While Apple’s real plans are obviously shrouded in mystery, there’s a very strong case to be made for using existing ingredients to make the TV experience Apple ultimately desires. The recipe is actually a lot simpler than you may think. An Apple TV set-top box and iOS device may be all it takes.