HDTV Content from Apple? Here's how it might work after Wednesday!
There's another big Apple Event coming to Moscone Center on September 5, and those always bring big news. The last Apple Event brought Your Friendly Neighborhood CouchGuy a new aluminum-and-glass iMac (yummy!) but no interesting news about the Apple TV.
The new event appears to be iTunes centered, which brings us closer to our favorite topic, but most of the Usual Gang of Rumormongers are convinced that the big news will be the long-awaited refresh of the iPod product line. Frankly, the CouchGuy figures a new iPod line is likely to be the centerpiece of Steve Jobs' announcements as well. If the CouchGuy was a prognosticatin' sort of CouchGuy (and when has he not been?), he'd figure we were going to see an iPhone-inspired touch-screen iPod with wireless capabilities, and probably also a redesign of the iPod Nano (or maybe a new product entirely to replace the Nano) with a bigger screen and video capability of its own. I'm figuring both lines to be based on Flash memory, though a hard drive in the upper-end touchscreen line wouldn't be overly surprising.
But Blackfriars' Marketing is expecting Apple to put a content-laden cherry on top of the iPod Sundae. (iPod Sundae comes on Wednesday next week, but what the heck...) With long-time Apple content delivery partner Akamai now offering the capability to deliver HD video, Blackfriars' figures Apple is ready to take the plunge and bring forth HD movie sales and rentals via iTunes, come Wednesday next.
Is the CouchGuy ready to believe? Oh... whattheheckyeah! We all have to figure Apple planned to do this sometime, since the Apple TV was designed with HD output in mind, even though there was no way at release to get HD content into the machine! I think Blackfriars' may be right. Doing this simultaneously with the release of sexy new large-screen super-iPods makes sense, especially if those iPods have wireless capability. Ordering direct from your Apple TV or new touch-screen iPod? That's a big maybe, but I see no real technical reason it can't be done.
The really slick move would be to make the new iPod operate as a wireless remote for your Apple TV as well. The touch screen would enable the new iPod to become a Mighty Morphin' Magic Manipulator for our favorite piece of HD-slingin' hardware, changing the touch-sensitive control screens as needed to match whatever you were trying to do. I might be able to resist a wide-screen touch-sensitive iPod for a time (yeah, right... pull the other one!) but if it also opened new control horizons for my Apple TV — well, prepare to take a good kick in the credit limit, VISA, old pal!
Think about it. Sit in your easy chair and tap your iPod screen to call up your favorite movies and TV shows. See a new trailer that sounds promising? Place the order right there on the Apple TV using the iPod's iPhone-like touch keyboard mode. It starts to download to iTunes and it'll be there in all it's HD glory by tomorrow evening when you get home from work. (Even with Akamai Power, HD takes a long time to download. But two hours or twelve hours — who cares? Still faster than Netflix!) Not sure I want to own, but know I want to see? Rent instead of buy. It downloads and syncs directly to my Apple TV hard drive — but won't be on my computer in my iTunes menu. I can watch it once for $4 or so and then erase it (or let it erase itself after a couple of days). If I like the film, I can pay the difference between the rental price and the purchase price and it copies over to iTunes on my computer — now I own it and can watch it all I want, on any computer, iPod, or Apple TV I have.
That touch-screen iPod-as-remote can do lots more, though. You can stop a movie in the middle if you are getting sleepy — and start it up again the next day on your iPod, which remembers where you left off. It can act as a sophisticated game controller for Apple TV based games — including interterminal games played with other Apple TV owners all over the world. (This would be perfect for board games, quiz shows, and other family-approachable games. Anyone up for multi-player Sims Bowling?) You can use the keyboard mode to send a quick email (with pics of the kids sent to Grandma's Apple TV) and even iChat with her about the photos using a peripheral iSight camera that plugs into the Apple TV USB port. (Remember that port? It's still there and I still say it is overdue to be used!)
OK, I'll slow down. It's hard to stop a all this going to be ready Wednesday? Well, maybe not. But it is quite possible that the first HD content rollout could be less than a week away, as Blackfriars' suggests. And that's good news for Apple TV owners any way you look at it.
And if Steve does use a new touch-screen iPod as a super-remote for an Apple TV at Moscone Center on Wednesday — remember who told you about it first!
The new event appears to be iTunes centered, which brings us closer to our favorite topic, but most of the Usual Gang of Rumormongers are convinced that the big news will be the long-awaited refresh of the iPod product line. Frankly, the CouchGuy figures a new iPod line is likely to be the centerpiece of Steve Jobs' announcements as well. If the CouchGuy was a prognosticatin' sort of CouchGuy (and when has he not been?), he'd figure we were going to see an iPhone-inspired touch-screen iPod with wireless capabilities, and probably also a redesign of the iPod Nano (or maybe a new product entirely to replace the Nano) with a bigger screen and video capability of its own. I'm figuring both lines to be based on Flash memory, though a hard drive in the upper-end touchscreen line wouldn't be overly surprising.
But Blackfriars' Marketing is expecting Apple to put a content-laden cherry on top of the iPod Sundae. (iPod Sundae comes on Wednesday next week, but what the heck...) With long-time Apple content delivery partner Akamai now offering the capability to deliver HD video, Blackfriars' figures Apple is ready to take the plunge and bring forth HD movie sales and rentals via iTunes, come Wednesday next.
Is the CouchGuy ready to believe? Oh... whattheheckyeah! We all have to figure Apple planned to do this sometime, since the Apple TV was designed with HD output in mind, even though there was no way at release to get HD content into the machine! I think Blackfriars' may be right. Doing this simultaneously with the release of sexy new large-screen super-iPods makes sense, especially if those iPods have wireless capability. Ordering direct from your Apple TV or new touch-screen iPod? That's a big maybe, but I see no real technical reason it can't be done.
The really slick move would be to make the new iPod operate as a wireless remote for your Apple TV as well. The touch screen would enable the new iPod to become a Mighty Morphin' Magic Manipulator for our favorite piece of HD-slingin' hardware, changing the touch-sensitive control screens as needed to match whatever you were trying to do. I might be able to resist a wide-screen touch-sensitive iPod for a time (yeah, right... pull the other one!) but if it also opened new control horizons for my Apple TV — well, prepare to take a good kick in the credit limit, VISA, old pal!
Think about it. Sit in your easy chair and tap your iPod screen to call up your favorite movies and TV shows. See a new trailer that sounds promising? Place the order right there on the Apple TV using the iPod's iPhone-like touch keyboard mode. It starts to download to iTunes and it'll be there in all it's HD glory by tomorrow evening when you get home from work. (Even with Akamai Power, HD takes a long time to download. But two hours or twelve hours — who cares? Still faster than Netflix!) Not sure I want to own, but know I want to see? Rent instead of buy. It downloads and syncs directly to my Apple TV hard drive — but won't be on my computer in my iTunes menu. I can watch it once for $4 or so and then erase it (or let it erase itself after a couple of days). If I like the film, I can pay the difference between the rental price and the purchase price and it copies over to iTunes on my computer — now I own it and can watch it all I want, on any computer, iPod, or Apple TV I have.
That touch-screen iPod-as-remote can do lots more, though. You can stop a movie in the middle if you are getting sleepy — and start it up again the next day on your iPod, which remembers where you left off. It can act as a sophisticated game controller for Apple TV based games — including interterminal games played with other Apple TV owners all over the world. (This would be perfect for board games, quiz shows, and other family-approachable games. Anyone up for multi-player Sims Bowling?) You can use the keyboard mode to send a quick email (with pics of the kids sent to Grandma's Apple TV) and even iChat with her about the photos using a peripheral iSight camera that plugs into the Apple TV USB port. (Remember that port? It's still there and I still say it is overdue to be used!)
OK, I'll slow down. It's hard to stop a all this going to be ready Wednesday? Well, maybe not. But it is quite possible that the first HD content rollout could be less than a week away, as Blackfriars' suggests. And that's good news for Apple TV owners any way you look at it.
And if Steve does use a new touch-screen iPod as a super-remote for an Apple TV at Moscone Center on Wednesday — remember who told you about it first!
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