Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Polite and
Speaker 1: I'm an editor how stuff works dot Com, sitting across
Speaker 1: from me as usual as senior writer Jonathan Strickland. All
Speaker 1: I wanted was to be the big shot for once.
Speaker 1: Take my remote. Nice. That was a good choice for
Speaker 1: today's episode, which is going to be about a topic
Speaker 1: we have been asked about, um several times, more so recently. Yes.
Speaker 1: And that topic is Apple TV. Yes. And the reason
Speaker 1: why I think it's been more interesting recently than it
Speaker 1: used to be in the past was this thing's been
Speaker 1: around for four years now and uh, inn't really I mean,
Speaker 1: it's it's always been a hobbyists kind of device. Steve
Speaker 1: jobs is even kind of referred to it as sort
Speaker 1: of a hobby Yeah, that's true. Um, but and it's
Speaker 1: and I think it's it's fair to say, Uh, we're
Speaker 1: not really going to focus We're going to focus on
Speaker 1: the Apple TV, but that's not going to be the
Speaker 1: only type of device like it. We're going to talk
Speaker 1: about because Jonathan and I agreed that the functionality of
Speaker 1: the current generation of Apple TV is one of really
Speaker 1: several different, reasonably similar devices. Um. But Apple TV uh
Speaker 1: started out as let's see what's what's the best way
Speaker 1: to put it. It's not really a DVR, UM and
Speaker 1: it's not really Uh it doesn't play DVDs. UM, it's
Speaker 1: not really it doesn't record stuff, but it will let you, uh,
Speaker 1: it will let you download and um play shows on
Speaker 1: your t Well, technically the first one would let you
Speaker 1: download and play shows on your TV. The current one
Speaker 1: allows you to play shows on your TV that you've
Speaker 1: downloaded to a computer. Yes, and we'll we'll get into that. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The first the first generation, actually the first couple of
Speaker 1: generations of the Apple TV were uh, fairly large devices. Um.
Speaker 1: And they were really intended to be used with the
Speaker 1: iTunes store. Yeah. It's a set top box. So it's
Speaker 1: similar to things like you know, you think of your
Speaker 1: VCR if you have an ancient technology in your home
Speaker 1: and I do, or DVD player or Blu ray player
Speaker 1: or Heaven help you, your HD DVD player UM or
Speaker 1: cable box, cable box. Yeah, these are all set top boxes.
Speaker 1: I mean, we're any any home theater enthusiast is very
Speaker 1: familiar with this kind of stuff. It's the stuff you
Speaker 1: plug into your TV, right, that gives you access to
Speaker 1: extra content. And Apple TV is kind of uh, well,
Speaker 1: it's it's Internet protocol TV device. That's that's true, and
Speaker 1: but it's a very specific focused one, right, Like you
Speaker 1: were saying, it really had a lot to do with
Speaker 1: the iTunes Store, Yeah, it was specifically. That was one
Speaker 1: of the things I think that Apple wanted to do
Speaker 1: when it first started to add video content to the
Speaker 1: Apple Store the iTunes Store, because um, you could watch
Speaker 1: those shows on your computer. Um. But I think that
Speaker 1: Apple was smart in realizing that not everyone wants to
Speaker 1: do that, or at least not all of the time,
Speaker 1: especially if you want to watch something with a group
Speaker 1: of people. Uh, most computers, depending on I mean, if
Speaker 1: you have an iMac, then you may have a computer
Speaker 1: with a screen large enough so it's like a small TV. Sure,
Speaker 1: but but most folks would would say, you know, there's
Speaker 1: all this great content that Apple has access to, but
Speaker 1: I can't watch it the way I want to, which
Speaker 1: is on the biggest screen in my house, and for
Speaker 1: most of us, that's the TV. Yep. Yeah, and um yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there they were. They were offering uh rentals
Speaker 1: and uh even shows and movies that you could buy
Speaker 1: and download to your computer. But the question is, how
Speaker 1: do you get that to your TV? Like I want
Speaker 1: to watch this and I want to watch it on
Speaker 1: my TV. And those shows were in HD well seven
Speaker 1: twenty uh you know, not the full ten eight e UM,
Speaker 1: so I mean they were they were good enough to
Speaker 1: watch on a TV, but like, how do you do that?
Speaker 1: I mean, you could plug your computer and your TV,
Speaker 1: but I mean, what a what a headache? And the
Speaker 1: Apple TV was the original Apple TV was intended to
Speaker 1: facilitate that, Yeah, because we were still in an era
Speaker 1: where a lot of people find the idea of hooking
Speaker 1: a TV or hooking a laptop or any kind of
Speaker 1: computer to a TV to be intimidating. Yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: and the connections are not always don't always make sense.
Speaker 1: And there's usually some sort of setting you need to
Speaker 1: put on your computer so that the display show is
Speaker 1: up properly. And then you know, depending on the type
Speaker 1: of computer you have, you may choose one setting and
Speaker 1: suddenly you don't have a screen on your computer anymore.
Speaker 1: It's up on the TV, but it's harder to navigate.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of reasons why people have avoided it.
Speaker 1: And uh and the set top box approach just takes
Speaker 1: all that guesswork out, so it makes it much more
Speaker 1: consumer friendly. Yes, yes, now if this, if this sounds
Speaker 1: silly to you, you may be techier than a lot
Speaker 1: of other people. And then there there's a wide range
Speaker 1: of uh, technical expertise out there, and and this, this
Speaker 1: device is supposed to make it easier for people who
Speaker 1: aren't comfortable, um, navigating that or or setting up their
Speaker 1: own myth TV DVR at home. Um. So uh, you know,
Speaker 1: and faced the original Apple TV faced quite a few limitations.
Speaker 1: I mean, really there was you were you were stuck
Speaker 1: with predominantly iTunes content. Not that there wasn't, you know,
Speaker 1: fair a fair amount of it, but I mean, in
Speaker 1: the intervening years he saw a number of other developments
Speaker 1: like Netflix offering streaming movies for example. That that was
Speaker 1: most recently the probably one of the most recent additions
Speaker 1: to the Apple TV line, that happened back in September.
Speaker 1: But before that, you like you were saying it was
Speaker 1: mostly iTunes. You had some YouTube and Flicker accessibility as well.
Speaker 1: I'm thank you for saying that, because I wanted to
Speaker 1: point out that I should have pointed out, or that
Speaker 1: you weren't limited just a video. If you had photos
Speaker 1: on your computer that you wanted to do it. Maybe
Speaker 1: you're having a party in honor of somebody, about wedding shower,
Speaker 1: for example, and you wanted to show photos of the
Speaker 1: couple on your TV. You could do that with Apple
Speaker 1: TV because it would read you know, your photo library
Speaker 1: that's on your computer, and you could you could set
Speaker 1: up a slide show or or you know, play music
Speaker 1: from your iTunes thing through your TV was so it
Speaker 1: wasn't It wasn't just for video. It's just that, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's your TV. That's what you use it for. Right.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, and we we saw Hulu, the debut
Speaker 1: of lou Um for computers and other streaming media different
Speaker 1: than networks. A lot of them offer some content, either
Speaker 1: clips or even full shows recent shows. And as this
Speaker 1: went on, I think Apple's said, you know, was going well,
Speaker 1: the device works pretty well. A lot of people, actually,
Speaker 1: depundits have been declaring Apple TV dead for years. They
Speaker 1: kept wondering when Apple was gonna cut it loose and
Speaker 1: then let go. Every time there's been another announcement, there's
Speaker 1: been a prediction that the one thing that will not
Speaker 1: get an update is Apple TV. And of course, you know,
Speaker 1: we saw that in twenty ten that Apple TV had
Speaker 1: a major update. So Apple is not ready to pull
Speaker 1: the plug just yet. Yeah, and then the newest Apple
Speaker 1: TV is significantly different. It's it's considerably smaller. It's it's
Speaker 1: meant to stream content. Yea. So when it wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: before it it had some on board storage before, but
Speaker 1: now it's it's an interface, right. Yeah. The previous the
Speaker 1: original Apple TV had forty gigabytes of storage space, so
Speaker 1: you would actually store media on that device and then
Speaker 1: watch it directly to your TV. And the big, big
Speaker 1: benefit to that is that with with something that's stored
Speaker 1: that's saved to the device, you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about buffering as much as it can stream the content
Speaker 1: directly to the display. Yes, and if someone with with
Speaker 1: young kids, I can tell you that buffering is really
Speaker 1: irritating to young kids. It's not. It's kind of irritating
Speaker 1: to me too, I know. But whenever I watch anything
Speaker 1: where there's a buffer, and I'm like, oh, come on,
Speaker 1: I want my gratification to be instant like my oatmeal.
Speaker 1: You know that sounds remarkably like what my kids say,
Speaker 1: except for the oatmeal and instant gratification. Gen x er
Speaker 1: I never grew up so at any rate. The the
Speaker 1: forty gigabyte model was eventually replaced, actually not that long afterwards,
Speaker 1: with a hundred sixty gigabyte model, So then you had
Speaker 1: a model that could store even more media. So you
Speaker 1: know that that had because the forty gigabytes. It sounds
Speaker 1: like a lot, but if you want to have a
Speaker 1: lot of movies on their television shows, especially if you
Speaker 1: want something that's in high definition, that space gets eaten
Speaker 1: up pretty quickly. Yeah, and it did. Um. Even the
Speaker 1: first generations of of Apple TV before last year's major
Speaker 1: update required a sixteen sixteen by nine HD form factor
Speaker 1: um and a DV I or h d M I
Speaker 1: or at least a composite cable the original ones did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that pretty much rules me out because I am
Speaker 1: still using a standard definition TV at home right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So in order to watch Apple TV, you had to
Speaker 1: have an h D t V. You could not You
Speaker 1: couldn't watch it without an HDTV and there I remember
Speaker 1: one of the criticisms I read of Apple TV was
Speaker 1: that not all the content that you would get from
Speaker 1: Apple TV really took advantage of that HDTV. So, in
Speaker 1: other words, the content you're watching was not necessarily high definition,
Speaker 1: even though you were required to have a high definition
Speaker 1: television to watch it. That that is correct, And I
Speaker 1: know there and before people write in and say, well,
Speaker 1: I have a you know, standard definition TV, and I
Speaker 1: can watch it. Yes, I know that technically it is
Speaker 1: possible to use at least the earlier Apple TVs with
Speaker 1: a standard definition TV, but it wasn't really intended to
Speaker 1: do that and wouldn't necessarily be the best experience I
Speaker 1: have seen people actually make it happen. Um and yeah.
Speaker 1: In other words, that's not an out of the box thing, no, no,
Speaker 1: um and um and getting to the bridge between the
Speaker 1: debt the versions um. In addition to the content itself,
Speaker 1: other people started introducing things and it started becoming more common,
Speaker 1: as as Jonathan and I did a podcast some time
Speaker 1: ago on building your own DVR, and and as more
Speaker 1: people did that, Uh, some people started making open source
Speaker 1: software for doing that, and uh, people like Boxy started
Speaker 1: developing similar devices the Boxy Box. But even you know,
Speaker 1: I have Boxy on my Macintosh at home, and you
Speaker 1: can stream video content on the computer and listen to
Speaker 1: Pandora and do all those kinds of things. Jonathan and
Speaker 1: I can can tell you too from c E s
Speaker 1: experience that people were already were experimenting with how are
Speaker 1: you going to get your you know, how can you
Speaker 1: watch YouTube on your plain old regular TV just connected
Speaker 1: to the internet and you know, update your widgets and
Speaker 1: find out what the weather is and look at your
Speaker 1: photos and do all these things. And I think, um,
Speaker 1: you know, with with this, Apple saw the writing on
Speaker 1: the wall and it was time to update the Apple
Speaker 1: TV and make it a different type of device, which
Speaker 1: is why now it is what it is. But that
Speaker 1: that's that's also spawned so many different devices like the
Speaker 1: Roku player and the Boxy Box and homebrew, uh DVRs
Speaker 1: and all kinds of other stuff. Yeah, so the the
Speaker 1: new one, uh you know, the old one you could
Speaker 1: store the media on, like we said, you could also
Speaker 1: stream media your computer from your computer through the Apple
Speaker 1: TV to your television, so it kind of acted as
Speaker 1: a middleman in that situation, and you could do both
Speaker 1: a wired or wireless connection. The new one is um does.
Speaker 1: It's got some new features, but it's also a little
Speaker 1: more limited. It's it's like a square. I mean it's
Speaker 1: like a four inch square, although not I don't think
Speaker 1: it's quite four inches. If you if you go to
Speaker 1: the Apple website um to look at the Apple TV,
Speaker 1: one of the press photos that they have on the
Speaker 1: side is somebody holding it in the palm of their hand.
Speaker 1: It's it's considerably smaller than the original, has no fan
Speaker 1: in it, right, so it doesn't make any noise. It's uh. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So some people would say it's underpowered, but really Apple
Speaker 1: would say, no, no, we don't want to crank the
Speaker 1: power up for two reasons. One, it's not necessary because
Speaker 1: it's it's a thin interface. And to if you crank
Speaker 1: up the power, you generate more heat, and it can
Speaker 1: generate more heat, then you need a fan, which means
Speaker 1: then you have to add more elements to it, which
Speaker 1: means it has to be larger. So this was a
Speaker 1: calculated move on Apple's part. Uh. And as for connections,
Speaker 1: it has an Ethernet port, so you can you can
Speaker 1: hardwire it to your your home network. It's also has
Speaker 1: Wi WiFi capability, so you don't have to do it
Speaker 1: that way. Um. It's got h D M I so
Speaker 1: that's that's your your output to whatever device you have.
Speaker 1: It also has optical audio ports, yes, so it's it's
Speaker 1: designed for uh, newer media, you know. It's it's designed
Speaker 1: for high quality, high definition viewing experience. And it's not
Speaker 1: limited anymore, as as Jonathan pointed out earlier to uh
Speaker 1: to just iTunes, you have the ability to check out
Speaker 1: movies and I mean rent movies and and to um
Speaker 1: uh and buy them movies and TV shows through iTunes
Speaker 1: as you were before. But they've added uh, you know,
Speaker 1: Netflix to the the account. Flicker you can also use
Speaker 1: with it um and of course Apple is mobile me yes,
Speaker 1: um so if you have content there online you can
Speaker 1: you can stream it from the cloud and YouTube. UM.
Speaker 1: So it's definitely not a an Apple only device anymore,
Speaker 1: although people would still probably argue, in fact, I have
Speaker 1: heard this argued as as recently as yesterday, that the
Speaker 1: Apple TV device is really best for people who have
Speaker 1: kind of the Apple ecosystem going on. So it's like
Speaker 1: all Apple products really. Apple's apples famous for these closed
Speaker 1: systems where they develop technology that works really well within
Speaker 1: that closed system, but are not necessarily designed to allow
Speaker 1: outside uh influences into that system. For example, with Apple TV, yes,
Speaker 1: you get access to Web two content that's on the web,
Speaker 1: so for example the Netflix streaming stuff or even the
Speaker 1: iTunes stuff, you have access to Internet content, but you
Speaker 1: don't have unfettered access. In other words, you're not going
Speaker 1: to be surfing the Web through Apple TV on your
Speaker 1: television because that's not what that's designed to do. Now.
Speaker 1: And it's it's funny that you that you would say
Speaker 1: that about the the ecosystem, because I mean, it's no
Speaker 1: secret that Apple um keeps everything very closed UM. But
Speaker 1: I think that the the idea of the ecosystem and
Speaker 1: having the products work together is certainly not an Apple
Speaker 1: specific thing. I mean, if you look at the way
Speaker 1: the Google products work together and the way Microsoft uh,
Speaker 1: you know, Internet Explorer was bundled in, but it worked
Speaker 1: very well within Window, works very well within Windows and
Speaker 1: and Microsoft Office, and they all have the similar look
Speaker 1: and feel. I think they've all learned from one another
Speaker 1: and once maybe if it once they open it up,
Speaker 1: they realize, you know, well, yeah, people want it open.
Speaker 1: But if we make it you know, where everything works
Speaker 1: together just so they'll come in and they won't want
Speaker 1: to leave. So I mean that that's that's it's a
Speaker 1: it's a balancing act, right, it's a criticism against Apple,
Speaker 1: but it's not that that idea is not Here's what
Speaker 1: I'll say about Apple, although well, in a few minutes
Speaker 1: will probably end up talking about how this could change too. Um. Apple,
Speaker 1: I think of them as a pioneer of this ecosystem idea. Okay,
Speaker 1: the idea of if you buy our computers, and if
Speaker 1: you buy our personal electronics, and if you buy our
Speaker 1: television uh streaming solution, then you're gonna have the best experience.
Speaker 1: So you should just buy our stuff. Sure, right, But
Speaker 1: a lot of other stuff will still work with other systems.
Speaker 1: For example, you can use an iPod with an IBM,
Speaker 1: right um, And you can stream content from iTunes to
Speaker 1: an Apple TV even if you're not running a Mac.
Speaker 1: So Apple's less uh, they're they're less restrictive than some
Speaker 1: other systems. Are systems. I saw at CES that ecosystem
Speaker 1: would only work with one company's products. So, in other words,
Speaker 1: like Apple's approach and even Google's approach, to some extent,
Speaker 1: it's you're going to get the best experience if you
Speaker 1: go with our stuff, but if you really want to,
Speaker 1: you can mix it up, right, whereas other companies say no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no no, our stuff will only work with our stuff,
Speaker 1: so don't buy anything else because it won't work with
Speaker 1: our system. So so there's something there. Now. When I
Speaker 1: said we'll talk about it in a minute, there have
Speaker 1: been some rumors that as early as this year, this
Speaker 1: year being that Apple will unveil its own Apple branded
Speaker 1: television set. Really, yes, I actually hadn't turned you hadn't, Okay,
Speaker 1: So it doesn't surprise me though, because um, a few
Speaker 1: years ago they did buy a screen manufacturer, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know they they've been making their own monitors for years,
Speaker 1: so they certainly know a lot about about the screen technology,
Speaker 1: and they certainly know a lot about video content. And
Speaker 1: on their on their most recent shareholder call, they out
Speaker 1: about a four billion dollar that's billion with a buh
Speaker 1: investment in display technology. That's kind of what set off
Speaker 1: this rumor, and the rumor was pretty much started by
Speaker 1: Gene Munster of Piper Jeffray and UM. He's an analyst
Speaker 1: who in yeah, who said that that he just that
Speaker 1: it appears that Apple is positioning itself to unveil a
Speaker 1: big new product, and that his suggestion is, I'll quote directly,
Speaker 1: we see potential for Apple to offer best in class
Speaker 1: software and hardware and charge a premium, and that the
Speaker 1: television was the next natural step. Now, if that were
Speaker 1: the case, Apple would be following suit with some of
Speaker 1: these other companies. I was talking about where you have
Speaker 1: a full ecosystem, where you are highly encouraged to stay
Speaker 1: within the brand in order to fill out that ecosystem.
Speaker 1: So we're talking about you know, you have the same
Speaker 1: brand television, computer, portable devices. So it makes sense from
Speaker 1: that standpoint. I don't I don't know how confident I
Speaker 1: would be in this particular um uh prediction. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't know. Um, But there are a lot of predictions
Speaker 1: if you follow tech as we do, and a lot
Speaker 1: of you do. UM, there are a lot of predictions
Speaker 1: that are completely off the wall. And I would say
Speaker 1: that although I don't necessarily believe it will happen, that's
Speaker 1: not so off the wall that that's within the realm
Speaker 1: of possibility. And then it's not like predicting Apple would
Speaker 1: come out with some sort of like tablet device or something. Okay,
Speaker 1: So there is also a rumor going around that Apple
Speaker 1: maybe getting using looking in a way to use the
Speaker 1: Apple TV as a game device of some type, maybe
Speaker 1: more like on Live where you can it isn't actually
Speaker 1: a game console itself, but it will basically be I
Speaker 1: guess what would you call it a network gateway. You
Speaker 1: can use it to play games online, and it would
Speaker 1: serve as the device that would allow you to do that.
Speaker 1: It's kind of again sort of cloud based gaming where
Speaker 1: the games are running on on the back end, and
Speaker 1: the Apple TV would just act as a thin client
Speaker 1: to allow you to access it. Uh. Yeah. This comes
Speaker 1: out of a report from Engadget Ross Miller and uh
Speaker 1: Miller said that some some a person who was working
Speaker 1: with the iOS four point three beta release that's you know,
Speaker 1: the operating bring system that Apple TV uses as well
Speaker 1: as other devices. Um, I think iPads, io S four
Speaker 1: right iPhone four too, I suppose. So the iOS four
Speaker 1: point three beta release, according to some unnamed snooper um
Speaker 1: there there are elements of code in there that hint
Speaker 1: to some sort of online game mean experience. So this
Speaker 1: has led people to suggest that we could see anything
Speaker 1: from Angry Birds hitting televisions. So again we talk I
Speaker 1: was thinking of some actual angry birds tis if you've
Speaker 1: ever been in the house with a with a ticked
Speaker 1: off cockatoo. Um. But no, no, no, the game angry Birds. Um,
Speaker 1: there's been talk about something just as simple as that
Speaker 1: we're talking about, like casual games. There's that possibility, and
Speaker 1: then there are other possibilities that say, well, you know,
Speaker 1: the the Apple TV. One of the other things that
Speaker 1: has in it is a Bluetooth receivers transceivers, so you
Speaker 1: could have a Bluetooth controller and uh, with the right firmware,
Speaker 1: you just use the controller and you could play video games,
Speaker 1: um through your Apple TV. Now the Apple TV, the
Speaker 1: current one, you know, we talked about the first to
Speaker 1: having forty gigabytes and then a hundred sixty gigabytes of storage.
Speaker 1: The and one is much more limited. It only has
Speaker 1: eight gigabytes because it's meant as a streaming device, not
Speaker 1: as a storage device. So that suggests the whole cloud
Speaker 1: based system for gaming, because if you were to download
Speaker 1: a game, you would only be able to download a
Speaker 1: few before you filled up that eight gigabytes. A gigabytes
Speaker 1: still sounds like a lot to me because I grew
Speaker 1: up in an era where a single gigabyte of storage
Speaker 1: was unthinkable when I had my computers. Um, but today's world,
Speaker 1: you look at some of the more advanced games and
Speaker 1: a gigabyte is not even near enough to hold the
Speaker 1: entire game. Yeah. Yeah, and um the new Speaking of streaming,
Speaker 1: the the new Apple TV has the ability to work
Speaker 1: with an iPod Touch or iPad or iPhone UM to
Speaker 1: stream via airplay from that device. So if you have
Speaker 1: movies or shows that you have downloaded to your other
Speaker 1: iOS device, you can select airplay and send it to
Speaker 1: your Apple TV and then watch it on your actual
Speaker 1: TV instead. Um, which is which is a pretty neat
Speaker 1: feature as well. Um. And really this seems to be
Speaker 1: while there there are some similarities in this ecosystem from
Speaker 1: the others there. Uh, Apple is kind of different in that,
Speaker 1: I mean they they are serving as the content provider
Speaker 1: and uh you know that the hardware uh provider as well,
Speaker 1: like Google TV or the box EBox or you know,
Speaker 1: Roku and some of the others, they're not providing. They're
Speaker 1: not serving as a gateway for content. They partner with Netflix,
Speaker 1: for example, to get you your content where you sign up,
Speaker 1: It's like, well, we'll give you the hardware and software
Speaker 1: and then you guys go get your stuff from Hulu
Speaker 1: Plus or Netflix or somebody else. Um, and Apple seems
Speaker 1: to have its fingers in you know, both pies if
Speaker 1: you will. Yeah, we should also mention that, uh, kind
Speaker 1: of like the Roku um and other devices of this nature,
Speaker 1: Apple TV has a single purchase price. It's not like
Speaker 1: a subscription based thing. That's true. The Apple TV itself
Speaker 1: is not. You're not buying content from Apple right Well
Speaker 1: you can, but you don't have to write right now,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm sorry, not on a regular basis. Like
Speaker 1: if you're going to buy a subscription, you'd buy a
Speaker 1: Netflix subscription. You wouldn't buy as of right now. Now.
Speaker 1: There's there's that other rumor that has been going around
Speaker 1: about that big data center that Apple is building in
Speaker 1: North Carolina. Will that be streaming iTunes? Will I be
Speaker 1: streaming video? Maybe it is, but we'll have to find
Speaker 1: out the current Apple TV cost. Yes, and uh, for
Speaker 1: that purchase price, you have the ability to stream anything
Speaker 1: that's already on your computer through in iTunes, any anything
Speaker 1: in nine Tunes. I should say to the Apple TV
Speaker 1: and watch it on television. So if you already have
Speaker 1: let's say that you're an Apple customer through iTunes store
Speaker 1: and you've purchased a season or two of your favorite
Speaker 1: television show, then as soon as you get an Apple TV,
Speaker 1: you can just stream that information to the Apple TV
Speaker 1: and watch it on your television. Um. Then you could
Speaker 1: also if you're a Netflix subscriber and you have Netflix Instant,
Speaker 1: you could watch Netflix Instant through your Apple TV on
Speaker 1: your television. Uh, this is kind of similar, like I
Speaker 1: said to Roku. Roku produces a set top box, actually
Speaker 1: a series of set top boxes. There are different ones
Speaker 1: depending upon you know, how high definition you want your
Speaker 1: content to be. UM. And again with Roku, it's a
Speaker 1: you know, you purchase your machine and you're done, but
Speaker 1: then you have to subscribe to whatever content providers are
Speaker 1: available if you want to actually get content on your Roku.
Speaker 1: So if you are a Netflix Instant subscriber, you get
Speaker 1: in that that access through Roku. But there's some stuff
Speaker 1: that's free once you purchase a Roku, Like, UM, there's
Speaker 1: some channels that are for podcasts, and there's a Pandora
Speaker 1: station channel. Those sort of things you can get for
Speaker 1: free you don't have to pay a subscription to. But
Speaker 1: then again, you know that that content is stuff that
Speaker 1: you wouldn't necessarily uh feel the need to watch on TV.
Speaker 1: In most cases, it's something that you might be more
Speaker 1: used to consuming in a portable format like an MP
Speaker 1: three player or a smartphone. So, um, you know, the
Speaker 1: compelling stuff you you gotta pay for. So in a way,
Speaker 1: Apple TV has got a leg up on that if
Speaker 1: you've already purchased content right right through iTunes again, because
Speaker 1: again we have to be very specific if you if
Speaker 1: it's if you bought it through some other method, you
Speaker 1: may not be able to stream it to your Apple TV. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't know if if that wall will come down again.
Speaker 1: As we've mentioned, you know, Apple is is usually sort
Speaker 1: of resistant to that sort of thing. Ye Um. It
Speaker 1: does make me wonder too, with this, uh, with the
Speaker 1: change in Apple TV that came in late twenty in
Speaker 1: or I should I should say, I guess mid to
Speaker 1: late t um if that will change the way Google
Speaker 1: TV functions in the future as well. Um, and whether
Speaker 1: Google will get into you know, offering stuff for rent themselves. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, they certainly would be probably the top competitor,
Speaker 1: I would guess. And in terms of marketing muscle and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, they do have partnerships with with Sony and
Speaker 1: a number of other manufacturers as well, um to provide
Speaker 1: uh the equipment, the actual hardware itself. So you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting to note that and I'm curious too
Speaker 1: to see, um, whether or not they will get onto
Speaker 1: other boxes. I mean, um, you know, people like Nintendo
Speaker 1: with the we all three of the major gaming consoles
Speaker 1: offer Netflix instant now. Um, so there's not there are
Speaker 1: opportunities there to have some convergence with with somebody, and
Speaker 1: it's it's not likely to be Apple if it's you know,
Speaker 1: if Apple is gonna do anything, it's probably gonna be
Speaker 1: some version of the Apple TV or you know, some
Speaker 1: fork in the road for that product. But um, you know,
Speaker 1: it may be very much like a you know, the
Speaker 1: Android versus iOS thing, where you know, Google's got partnerships
Speaker 1: with half a dozen or more manufacturers that make variations
Speaker 1: on the product and they find some way to sell
Speaker 1: the content. And plus you know you can't count Microsoft out, um,
Speaker 1: you know with the Xbox three sixty and its functionality. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they get some of the most some of the the
Speaker 1: biggest innovations in Microsoft seemed to come out of that
Speaker 1: particular department. Yeah, so you know, they're there's certainly people
Speaker 1: competing with it and and other you know, smaller players
Speaker 1: like like Roku and and Boxy. So um, it's it's
Speaker 1: good stuff. It's provided a lot of avenues for us
Speaker 1: to get content in different places, you know, on our
Speaker 1: portable devices, on our computers and our TV and share
Speaker 1: it between. Yeah, and we're we're seeing the market move
Speaker 1: more and more toward what the consumer has been saying
Speaker 1: that UH is the most desired outcome, which is to
Speaker 1: be able to to consume UH content wherever that person
Speaker 1: is and whenever that person wants on whatever form factor
Speaker 1: that person currently has. So that's where that's again back
Speaker 1: to the whole ecosystem thing. It's that idea of um,
Speaker 1: you know, I want to be able to watch my
Speaker 1: favorite show on my smartphone while I'm on the train,
Speaker 1: or on a tablet computer or when I'm at my desk.
Speaker 1: I want to be able to pop up and you know,
Speaker 1: I was watching this one episode of my favorite show
Speaker 1: and I've got ten minutes of time left in my
Speaker 1: lunch break, I'm going to watch another ten minutes exactly
Speaker 1: where I left off when I was at home, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. So we're moving closer and closer to
Speaker 1: that ideal. And this could be Apple's way of of
Speaker 1: sort of approaching that, although it is again, since it's Apple,
Speaker 1: it's their own person to anyway. Uh. And I was
Speaker 1: going to mention a couple of of drawbacks or not
Speaker 1: maybe not drawbacks, but limitations to the Apple TV system,
Speaker 1: one of which you already mentioned, which is that it
Speaker 1: is not a video recorder, so you can't use it
Speaker 1: to capture content that you're getting on your television and
Speaker 1: then view it later. It's not a DVR of any type,
Speaker 1: so you can't do that. And also if you rent
Speaker 1: a show on Apple TV, if you're using the Apple
Speaker 1: TV interface to rent a show, you can only watch
Speaker 1: that on Apple TV. But if you were to do
Speaker 1: the same thing through the iTunes store, you'd be able
Speaker 1: to access that show on whichever devices are hooked up
Speaker 1: through your iTunes. So if you had, you know, an
Speaker 1: iPhone or an iPod H, you would be able to
Speaker 1: watch the show that way. You know, you just synchronize
Speaker 1: your device to your computer. And you'll be able to
Speaker 1: access the information, or you could stream it to the
Speaker 1: Apple TV and watch it on television, whereas if you
Speaker 1: just went through the TV system, you'd be stuck with TV.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't be able to watch it on your on
Speaker 1: your iPod or anything like that. Right, So, I'm sure
Speaker 1: that we'll probably see I would imagine we'd see that
Speaker 1: change within the next generation of Apple TV, assuming that
Speaker 1: Apple continues to support it. Now, if Apple actually does
Speaker 1: build a true television, it's just still I am a
Speaker 1: little skeptical about. But I think it's fair to be
Speaker 1: skeptical of that. But if they were to do it,
Speaker 1: I would imagine that a lot of the capabilities that
Speaker 1: are in the Apple TV set top box would be
Speaker 1: built directly into the television system so that you would
Speaker 1: have that iTunes connectivity. I mean, I can't imagine Apple
Speaker 1: building a product like that and not including some sort
Speaker 1: of iTunes connectivity in it. No, I'm sure, I'm sure
Speaker 1: they would. And um, I think it's funny because you know,
Speaker 1: for years, the Apple TV, the original Apple TVs were
Speaker 1: kind of bashed as something like, well, it's kind of cool,
Speaker 1: but I mean, who's gonna buy this? Thing and the
Speaker 1: new the new version of the Apple TV announced in
Speaker 1: and released in twenty ten, UM got much more critical acclaim.
Speaker 1: But I think it's not so much that really isn't
Speaker 1: really as much about Apple as it is about where
Speaker 1: the market is and that the functionality is more in
Speaker 1: line now with what the market is interested in having.
Speaker 1: And I think they said, well that now now they're
Speaker 1: kind of doing it right, They're doing what we want
Speaker 1: them to do. So yeah, I think Apple TV was
Speaker 1: definitely ahead of the curve. It was. It came out
Speaker 1: before before the set top box thing had really started
Speaker 1: to take off. Like you had the early adopters who
Speaker 1: were looking into although true early adopters had just hooked
Speaker 1: up their computers to the first place, but you had
Speaker 1: early adopters who were interested in this this internet streaming
Speaker 1: device that would allow you to access this content on
Speaker 1: a television. But apart from those early adopters, it just
Speaker 1: wasn't there was really no strong market for it. So
Speaker 1: when Apple TV first came out, a lot of folks
Speaker 1: just didn't know what to make of it. And now
Speaker 1: now that things like Roku and Boxy, especially things like
Speaker 1: Rocco and the gaming consoles like you mentioned now that
Speaker 1: those have incorporated some of these features into them, Um,
Speaker 1: people are more aware of them, and a lot of
Speaker 1: people to say, hey, you know, I want to be
Speaker 1: able to have access to that stuff. And so the
Speaker 1: Apple TV is a much more viable product now, I
Speaker 1: think than when it was when it first debuted. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: and and and it's much more of a competitor to
Speaker 1: the other products that are out there and the others
Speaker 1: and vice versa. Um, so I think they will sort
Speaker 1: of mutually advance and add more features that more people
Speaker 1: are interested in. Now, watch tomorrow, We're going to hear
Speaker 1: an announcement from Apple that they're no longer carrying the
Speaker 1: Apple TV after we've done this full episode about it,
Speaker 1: probably because that's the way we roll. So go back
Speaker 1: and edit this in your head, they was and were
Speaker 1: Apple TV was this device that did do these things. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't imagine that will happen, but but you you
Speaker 1: it is easy to say that Apple TV, out of
Speaker 1: the line of products that Apple produces, tends to be
Speaker 1: the one that gets the least amount of attention directed
Speaker 1: toward it. Normally. Yeah, once in a while, they'll do
Speaker 1: an event like the September thing where they spend some
Speaker 1: time on Apple TV. But more often than not, it
Speaker 1: just feels like, oh, we also do this, you said September, right,
Speaker 1: Apple is known for doing and now the certain announcements
Speaker 1: at certain times, like the iPhone announcement is usually in
Speaker 1: the early summer, like June. I've heard that there's a
Speaker 1: big announcement coming for this fall, and some people said
Speaker 1: it's the iPad three, which is funny because the iPad
Speaker 1: two isn't. Now, maybe it's the TV thing. Yeah, Actually,
Speaker 1: we could have done an entire episode about how crazy
Speaker 1: I am that people are predicting the iPad three would
Speaker 1: be announced in the fall when the iPad two hasn't
Speaker 1: come out yet, because that would be shooting your own foot.
Speaker 1: If you've known for a fact that the iPad three
Speaker 1: is going to be announced, why would anyone go out
Speaker 1: and buy the iPad two. Yeah, heck, skip the iPad two,
Speaker 1: let's just go straight to three. Yeah. Well, at anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a different discussion. Yeah, and I think we'll probably
Speaker 1: will probably skip Apple for a few weeks since we've
Speaker 1: kind of been apply lately. But yeah, yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I think, uh, I think we've we're keeping the doctor
Speaker 1: away for a while now, yeah, yeah, all right, So
Speaker 1: let's wrap this up. If you guys have any comments
Speaker 1: or questions, if you own an Apple TV and you
Speaker 1: think you have you know, your own experiences to share,
Speaker 1: let us know. You can contact us on Facebook and
Speaker 1: Twitter are handled. There is tech Stuff hs W, or
Speaker 1: you can send us an email. That address is tech
Speaker 1: stuff at how stuff works dot com and Chris and
Speaker 1: I will talk to you again really soon. For more
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