Posted on 09/09/2015 4:31:47 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Apple today announced the all-new Apple TV, bringing a revolutionary experience to the living room based on apps built for the television. Apps on Apple TV let you choose what to watch and when you watch it. The new Apple TVs remote features Siri, so you can search with your voice for TV shows and movies across multiple content providers simultaneously.
The all-new Apple TV is built from the ground up with a new generation of high-performance hardware and introduces an intuitive and fun user interface using the Siri Remote. Apple TV runs the all-new tvOS operating system, based on Apples iOS, enabling millions of iOS developers to create innovative new apps and games specifically for Apple TV and deliver them directly to users through the new Apple TV App Store.
There has been so much innovation in entertainment and programming through iOS apps, we want to bring that same excitement to the television, said Eddy Cue, Apples senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. Apps make the TV experience even more compelling for viewers and we think apps represent the future of TV.
The new Siri Remote dramatically simplifies how you select, scroll and navigate through your favorite content while bringing unique interactivity to the new Apple TV by using a glass touch surface that handles both small, accurate movements as well as big, sweeping ones. Adding touch to Apple TV creates a natural, connected experience, even if the TV screen is on the other side of the room. Developers can take advantage of the built-in accelerometer and gyroscope, and the touch surface on the Siri Remote to create games and other app experiences that have never been seen on TV before.
With Siri, you can use your voice to search TV shows and movies by title, genre, cast, crew, rating or popularity, making it easy to say things like Show me New Girl, Find the best funny movies from the ’80s, Find movies with Seth Rogan and Find popular TV shows for kids. Apple TV will search iTunes and popular apps from Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Showtime, displaying all the ways the resulting TV shows and movies can be played. Siri also offers playback control and on-screen navigation, as well as quick access to sports, stock and weather information.*
tvOS is the new operating system for Apple TV, and the tvOS SDK provides tools and APIs for developers to create amazing experiences for the living room the same way they created a global app phenomenon for iPhone and iPad. The new, more powerful Apple TV features the Apple-designed A8 chip for even better performance so developers can build engaging games and custom content apps for the TV. tvOS supports key iOS technologies including Metal, for detailed graphics, complex visual effects and Game Center, to play and share games with friends.
Pricing & Availability
The new Apple TV will be available at the end of October starting at $149 (US) for a 32GB model and $199 (US) for a 64GB model from Apple.com, Apples retail stores and select Apple Authorized Resellers. A new Xcode beta is available for developers today that includes the tvOS SDK at developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads. Developers can request an Apple TV developer kit at developer.apple.com/tvos/.
*Siri availability and functionality varies by country. Subscription required for some content.
SEE ALSO:
New Apple TV supports console-style MFi game controllers – September 9, 2015
Latest news, as of the last 24 hours, is that Amazon is totally discontinuing the Fire Phone. Reports are their hardware division is “struggling”.
BTW...I needed a streaming device for work. Had an AppleTV at home, but was trying to go cheap. Tried a Chromecast...barely functional. Tried a Roku...streamed Netflix okay, but clunky interface made it hated by my employees. I brought in my AppleTV from home...MUCH better! More content, better interface, and when we were able to easily use it to show customer stock art and proofs, it was a home run. Now I can leave it at work and pick up the new AppleTV for home!
I guess that means they are indeed getting out of the hardware business like you FUDed about. (Except of course for Tablets and Kindles and after the FCC filing for a new Fire TV unit with 4k. Set Top boxes)
hahahah
Uh, the FCC listing from early July said nothing at all about what it was for. Just that there was a product in the approval queue. You, and the others who latched onto that listing, are making an assumption based on little data to claim what it is, that it is a set-top box with 4K capability or anything. Whether it ever makes it to market is another question.
All I reported on here was what the other articles were saying. Your claim that the Wall Street Journal says that Amazon was going to release a $50 tablet. Show us your link. I provided mine. Amazon is probably using a reference product manufacturer for such a cheap tablet now. There would be no need for doing their own engineering. . . and little wiggle room to amortize design engineers in such a cheaply offered tablet.
Sometimes, what you claim is FUD, is merely factual data.
No, Dennis, it doesn't. It shows the traditionally slowest quarter of the year with the anticipated update to new Apple products coming out in the following quarter. That is all. Wake up. All quarterly sales are cyclical following an expected pattern during the year.
Xiaomi did indeed have record sales last month, for them, but for Xiaomi that is also expected as August is the month Xiaomi releases their new models. Again, following a repeating pattern seen every year because they do it deliberately, releasing models that try to mimic the upcoming Apple releases with look-alike, me-too Android phones with user interfaces skinned to look like Apple iOS.
No, DennisW, you have never been an Apple user. Five years ago you were spouting the same line you spout now. . . right here on Freerepublic. We have long memories. We are still waiting for Apple to hit the pre-split $100 per share you were predicting back then. How did your Short of non-existent Apple debt you claimed you were holding then go??? This is just one more of your series of lies on Apple threads.
Amazon doesn't have an "ecosystem" they merely have a sales model. There's a difference, Dennis. They copied very little from Apple. If they are copying anything from anyone, it is from Google/Android and Microsoft.
I provided you with the link to the proof. . . are you so dumb you can't be bothered to read the link to the C-NET article on Samsung's admission????. . . it isn't in question. They even SHARE what is recorded from their TVs to third parties. It is NOT FUD. Samsung admitted it. The default setting it listening 24/7 unless the user searches out the setting to turn it completely OFF. WAKE UP!
I don't post information I am not prepared to back-up with facts. Unlike you anti-Apple Hate Brigade members who post myths and your opinions as facts.
Uh, no. The data comes from an independent organization that is not affiliated with Apple in any way. It is just data. YOU just cannot accept it. As I said it is PURCHASED video, rented or purchased. Not subscibed streams such as HBO, Cinemax, or Netflix. . . but it is what it is. You are entitled to your opinion, you are NOT entitled to ignore facts. There are 30 million Apple TVs out there. . . far more than than Roku, Amazon Fire TV, etc. As I said, Apple users BUY stuff. . . the others go for free. That fact has been validated in multiple studies time and time again.
The Samsung stylus on their Samsung Galaxy phone does not have a button on it, which is what I thought of . . . and it's just a stick with a point on it. It's the one that came to my mind. I just did not think about the one for their tablet. Sorry about that. The Samsung stylus in their latest phones has been in the news lately because it can be put back in the phone backwards and wreck the phone's stylus inserted sensor beyond repair. As a result, that stylus was on the top of my mind.
The button on the Samsung stylus for their tablet is an activate button. . . it acts like a mouse button. I've seen the Samsung stylus in action and it is nowhere nearly as functional as the Apple Pencil.
The Samsung can draw lines that are a pixel wide, you can use it to check boxes, drag and drop, everything you can already do with a finger, perhaps a bit more accurately. Whoop-de-doo. Unlike the Apple Pencil, it does not add another thing to more functionality.
No, bolobaby, you KNOW the correct name of the product. . . you do it deliberately. You've been told and you are doing it again to obfuscate the issue. You think it's funny.
Why do you keep defending this dud of a release day? Look at the press. Everyone is underwhelmed except the Apple marketing staff and... oddly... you. Hm - interesting correlation.
Because I, and a lot of others, did not find it a dud of a release day. Why is it a "dud?" Just because Apple did not announce a car???? Again, the over inflated expectations of a hyper-exaggerated idiocracy in the punditry came up with blue sky ideas and when Apple did not exceed their wildest ideas, and instead beat everyone else in the market with better products, faster and more polished than the competition, they complain that Apple did not reveal teleportation, time travel, and faster-than-light spacecraft.
I factually report what they did release for the benefit of the 700 plus members of the FreeRepublc Apple Ping list, and correct your and other's contextual misrepresentations of what was released, and you take the opportunity to attack me, when you don't use Apple products, and claim, in other posts that you aren't really interested. That is what is really strange.
Currently it is under 3% for both of the first two questions.
The real problem is bandwidth:
If you look at the HEVC testing that guys like Jan Ozer and Alex Zambelli have done, and look at the data Netflix has presented around their 4K encoding (Netflixs current bitrate for 4K is 15.6Mbps), the bitrates wont get down to 10-12Mbps anytime soon.
However, there's a new protocol coming that may help.
Google promises to dramatically shrink 4K bandwidth with upcoming VP10 video codec
By Roger Fingas
Monday, August 31, 2015, 06:09 pm PT (09:09 pm ET)Google is working on a new open-source video codec, VP10, that should shrink the amount of bandwidth required for 4K video to half that of VP9, and a quarter of Apple's current preferred compression format, H.264.
VP10 should also offer a variety of visual enhancements over its predecessor including properties like a wider color gamut, faster framerates, and better dynamic range between highlights and shadows, CNet reported.
Google has been using VP9 for 4K on platforms like YouTube and Chrome, but partly because of Apple devices, H.264 is also effectively the industry standard. Chipmakers such as Samsung, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Broadcom have promised VP9 support however, and many 2015 TVs have VP9-ready decoders.
VP10 is said to be two years away, and require about 40 percent more work to decode than VP9.
In the interim VP9's main competition will be H.265, also known as HEVC. While it offers similar performance, Google may be able to gain ground because of the high patent royalties being asked for by the HEVC Advance group. These amount to 0.5 percent of all revenue stemming from HEVC-encoded video, as well as an 80-cent charge per mobile device and $1.50 per TV. By contrast, MPEG LA the creator of both H.264 and H.265 charges just 20 cents per H.264 device. Other companies may also demand patent revenues.
Cisco and Mozilla have developed alternative codecs known as Thor and Daala, and are further collaborating on a royalty-free standard called NetVC due around the same time as VP10.
Apple has yet to take a full step into the world of 4K, though it is believed that next-generation iPhones will support 4K recording (they do, at 60 frames per second Swordmaker), and the company has quietly been amassing 4K material for iTunes, though it's not yet on sale.
You won't be believed by the anti-Apple crowd of naysayers on here. To them anything Apple has to be only made of HYPE. The competition has to be both better and cheaper, you know.
There are no mentions of Amazon Fire TV boxes.
The other take-away from these two links is that Amazon only garnered 1% of the market with their products, even with their cut-rate pricing. . . and that their hardware division is struggling. Ergo, I DO know what I am talking about.
If Amazon comes out with another Amazon Fire TV, it probably also be a device made by reference design house in China, not designed by Amazon's dwindling number of engineers.
I am surprised they did not already have a replacement ready to go when they ran out of stock of the older model. That's what retailers of Amazon's expertise do. . . they know about product lead-time and approvals from the FCC take from three to four months before you can go to market.
These days, it is extremely rare for their FCC to deny a permit on a device that emits radio frequencies under 300 feet (WIFI, Bluetooth) for any reason because the reference designs are pretty much cookie cutter. Most manufacturers just go ahead and build inventory pending approval (you often even see that on the label on new devices) so they can put it on shelves as soon as the permit ink is dry, especially for a new version of an existing product.
So, my question is still valid, Mad Dawgg, where is it?
Not gonna fly sword. Admit it you Fudded and got caught.
4k is obsolete now. You will soon be using this camera : )
Here is a photo of the prototype. Kinda blurry photo of it : )
Canon’s 250-megapixel sensor can read the side of a plane 18km away. Take a snapshot and zoom in later to read the lettering 10 miles away.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/canons-250-megapixel-sensor-can-read-the-side-of-a-plane-18km-away/#ftag=YHFb1d24ec
The sensor is about 30 times sharper then 4k.
I bet the photos will still be blurry when taking pictures of Bigfoot....
LOL!
I didn’t ask for your permission and it is a direct and unaltered quote from one of your posts so no.
It is out of the context from which you extracted the quote. Remove it, Eaker.
Yep. I don’t buy my Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime streaming services. I get those for free. You are totally right. Only Apple users buy stuff when you live in Happy Apple Land(tm).
Um... dude. I *own* a Galaxy Note 3 *phone*. I’m staring at the stylus. It has a button. Good thing you wasted all those words telling me something isn’t true that I can see is true with my very own eyes.
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