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
Why did Amazon lay off most of their hardware engineering staff last month? There website for Amazon Fire TV says it is out of stock and no known date for restocking. That is not the indicator of a new product coming anytime soon. Perhaps you are right and they will go with something engineered by someone else. . . which may be why they let their own in-house engineers go.
There is no such thing as an "iPencil", idiot. Why do you persist in using incorrect product names? It makes you look like an idiot, so you must be one.
Also why do you persist in misrepresenting what I state? I did not say that the Apple Pencil could "sense width" but that the user could control the width of the line as he draws the line. There is a world of difference between what YOU, the idiot, claim I said, and what I actually told you. Again, like many times before, you build a strawman to shoot down what YOU want to argue against, something I did not say. YOU embarrass yourself by writing such drivel.
It is obvious you did not bother to watch the demo link I provided, because, if you had, you'd see how easy the Apple Pencil makes drawing such lines, something that is NOT easy to do with other tools. So, again you demonstrate your complete drooling idiocy. . . you have to make Apple products be stupid. . . so you can shoot them down. I get it. You are simple, so your arguments have to be simple. Fine.
Most? More FUD?
The news on new Fire TV devices has been available for over a month. Yet you claim it has been discontinued. Why?
They are sold out of the old ones. I suppose they could make more but then they would be selling outdated models when a new model is about to come out, sorta like some other gadget makers do.
Then where are they? And why did Amazon lay off their engineering staff? You still haven't answered that question. . . and how is that question FUD? It was widely reported. It indicates a major re-allignment in Amazon's plans to concentrate on their core competency, retail, not developing hardware. All you've done is attack me by claiming I post FUD. . . you haven't given any concrete reasons why it isn't except rumors from applications made months ago.
Personally, I'd like to see Amazon continue with the Fire line. They had some neat ideas.
How many did they lay off?
You said the Fire TV was discontinued yet the new tech has been leaked for over a month. If it is discontinued then why is it leaked? If they are going to stop making stuff then they don't need engineers. So then why weren't all of them fired and the unit disbanded?
"It indicates a major re-allignment in Amazon's plans to concentrate on their core competency, retail, not developing hardware."
Yeah cause they have no luck at all with hardware sales...
*cough* kindle *cough*
I’ve liked the Amazon Kindle platform, various coworkers, family members, friends have used its various iterations. If they’ve stopped in-house development, it could easily mean that they’re not driving the level of retail business they’d hoped to justify the continuing development. IOW, they may have reached the point where they’re going to let other hardware makers continue to do what they do (hardware margins have been shrinking for years, since before the first netbook was intro’d) and just keep the Amazon store apps up to date on those platforms. Orrrrr, they’re pushing dev offshore.
The primary leak that all other reports are based on came in early July. None others since then. Everything else has been based on that one single leak which came from an FCC list. No leak from Amazon. The Fire box has been sold out since then. . . so where is it?
As to Kindle sales, Amazon has always been totally silent on the number of Kindles sold. . . and sales have always been imputed by people assuming the numbers with little basis in facts. The same on the Amazon Fire phones and TV units. Bezos does not say how many they sell. Amazon is silent about it.
As to the number of engineers? I really do not know. The reports seemed to say all or almost all of them. . .
Why Amazon is laying off dozens of its engineers
by Victor Luckerson Fortune AUGUST 27, 2015, 8:24 AM EDTIts the first time Amazon has cut employees at its Lab126, a report says.
Many of the engineers behind Amazons AMZN -0.13% failed Fire phone are getting the boot, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The online retail giant is cutting dozens of employees from Lab126, the hardware outfit that develops products such as the Fire phone, the Kindle, and Amazons Echo, the paper said.
This is the first time Amazon has ever laid off employees from Lab126, sources told the Journal. Some projects in the works, such as a large-screen tablet, have also been scuttled as part of a restructuring process. Amazon is reportedly still working on a high-end kitchen computer code-named Kabinet that would serve as a hub for the smart home of the future.
Amazon declined to comment to the Journal, and did not immediately return a request for comment from TIME and Fortune.
Amazons Fire phone was supposed to take on the iPhone and high-end Android handsets head-on, but the device failed to find mass appeal. Amazon took a $170 million write down on unsold Fire phone inventory last fall.
Ever since the first Kindle hit the market, hardware analysts have claimed that Amazon was selling them below cost. Even Amazon tacitly admitted they were loss leaders to sell e-books which they later claimed were themselves loss leaders. It's hard to see where there ever was a plan to turn the e-reader, e-book enterprise profitable. Similarly, the Fire Phone's purpose was a supposed marketing platform to feed potential buyers to Amazon products with ads with buy buttons. It too was claimed to be a "loss leader" after they dropped the initial high price. I heard the Fire TV offered ads in so-called free TV, or at least that was the initial plans. Did they ever follow through?
bflr
That graph shows how much Xiaomi is cutting into Apple revenues in China. The Xiaomi Mi4 had record sales last month. You are oblivious to the erosion of Apple (reflected in eroding stock prices too) because you live in the Apple fanbot bubble.
I know because I used to be there too until I sold and gave away all Apple products I owned five years ago.
Amazon “devices” have one purpose. To suck you into the Amazon eco-system and to keep you there. They copied this strategy from the Steve Jobs era at Apple.
Not sure where I just saw this, but someone online (here, or FB, or elsewhere) was complaining about ad content on Kindle. As far as profits go, Amazon posted a profit, or perhaps it was just positive earnings, sometime in 2015 (recently), first time ever, or at least first time in some years. They are taking on Walmart, or rather, they have been for some time now, and Walmart has been trying to respond.
“And your Samsung SMART TV is listening to you 24/7...”
FUD!
Again, Bullcrap. Selective manipulation of the stats. Obviously this excludes streaming services and is only looking at impulse video streams, which is a minor market compared to streaming services.
For someone who claims this...
“I actually am quite well familiar with state of the art beyond Apple, bolobaby.”
...you’re amazingly willing to immediately demonstrate you’re ignorance by stating this...
“Can you demonstrate that Samsung’s stylus is anything but a piece of aluminum rod with a plastic tip?”
Did you know that the Samsung stylish has a button on it? I wonder what that is for? Hmmmm...
Oh, sure, it can’t sense *width* but you just showed that your claims are false.
“There is no such thing as an “iPencil”, idiot. Why do you persist in using incorrect product names?”
Because I have no corporate overlord telling me to market the iStylus correctly like you do.
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.
My questions are:
How much video is really 4k?
How many people have the TV or equipment to record/display 4k?
And how much bandwidth does 4k really use?
I have ordered from Walmart when I could have ordered from Amazon. The main factor is I have a Walmart very close by where I can EASILY return an item. But most of the time I am ordering from Amazon which is outdoing ebay these days because you have product reviews at Amazon. But ebay is great for used items. Spent $130 on one yesterday.
Almost spent #200 on a reconditioned chromebook from the Acer outlet at ebay
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