Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)
Apple will be announcing “some new fun products” on February 28th according to an invite they sent to selected media personnel this week. In anticipation of that, the internet is full of rumors about what those products might be. Well, as I have mentioned here before, I have a column at a news site called Newsvine(.com), and I posted some thoughts there. That column should be public within the next week or so, but until it is, I’ll post some of my favorite articles here as well. 🙂
Here it is…
And The New Apple Products Will Be…
by Greg Campbell
On February 28th, Apple has promised to reveal to a group of invited members of the press “some fun new products”. The speculation began soon after the last wave of Apple products was unveiled at the 2006 MacWorld Expo back in January. Will we see a full-screen video iPod with a touch screen? Will we see a tablet Mac? How soon will the rest of the Mac line-up be switching to the Intel processor?
But my favorite by far is the rumor that Apple will finally put the Mac Mini in its rightful place: in your living room.
There are rumors that the mini will receive the Intel upgrade, and perhaps a built-in iPod dock. There are some rumors that the Mini will be the next in line to receive the FrontRow software that has been offered in the iMac and now the MacBook Pro lines. Even cooler, perhaps, than these, some have speculated that Apple will ship the new digital media hub Mac Minis with their own DVR software integrated with all of Apple’s iLife suite.
Now that would be something wouldn’t it?
Media is certainly moving toward digital. I mean completely digital. CDs of course, are digital. However, so many people are ditching their CDs for MP3 players of various sizes, and certainly the king of these is the iPod. The idea that you can actually carry your entire collection of digital music with you everywhere you go is simply amazing. Add to that your digital photos stored on phones, or the 4th gen iPod on down, and you already have quite a collection of your life, literally in the palm of your hand.
As iTunes has begun integrating video into their offerings, and the 5th generation iPod has been capable of playing video, people have been increasingly moving toward a more digital approach to TV and other visual content. Apple adds new content every week to the iTunes store. TV shows are even being offered now before they actually air. And, even for free!
As the selection increases, and as hard drive space becomes greater for a smaller price, why would we not do the same thing we have done with our music, and our photos? Instead of having shelves full of DVDs, perhaps the time is coming soon when we will have our entire collection of DVDs (and VHS?) on one tiny 6″ x 6″ x 2″ box sitting unassumingly in our giant entertainment center.
The day is certainly coming, and I am hoping that 2.28.06 is it.
I actually submitted an idea to Apple sometime last year about this. Long before I heard rumors on the rumor sites (perhaps simply because I was not paying attention) I thought it would be really cool to have the Mini be a home entertainment hub. And beyond that, I thought it would be really cool if Apple would not just offer content song by song, or video by video… but channel by channel. Apple with their a la carte media offerings could put the cable companies out of business by offering monthly subscriptions or even yearly subscriptions to just one channel’s content. Packages would also be available, but the appeal to me was the thought that I could actually pay for say 10 channels that I really want instead of 400 that I don’t care about at all!
And all of this could be piped directly into a DVR Mac Mini!
Here’s a clip from the e-mail(s) I sent to Apple on March 24th, 2005:
We were frustrated recently by our large cable bills ($65/mo for digital cable with DVR) when all we really want are local channels and perhaps 4 others. And we asked the cable company if they would ever offer packages where you could select your own channels. They said no. And I thought, why not? This is the age of select the songs you want from albums for $0.99 each… making your own greatest hits albums. Why could we not do something similar with cable TV.
But I had no idea how to get started, and then I had an idea.
What if Apple opened the iTV (or something like that) Video Store! It could be similar to the Music store, except you could purchase monthly or annual subscriptions to individual cable networks. This way people pay either buy the network, or perhaps some sort of package price for people who really do want all of those channels? AND, in addition to that, people could purchase movies just like they do songs!!! Not “rent” them like cable companies offers now with their OnDemand videos… PURCHASE them, download them, and burn them to DVDs on the Mac Mini!!
The service could work as some sort of attachment to your regular cable internet – perhaps through your computer? That box/device could then send a signal (ethernet OR wireless) to the Mac Mini-like device that sits in your entertainment center (with your TV). That device (which would no doubt have a fantastic name, better than iTV.. iView or something?) would act as a cable tuner (using software) and a DVR (using it’s hard drive, way bigger than any other decive out there, such as TiVo) and a SuperDrive with easy Apple-designed software that allows you to click a button on your remote (instead of a mouse) and burn a DVD of the movie you just downloaded for $9.99!
Cable channels would work similarly… you would purchase channels by the month, year, or more, and those would be in your purchased channels screen (with all the information of what’s on that channel for the next two weeks at your fingertips…) You could purchase ESPN for the baseball season, and then take a break over the off season. Or, you could purchase a sports-lovers package for a whole year that includes ESPN and several others… much like an iTunes Essentials album collects several tunes and puts them in one easy to purchase package.
I was really excited about this when I sent it, and couldn’t wait to hear back from Apple. I actually received a legal notice back telling me Apple does not allow unsolicited ideas. Ha! Actually, that made me think they were close to something like this, and last summer, they added video content to the iTunes music store, and away we went.
I believe this device is coming. I don’t know if it will be next week, but probably this year. As for the movies and even the cable channels… that might take a bit longer.
But wouldn’t it be cool?
Well, I for one am looking forward to the “fun new products” to be unveiled next Tuesday.
(NOTE: The image with this article is completely fabricated. I made it in Photoshop. I have no inside information — does anyone? — this is just based on the rumors I have read, and my own creative ideas. There is certainly no basis to claim this product will be made by Apple this week, or ever. That said… I sure hope they do!)