• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Apple... What's next?

Data Holmes

Data Holmes

Admiral
Admiral
So, now that the iPad is out there, what is the next thing up Apple's sleeve.

I think that their next big thing is offering a live broadcast tv to iTunes/appleTV with a cross over functionality with the iTouch/iPhone/iPad family of their portable consumer electronics.

They've already played with this back in 99 with QuicktimeTV, which was highly successful at the time but sort of fell into the void http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9907/22/quicktime.tv/
http://www.itworldcanada.com/blogs/.../08/akamai-takes-another-bite-of-apple/51433/

This would also tie in perfectly with the iPad 3g. Live, streaming tv anywhere... as vader would say "Impressive, most impressive."
 
The real rumors are about the iPhone 4, which is rumored to finally include some form of multitasking, and video conferencing.

Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.

There are also pretty strong rumors about 22-inch multitouch iMacs to be introduced later this year.
 
Foley0402 said:
Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.
Click to expand...

That's going to go over like a lead balloon unless it comes with an "offline mode." Wireless broadband simply isn't ubiquitous enough, cheap enough, or unlimited enough to make something like that a good buy.
 
Foley0402 said:
The real rumors are about the iPhone 4, which is rumored to finally include some form of multitasking, and video conferencing.

Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.

There are also pretty strong rumors about 22-inch multitouch iMacs to be introduced later this year.
Click to expand...

And isn't the next Iphone not going to be exclusive to At&t?
 
Foley0402 said:
The real rumors are about the iPhone 4, which is rumored to finally include some form of multitasking, and video conferencing.

Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.
Click to expand...

That would be interesting, especially when tied in with the new ipad. But I still think that apple may come out with live streaming tv as well.
 
Foley0402 said:
Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.
Click to expand...

That's a HORRIBLE idea. I don't know how anyone could be ok with being forced to STREAM their music collection.. oops I mean Apple's music collection. I'll stick with ripping CDs and turning them into FLACs and listening to vinyls.
 
Storing purchased TV content remotely would be a good thing, so long as you had the option to (temporarily) download it to your local machine for offline use.

Several times now I've bought movies or TV episodes, only to delete them later for the disk space. I'd rather not have to pay again for another download.
 
Geckothan said:
Foley0402 said:
Apple recently purchased media streaming company Lala, so there is a lot of talk about a radical overhaul of the iTunes model with iTunes X later this year. The rumors say that everything you purchase will sit server side, so you have access to your library from anywhere.
Click to expand...

That's a HORRIBLE idea. I don't know how anyone could be ok with being forced to STREAM their music collection.. oops I mean Apple's music collection. I'll stick with ripping CDs and turning them into FLACs and listening to vinyls.
Click to expand...

So, you are against cable tv right? I mean, you are gust paying for streamed content... Hell on-demand style services through cable is on the rise. This isn't that far off.

Another interesting thing is that it would mean you would never lose your collection do to hardware failure. Your ipad dies, no biggie. you buy a new one and enter your password and bingo, back in action. It would also mean that you wouldn't require massive storage in a device to hold all your content as well.

It's an interesting idea, and really just an extension of cloud computing into the multi-media wing of the net.
 
Alpha Romeo said:
And isn't the next Iphone not going to be exclusive to At&t?
Click to expand...

That story has floated around, too. Given the major problems with AT&T 3g connectivity in certain heavily populated areas, I wouldn't be surprised. The problem with that is that Verizon, while I'm sure they are an attractive partner from a business standpoint, uses a radically different network (CDMA) than Apple/AT&T (GSM). They would have to re-engineer the internals of the phone pretty heavily.

Rii, RobertMaxwell... as for a streaming iTunes, I agree if they went streaming only it would be a bad idea... but given the popularity of last.fm and Pandora you have to admit there IS a market for streaming audio. I also think the idea of adding streaming tracks to Genius mixes is pretty exciting.
 
Data Holmes said:
So, you are against cable tv right? I mean, you are gust paying for streamed content... Hell on-demand style services through cable is on the rise. This isn't that far off.

Another interesting thing is that it would mean you would never lose your collection do to hardware failure. Your ipad dies, no biggie. you buy a new one and enter your password and bingo, back in action. It would also mean that you wouldn't require massive storage in a device to hold all your content as well.

It's an interesting idea, and really just an extension of cloud computing into the multi-media wing of the net.
Click to expand...

When you buy a CD, you are paying your very own authorised copy of the content that you are free to do whatever you want with within the constraints of the law. When you pay for cable/satellite TV, you are paying for the entitlement to watch the content the provider shows as they broadcast it within the constraints of their terms and conditions. When you buy a pay-per-view movie on cable/satellite or go to the cinema, you are paying for the right to watch that movie once.

I've got nothing against cable/satellite TV because I know that I'm only paying for the right to watch the content as they broadcast it, not my very own copy of it.

When users "buy" their own copies of content, they expect unconditional access to it with no terms and conditions to agree to beyond what's in the copyright laws. With a service like this, that would not be the case. Users would simply be buying the right to access the content as Apple sees fit. Taking control away from the user is never good.

What if somebody wants to put their music collection onto a device with no internet access, or what if the user is on a mobile device but isn't within range of any Wi-Fi networks, thus has to deal with their provider's sluggish connection that's expensive to use and making streaming unbearable? Maybe in the future when we have a worldwide wireless network with no deadspots and amazing speeds that's accessible to the public, things might not be so bad from a usability point of view, but there'd still be the whole bending-over-for-Apple-and-letting-them-own-your-content thing.

I don't buy into the whole cloud-computing thing or the DRM thing. It rarely benefits the consumer, and even when it does in rare cases, such as this (I have to admit, the ability to listen to your music on any device with nothing more than just a username/password is neat, though letting users download as opposed to stream and then listen to it offline would be far better), they still don't have the consumer's best interests at heart. I like to have unconditional access to my content, not conditional and at the mercy of a big company that has dollar signs in it's eyes.

Also, who actually considers storage capacity an issue any more in an age where you can fit 32GB+ of flash memory on a device the size of a fingernail? Hardware failure? Learn to make backups.

jesussavesandmakesbacku.jpg


I own my music collection, the CDs and vinyls the bits in my FLAC files were derived from are my own physical, personal property. I am free to do with them whatever I wish (unless I make another copy of them, *cough*). I can listen to them whenever I want, on whatever supporting device I want without having to sign any licences or agreements. This pleases me.
 
What is next is a device to allow the user to consume food and drink from a great distance.

It's called the iDrinkYourMilkshake™ :bolian:
 
What if it were simply the current iTunes service, but linked up to a bit of .Mac online disk space so that the download occurred by default to your online space rather than your local HD? Would that be more acceptable?

My objection to the current model is that you aren't allowed to download something more than once after buying it. Seems to me, you should be buying the rights to download that song/movie whenever you want, so long as it's to an authorized computer.
 
Lindley said:
What if it were simply the current iTunes service, but linked up to a bit of .Mac online disk space so that the download occurred by default to your online space rather than your local HD? Would that be more acceptable?

My objection to the current model is that you aren't allowed to download something more than once after buying it. Seems to me, you should be buying the rights to download that song/movie whenever you want, so long as it's to an authorized computer.
Click to expand...

That's just as bad because you still don't own your own copy of the music, if it's not on your own physical media, it's not really yours. When you go to a store and buy a CD, you aren't buying the right to listen to it, it's YOUR CD, and as long as you don't play it in a public area without permission, rip it and upload it to all of your friends, or burn copies off and give/sell them to people who don't own the content themselves (who actually does the latter any more though?), you are free to do with it what you wish. When you "buy" your music from Apple, you are only buying the right to listen to it. This is bad.
 
I really don't see the difference. An mp3 is an mp3, no matter where it's stored.
 
Nintendo does this already with their downloadable games. You only pay for the right to use them, but they are on your console and can be downloaded again for free if you delete them.
 
As I see it, if you aren't allowed to store it on your own hard drive, you don't really own it. If they give you the option of storing it on their servers, but let you download it to put on whatever devices you want and listen to it unconditionally, then that's fine.

The fact is, none of these DRM methods are there to benefit the consumer, just the music labels and distributors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top