The AppleTV is without a doubt the topic of choice for the average mac focussed arm chair quarterback. Being on of Apple’s few products that didn’t become an instant runaway success, it’s easy for commentators to come up with their own ideas on what they would do to the AppleTV or how they would have designed such a product. Much of this discussion however usually goes off on a complete tangent from the core of what the AppleTV is and turns the box into something completely different such as a DVR or a Mini Server or some other such outlandish suggestions. Yet, if you look at what the AppleTV basically is, a front end for iTunes, then even within that paradigm there is sufficient room for improvement. So in that spirit of assuming one knows better than Apple, here are my suggestions for what they should do to the next generation of the AppleTV:
1. Make it bigger. Consider using a traditional DVD Player type form factor, or even the size of a mac mini. For a start giving it more room inside could allow it not to generate so much heat and would leave room for some of my other suggestions below…
2. Stick a bigger and faster hard drive in it. Either go 2.5” S.A.T.A. or a 3.5” drive which would be cheaper and offer higher capacity.
3. Make it faster so that it can playback content without struggling. While it handles most stuff well, it can bottle up on high definition TV shows.
4. Support 1080p
5. Support some third party codecs. At the very least support DIVX. All the game consoles now support DIVX and many current DVD players have DIVX support too.
6. Give it a proper remote. The little white one is a beautiful example of apple design and minimalism but it’s too easy to loose.
7. Put a power button on the front of it. Seriously Apple, in the age of environmental awareness, do you really want a product out there that’s a pain to turn off?
8. Put either a DVD Drive or a Blu-Ray drive in it. Forget about playback of DVD’s or Blu-Ray Movies for a minute, although that would be nice, and consider this. If you download a lot of movies or TV shows from the iTunes store, they can quickly fill up your hard drive. You can archive them off onto disk, but then to play them on the AppleTV again you have to import them back into itunes and re-sync. What if iTunes let you burn your TV shows to a data disk and then you could play that back in your AppleTV’s disk drive. You wouldn’t be making a regular DVD so the DRM would still apply, and your AppleTV would still need to be authorized to your iTunes account so you wouldn’t be frightening the studios off. And of course, being able to play back DVD’s at least would be a bonus too.
9. Put a web browser on it.
10. Consider an App-Store like system and development kit to allow developers to write plug ins. There is already a thriving community out there on hacked AppleTV’s much like the jailbreak community on the iPhone. You’ve seen how successful the App Store model can be, why not allow it on the AppleTV too? There are plenty of other services out there that the AppleTV could tie in to and there’s no way Apple can write them all themselves, so why not let other developers do it and let Apple make some money off it too.
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Of course all this is purely fantasy, and I suspect if there is an update to the AppleTV it’s probably already nearing production. Still, while I’m sure many of you have your own suggestions, I don’t think anything on here is that unreasonable or would be that hard to implement. The AppleTV has great potential, and if Apple relaxed their need to control every aspect of what you do on it, even just a little bit, then I think they could make a truly killer set top box.
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2 Things:
1)From what I can tell on my 160GB with the latest firmware, 1080p is supported, at least that’s the display format mine is set to…now if you meant you wished iTunes had 1080p content for movies, yes, I agree, but you’d need one heckuva fast wireless network to support that.
2)The browser. I think they could easily add that via firmware update. This would give me just about everything I could ask for.
I know I am stumbling across this months after it was posted, but since WWDC09 is a day away, and I am looking forward hopefully to some announcement about AppleTV “Take 3″, I thought I would give my 2¢.
I’ll just use your item numbers for reference to my comments…
1: I do not see a larger form factor being advantageous. I think it is about perfectly sized.
2: Rather than a bigger hard drive, let it use the USB port on the back for an external drive like the Time Capsule and for that matter, use the Time Capsule as a storage expander.
3: I don’t actually think the AppleTV needs a faster processor actually, but it was designed over two years ago, so maybe it’s time to upgrade… just because.
4: It does support 1080p already. However, as WVU1999 noted, iTunes does not offer 1080p. Honestly, unless you have a set larger than about 50″ diagonal 16:9 format, 720p and/or 1080i is fine. It’s only on larger screens where the extra resolution becomes apparent.
5: Personally, I am not terribly impressed by DivX, but on the other hand, I do agree that supporting it would be nice.
6: I both agree and disagree with this one. I have a TIVo also and would like something that fits in the hand better, though not as bulky as the peanut remote. Something small, but more comfortably shaped. I would also go a little further and would like to see separate volume buttons in addition to the d-pad, select and menu button.
7: Why need a power button if it is smart enough to know to go to sleep? Makes more sense to me than a button no one walks across the room to press.
8: No offense intended, but adding an optical drive is as illogical as adding a DVR tuner. The point of the AppleTV is downloadable/streamable content, not antiquated physical media and it would only add excessive cost to the device. There are already more than enough choices for optical drives out there. Personally, I would rather have some options added to my content… For instance, monthly packages which let you stream content on-demand for a fee, as well as advertiser supported content. Personally, to me, the former would be perfect for HD movies (which are best without interruptions) and the latter perfect for on-demand content (which we are used to interruptions in).
9: A Web browser would be very cool indeed.
10: I have been saying the same thing about the App Store even before Apple first announced it for the iPhone as I have been saying for years that the best way to distribute 3rd party Mac software would be through an app store. Honestly, the iPhone’s app store is not quite perfect. It’s a little less than perfect an experience for thousands of apps, let alone what has since become reportedly 45,000 apps according yo some sources. Regardless, there are hundreds, even thousands of apps that would be perfect for the AppleTV, whether using a Dashboard Widget type interface or a standalone full screen interface. Either way, making use of the “10 foot” UI of a set top box is perfect for an absolute myriad of potential apps, and would blow the socks off the likes of the antiquated TiVo/DVR universe… I for one would be exstatic to see Hulu, Boxee, etc. come to the AppleTV (thus providing the advertiser supported programming I mentioned in #8 even if Apple is not interested. I am sure at the current pricing, as is, but with an App Store and allowing 3rd party streamable content and advertiser supported content, not only would AppleTV likely become much more popular, it would still be profitable to Apple… And from their perspective, that’s the whole point.