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There's no doubt about it, Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), such
as the TiVo, have changed
the way many people watch and enjoy TV, but there are many more
people who simply don't understand the advantages of current "smart"
TV recording devices.
How could Apple redo the PVR and make it as successful as the
iPod?
There have always been rumors of Apple reentering the PDA market
or trying to compete with Microsoft's Tablet PC. But as some people
have pointed out, the Tablet PC is still new and really isn't a
viable replacement for a laptop (despite Microsoft's advertising
hype), and the PDA market seems to be shrinking more and more each
quarter as new PDA-like mobile phones are released.
But the PVR market, like the MP3 player market before the iPod, is
still new and dominated only by the tech savvy people of the world.
An Apple branded set-top PVR, if done right, could create an entire
new section of the "Digital Hub" and compete head on with not only
the TiVo, but also the Microsoft "Media Center" PC, and even the
Xbox.
Standards
With the release of Mac OS X, Apple is strongly embracing open
standards such as Bluetooth, Rendezvous, 802.11b (WiFi), USB, MPEG 4,
MP3, SyncML, vCards, vCals, OpenGL, and FireWire. This allows devices
of all kinds to communicate with computers in various ways; the only
limiting factor is software and driver availability. Here's some real
world examples of how Apple and their products use standards:
The iPod uses two popular standards, Apple's own FireWire and
the popular MP3 music format.
With the release of Jaguar, Mac OS X is Bluetooth-ready,
allowing both synchronization of mobile phone data (using the
SyncML standard) with data stored on the computer and
Mac-to-Mobile Internet access.
AirPort, based on the 802.11b standard, made wireless Internet
a popular network connection for businesses and home users. Before
802.11b was popular, many users were forced to use nonstandard
methods such as phoneline networking to let machines communicate
in places where long ethernet cables were not an option.
With Rendezvous, machines and devices can talk to each other
and configure themselves automatically. Applications like iTunes
and iChat can talk to each other and share data instantly. All of
the major printer manufacturers are supporting Rendezvous in their
future network printers, making difficult network printer setup a
thing of the past.
With FireWire and USB, devices such as printers, scanners,
game controllers, and data storage drives can work right out of
the box without making you worry about your computer having the
right ports.
MPEG-4, as introduced to the world in QuickTime 6, eliminates
the need for proprietary media players and will enable people and
devices, no matter which platform or OS, to share video and
audio.
iCal can publish in the standard vCal format, so any calendar
application can view and modify the calendar data and still be
able to send it back to its originating application.
vCards, as generated by Address Book, allow individual and
business contact information to be shared digitally, without the
need for paper business cards that can easily get lost. Like the
other standards, the vCard is not assigned to just one single
Address Book program, allowing anybody on any devices and platform
to view, modify, and share the contact data.
OpenGL is a big part of Mac OS X, used in just about every
screen saver, as well as the Quartz Extreme rendering process.
It's also an important base for every major 3D game on the
Mac.
With the above standards and Apple's Unix-based Mac OS X platform,
all the pieces of the Apple PVR puzzle are there - they just need to
be put together. For the product to be successful, Apple would need
to make the machine better than the TiVo.
Seems impossible? With Apple's innovation and standards support,
it could easily be done.
Putting the Puzzle Together
First, Apple would need a set-top box. To start, there are two
obvious needs: A processor and a hard drive. A G4 processor (say 500
MHz) would probably work nicely for most PVR tasks, and any standard
hard drive with at least 20 GB capacity would do. To add to that,
we'd need some type of video input/output. Regular RCA-style cables
for input and output would function for the majority of users.
Now we need a way for the PVR to talk to the device it's
controlling - USB ports, anyone? With USB, Apple could create an "IR
Blaster" device to manually change channels on a cable or satellite
receiver or allow a USB-to-USB connection to current Digital Cable
and Satellite receivers (a direct connection would provide greater
channel-changing accuracy than an IR blaster, which is subject to
interference).
What about channel listings and schedules? How about a vCal file!
How do we get the vCal file to the set-top box? Do we need to worry
about having a phone line or ethernet cable near the TV? No, we have
AirPort to give us on-demand Internet connectivity!
What about the remote control (you know, the thing every TV
watcher worships)? Do we need to stick with old-fashioned Infrared
line-of-site remote controllers to control this set-top box? No!
Simply adding Bluetooth to the remote and set-top box would give us a
good way to control the machine from your recliner without having to
aim at the PVR.
The last thing is the operating system. Guess what? Because of the
choice to use standards in the device, Mac OS X would be very
easy to customize to run an Apple PVR. The only major changes would
need to be to the GUI. Aqua would have to go to make room for a lower
resolution, TV friendly, onscreen navigational system.
Simply add the QuickTime 6 guts on top of everything, and we have
our media recording and playback system. With MPEG-4's compression
and scalability, the device could hold much more audio and video than
competing PVRs that use larger file formats (such as MPEG-2), while
still having great audio and video quality.
Controlling the Device
Next, we would need a recording scheduling system. What if iCal
let you view and schedule TV listings on your Mac and then sync this
up to the set-top box via iSync and Rendezvous? You could use your
big computer screen and mouse/keyboard for most of the scheduling
process, eliminating the need to strain your eyes (and nerves)
navigating channels and program information on a low-resolution TV
screen.
Rendezvous with iApps
Sound good enough yet? We know Apple will soon be releasing a new
Rendezvous-ready version of iTunes to "stream" your music to other
network user's playlists (without the need to copy the actual audio
files, to keep the RIAA happy).
What if the set-top box could pick up your iTunes playlist and
stream the music through your TV and stereo, the same way other
network Macs can? You would never have to worry about finding the
right CD again or changing the CDs every time you want a different
song on a different album or by a different artist. You'd have your
favorite music on your custom playlists going through your home
theater speakers, without the need to run a long wire from your
headphone port to your receiver!
What if iPhoto and iMovie were Rendezvous-ready? You could
broadcast your wedding photos (edited and organized in iPhoto) or
your son's first steps video (edited in iMovie) directly to your TV.
There wouldn't be a need to waste time and money on DVDs for
something you may only want to view on the TV once.
Gaming Console?
Say we added a FireWire port and a 3D accelerator chip to the
set-top box. And what if we used the FireWire port to connect a CD
drive, and either the USB ports or Bluetooth to support joysticks or
other game controllers? Can you say, Xbox killer?
With the Mac OS X core and OpenGL, it'd be fairly easy to port any
Mac OS X game to the machine, and it would create new business
for game porting houses like Aspyr and Mac-only game developers like
Pangea.
Also, if Apple included authoring tools for the device with it's
free Developer Tools package, anybody could create their own games
for the machine, letting a world of wannabe console game makers have
a chance to have their talent noticed, the same way regular software
developers have their work noticed on sites like Version Tracker.
This is something that no other game console allows due to steep
learning curves, expensive development systems and tools, and
licensing fees.
Conclusion
The point of this article is not to speculate on what devices
Apple may or may not be creating, but to point out what Apple could
do at any time with low R & D costs and little effort, thanks to
their support of open standards, and their Unix based OS. But with a
little of Apple's famous innovation (and marketing), a device such as
this could be successful with both geeks and the average
consumer.
Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.
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