GigaOm’s Alistair Croll describes what he expects to see from Apple’s mysterious “brick,” which could in fact be hardware, software, service, or any combination thereof.
Here’s his first three:
# TV tuner and set-top PVR to take on TiVo, with streaming and synchronization to Apple’s mobile devices, the way Slingbox does, handled through a more reliable MobileMe
# Controllers with accelerometers and a set-top App Store to rival what’s on the iPhone and iPod Touch
# Videoconferencing-capable features to connect a distributed family via iChat
As nice as the hypothetical device is, some of the details stretch it. Like Apple is going to make a “terminal” with “broad support” for other people’s standards. The thrust of his piece, however, is about getting the iTunes content delivery system into the living room for real this time, delivering everything from music to video games.
One thing is true: it’s now or never if Apple wants to do this. Cable companies and the like are currently too stupid to put significant selections of movies and media on their On-Demand systems, which already get the lion’s share of the “dark bandwidth” that cable connections have but don’t let you use for internetting. That state of affairs won’t last forever.
Now, if Apple were to get Comcast to ditch On-Demand for iTunes and give customers Apple Bricks instead of faceless DVRs…
(As far as Brick is concerned, I’m leaning toward that being a simple metaphor for what it’s intended to do to Windows, which suggests something other than an AppleTV replacement.)
I think the brick is going to be OSX licensed to other PC manufacturers. It probably won’t be shrinkwrapped but it might be offered by HP or Dell on some models. If it’s true that the growth in hardware sales is only in $400 laptops then Apple can’t be a hardware company any more.
You can add to that one of Snow Leopard’s big features could be an App store distribution system. Apple would get a cut of all software sales on these non-macs too.
I wager (anonymously) that they’re going to get back to Microsoft for ‘zuning’ the nano by revealing all this just before the preview of Windows 7.
Or instead they could just release some new tablet-toy or something.
But software is for exposing the wondrous world-changing hardware.
No-one can predict the future accurately, but I’d be surprised!
Note that boot camp was a similar “shocker,” but it served to sell hardware. OSX on Dell only serves to sell software. That’s just not Applethink.
Maybe it will just be a glossy white plastic brick with an illuminated Apple logos for their most devout cultists to build an altar around and worship. Who needs to do any work or actually use a computer when you can just stare blankly at a chunk of plastic?
My feeling has been that Apple steered around any kind of DVR features so far in order to keep the relationship with the networks stable. That said, I can see the networks coming around to accepting that DVRs are here to stay, and that playing in the pool with such a system is likely better than not.
When I hear “brick” from Apple, I think of bad OS upgrades and the results for your existing system.
I think that it will be a sexbot based on Eva from Wall-E. Did I say “think”? I meant “hope”. (Of course, it would be out on the market for about 3 minutes before the Apple haters started whinging about how it will only do anal after you’ve had it for a while, and then only after a pricey software upgrade and a lot of talking.)
On OSX, isn’t this already called EyeTV?
It’s my 4th gen iPod that died 3 days after the warranty expired.
Marshall,
That already exists, but you can’t buy one, you have to earn it.
Hmmmm!
My Ipod Nano is still working after 3 years, I
keep wondering when the battery is gonna die?
My Powerbook G4 (pre intel chip) has been on 15 hours a day for three years, on it
I made/ produced 5 large photography books and
my that laptop has no sign yet of a dying motherboard,I hope Mac keeps quality as this is in their new products,what ever they may be.