Waiting for Apple?

[Twill]

Hi,

I'm not an Apple user at the moment, but all my tech is coming to an upgrade point in the near future, and so it seems like a good time to decide whether to jump on the Apple bandwagon, or keep my liberty. Since Apple products would appear to be designed to force you in to using nothing but other Apple products, I feel like a decision to go for, say, an iPhone over an Andoid device will clearly lead to an Apple cascade in my house.

For example, next time I buy some audio hardware for my kitchen, it would probably make sense to go for something with Airplay rather than apt-x in terms of wireless.

All this is fine if the upgrade path is phone>dock>TV, say, because the Android vs IOS battle can then set the trend for the rest of the house. In reality however, my TV upgrade is a more pressing problem, and I don't know whether to go for a mainstream smartTV, or wait on Apple for the rumoured iTV.

All the rumours and hysteria about the iTV sounds fun, but it's not clear to me whether it would contain any kind of tuner or 'live' TV option, or purely be a streaming device for online content. Has anyone got any ideas? I still want a 'live' tv option for sure, so if the iTV doesn't offer this, there's no point waiting around for it, regardless of what else I decide to do in the smartphone/dock arenas.

One more ancillary point: why don't more docks have both apt-x and airplay together? I want a dock for the kitchen, but don't know which way to jump as I won't be upgrading my phone for a little while, and haven't decided on Android vs Apple in that department yet. I guess one advantage in the wireless streaming arena is that Airplay doesn't require a fiddly dongle like apt-x seems to in quite a few cases.

Any thoughts welcome. Cheers.

 

[Fuzzy Bear]

I would imagine that any iTV even without a tv tuner will have inputs of some kind, HDMI at the very least, allowing you to plug in various sources - Freeview HD, SKy HD etc.

 

[ReValveiT]

A grand for a 42" TV? Not in 2012.

And that's coming from an iPad and iPhone user.

 

[Twill]

Yeah I saw that report, but I'm guessing the 42" won't be the only size. there's been a lot of talk about a smaller option. Then again, if the 42" is that much, any smaller set would still cost a comparative arm+leg.

 

[Amadeus1756]

Some of the high-end TVs - e.g. Philips ones with full LED backlighting are close to a grand, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Apple product was more. I bet they'll sell a load as well.

For someone who keeps things for a long time, it's relatively easy to justify a high initial outlay if you think that you're going to keep it for x years. It has to be leading quality/functionality for that to be valid tho.

 

[Anonymous]

I wonder if Apple will source their panels from Samsung ?

:read:

:rofl:

 

[AnotherJoe]

Anything Apple do you can do better or cheaper elsewhere...in some cases both.

dont become an iSheep - and pay through the nose...

The ONLY bit of Apple kit I like is the Airport express - where you can add streaming ability to an old bit of kit that doesnt have it. But even here I would just replace that old bit of kit to have dlna.

 

[chudleighpaul]

Apple?

Overrated and over priced. They also use factories in China that pay slave wages.

 

[Paul.]

Apple?

Overrated and over priced. They also use factories in China that pay slave wages.

Your shiny new Galaxy was made by Foxcon too.

 

[professorhat]

Since Apple products would appear to be designed to force you in to using nothing but other Apple products

To be honest, if you really think that's the main design decision behind Apple's products, you're probably best off avoiding as you'll likely only be looking to find faults in any Apple product you buy and therefore probably won't be satisfied. Do Apple products work best together? Of course - it would be pretty stupid to design their products not to work well together (though that certainly doesn't stop some companies doing it - yes Sony, I'm looking at you).

 

[chudleighpaul]

At least it was free to me, unlike Iphones which are nearly £500.

 

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't bother waiting for a rumoured product. I'd go and look at the market and buy something you want. For me, the new panel technology is the only thing worth waiting for at the moment....OLED = yes please,

In response to those who abuse Apple (not quite sure why, you dont need to buy Apple??). Apple product are well designed and built, incredibly well integrated and very easy to use. They are good quality pieces of industrial design - almost every product. They're not the be-all and end-all, but anyone who says otherwise (to the design point I just made), is being ridiculous.

We're all consumers here and we have choice, so instead if banging on about how much you hate Apple, just buy other brands? No-one is stopping you!

Ive got an AppleTv and it's fantastic for what it does, but my ps3 is a better overall product, albeit more expensive. The ATV integrates brilliantly with my other Apple devices (as well as iCloud). The PS3 is more difficult to set up but also does the job and does it brilliantly whilst also being a blu-ray player and games console.

 

[robjcooper]

Anything Apple do you can do better or cheaper elsewhere...in some cases both.

dont become an iSheep - and pay through the nose...

The ONLY bit of Apple kit I like is the Airport express - where you can add streaming ability to an old bit of kit that doesnt have it. But even here I would just replace that old bit of kit to have dlna.

YAAAWWNNNN.......

 

[AnotherJoe]

Your shiny new Galaxy was made by Foxcon too.

Foxconn does not make the Samsung Galaxy. The Galaxy is made inhouse. Foxconn assemble tvs,fridges and other white goods for Samsung - I'm not aware of them being involved in Samsungs phone assembly.

I'm sure Samsung use a completely different company for slave labour.

 

[Paul.]

I earlier read that foxconn were a supplier of Samsung and wrongly assumed that they 'assembled' everything in the same way that Foxconn do the last 10% on the iPhone and iPad. Egg on my face.

My point to Chudleighpaul still stands though, that critisizing one maker of consumer electronics whilst buying another is a bit foolish, as they are all as bad as each other.

 

[The_Lhc]

Apple?

Overrated and over priced. They also use factories in China that pay slave wages.

Your shiny new Galaxy was made by Foxcon too.

And Foxconn pay far more than most Chinese workers earn and actually have a lower rate of suicide than the Chinese national average AND have a lower rate of death "at work" than the USA does.

And they make Dell equipment and Sony and...

 

[Twill]

...all of which is very interesting, but rather gets away from the original point: anyone know if the iTV is likely to have any kind of live TV capability? I'm guessing it's still too early to pick such fine details out of the rumour soup.

I wasn't trying to make a negative point about Apple's wider ethos, I just feel a bit frustrated that Apple's use of tech does rather lock you out of mixing and matching. As a lover of hi-fi, I like the idea of matching components according to which specific piece I think fits the jigsaw best. Apple do seem to rather take this away from you.

If, for example, your next smartphone is an iPhone, then your next dock will need airplay if you want a wireless option. If you get a dock with Airplay and then by an Android phone, you've made a mistake. I'd just prefer it if more technologies were trans-platform-compatible, like bluetooth for example, so you could choose the smartphone you want, and then the dock or multiroom you want, as completely seperate decisions, without having to try and second guess your own future purchases. Or, maybe more tech should / could carry dual options? It's not like this is BM vs VHS, surely there's no big reason why the Zeppelin couldn't have both Airplay and apt-x for example?

 

[professorhat]

I don't see how B&Ws adoption of only implementing Airplay in the Zeppelin is Apple's fault? Or any other dock manufacturer who has done the same. Apple and others have invented a standard (and yes, they've made that standard easy to use for their own customers, again, not really a surprise) - it's then up to the manufacturers to decide which standard they adopt in their products and this will come down to sales.

Given the popularity of Andriod phones now, I wouldn't have thought it will be long before there's more mainstream adoption of the standards that work with it.

 

[Paul.]

You can get a dlna app from the app store for the iPhone, just wont be as easy to setup as airplay.

The problem is it is really really difficult to get standards defined. One of the reason HTML5 has taken so long to progress is because several parties involved were arguing about which video standards to use (haven't seen this story pop up in a while so not sure which direction it has gone). This is one reason why Apple like to go it alone on some standards, as progress is faster. I appreciate that it can be limiting sometimes, but tech is always a compromise in one way or another. The ease of use of Apple products goes hand in hand with the restrictions in place , hence Apple polarising opinion so much.

I would guess B&W only support Airplay because they don't want to deal with troubleshooting hundreds of different devices connecting wirelessly. A secondary argument would be that iPhone buyers are probably the right demographic for a £400+ dock, whereas free on contract phone customers probably wouldn't be. As Proff says, support will show up sooner or later through sheer market size.

 

[professorhat]

...all of which is very interesting, but rather gets away from the original point: anyone know if the iTV is likely to have any kind of live TV capability? I'm guessing it's still too early to pick such fine details out of the rumour soup.

Oh yeah, and to answer the original point, the only people that know for sure on the above aren't saying yet :shhh:

 

[Paul.]

Im slightly concerned content deals may leave the iTV a little limp at first in the UK as it did with the Apple TV. In the US the ATV has been fantastic for a while now, but due to lack of Netflix amongst other things my ATV has been nothing but an Airport Express with YouTube. There is still no iPlayer for ATV even though its available on other iOS devices for instance.

Its the ecosystem that will make or break the iTV, as the Jobs biography stated it was content distribution with the cable networks that he had beef with, not the TV hardware itself.

No one actually knows what is going in to this thing, for all we know it could be another iPhone 5 that doesn't actually exist!

 

[Twill]

All of which makes sense, thanks. I guess there's still a case to say that these are business cases that make more sense for the companies than they do for the consumers, which is maybe the wrong way round, but at least it adds up to some extent.

As an aside, I'm not saying it's anyone's fault that they adopt one standard rather than another, I'm just saying - from a consumer's point of view - it's getting to the extent where it feels a little inhibiting. the decisions you make to jump one way or the other now seem to have such far reaching consequences for your digital life, that it actually becomes disabling. the entrance of Apple in to the TV market will only make this situation more severe as far as I can see.

 

[Paul.]

Dont worry, whatever content deal Apple wangles, Google and Amazon will be along with an alternative (and microsoft four years later )

 

[professorhat]

You always have a choice though - it can seem limiting, but it's not really as bad as everyone makes out. For example, I have an iPhone, an Apple TV and I have a Mac, and these all work really well together. But if I wanted to, I could easily purchase an Android phone (or even a Windows phone) and run up Windows on my Mac through Bootcamp (or Parallels or VMware etc.) and then easily switch my music and photo collection to running on a Windows setup. I've no idea why I'd want to do that, but I could.

With my Apple TV, once it's jailbroken (it already is, but let's pretend it's not), I could then configure it to stream my music, photos and videos from my new PC based solution, or a standard NAS. There's plenty of guides online which step you through all this, so most reasonably tech savvy people could do it. And if someone isn't that tech savvy, the idea of doing any of the above on a standard PC + Android phone + "ANOther" streamer is probably too daunting and that's why they went with the all-in-one Apple solution in the first place!

 

[Anonymous]

:wave: Exactly, I don't see why it's viewed as such a restriction. All you need is either a dock adaptor or a 3.5mm to RCA jack and you're welcome to use any kit you can care to name, just not wireless.

No one on this forum is going to know the answer to the AppleTV/iTV rumour query the op came up with. Only Apple's management and a set of its employees will know the answer to that right now. I have a feeling it won't be worth the wait to get as an early adopter, but that's another total guess.

On another note, some Apple users get Apple products because they are easy to use and integrate well, dspote being very techy. Some techies like an easy life sometimes, honest! :wave: