from Hacker News

Apple's October TV Surprise

by yannickt on 10/31/16, 7:23 PM with 47 comments

  • by manacit on 10/31/16, 7:47 PM

    There is some that I agree with in here, and some that I disagree with. Ultimately I think it's fairly well thought out, though I am personally excited about the new apps for Apple TV.

    The lack of 4k/UHD/HDR support in the Apple TV is, I agree, not cool. When the ATV4 came out, it was excusable - there was not a lot of 4k content, and 4k TVs were more expensive than they are now. In the interim, they have gone down in price and there is much more content available in UHD.

    As far as the new TV and Live TV apps, I am very excited. The ATV is my window into all of the media consumption that I do on TV - I use Plex to stream things from my NAS, Netflix to watch Netflix, ABC, CBS, ESPN, etc. apps to watch on demand TV, and I am mostly very happy with it. These new apps are going to make that a much better viewing experience - syncing up all of my logins, and providing a central point to browse and stream. I view this as a pretty big win over the experience on other devices.

    Even though Netflix (and I'm assuming Plex) won't be included, it's still a big step up from having to use the Fox, Fox Sports, CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC, etc. apps to know which channel the college football game is on (usually ESPN, sometimes Pac 12 Network or CBS), or what channel airs a particular TV show.

    Ultimately, I have a 1080p TV, so I'm not missing the inability to stream in 4k. My next device will undoubtedly be 4k however, and I would be very bummed if Apple did not have a device that was capable of producing 4k video.

  • by martinald on 10/31/16, 8:28 PM

    I agree with this. I get the feeling that Tim Cook cares a lot more about shareholders than Steve Jobs ever did, and he's really trying to optimise for average selling price (and with that, gross margin) of devices.

    MacBooks have went up substantially in price. AppleTV (as this article shows) is really expensive vs competition. The $10k Apple Watch was a laughable misstep.

    The iPad Pro is very expensive for a tablet also.

    If I had more balls I would short AAPL stock. I have never been so confused after an Apple event than this one. They are all over the place and it suggests that they really don't know what customers want in 'mature' product categories.

  • by pfarnsworth on 10/31/16, 8:41 PM

    I love my Apple TV but mainly because it makes using Plex and a couple of the other apps so easy. Plex with the Apple TV is simply an amazing experience. Also, because of the Apple TV, I've gone "legit" and bought a ton of stuff from iTunes because it's so convenient.

    But most of the apps suck. I can't use any of the TV station apps like NBC, etc, without already having a cable subscription, which basically misses the point. I can't wait for DirectTV to come out with a streaming version, it just be good enough for me to switch to that permanently.

  • by klodolph on 10/31/16, 7:46 PM

  • by greedo on 10/31/16, 7:50 PM

    I still don't understand why the ATV doesn't have gigE. The BOM differential for 100mbit vs gigE can't be more than $1...

  • by insulinrocks on 10/31/16, 9:13 PM

    This page causes a "Network Disconnected" error on Safari for iPad. There is no loss of connection whatsoever, and every other site/service works for me. What on earth is going on?

    Edit: replicable across multiple networks, too.

    Edit 2: fixed itself somehow. Weird.

  • by kylesethgray on 10/31/16, 8:14 PM

    Nice