So the feed would come over broadband?
Maybe I'm overlooking something here, but am I supposed to get HDTV quality programming over my DSL? Or are they riding over cable lines? confused... halp!
Or is this just iTunes tv for $30.00 more dollars a month than I already pay?

Dr.Knockboots: Or is this just iTunes tv for $30.00 more dollars a month than I already pay?

It would be $30 on top of whatever you pay for broadband.

Depending on the channel lineup, I could be very interested in this. I'm currently paying about $95 a month for satellite and $50 a month for broadband. If I could drop the satellite and get everything through my AppleTV and have a similar lineup I'd definitely be interested.

Heck, it might be enough to convince me to stop using boxee.

The Icelander: It would be $30 on top of whatever you pay for broadband.

Depending on the channel lineup, I could be very interested in this. I'm currently paying about $95 a month for satellite and $50 a month for broadband. If I could drop the satellite and get everything through my AppleTV and have a similar lineup I'd definitely be interested.

Heck, it might be enough to convince me to stop using boxee

Would I really want that service eating up my internet bandwidth? I'd have to see how this would work in person.. skeptical.. but interested.

Hm. I'm intrigued.

The remote is said to be one giant scroll wheel.

And it will only carry 20 channels, with IFC being 5 of them.

and then we'd have the cable companies throttle the bandwidth, no doubt.

Apple and Microsoft suck.

FlashHarry: and then we'd have the cable companies throttle the bandwidth, no doubt.

And incur the wrath of Apple's lawyers. You're better off trying to stiff a loan shark.

What an ifan might look like watching TV via an Apple service.



/It's Evolution Baby! -- and the pic is hot too.

Sounds like this idea is going to take off just like the Apple TV.

This would be a good deal if there were enough networks signed on. Right now, you can't get HBO programs on iTunes, for example, and I doubt that would change.

Merkin_ball: What an ifan might look like watching TV via an Apple service.



/It's Evolution Baby! -- and the pic is hot too.

Birdo? O_o

Romero: New entrants in a mature market must overcome barriers to entry.

Too bad the only channel on it will be Logo.

There isn't a single TV series that I watch that isn't available in iTunes. For $30 a month, I'd be all over that, except for one thing. Live sports. Without the ability to watch ESPN live, I don't think I could talk myself into dropping cable entirely.

I Said: And it will only carry 20 channels, with IFC being 5 of them.

So pretty much what I've got for basic cable right now, right? With "IFC" = religious channels?

Sounds like hulu but costing 30 dollars a month.

Thisbymaster: Sounds like hulu but costing 30 dollars a month.

You forgot the extra smug.

MonkeyAngst: This would be a good deal if there were enough networks signed on. Right now, you can't get HBO programs on iTunes, for example, and I doubt that would change.

There are lots of HBO programs available on iTunes

You have to watch it through iTunes?

Pass.

/I don't have cable or satellite

2 things:

1. HD should be watched on a big HD TV.
2. There's not really any extra cost to get the HD broadcast on a cable TV subscription.

So, I will have to buy an Apple TV, Apple monitor, use Apple software on my Apple Mac. Every program will cost $1, even PBS and free-to-air channels. I will only be able to choose from one hundredth of the options on the most popular cable or satellite providers. It will low-fidelity, and low resolution, with proprietary DRM and compression that screws with the qaulity and makes it impossible to use anywhere except the one device I paid for it on. But it will download and install Quicktime to every media device in my zip code, and I will have to pay 2-3 times what I pay for my current TV.

But I will have a little orgasm every time I use it, and get to smug it out at the stupid Cable and $atellite U$ers in online forums whenever I get the chance?

Sign me up!

Is it me or has the offerings under AppleTV REALLY diminished these last few months? IT seems like there's RARELY a new movie, let alone something recent.

Unfortunately, it'll still be Apple's software, which means it will be incredibly finicky, break easily on Windows and not work like anything else. And you'll have to install their web browser, video player, retarded web store and their GUI widgets to make it work right.

I'll stick with piracy.

Why pay $30 a month when I can use torrents and be my own program director for free?

Cableco caps will kill it dead
/FIOS is slowing down rollouts

Yeah, I'm sure Time-Warner will be perfectly happy to let me haul a couple of high-def channels worth of traffic down my RoadRunner pipe once I cancel my cable service. Or I could always go back to Verizon with their state-of-the-art 768K DSL offering -- that'll be just peachy for high-def streaming. Or I could wait another five or ten years for FIOS.

tallguywithglasseson: Sounds like this idea is going to take off just like the Apple TV.

More like the Apple Tablet.

I'd rather wait until they screw around with the service and jack up the price once everyone's on board before I think about signing up. Then we'll see how much of a deal it is.

I heard of this system that allows people to see any tv show or even any movie, sometimes that haven't even come out in theaters yet, for free.

And-1: So, I will have to buy an Apple TV, Apple monitor, use Apple software on my Apple Mac. Every program will cost $1, even PBS and free-to-air channels. I will only be able to choose from one hundredth of the options on the most popular cable or satellite providers. It will low-fidelity, and low resolution, with proprietary DRM and compression that screws with the qaulity and makes it impossible to use anywhere except the one device I paid for it on. But it will download and install Quicktime to every media device in my zip code, and I will have to pay 2-3 times what I pay for my current TV.

But I will have a little orgasm every time I use it, and get to smug it out at the stupid Cable and $atellite U$ers in online forums whenever I get the chance?

Sign me up!

Didn't RTFA didya? Itunes, yes you will need, AppleTV, no. Any computer which can use Itunes.

My problem is I like sports packages, and I don't think those will move (or at least move quickly) to something like this. I also want to pick and choose channels. I don't need QVC or various religious channels or Soap channels or Spanish language channels and would rather not fill up my channel allotment with these waste of time (for me, not for everyone) stations.

/Itunes Itunes Itunes.
//and Imac Imac Imac.
///Don't care about i.

Steve Zodiac: My problem is I like sports packages, and I don't think those will move (or at least move quickly) to something like this. I also want to pick and choose channels. I don't need QVC or various religious channels or Soap channels or Spanish language channels and would rather not fill up my channel allotment with these waste of time (for me, not for everyone) stations.

My problem with satellite and cable is that I never watch sports, and yet to get the channels I want I have to also buy 20 (yes, I counted) sports channels. There's like four ESPN channels alone.

Out of the 200 channels I get, I watch about 9 of them, and most of those are only for one or two shows.

So I'm watching this with great interest. Dropping my TV costs from $90 a month to $30 a month would be great.

The Icelander: Dr.Knockboots: Or is this just iTunes tv for $30.00 more dollars a month than I already pay?

It would be $30 on top of whatever you pay for broadband.

Depending on the channel lineup, I could be very interested in this. I'm currently paying about $95 a month for satellite and $50 a month for broadband. If I could drop the satellite and get everything through my AppleTV and have a similar lineup I'd definitely be interested.

Heck, it might be enough to convince me to stop using boxee.

Cool. I hate that stupid chick.

But how will they make a TV remote with only a single button?

This'll be better than WebTV!

And-1
So, I will have to buy an Apple TV, Apple monitor, use Apple software on my Apple Mac. Every program will cost $1, even PBS and free-to-air channels. I will only be able to choose from one hundredth of the options on the most popular cable or satellite providers. It will low-fidelity, and low resolution, with proprietary DRM and compression that screws with the qaulity and makes it impossible to use anywhere except the one device I paid for it on. But it will download and install Quicktime to every media device in my zip code, and I will have to pay 2-3 times what I pay for my current TV.

But I will have a little orgasm every time I use it, and get to smug it out at the stupid Cable and $atellite U$ers in online forums whenever I get the chance?

Sign me up!

apple doesn't use specific monitors. you can get itunes content on any computer running itunes (a free program), not just macs or apple tvs (in fact, i don't own a mac, and i have close to a million titles in my itunes, not a single one of them purchased). all public radio content is free in itunes, as well as any podcast, itunes u content, and any number of apps. itunes is one of the largest media retailers in the world, with plenty of full-res, HD options for rental and download. you are not limited to how many devices you can put your content on, and you can authorize your content on up to five computers, more than any one person requires. the service is speculated to be around $30 a month. short story long, you're wrong on every point, and might miss out on something that could make your existence one tiny bit less miserable.

words: read them. understand them. free yourself from the bonds of apathy and ignorance. how's that for smug?

Did anyone else read Apple and "affordable price" in the same headline and immediately start laughing?

fluffy2097: But how will they make a TV remote with only a single button?

GranoblasticMan: Birdo



/??

I remember when cable TV was just becomming available. One of the big selling points was that there were no commercials. Yes, you paid a fee for the service, but you didn't have to put up with advertisements. Now you still have to pay, but there are commercials all over the place. Some competition might be a good thing for us consumers.

If Net Neutrality gets taken down this will be nearly worthless.
But then... so will the internet.

lostsatellite: And-1
So, I will have to buy an Apple TV, Apple monitor, use Apple software on my Apple Mac. Every program will cost $1, even PBS and free-to-air channels. I will only be able to choose from one hundredth of the options on the most popular cable or satellite providers. It will low-fidelity, and low resolution, with proprietary DRM and compression that screws with the qaulity and makes it impossible to use anywhere except the one device I paid for it on. But it will download and install Quicktime to every media device in my zip code, and I will have to pay 2-3 times what I pay for my current TV.

But I will have a little orgasm every time I use it, and get to smug it out at the stupid Cable and $atellite U$ers in online forums whenever I get the chance?

Sign me up!

apple doesn't use specific monitors. you can get itunes content on any computer running itunes (a free program), not just macs or apple tvs (in fact, i don't own a mac, and i have close to a million titles in my itunes, not a single one of them purchased). all public radio content is free in itunes, as well as any podcast, itunes u content, and any number of apps. itunes is one of the largest media retailers in the world, with plenty of full-res, HD options for rental and download. you are not limited to how many devices you can put your content on, and you can authorize your content on up to five computers, more than any one person requires. the service is speculated to be around $30 a month. short story long, you're wrong on every point, and might miss out on something that could make your existence one tiny bit less miserable.

words: read them. understand them. free yourself from the bonds of apathy and ignorance. how's that for smug?

Perhaps, just perhaps, and-1's post was a satirical comment on the very restrictive, over controlling nature of apple and it's products as compared to other similar products.

satire, hyperbole, analogy...learn about free. Free your smugness from steve jobs' ball sack.

deadapostle: I heard of this system that allows people to see any tv show or even any movie, sometimes that haven't even come out in theaters yet, for free.

did you know they have the Internet on computers now?

First - when you think 'Apple' you probably think a lot of things. Affordable is *not* one of those things.

Second - everyone with cable internet is already paying a bunch of money for internet access and then receiving a large 'discount' for bundling. You take that away and suddenly your internet costs almost as much as it did for the TV you were getting *and* you get to pay Apple.

Okay - so now all of the cable ready TVs you've got...guess what...they aren't Apple TV ready. The coaxial cable already run in your house...that's now worthless. You are going to have to run CAT-5 or deal with all the headaches associated with Wi-fi. Which is great until your next door neighbor who has 4 kids and 5 TVs with their own media extender devices ($$$$) streaming over the wi-fi and suddenly your wi-fi isn't working out so great....

Oh but wait - get this - the broadband you are *already* paying for gives you access to all the TV shows you could want. Most TV shows are available free of charge from the actual stations that produce it. Want to see that new Fox TV show - Fox will let you watch it online. For free. And your broadband will send it to you.

And you don't have to pay Apple anything.

Even stations you're used to just getting on cable like 'The Food Network' is already streaming their shows to you. Free.

And if you take the 30 minutes (or 3 hours, depending on your tech level) you can setup your desktop PC to act as a media center PC. Install something like TED - and uTorrent and each week as new shows air - your PC will go out and download it. Automatically.

Any movie you can think of, any DVD - it's all out there on the torrent sites.

And then, there is free software like Tversity and countless others that act as Media servers. They use a standard protocol called upnp that a bunch of other devices you already have can already stream from. That PS3, Xbox 360, and even your wii (but probably not onto a large screen since the wii is pretty weak sauce). And yes, you'll need to buy a media extender for each additional TV - but you have to do that with Apple's TV offering as well.

ALL that, and then consider the fact that you are almost guaranteed not to have access to all of the stations you want because Cable networks, for instance, don't want to threaten existing relationships and subscription fees from cable providers like Comcast (CMCSA). And programmers are also worried about the effect a subscription service would have on advertising revenue: Even if the service didn't distribute TV programs until after their initial air date, that could cut into ratings, which now measure viewership over the course of several days.

So, yeah....I don't really see much benefit here.

Given that I get the Internet through a cable modem, it seems kind of pointless to get pay both Apple and the cable company. Obviously those who get the Internet via DSL, etc. might have a different reaction.

WhyteRaven74: FlashHarry: and then we'd have the cable companies throttle the bandwidth, no doubt.

And incur the wrath of Apple's lawyers. You're better off trying to stiff a loan shark.

Good luck to Apple on that. Verizon, TWC, Charter, Comcast, and AT&T (the short list of ISP / broadband combos) have more money AND lobbyists. I'll bet they have more lawyers too. Let's not forget that judges are usually technologically inept.

/favor net neutrality
//neutrality doesn't care about caps

T.Rex: You must not have Cox as a cable provider...

This is an awesome idea from Apple, and I'm sure that they'll come up with some way to make it profitable.

However, let's be realistic. The nation's internet infrastructure, as it stands, is too outdated to support a service like this if it becomes popular.

We need more FiOS, and we need to give the ISPs a collective legislative kick in the ass, to ensure that they update the infrastructure without ripping off the entire country.

/doesn't like Macs
//hates Itunes
///respects Apple for what the company is. A powerful, manipulative, profit-making machine

I Said: The remote is said to be one giant scroll wheel.

And it will only carry 20 channels, with IFC being 5 of them.

This sounded good, then I googled and realized that IFC isn't anything like UFC.

/Doesn't watch TV

Wait, wait, hold on -

What the fark is the "internet"?