Linked List: October 31, 2015

Saturday, 31 October 2015

The Talk Show: ‘Field Sobriety Test’ ★

New episode of The Talk Show, with special guest Guy English. The topic: Apple TV.

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Six Ways Apple TV Could Be Even Better ★

Serenity Caldwell, writing at iMore:

Previous Apple TVs had a solution in the form of the Remote app, which let you use your iPhone’s virtual keyboard to enter any text you might need to type. Unfortunately, that app has yet to see an update that supports the fourth-generation Apple TV.

Nor can the new Apple TV connect to a Bluetooth keyboard — it just doesn’t show up in the Bluetooth menu — so you are, as of now, completely confined to one-letter-at-a-time text entry.

I don’t really need to say it, but I’m going to: Apple, this sucks. It’s so easy to set up the Apple TV with an iPhone; why can’t there be an option for all password prompts bounce over to a nearby unlocked iOS device? Or, barring that — give us an update to Remote app. Or a Bluetooth keyboard. This is painful.

It’s also pretty frustrating that you can only log into one Game Center account at a time. That seems downright wrong for a shared family device. I can only guess that a lot these seemingly obvious things are just the usual low-hanging fruit that doesn’t make it in to a 1.0 release.

Abdel Ibrahim: ‘Apple Wants to Sell You a Television Set, Just Not Today’ ★

Abdel Ibrahim:

Yet, despite it not being a hobby, it’s still going to be connected via HDMI 2 on most of our televisions, something even Eddy Cue admits. Of course, the major reason for this is because Apple has yet to announce their own television service to go along with their box. If and when they announce such a service, that’s when we can expect Apple TV to start utilizing HDMI 1.

I believe the new box, and the soon-to-be streaming service, is a setup to start selling a true Apple television in the coming years. What makes me feel this way? The iMac. […]

I know what you’re thinking. “The TV business is horrible. There are no margins there!” That may be true, but guess what? There are no margins in the PC or smartphone business either. The margins only go to those who are making premium products with an OS they own and control. And guess who does that better than anyone? Apple.

Ibrahim’s point about the new Apple TV not being “HDMI 1” is a strong one. But that’s more about Apple’s long-rumored, supposedly-still-in-the-works content streaming service than about making actual TV sets. (To be clear, Ibrahim is talking about Input 1 on your TV, not a version number or spec for HDMI. For most people their cable box or DVR remains Input 1.)

But 4K is an interesting opportunity. If 4K takes off, that means there’s an upgrade cycle coming for everyone with 720p/1080p HD TVs. That would be the time for Apple to make an iMac-style all-in-one TV set.