Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Apple should make an actual Television”.
[ Jonathan ] In 2011, Walter Isaacson published in his Steve Jobs, biography that the late CEO had finally, cracked it. Jobs said, and I quote: “ I’d like to create an integrated television set. That is completely easy to use.. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.. No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels.. It would have the simplest user interface.
You could imagine”. Yes, let’s imagine, but not the user interface.. We have one of those with the current Apple TV and that issue of complex DVD player and cable box remotes is slowly being negated with the transition to online streaming..
Rather, let’s imagine what an Apple television set itself could look like were Apple to make one today.. This is for you, Gene Munster., (, upbeat music, ) TV design today is extremely derivative.. They become commodities cheap, large black mirrors people place in front of their walls., Though they might perform differently. When they’re switched on when they’re off ….
I don’t know. We’re left with an ominous black void in the middle of our living room, especially as bezels keep getting smaller and smaller, and panels bigger and bigger.. I’Ve been thinking recently about the concept of the television as furniture.
[ Vintage Man, Voice, ], Superb cabinetry master, crafted of the finest woods. [ Man ]. It used to be this way before the seventies..
Yes, I know there were some garish wood cabinets that ended up in grandmother’s basement, but at least those designs are something more interesting than the generic black appliances we’re living with today., With Apple’s storied history and passion around hardware design. I think many of us are interested in what their take on the television as furniture would look. Like., There’s room to play with modality, with presence with different materials beyond brushed silver metal and black plastics..
What about wood Or fabric Or matte paint finished in bold colors? Oh okay. Hear me out. Clear, colored plastics, all over again.
I jest, but also I want.. I want to attempt to sketch out what a potential Apple TV could look like and to draw some inspiration of where they could take this. Let’S take a look at the Samsung Frame.
Tv. I’d argue that this is one of the best designed televisions on the market right now.. This is such a refreshing take on what a TV can do and look like.. The frame that surrounds the panel is interchangeable, with four different options, two of which are wood, and it comes with a special mount in the box that places the TV flush on the wall like a picture.. But perhaps the best thing about the Samsung Frame is that when it’s not being used as a TV, it’s not a TV..
Instead of being a black void dominating the wall, it’s a back, lit, painting or a photo set in a mat.. It recedes into the background. Looking like any other picture on the wall. For a wall-mounted Apple TV, all I want to see is intention in how the TV is mounted in the wall..
It could be flush like the Frame or incorporate a curved back like the iMac, which allows light to spill behind reducing the panel shadow cast.. There’S room to experiment. Here. More interesting to me, though, is how Apple would build a TV that stands on its own..
Looking at all the TVs in the stores, it seems that making an interesting stand is quite difficult.. Samsung’S Serif TV sits quite well on a base. That’S part of the design. Better still, if you don’t have a unit for it to rest on, it does come with attachable legs. Too.
Apple could sell these separately for a thousand dollars or $ 250 each., I jest., But what about technology? After all, Apple? Isn’T just a design company.? Firstly, everything should be able to be controlled with one remote., Whether you use an AV receiver with a bunch of devices plugged in or simply a lone soundbar the fewer the remotes. The better. For this to work better than CEC already does Apple, would probably have to buy Logitech’s Harmony division or make all these devices themselves.
If only. Speaking of remotes, I’m pleased to report that Apple did what I was hoping they would do an updated. The Siri remote with a D pad. Better still, they added a click wheel- like jogging capability by making the D pad touch sensitive.. So it really is the best of both worlds. And speaking of Siri. Adding a microphone array and Siri their voice assistant integration to the television set would be a no brainer offering the same sort of functionality as Siri on the HomePod., But more interesting in this age. Of the pandemic would be the addition of an eyesight camera. Recent rumors speculated it being part of an updated Apple TV set top box, which we didn’t see at the Spring Loaded event.
But it’s a neat ideal nonetheless, because there’s something charming about the idea of inviting friends and family into your living room through a FaceTime call.. I do, however, understand the discomfort of having a camera and microphone just staring at you in your most comfortable of spaces.. So I think it would be that it’s better sold as an optional accessory that clips on with magnets sends a signal through a smart connector and it has a physical cover.
Now panels. I bring this up because Apple’s displays have always been of high quality., So we would expect much the same here. While many would think. Oled is the obvious choice. I’M not entirely sure Apple would go that way, because it wouldn’t leave them much room to differentiate themselves.
Since they’d have to buy commodity panels from LG. Instead, I’d expect them to use high quality LCD displays, like they use on the Pro Display, XDR or rumors of incoming mini LED displays. Persist. And last year the company invested significantly in the design and manufacturer of micro LED.. It’S still a long long way off, but offers a tantalizing hope of what could be. And though Apple has refrained from any sort of variable refresh rates on its devices. It’S becoming important technology, especially considering where gaming consoles are going and support through HDMI 2.1.. To me, though, it’s what’s on the screen, that’s more interesting, especially when the TV isn’t being used to watch content.. The dream of ambient computing is to have a display. That shows you exactly what you want to see when you want to see it.
In the morning. It could show you widgets to prepare you for your day in the afternoon, an aerial screensaver and at night, during a dinner party, your favorite painting. Dinner parties aren’t a thing I jest..
Lastly, there’s sound, which I want to emphasize as equally important to the visuals video production proverb there for you.. Firstly, on this Apple TV set, I want spatial audio support for AirPods. The feature simulates surround sound on AirPods and has proved to work well with Apple’s mobile devices., But the idea of popping on a pair of AirPods and getting a cinematic experience without disturbing others at Home is an obvious solution.. Secondly, built-in TV speakers are by and large terrible. They’re. So bad in fact, that I wish manufacturers wouldn’t bother installing them. Apple could go two ways here, really lay into built-in TV speaker technology, using what they’ve learned with the HomePod. Ooh.
Maybe adding HomePod Minis as rear satellite speakers or more likely Apple could just not include speakers at all and get you to buy an accompanying stellar sound bar., (, whimsical, music ). There really are a lot of opportunities for new design in the television space. If you think about it. And with Apple having spent a reported $ 6 billion on television content by the summer of 2019, it seems kind of strange..
Here we have a very rich company known for making great hardware spending rich sums of money on content and then not making the hardware to show it on.. They could master their Apple originals for this TV, giving you the exact experience the creators intended., It’s the perfect time.. I know this topic has been a source of much excitement and disappointment in the Apple community for a while now. So comment below. If you think, there’s still a place for an Apple TV set in this world or whether we should just let bygones be bygones. And don’t forget to like and subscribe for, more Mac addresses in the future.
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