New tech company 'Apple' set to showoff new mp3 player, internet TV box

[FanIn80]

Yeah, I don't really see the benefit of Ping. I'm not that interested in knowing which bands people listen to. If I really cared about what was popular, I'd watch Much Music.

About the only way this could have been interesting to me, is if it allowed me to discover some lesser-knowns that some people enjoy... but not if it's only limited to bands from the iTunes store. I could search that index myself, already.

[Flames0910]

really doesn't seem that useful.

the new icon is the ugliest thing ever

[Devils'Advocate]

Oh, come on.... Ping was meant as a marketing tool to sell more music.

How many times would you go to Sam the Record Man and see someone pitching a band who's CD they didn't sell?

They idea is high schooler Jimmy wants in the cool clique with Bobby. So he checks what music Bobby listens to and buys it all.

I wouldn't EXPECT a commercial enterprise selling music to promote music they don't sell.

[REDVAN]

If you hate this ping feature and want music recommendations:

www.last.fm is your friend.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate

Oh, come on.... Ping was meant as a marketing tool to sell more music.

How many times would you go to Sam the Record Man and see someone pitching a band who's CD they didn't sell?

They idea is high schooler Jimmy wants in the cool clique with Bobby. So he checks what music Bobby listens to and buys it all.

I wouldn't EXPECT a commercial enterprise selling music to promote music they don't sell.

Well if I can't show a couple of my favorite bands in my profile then I am probably not going to use it at all. Obviously they are using it to sell more music on iTunes but that doesn't mean they have to act like other music doesn't exist. It's stupid to make a "music community" that is only based on random artists that have chosen to sell their stuff on iTunes. It's a fake community.

If they pretended like other music existed maybe it will help bring more artists to iTunes. People aren't going to use it if it feels like a giant ad and it will if they only allow iTunes music in there. I want to know what my friends are listening to, not what iTunes music they are listening too. I just think Apple has their hands around it too tight.

[Jonrox]

Any idea if this will work?

I'm building a house and I'm wired for multiroom audio (6 zones). I will have these zones hooked up to multiroom system that also allows for 6 sources (Nuvo Essentia).

I'd like 1 of these sources to be AppleTV (even though I only want to use it for audio). I want to be able to use Airplay in conjunction with the new AppleTV to stream music from any of the iPod Touches in the house, whether they be mine or a friend's, in any of the zones (this will be particularly helpful for the outside zones because the keypads are all indoors).

The multiroom system only has analog inputs. If I run the AppleTV optical out through an analog converter, do you see any problems with what I'm trying to do?

[Kipper is King]

I will certainly buy one of the new ipod touches! I only have a 1st gen touch, so the cameras, Bluetooth, microphone, etc. will be a great upgrade.

[SebC]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I just think Apple has their hands around it too tight.

Quoted for applicability to just about everything Apple does.

[sclitheroe]

Ping is to online music what Spin and (some of) Rolling Stone magazine are to print. A high gloss, shallow veneer over the business of promoting and selling mainstream music.

There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s by, and for, the iTunes ecosystem. People complaining here that its too iTunes specific are being grouchy for the sake of being grouchy. Do you also go to calgaryflames.com and complain that they don’t have a forum for you to discuss the Leafs?

[Russic]

It seems that you can fully participate without giving a dime to itunes. My profile has 10 slots of bands I listen to. It's mainly occupied by music that I have not downloaded via itunes, but anybody can click on it and preview the tracks by that band or on that album. I'm not sure I'll use it at all, but if you built up enough friends I could see it being a nice way to explore new music.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I don’t understand why people would want heavily compressed 1080p streams to begin with. Wouldn’t users demanding 1080p resolution want a full standard Bluray bitrate?

Some of the pickiest people have found that Zune Video on the Xbox offers good quality. I've personally found that the video looks good even on my relatively pedestrian 5 mbps.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1191057

[HotHotHeat]

You can search albums and 'like' them to your profile as well.

[FanIn80]

Originally Posted by cal_guy

Some of the pickiest people have found that Zune Video on the Xbox offers good quality. I've personally found that the video looks good even on my relatively pedestrian 5 mbps.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1191057

If you read through that thread, you'll notice that most people were not actually getting 1080p. Zune will stream content to you according to your internet connection. It has a bar/logo/text system to show you which level of compression you are currently receiving. 1-3 bars are various levels of SD, the HD logo means 720p and the 1080 text means (obviously) 1080p.

The people in that thread had some combination of 1-3 bars + logo, meaning they were getting 720p at the most.

[cal_guy]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

If you read through that thread, you'll notice that most people were not actually getting 1080p. Zune will stream content to you according to your internet connection. It has a bar/logo/text system to show you which level of compression you are currently receiving. 1-3 bars are various levels of SD, the HD logo means 720p and the 1080 text means (obviously) 1080p.

The people in that thread had some combination of 1-3 bars + logo, meaning they were getting 720p at the most.

I get 1080p fairly consistently on my 5 megabit connection and although it does drop down occasionally to HD. As a sidenote Telus Optik TV does 1080i30 and 720p60 on 5.6 mbps on AVC both of which are more difficult to compress than 1080p24.

[Roast Beef]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

If you read through that thread, you'll notice that most people were not actually getting 1080p. Zune will stream content to you according to your internet connection. It has a bar/logo/text system to show you which level of compression you are currently receiving. 1-3 bars are various levels of SD, the HD logo means 720p and the 1080 text means (obviously) 1080p.

The people in that thread had some combination of 1-3 bars + logo, meaning they were getting 720p at the most.

I tried that last night. I streamed some episodes of the Guild and watched some movie trailers. I had a rock solid 1080p stream the entire time and I must say it looked really good. I tried it again with 2HD and 1SD streams recording on my Telus TV. That way I had the minimum possible starting bandwidth. Even then it never went below 3 bars and was in the 720p range for a good chunk of the time. It still looked pretty good with lower bandwidth but you get noticeable macroblocking in all the usual places (fast action, fades, darker scenes etc)

The 1080p streaming was really impressive, but what impressed me most was Microsoft's solution to fluctuating bandwidth. The videos never hitched or stuttered. There were no jarring transitions as it changed compression levels to keep the stream going. This is how streaming video should be done and I hope that Apple looks at implementing a similar solution.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

This is how streaming video should be done and I hope that Apple looks at implementing a similar solution.

They have their solution, and it works. During their keynote this week, they streamed live using their adaptive bandwidth tech, and it works well. Of particular interest, in the context of this discussion, is that the tech is ready to go, and runs, on Mac’s and all iOS devices. So in theory, the new A4 powered AppleTV, assuming its actually iOS underneath, is ready to go to handle adaptive streamed content. Perhaps this is one of the things Apple is building out their new data centre for (and why they have a significant stake in Akamai too)

[Roast Beef]

Jeeze. That's what I get for missing staff meetings.

I skimmed the cliff notes about the hardware releases but nothing I read mentioned the adaptive bandwidth tech. Thanks for the info! One more piece of evidence that Apple does not innovate but puts existing tech into an easy to use package.

[Flames0910]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Jeeze. That's what I get for missing staff meetings.

I skimmed the cliff notes about the hardware releases but nothing I read mentioned the adaptive bandwidth tech. Thanks for the info! One more piece of evidence that Apple does not innovate but puts existing tech into an easy to use package.

because putting existing tech into an easy to use package is clearly so easy.

That's why it's so easy to use in the first place...oh wait.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Roast Beef

Jeeze. That's what I get for missing staff meetings.

I skimmed the cliff notes about the hardware releases but nothing I read mentioned the adaptive bandwidth tech. Thanks for the info! One more piece of evidence that Apple does not innovate but puts existing tech into an easy to use package.

It’s their own tech; it’s part of the Quicktime software stack. It’s commonplace tech now though, and there are many other implementations, including IIS Smoothstream from MS (which, paradoxically, can also stream to iOS devices...), and Adobe, although I know nothing about their implementation.

[Russic]

Sweet. Apple tv just shipped, should be here by Friday. Hopefully I've moved my other one between tv's for the last time.