Coming up is another one of Apple's massive events - on Wednesday, September 1st. Their events around this time of year are usually geared around iTunes, iPods, etc. - aka music/entertainment. Expect a big announcement with iPods - particularly iPod Touch. And given a lot of rumor and educated guessing, Apple might be launching a refresh to their Apple TV product, which most people have written off as one of their few product failures along with the infamous Newton (but Apple gets away with it by calling Apple TV a "hobby" of theirs).
So I'm going to jump in with my two cents on what would be the coolest announcements for this year's event. Let's start with the best case scenario for Apple TV that could catapult it into stardom - ditching the Newton for a seat next to the iPhone, iPod, and iPad.
People Love Netflix
Streaming movies to your computer and TV is one of the number one reasons why people LOVE Netflix. This is built into Xbox, PS3, and Wii, and it's a feature in a growing number of Blu-ray players and HDTVs. Luckily, Apple has this awesome service called iTunes which just so happens to have movies and TV shows to buy and rent! And iTunes works with iPods, iPhones, iPads, Mac computers, and even PCs! It's a true entertainment platform that has your credit card on file. What they don't have though, is a way to stream that media to a TV - or anywhere for that matter.
iTunes + Lala.com = iTunes.com?
Apple recently bought Lala.com, a streaming music service, in what was largely seen as a play into the streaming music business. But that was back in December 2009... where are the fruits of that labor? If they can couple iTunes and Lala together into iTunes.com - an online hub for all my music, TV, and movies - that would be amazing! It has to be able to stream that content to any of my devices in addition to having it on hard disk for it to have true portability and convenience.
Couple that with Apple TV
Going back to Apple TV, imagine that it was also connected to iTunes.com - where it could stream all your TV and movies? Not only would it match Netflix, but it could beat it out by also having streaming access to your music! The two biggest things holding Apple TV back right now is: (1) it only holds 160 gigabytes - that's less than 200 hours of video, and (2) it costs $230. Make it cheaper... and let me stream!!!
FaceTime on iPod Touch
It's also rumored that the new iPod Touch will have a front-facing camera. Maybe even a regular camera on the back too, so that you can finally use it to take pictures and video. But the key is the front-facing one - because Steve Jobs mentioned that by the end of the year, FaceTime would be available on "tens of millions" of devices. Many have interpreted that to mean it will be available across Apple's other product lines.
But does this make sense?
This seems to fit because FaceTime uses wireless, which iPod Touch works great with. It's actually extra interesting because iPod FaceTime could seemingly video call people and circumvent any involvement of phone carriers. If video calling ever becomes the new standard of communicating, phone companies may be very unhappy to find they aren't needed anymore. Put them in the pile with Cable companies as soon-to-become-irrelevant.
The only big problem with this rumor is how does this fit in with the rest of the iPod Touch software? iPod Touch doesn't have a Phone app, and FaceTime currently works through iPhone's Phone application. Uh oh. So something is missing, a puzzle piece that needs to be filled in somehow.
Hello iChat
To bridge this gap, I speculate that Apple will announce iChat for iPhone and iPod Touch (and maybe it will work with the iPad 2 when it comes out someday). I'm completely pulling this out of my butt, but I think most Apple rumors are created that way. This iChat app will have the usual IM capabilities, just like the program that comes built into all Mac computers. But the iChat for Mac also has the ability to do Video Chat with your contacts - and starting now, that will use the FaceTime chat standard. FaceTime chat will work seemlessly between iChat on a Mac, iChat on iPhone, iChat on iPod Touch, and FaceTime video calling through the iPhone Phone application.
Can you imagine how cool this would be? I feel like if FaceTime was on every iPod Touch, iPhone, and Mac (that's a big chunk of people), it would be hard for Google Talk, AIM, and Skype to justify not integrating in some way with FaceTime.
Wish list
So if Apple wants to wow my socks off, here are my demands.
- Release iTunes.com - your online entertainment hub, where you buy music, movies, or TV shows once, and you have streaming access to them from anywhere.
- Refresh the Apple TV product at a much lower price point (around $99) and rather than rely on a local hard drive, stream content from iTunes.com.
- Can you put some TiVo-like functionality into Apple TV so I can record stuff? Maybe not, but that would be super cool.
- Rename Apple TV back to iTV - because we know how much you love to start stuff with an "i".
- Release a new iPod Touch with a front-facing camera, and a back-facing camera with flash.
- Give iPod Touch a FaceTime application... OR
- Release an iChat application that allows FaceTime video chatting between iPods, iPhones, and Mac computers.
Tada. I'm probably very wrong, but hey - Apple speculation is fun.
What products and features are on your Apple wish list?
