Call me a snob, but when I see the words "wireless fidelity" while scanning an article, I'm unlikely to read the rest. <br>
<br>
Right now, for $500, Apple will sell you a nice little general purpose
computer with a small harddrive and no TV capabilities
whatsoever. <br>
<br>
For an additional couple hundred dollars, you can get an external
device that will allow you to record standard def TV to your tiny
harddrive. Of course, now you have to choose between putting your
general purpose computer in the living room where it loses most of it's
functionality, or watching your time shifted TV at your desk.<br>
<br>
Alternatively, you could just spend that extra $200 on a TiVo and leave the computer at your desk.<br>
<br>
At any rate, my point is that Apple is about as close to producing the
mythical convergence box as Tiffany & Co. They are good
at making pretty things, all they lack is the functionality we are
looking for. <br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 12/3/05, <b class="gmail_sendername">Todd Houle</b> <<a href="mailto:thoule@wesleyan.edu">thoule@wesleyan.edu</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>I thought this might be interested to the future of MythTV.
Perhaps the mac mini may be more suitable as a frontend once Apple
prepares it for their own video solution. </div><div> Todd</div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051201_577846.htm" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2005/tc20051201_577846.htm</a></div><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 4px;"><font color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS" size="7"><span style="font-size: 30px;">
<b>Designs on an Apple-Branded DVR</b></span></font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><font color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS" size="4"><span style="font-size: 16px;"><b>If the iPod maker plans to serve up a computer that records video, I'd like to place an order for a wireless version
</b></span></font></p><div style="margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><font color="#333333"><span style="line-height: 9px;"><br></span></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2px;"><span style="line-height: 14px;"><font color="#333333" face="Arial">
<span style="line-height: normal;">The rumor mills are abuzz about an Apple-branded digital video recorder. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial">
<span style="line-height: normal;">
According to a couple of sources who claim to know, the next Mac Mini
-- that's the small metallic computer that sells for $499 and up --
will have the ability to record TV shows. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"> A DVR Mac wouldn't exactly put Apple Computer (
</span></font></span><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>AAPL</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial"> ) on the cutting edge. Microsoft (</font><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>MSFT
</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial"> ) and its PC-making partners, including Hewlett-Packard (</font><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>HPQ</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial">
) and Gateway (</font><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>GTW</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial"> ), have been down this road already with the Media Center PC. Chipmaking giant Intel (</font>
<a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>INTC</b></font></font></a><span style="line-height: 14px;"><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
) grabbed headlines Nov. 30 with its Viiv (rhymes with "five")
technology that's designed to transform the PC into a home
entertainment hub. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>ULTRAWIDEBAND FUTURE.</b>
</span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
Having built success on the audio front with the iPod family of
products, Apple clearly has designs on the video-entertainment
business, as the latest iPod already shows. But if the rumors are true,
then I have a suggestion for how to make an Apple-branded DVR truly
shine: Make it fully wireless. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
Apple has a history of pushing the wireless-technology envelope. It was
early to embrace wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, networking technology,
with its Airport wireless routers. It later cranked up the speed with
the Airport Extreme, which relied on the 54-megabit-per-second 802.11g
standard before that standard was even fully ratified. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
This week I met with a company called WiQuest Communications, which
makes chips for a wireless technology called ultrawideband. UWB
technology is good at transmitting a lot of data at a very high speed.
It's not very good at doing it over long distances, but within close
range, it's a gem. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>FREED FROM CORDS.</b></span>
</font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
Imagine how much better the iPod would be if you didn't need a dock or
a USB cord to transfer songs to it: All you'd have to do is bring the
iPod into the same room as the PC to sync the latest version of the
playlist on your computer with the player. How cool would it be to
easily and wirelessly take video stored on your PC in the den and play
it on a TV in the living room? In both cases, the data could fly across
your home without restrictions on where you have to place the hardware.
<br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
To say nothing of the aesthetic improvements that would result from
eliminating the rat's nest of data cords -- USB, FireWire, and the
bulky, clumsy hubs for each -- which is only compounded by the cords
connected to the power strip. I've got just such a mess under my desk
at home, connecting my PowerMac, a couple of external storage drives,
and a USB hub for my digital camera. It's not pretty. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
WiQuest Chief Executive Matthew Shoemake says his company has been
involved with the WiMedia Alliance, an industry coalition that aims to
promote the use of ultrawideband technology in both computers and
consumer-electronics devices. Members include Intel, Eastman Kodak (</span></font></span><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>EK</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial"> ), Microsoft, Nokia (</font>
<a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>NOK</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial"> ), Philips Electronics (</font><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>PHG</b></font></font></a><font color="#333333" face="Arial">
), Samsung, and Sony (</font><a><font face="Arial"><font color="#103564"><b>SNE</b></font></font></a><span style="line-height: 14px;"><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"> ), among others. But one name I don't see listed among the members is Apple.
<br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><b>DIGITAL REAL ESTATE.</b></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial">
<span style="line-height: normal;">
And that's O.K. for now. UWB technology should start showing up in
chips by the end of the year. Those chips would then have to be adapted
into products, which would take another year or so, maybe less, to
develop and bring to market. So I don't expect to see many products on
the market until mid-to-late 2006 or early 2007. <br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;"><br></span></font><font color="#333333" face="Arial"><span style="line-height: normal;">
But Apple is the kind of company that could benefit from -- and may
already be experimenting with -- the possibilities that UWB could
offer. That's especially true given Apple's aim to build on successes
in portable digital media and make a play for what has become the most
coveted digital real estate: the living room.</span></font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 2px; line-height: 14px;"><br></p></blockquote>
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