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Do to the 50 inch screen what the iPhone did to the 3 inch screen. The device connected to my tv should be as open and capable as a computer, yet still fit the

Do to the 50 inch screen what the iPhone did to the 3 inch screen. The device connected to my tv should be as open and capable as a computer, yet still fit the form factor. ie- an iPhone is a full fledged computer running a real OS. It just meets the form factor and purpose of a 3 inch screen. What apps would you want to see on a 50 inch screen besides content (which is the killer app)?

protomyth 17y ago
games are almost always the killer app
- stcredzero 17y ago
  Add pictures, social media, Facebook, twitter, cutesy pics with cats and inane captions. Take all the dreck of cable, but make it interactive and navigable. This will be 10X more addictive through variable reward schedule than channel surfing. Add in real-time video chat so you and your cadre can MST3K commentary everything online at the same time. It's couch-potato crack!
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  I'm working on making a 10 foot ui type site with embedded heyzap games for fun for my HTPC. Different than the console games, but games none the less.
anigbrowl 17y ago
I'd argue that a Playstation 3 gets very close to your requirement list. So do most consoles, it just happens to be my favorite of the 3 in terms of design and usability. Both it and the Xbox have access to Netflix for streaming movies, which is a big plus. You were asking about Netflix below. You might be interested to her I was talking to a film distributor last week, who mentioned that from their perspective video-on-demand and premium channel sales (as served by cable) are almost dead, and while they get fantastic analytics from iTunes movie downloads, they accelerated quickly and then plateaued. Netflix is becoming the revenue generator that distributors pursue prior to the end-user DVD sale for indies. Obviously, the model is somewhat different for big-ticket films where broadcast will pay a premium for the premiere rights, and/or specialty films (eg cable channels MTV or VH1 are still good for music documentaries). But in his opinion Netflix is becoming the most important secondary market distributor.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Playstation 3 is very close, but it's not open enough. It's not nearly as easy as using a computer to navigate content or add apps. The UI for the PS3 is definitely closest though. Windows, Mac, or Basic Ubuntu just don't work for the living room. Wow, that's really interesting that Netflix is that important for distribution. Well, moreso that it's that much ahead of the others. I really wish they would have the PlayReady DRM work on linux, not because of desktop linux being so popular, but the plethora of devices that could be built on Linux using Netflix.
  - elq 17y ago
    The Roku runs linux...
GeneralMaximus 17y ago
The device connected to my tv should be as open and capable as a computer, yet still fit the form factor. Beautiful, incredibly easy to use, tightly integrated with your Mac, but not open. Nothing Apple makes these days is open. OS X was the last product they made that was sort of open. (And I say this as a die-hard Mac user.)
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Sigh, I know. I wish AppleTV was a purely open platform. Let me throw apps on it, access websites I want, skin it, etc. The Mac Mini is the "real" appletv, except the interface doesn't work so well for a tv. Essentially here's what I want: Put the mac mini, appletv, and time capsule in a blender. Appletv 10 foot interface, mac mini open-ness/computing ability, and time capsule size storage (TBs, not GBs).
  - CrazedGeek 17y ago
    Would a Mac mini and Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv/ http://www.boxee.tv/) work? It seems to match what you want (except for the storage space).
    - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
      I had an older macbook hooked up to my tv, but it was lacking the stuff I mentioned and then some above. I've been working on a hardware/software startup that does exactly this. It's running a pretty specific hardware combo with customized linux distro that works for the big screen for the price of a mac mini (with 6x the storage). It's heavenly.
- schackbrian 17y ago
  http://webkit.org/ http://webkit.org/
  - GeneralMaximus 17y ago
    By "open", I didn't mean "open source". If you're talking about open source, then almost everything on OS X that does not have a GUI is open source, including the kernel itself. (Also, WebKit came from KHTML. Apple couldn't possibly have made WebKit a proprietary product without getting into legal trouble, but this is besides the point.) By "open", I meant a hacker-friendly platform. The iPhone is not hacker friendly, and the iPod is a brick for those of us who use Linux/BSD. For Apple, open source is merely a good software development methodology that has worked well for quite a while now. They don't give a rat's ass about the philosophy behind it.
Keyframe 17y ago
xbmc, I can't live without it - I keep my old xbox (1) just for xbmc around, even though I have a HTPC and PS3.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  Have you seen the new release with the confluence skin? It's really beautiful. I prefer Boxee just because it has the internet channels built in. I wish there was more participation when it comes to plugins. The stuff that boxee has could easily be made for XBMC.
  - Keyframe 17y ago
    I am still on a bit older version. I run T3CH builds, I plan to update to new release, I've only seen screenshots on the site. Since I have some free time now I'm using it constantly, don't want to mess up something if I don't have to. Also, those streaming media "plugins", "scripts" - call them what you want, are indispensable... I can watch youtube, academic earth, demoscene tv, g4tv and many many others on my tv with remote in my hand - this is what internet tv should look like IMO. I also have IPTV installed, it feels rather similar to on-demand stuff on it.
    - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
      the launcher app is pretty damn cool since you can then have it run some outside apps but still use an XBMC live installation. it's still shaky when switching to full screen. there needs to be a quality app store for XBMC like there is for Boxee.

protomyth 17y ago

games are almost always the killer app

stcredzero 17y ago
Add pictures, social media, Facebook, twitter, cutesy pics with cats and inane captions. Take all the dreck of cable, but make it interactive and navigable. This will be 10X more addictive through variable reward schedule than channel surfing. Add in real-time video chat so you and your cadre can MST3K commentary everything online at the same time. It's couch-potato crack!
jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
I'm working on making a 10 foot ui type site with embedded heyzap games for fun for my HTPC. Different than the console games, but games none the less.

anigbrowl 17y ago

I'd argue that a Playstation 3 gets very close to your requirement list. So do most consoles, it just happens to be my favorite of the 3 in terms of design and usability. Both it and the Xbox have access to Netflix for streaming movies, which is a big plus. You were asking about Netflix below. You might be interested to her I was talking to a film distributor last week, who mentioned that from their perspective video-on-demand and premium channel sales (as served by cable) are almost dead, and while they get fantastic analytics from iTunes movie downloads, they accelerated quickly and then plateaued. Netflix is becoming the revenue generator that distributors pursue prior to the end-user DVD sale for indies. Obviously, the model is somewhat different for big-ticket films where broadcast will pay a premium for the premiere rights, and/or specialty films (eg cable channels MTV or VH1 are still good for music documentaries). But in his opinion Netflix is becoming the most important secondary market distributor.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Playstation 3 is very close, but it's not open enough. It's not nearly as easy as using a computer to navigate content or add apps. The UI for the PS3 is definitely closest though. Windows, Mac, or Basic Ubuntu just don't work for the living room. Wow, that's really interesting that Netflix is that important for distribution. Well, moreso that it's that much ahead of the others. I really wish they would have the PlayReady DRM work on linux, not because of desktop linux being so popular, but the plethora of devices that could be built on Linux using Netflix.
- elq 17y ago
  The Roku runs linux...

GeneralMaximus 17y ago

The device connected to my tv should be as open and capable as a computer, yet still fit the form factor. Beautiful, incredibly easy to use, tightly integrated with your Mac, but not open. Nothing Apple makes these days is open. OS X was the last product they made that was sort of open. (And I say this as a die-hard Mac user.)

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Sigh, I know. I wish AppleTV was a purely open platform. Let me throw apps on it, access websites I want, skin it, etc. The Mac Mini is the "real" appletv, except the interface doesn't work so well for a tv. Essentially here's what I want: Put the mac mini, appletv, and time capsule in a blender. Appletv 10 foot interface, mac mini open-ness/computing ability, and time capsule size storage (TBs, not GBs).
- CrazedGeek 17y ago
  Would a Mac mini and Boxee (http://www.boxee.tv/ http://www.boxee.tv/) work? It seems to match what you want (except for the storage space).
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    I had an older macbook hooked up to my tv, but it was lacking the stuff I mentioned and then some above. I've been working on a hardware/software startup that does exactly this. It's running a pretty specific hardware combo with customized linux distro that works for the big screen for the price of a mac mini (with 6x the storage). It's heavenly.
schackbrian 17y ago
http://webkit.org/ http://webkit.org/
- GeneralMaximus 17y ago
  By "open", I didn't mean "open source". If you're talking about open source, then almost everything on OS X that does not have a GUI is open source, including the kernel itself. (Also, WebKit came from KHTML. Apple couldn't possibly have made WebKit a proprietary product without getting into legal trouble, but this is besides the point.) By "open", I meant a hacker-friendly platform. The iPhone is not hacker friendly, and the iPod is a brick for those of us who use Linux/BSD. For Apple, open source is merely a good software development methodology that has worked well for quite a while now. They don't give a rat's ass about the philosophy behind it.

Keyframe 17y ago

xbmc, I can't live without it - I keep my old xbox (1) just for xbmc around, even though I have a HTPC and PS3.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
Have you seen the new release with the confluence skin? It's really beautiful. I prefer Boxee just because it has the internet channels built in. I wish there was more participation when it comes to plugins. The stuff that boxee has could easily be made for XBMC.
- Keyframe 17y ago
  I am still on a bit older version. I run T3CH builds, I plan to update to new release, I've only seen screenshots on the site. Since I have some free time now I'm using it constantly, don't want to mess up something if I don't have to. Also, those streaming media "plugins", "scripts" - call them what you want, are indispensable... I can watch youtube, academic earth, demoscene tv, g4tv and many many others on my tv with remote in my hand - this is what internet tv should look like IMO. I also have IPTV installed, it feels rather similar to on-demand stuff on it.
  - jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
    the launcher app is pretty damn cool since you can then have it run some outside apps but still use an XBMC live installation. it's still shaky when switching to full screen. there needs to be a quality app store for XBMC like there is for Boxee.