Steve’s Final “One More Thing…”

http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/22/boom/

by Bartlet • 15 years ago

26 36 15 years ago

techcrunch.com

chugger3• 15 years ago

Jobs was out-innovating everyone when he was heathy.

Jobs was out-innovating everyone when he was sick.

Jobs is still out-innovating everyone even when he's already dead.

unfed2• 15 years ago

"There's no money in ebooks cause nobody reads"

Yet getting excited for textbooks on ipad? Strange.

extension4• 15 years ago

People don't buy textbooks because they like to read. They buy them because they are required for their classes. And they can cost thousands of dollars per year.

Typically there is one specific text approved for a course, so there is a serious lack of competition. And the publishers will release new editions every year, with trivial changes, to prevent reuse of old books. It's definitely a sketchy industry, in many ways, and there is plenty of opportunity for disruption.

unfed2• 15 years ago

So you can make more money by focusing solely on textbooks instead of all the books in the world?

mcantelon3• 15 years ago

Should be interesting seeing Apple's version of Google TV.

extension4• 15 years ago

No, they already have that. The new thing is a complete physical TV, with likely every component and service from end-to-end reimagined and controlled by Apple.

mcantelon3• 15 years ago

Google and Sony worked together to create integrated "Internet TVs" (which hit the market a year ago) although I don't think they sold well.

chugger3• 15 years ago

you mean the Google TV that had terrible user interface and a remote control that looked like a keyboard? no wonder they only sold about 5 of those. they suck.

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

Google TV was an unsuccessful imitation of Apple TV. Google has made its profession to just copy existing products. Anything that meets their eye.

vph• 15 years ago

>Revolutionizing textbooks may seem a bit ho-hum by Jobs’ standards, but it’s pretty clear that Jobs was passionate about the U.S. education system, and felt this country was falling behind.

Oh please, Steve Job showed very little -- if not zero -- passion about the US education system. He was an inventor and entrepreneur.

If these guys want to talk about someone who is passionate about the US education system, talk about Bill Gates. It's time to end the Steve Job's love fest.

SkyMarshal• 15 years ago

They might be juxtaposing Jobs and his wife, who apparently does have a strong interest in education.

http://duckduckgo.com/?q=laurene+jobs+education

chugger3• 15 years ago

Steve Jobs was passionate about education. You need to read more about him.

samstave3• 15 years ago

Jobs was an amazing capitalist.

He was the epitome of an exploitrepreneur.

We are happy with what he achieved - but lets have no delusions about how he operated and built his position and fame.

Take 5K for building something he paid Woz $375 for (breakout)...

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

He was young that time -- that does not mean he was dishonest for the rest of his life. And secondly, Woz loves him. Who are you dislike him, based on what Steve did to Woz, who knows what their relationship was...Since Woz loves him, I think this resolves the matter. Remember Steve made Woz a multi-millionaire by creating Apple, by providing his vision, entrepreneurial, marketing, business skills to his technical skills.

Similarly, people criticize him for bad behavior to his employees, but I see all apple employees love him (and love him much more than employees in most other companies love their leader) -- since I am an apple employee myself, I know. So I am not sure other people should dislike him for that when the actual employees that he talked to liked him (obviously there would be exceptions, some people obviously did not like him, but most did)

technoslut2• 15 years ago

I don't think anyone is trying to portray Jobs as a saint. If look into any great man, or anyone else for that matter, you are going to find things that you do not like.

technoslut2• 15 years ago

Jobs showed little of himself outside of keynotes and interviews with Mossberg, Swisher and Pogue.

There are anecdotes that he did care about education such as an Arrington article leading up to the iPad which said he wanted to use use the iPad to change education. He was also an active parent, though not as much as he may have liked.

It's not that much of a stretch to believe that someone like Jobs would think about ways to change education. There are excerpts from the book stating this.

ecito• 15 years ago

I'm probably being short-sighted, but I fail to see what else could you add to a TV that you couldn't already by attaching some device to it.. it's like saying Jobs will revolutionize the computer monitor. It's just a display.

pedalpete• 15 years ago

You're right, the 'television' is just a display, but the concept of 'TV' which most of us consider is the entire ecosystem of content, delivery and consumption.

To try to give you some context, think back to 2005, and question 'how can you revolutionize a phone? It's just a speaker and a microphone'. Of course, there had already been inroads into making your phone much more than a phone, just as set-top boxes and other connected devices have added capabilities to your television.

I don't think we'll see a 'rebirth' of television so much as we'll see television joining mobile, tablets and computers in the middle.

Really, the revolution of the phone was making it more like a computer, but more portable. The revolution of the television I suspect will be the same, but less portable. Just like the portability of the phone expanded the things we used our phones for, a less portable large screen product could expose similar capabilities.

glenra• 15 years ago

The latest generation of microprojectors would make more sense than really big displays. Imagine buying something roughly the size of an AppleTV or Mac Mini which also is the television - you just point it at a white wall or sheet or screen for a nearly arbitrarily-sized screen.

I use a projector tv at home now but it's a pain to configure because it's designed to work with too many kinds of input. Integrate a more compact and elegantly designed projector with iTV, make iPad and iPhone your control surfaces but download content from the cloud - it could work. And unlike the big flatscreen, it'd be easy to take to the Apple Store for service/diagnostic if need be.

extension4• 15 years ago

But Apple did revolutionize the computer monitor, by permanently attaching it to a computer and thus effectvely making it not exist.

Whatever they have in mind for the television will similarly be not about adding things, but about taking things away. They will simplify it in a way that geeks will consider a downgrade while opening up a world of possibilities for mere mortals.

dools3• 15 years ago

Touch screen?

DilipJ3• 15 years ago

No, a touchscreen tv would be horrible. That goes back to the RCA days where you had to get up and go to the tv to change the channels using the knob.

There's nothing wrong with the remote, just that it is starting to get very confusing to use (too many buttons). If Apple can find a way to make the modern remote less complex that would be a step in the right direction.

DilipJ3• 15 years ago

sure, but the success of the ipad, to me, shows that Apple is now more of a luxury marketer than anything else. People would buy an Apple TV for the same reason people pay more for a BMW. If Apple were to come out with a stylish looking TV, built in DVR and Bluray player, with easy WiFi connectability, and cloud storage of favorite shows/movies, and a streaming service for any movie or tv show you want to watch (which Apple can do with content providers because of its heft), and make it so simple your grandma could do it, then I am confident it would be such a success that their TV unit would become their greatest revenue generator by far.

ramanujan• 15 years ago

Ok, let's take a crack at this.

1) iPhone as remote: First, they would probably allow iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches to be used as remotes. That would be the recommended use case, and in fact they've already got this with the new iOS5 Airplay:

http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/airplay.html

2) TVs are lean back: Next, the key question is: what is the difference between a TV and a computer monitor? They are converging in many ways, but probably the most important differences are that a TV is lower res, bigger, with less control over content, and situated at a distance. It's a lean back experience as opposed to a lean forward one. So whatever you do with TV has to focus on the lean back/remote control experience. The Airplay link above seems like a real key to this, to make the iPhone the ultimate remote.

3) Show-specific remote control apps: In fact, given that the iPhone's display is programmable, you could make it a responsive remote that changes its UI in response to what's on the screen. So for example, if you are watching the Office, your iPhone's remote app could show the top rated episodes of all time, with comments next to them. Tap that episode to watch it.

Going further with this, basically you could integrate the show website with the remote for a kind of "show specific app remote". You'd want to make this something that wasn't too much of a distraction while watching, but that you used to quickly get to the good stuff or learn more about a particular actor or fact -- or product -- in the show. For season long serial dramas, the remote might also show which previous episodes you should have watched to understand what's on the screen.

4) iTunes+iMovie for independent film monetization: TV content is programmable and you could supply that with iTunes. Hulu, Netflix, and Youtube are also potential content providers.

It might be more interesting if iTunes opened up "show development" in the same way that the iPhone opened up "app development". Make iMovie and iTunes really, really tightly integrated such that it's now incredibly easy for anyone to develop a TV show, push it out to everyone, and monetize it through iTunes.

While you're at it, integrate GarageBand and iTunes to do the same for music. Get all the bands which were internet savvy enough to set up on Myspace and attract visitors, and do the Amazon disintermediation strategy. Basically, allow bands and independent filmmakers to monetize without Hollywood and the record industry.

5) iTV Genius recommendations: one of the most interesting concepts with your super remote would be a smart clicker that would not just change the channel, but would be like a Zite for TV. With a deep knowledge of what you liked and what you didn't like, it'd almost certainly bring up something good.

6) Lean back applications: iTV could also be a deployment point for "lean back apps" beyond standard TV fare which are meant to be controlled with the remote. These could be Keynote presentations, educational presentations, or basically new kinds of apps that are meant to be interacted with at a distance through a smart remote. Again, iOS5's Airplay integration will be the first preview of these sorts of apps.

7) A true universal remote: If people get accustomized to this sort of thing, they'll expect a location-aware remote control interface to a lot of physical objects. This has a ton of potential. Not just for garage door openers and automobiles, but for restaurants, ticket vendors, home automation, and the like. Lockitron sees some of this potential already, I think.

This is just for starters. There's a lot they could do.

extension4• 15 years ago

They won't use the iPhone as a remote. It's a personal device that lives in your pocket. The remote is a household device that lives on the coffee table. And you can't use a touchscreen while looking at something else.

The interface will be something magical, like a Wiimote. In fact, it may be exactly like a Wiimote. Whatever it is, it will be great for using an on-screen interface, and also for games. Yep, I can't see them making a TV that isn't a gaming platform.

suking2• 15 years ago

I wish MG would just stick to the crunchfund - that little guy is the most annoying writer.

grkhetan3• 15 years ago

I know he loves Apple, but that does not mean his articles are junk. In fact, they are quite the opposite. I love his article writing style, his logical approach to thinking, his ability to dig information (like his frequent articles on things going on in the google chrome project, Facebook insider info, apple insider info, etc), his ability to make articles interesting, etc. One needs to read his articles with an open mind, enjoy the content/news, but assuming he will be slightly biased towards Apple and/or more excited about Apple than a typical geek would be, but that does not mean his articles will be crap.

suking2• 15 years ago

I strongly disagree - Apple could never do wrong in his eyes - he is way too biased.

Zephyrial• 15 years ago

I think, of course, the problem he 'cracked' that will make the interface easier is that instead of a conventional remote, you use your iPhone/iPod Touch or something similar that would come with the TV. Touch screen, context-sensitive menus, voice commands... that would simplify a lot, no?

(I also wonder if he was imagining removing the layer of "channels" and just have something like the iTunes Store where you search for shows?) Just pondering...

Steve’s Final “One More Thing…”

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