Intel's Rumored TV Plans Would Compete With Apple, Google 82
Nerval's Lobster writes "Google tried to extend its influence to televisions, an effort that largely crashed and burned. Apple executives call Apple TV a 'hobby,' although it's been long-rumored that their company has a television set in the works. And Microsoft's made a muscular attempt to conquer the living room with the Xbox, which now does a lot more than just video games. If current rumors prove correct, you can soon add Intel to that list of IT giants with an eye on televisions. According to TechCrunch and SlashGear, the chip manufacturer is prepping to unveil a first-generation television system of some sort at next month's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. TechCrunch suggests that Intel will debut the system on a city-by-city basis, similar to what Google's doing with Google Fiber, in order to maintain 'more flexibility in negotiating licensing with reluctant content providers.' (The publication's information comes from the ever-popular unnamed sources.) In essence, Intel is proposing a set-top box paired with a subscription service, which would provide a mixture of traditional programming alongside streaming content."
Re:Better than Ultrabook I hope... (Score:2, Insightful)
I don't think they have, much like MS is losing very badly with Windows 8, WP8 and Surface.
With Apple, my content syncs with my iPad, my iPhone, our iPods and the Apple TV. iTunes makes it all work and sync together. The rating and playlists work nicely too. There's a store to buy TV shows and music at decent prices legally but you can still use content from other sources. It works on all Windows and Mac PCs. And it's so incredibly slick and polished too. The new Remote app is incredible. Being able to control what's playing with my iPad with an interface like this is priceless. It's like a dream... albeit a pricey dream!
Intel will have yet another media streaming box. Much like all the DLNA players, gaming consoles and countless other devices like the popcorn hour, WD TV, Roku, etc. People who want that already have it. It's all the *other stuff* that's missing. Make it work with Macs and PCs, Android and iOS devices, give me a store, make it work well with online services like Netflix and Hulu, make it "just work" and all, and even then they'd even have to beat Apple on pricing for it to become a big success.
MS is losing at the game very badly. Their OS got extra DRM for media that people don't watch, FairPlay and Zune are major failures, the new Windows Media Player is unable to play DVDs even if you have the right codecs and hasn't been meaningfully updated in ages, Windows Media Center was supposed to become a paid extra which created huge backslash and that only gets downloaded by pirates as a way to to have a "legally" activated copy of Windows 8... Apple is easily 10 years ahead of them in this game.
Future of TV (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Better than Ultrabook I hope... (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't worry. Intel will need software for any play in media delivery and content management.
They fail this every attempt. As bad or worse than does Cisco.
Failure on the launch pad.