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General discussion

Well, well, well... time to buy an Apple TV.

Dec 26, 2007 1:57PM PST
http://www.9to5mac.com/apple-rentals-coming-2346534634

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/12/26/report_apple_fox_sign_movie_rental_deal_for_macworld.html

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/26/apple-in-online-film-rental-deal-with-fox-studio/

http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/26/apple-fox-join-hands-in-itunes-movie-rental-deal/

Yep, Apple's finally got something else good for the masses, and it's all over the place it seems, not just the sites I've linked to. Now all we need is love, no wait scratch that, a Mac Tablet. Those ModBook tablets haven't shipped yet (or so I've heard), and they were announced like a year ago at the last MacWorld. Of course they've been upgraded to Leopard and 2.2Ghz chips, but still...
Unless Apple creates a new Apple TV with a bunch of good stuff, it is the time to go buy the 160GB model, and wait for a long-awaited software update. If Apple TV sales bump up in the next few days, I'd crack up. Apple's "flop" is about to flip over into a well done pancake (again). LOL.

-BMF

Discussion is locked

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I didn't see the Apple TV as a flop.
Dec 26, 2007 9:31PM PST

It's more of a niche item. Must all Apple products hit 1 million units in a month or be labeled a flop?

Bob

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To many people's eyes, it was.
Dec 27, 2007 2:17AM PST

Personally, think it was a good attempt, not a flop. I was kind of quoting what many others have said about it. When it came out, I thought it was a plan to rip off customers since you can do the same thing with an iPod by plugging it into a TV. Well, sort of. But now it will have more of a purpose. This batch of news was a bit overdue. Apple is doing good on listening to the consumer needs though. 3G iPhone is coming, iTunes rentals, and may reports that a Mac tablet may come out. Heck, a lot of people wanted the iPhone without the phone, and Apple did that too.

Apple is on its way to dominating the entire electronics market. Or so I think, LOL.
-BMF

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To even come close.
Dec 27, 2007 2:43AM PST

It would have to be the iPod Touch. And then... no remote, etc.

Bob

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I think that the only major flop in current Apple history
Dec 27, 2007 7:45AM PST

was the iBook G3. Those things were (and are) terrible. Most had defects, got so hot during use that they would smell like smoke (that's what my friend's iBook smells like. It doesn't work either.), and did I say they had defects? Seriously, those things were just horrible. At least the Apple TV works. Some iPod Touch models had that black screen problem, but that was corrected. I sure didn't have it, and it only affected a small percentage of the earlier models sold, I think. Beats the percentages of the defective iBooks by far. I think I prefer the Intel Macs, considering they work better and faster Wink.

Still, I think Apple has finally given customers more of a reason to buy an Apple TV. I prefer to keep purchases and items, etc., all in one place, so instead of running to BlockBuster to rent a movie or Barnes and Noble to buy a CD, I can do it all on iTunes. Convenient for me, maybe not so much as others.
Who wouldn't like this idea?
-BMF

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I hope you are not,
Dec 27, 2007 8:53PM PST

referring to my venerable iBook G3 Clamshell which is still going strong and running OS X 10.3.9

Screen resolution leaves a lot to be desired, as does the speed, but with only having to replace the battery in it's life, I would not consider it to be a flop.

That thing will retire from old age and not from failure.

P

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Of course not.
Dec 28, 2007 4:53AM PST

The Clamshells were different. I meant the dual-USB iBooks, the white ones after the Clamshells. Those things tended to break at some point from something. The one I have borrowed to look at has suffered from HD failure twice. I fear there may be more wrong with it. Another thing about it is that Apple removed the original AirPort card in it to take it apart once... they never put it back in. I could have used that.

Clamshell retires from age, dual-USB dies because it's a failure, though some of them work after extensive repairs, but that's way too costly to keep up.
-BMF

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Now there I will agree with you
Dec 28, 2007 8:37AM PST

I currently have one apart, on the bench, after it suffered from loss of video.

The video returns if you apply pressure to the case above where the HD sits. Bottom left as you look at it.

This is the third one of these I have seen, same symptom, and the discussion boards are full of the problem.
It is cheaper to replace it with a MacBook, faster/bigger HD/etc, than it is to replace the logic board. Unfortunately, the one I working on now has a defective HD as well.

Oh well, in to the freezer for that drive.

P

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(NT) Can we talk about the Apple Camera?
Dec 27, 2007 11:28PM PST
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(NT) Or the Flashlight?
Dec 28, 2007 4:53AM PST
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Bad joke, referencing some picture I read.
Dec 28, 2007 5:03AM PST

Before we continue discussing what the biggest Apple flop was, why not determine what an Apple flop is? Most Apple products have sold quite a lot of units, if you think tens of thousands instead of hundreds of thousands are plenty.

I think a flop has to be something that Apple intended to sell as one of their main products, but it didn't work out at all. That's why the iBook G3 (dual-USB!) models come to mind, since the iBook was a major product line. They had hardware malfunctions frequently. Look at the logic board recalls. The Apple TV wasn't intended as a huge breakthrough or major product, which is why it hasn't been on Apple's top priority list. At least it works right.

-BMF

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How can every product be...
Dec 28, 2007 5:10AM PST

Top priority.

-> Hmm, I think I used to work there. You know the place. "This is top priority!" is said after each task handed out.

Bob

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I think I worked there too,
Dec 28, 2007 8:33AM PST

must have been before your time though.

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Apple TV
Jan 5, 2008 5:16AM PST

I didn't agree with those thinking the Apple TV was a flop. I personnaly bought it to see my PC digital photos in HD format on living room TV. And I'm quite satisfied with it. Of course, any on-line update improvement would be most welcomed, especially access to movies (streamed) as I live in Canada, where this service is not (yet) available.
R. Parent

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Still not sure what the point is
Jan 4, 2008 6:35PM PST

You still have to have a TV with a set of component video ports (which are mostly only available on HDTVs), just to watch some SD video a limited number of times? Oh, and you can also watch 320x240 videos from Youtube?

I still don't see that as a reason to buy an AppleTV. It makes more sense to me to invest in a PVR, that way you get your TV shows in high definition... for free! That's the power of Microsoft Surface... oh sorry, I guess I've been using that Youtube ripping program too much...

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The rumors are flying that Apple TV will get a tuneup.
Jan 4, 2008 10:03PM PST

Maybe they'll add Pong (ie games.)

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Maybe they'll actually make a TV instead of a TV box
Jan 5, 2008 3:30AM PST

kind of like one of those older Macs that functioned as a Mac and a TV. That was the real Apple TV, or whatever it was called. Besides, display updates are way overdue.

-BMF