Prelude To Innovations in Motion

So, there has been a lot of talk about a new Set-top box by Apple dubbed the "iBox," and I feel like should put in my two cents (although this is a rumor and probably totally nonexistent for multiple reasons). First of all, it would be about the size of a standard VCR (or these days DVD player) so it could fit nicely in with the rest of your Home Theater components. It would have a SuperDrive (DVD/CD burner), a hefty hard drive (going from 80GB, 120GB, to 250GB), a modem, ethernet, AirPort Extreme (Wi-FI, 802.11g), A USB port on the front along with a FireWire 400 port, a USB port on the back along with a FireWire 800 port, audio-out for connection to a stereo system, and a PCI port for the included TV tuner card. The Processor would not be a G3, as so many people are speculating, because for there to be any DVD burning of captured TV programs a G4 would be needed for all the MPEG-2 encoding.

It would have an installation of Mac OS X with an included program to keep it simplified on the front, but quit the program and you can see a regular Mac OS X client installation (similar to how Mac OS X server is just Mac OS X client with more programs and features and settings). The "iBox" (what a horrible name) would have a program to schedule programs (I guess similar to iCal so you can download schedules), a program to burn DVDs of the shows (A slimmed down version of iDVD), a version of iTunes to play music that you have loaded onto the massive HD (and that is streamed from over the network), and version of iPhoto to display pictures. Of course, it would be able to share all the video, pictures, and music over the network to other Macs and "iBoxes," and the Apache web server (already on Mac OS X) would serve as a way to schedule TV show recordings from the internet or on the network (thank you rendezvous). To get the TV scheduling you would have to subscribe to .Mac (such as a subscription for TiVO users), or just pay a one-time fee to get only the "iBox Scheduling" features of .Mac .

The big problem with all of this is the UI, because right now Mac OS X works well on a computer with a keyboard and a mouse. Apple would have to translate that great user experience to a TV and a remote. Of course, you would plug in a keyboard and mouse, and use the "iBox" as a computer because that is all it is. All in all, the "iBox" would be a PowerMac G4 with some more Tivo-like options and I would buy it, because, well, I am an Apple Whore and I like TV (and a TiVo would be great).