In 2011, Walter Isaacson published in his Steve Jobs biography that the late CEO had
finally cracked it. Jobs said, and I quote,
I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use.
It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.
No longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels.
It would have the simplest user interface you could imagine.
Yes. Let's imagine, but not the user interface.
We have one of those with the current Apple TV. And that issue of complex DVD player and cable box remotes is slowly being negated with the transition to online streaming.
Rather, let's imagine what an Apple television set itself could look like were Apple to make one today.
This is for you, Gene Munster. TV design today is extremely derivative.
They become commodities, cheap, large, black mirrors people place in front of their walls.
Though they might perform differently when they're switched on, when they're off, I
don't know, we're left with an ominous black void in the middle of our living room, especially
as bezels keep getting smaller and smaller in panels, bigger and bigger.
I've been thinking recently about the concept of the television as furniture.
Superb cabinetry, mastercrafted of the finest woods.
It used to be this way before the 70s. Yes, I know there were some garish wood cabinets that ended up in grandmother's basement,
but at least those designs are something more interesting than the generic black appliances
we're living with today. With Apple's storied history and passion around hardware design, I think many of us
are interested in what their take on the television as furniture would look like.
There's room to play with modality, with presence, with different materials beyond
brushed silver metal and black plastics. What about wood or fabric or matte paint finished in bold colors?
Oh, okay, hear me out. Clear colored plastics all over again.
I jest, but also I want. I want to attempt to sketch out what a potential Apple TV could look like, and to draw some
inspiration of where they could take this, let's take a look at the Samsung Frame TV.
I'd argue that this is one of the best designed televisions on the market right now.
This is such a refreshing take on what a TV can do and look like.
The frame that surrounds the panel is interchangeable with four different options, two of which
are wood, and it comes with a special mount in the box that places the TV flush on the
wall, like a picture. But perhaps the best thing about the Samsung Frame is that when it's not being used as
a TV, it's not a TV.
Instead of being a black void dominating the wall, it's a backlit painting or a photo
set in a mat. It recedes into the background looking like any other picture on the wall.
For a wall-mounted Apple TV, all I want to see is intention in how the TV is mounted
in the wall. It could be flushed like the frame or incorporate a curved back like the iMac, which allows light
to spill behind, reducing the panel's shadow cast.
There's room to experiment here. More interesting to me though is how Apple would build a TV that stands on its own.
Looking at all the TVs in the stores, it seems that making an interesting stand is quite
difficult. Samsung's Serif TV sits quite well on a base that's part of the design.
Better still, if you don't have a unit for it to rest on, it does come with attachable
legs too. Apple could sell these separately for $1,000 or $250 each.
I jest. But what about technology?
After all, Apple isn't just a design company. Firstly, everything should be able to be controlled with one remote.
Whether you use an AV receiver with a bunch of devices plugged in or simply a lone soundbar,
the fewer the remotes, the better. For this to work better than CEC already does, Apple would probably have the Biologitex
Harmony Division or make all these devices themselves, if only.
Speaking of remotes, I'm pleased to report that Apple did what I was hoping they would
do and updated the Siri remote with a D-pad.
Better still, they added a click-wheel-like jogging capability by making the D-pad touch-sensitive,
so it really is the best of both worlds. And speaking of Siri, adding a microphone array and Siri, their voice assistant integration
to the television set would be a known brainer, offering the same sort of functionality as
Siri on the HomePod. But more interesting in this age of the pandemic would be the addition of an eyesight camera.
Rumors speculated it being part of an updated Apple TV sep top box, which we didn't see
at the spring-loaded event, but it's a neat idea nonetheless because there's something
charming about the idea of inviting friends and family into your living room through a
FaceTime call. I do, however, understand the discomfort of having a camera and microphone just staring
at you in your most comfortable of spaces, so my thinking would be that it's better
sold as an optional accessory that clips on with magnets, sends signal through a smart
connector, and has a physical cover. Now, panels.
I bring this up because Apple's displays have always been of high quality, so we would
expect much the same here. While many would think OLED is the obvious choice, I'm not entirely sure Apple would
go that way because it wouldn't leave them much room to differentiate themselves since
they'd have to buy commodity panels from LG. Instead, I'd expect them to use high-quality LCD displays like they use on the Pro display
XDR. Or rumors of incoming mini-LED displays persist, and last year the company invested significantly
in the design and manufacture of micro-LED.
It's still a long, long way off, but offers a tantalizing hope of what could be, and though
Apple has refrained from any sort of variable refresh rates on its devices, it's becoming
important technology, especially considering where gaming consoles are going and support
through HDMI 2.1. To me, though, it's what's on the screen that's more interesting, especially when
the TV isn't being used to watch content. The dream of ambient computing is to have a display that shows you exactly what you
want to see when you want to see it. In the morning, it could show you widgets to prepare you for your day, in the afternoon
an aerial screensaver, and at night, during a dinner party, your favorite painting.
Dinner parties aren't a thing, like jest. Lastly, there's sound, which I want to emphasize is equally important to the visuals, video
production proverb there for you. Firstly, on this Apple TV set, I want spatial audio support for AirPods.
The feature simulates surround sound on AirPods and has proved to work well with Apple's
mobile devices. But the idea of popping on a pair of AirPods and getting a cinematic experience without
disturbing others at home is an obvious solution.
Secondly, built-in TV speakers are by and large terrible.
They're so bad, in fact, that I wish manufacturers wouldn't bother installing them.
Apple could go two ways here. Simply lay in to built-in TV speaker technology, using what they've learned with HomePod.
Maybe adding HomePod minis as rear satellite speakers.
Or more likely, Apple could just not include speakers at all and get you to buy an accompanying
stellar sound bar.
There really are a lot of opportunities for new design in the television space, if you
think about it. And with Apple having spent a reported $6 billion on television content by the summer
of 2019, it seems kind of strange. Here we have a very rich company known for making great hardware, spending rich sums
of money on content, and then not making the hardware to show it on.
They could master their Apple originals for this TV, giving you the exact experience the
creators intended. It's the perfect time.
I know this topic has been a source of much excitement and disappointment in the Apple
community for a while now, so comment below if you think there's still a place for an
Apple TV set in this world, or whether we should just let bygones be bygones.
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