[Love Calm Quiet]

In the Merrill Lynch article (just a paragraph, really) cited by MacNN this morning, they say,
"Merrill told investors to look out for a flash memory-based iPod from Apple in the first quarter and other possible exciting products such as an entertainment server."

I don't know what an "entertainment server" might look like - but I bet it's not built to run Unix (or cost like a PM or even a iMac) - but for Apple / OSX sake, I wish they could be selling "entertainment" machines that are multi-purpose - sort of Trojan horses to get OS X into users' experience.

Has anyone heard speculation of what Apple might be planning to "entertainment serve" - other than what we could be doing via our PMs & PBs? Would this have a separate OS ?

[mitchell_pgh]

I don't see Apple creating something that would compete with their current hardware. If anything, I see Apple offering a set top box (wireless?) that will bridge the Mac to TV experience.

Basics:
- iTunes connectivity
- iPhoto connectivity

Advanced:
- iTunes connectivity
- iPhoto connectivity
- iChatAV connectivity (perhaps with iSight compatibility)
- QuickTime connectivity/compatibility
- Safari connectivity

I would love to see Apple come out with a low end box that would work as a network device, but I just don't see it happening.

[cpac]

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Basics:
- iTunes connectivity
- iPhoto connectivity

You're forgetting:

iMovie, Keynote connectivity

(essentially, I'd expect there to be wireless video mirroring available, + sound through at least iTunes if not system-wide.)

There aren't a lot of headless macs around, but if there were, how 'bout the "iBox" - log into and use your computer wirelessly from any television in the house. (requires bluetooth mouse and keyboard)

[Visnaut]

Whether or not something like this would be lucrative for Apple, I'm not sure. I'm guessing with the strong sales of the iPod that they already have a fertile market ready to eat up more Apple media devices. And I was skeptical of the iPod...

In terms of scope of capabilities, for sure it'll have iTunes integration. It would at least a way to plug an iPod in, even if its only for charging and playing songs from it. Maybe even have a built-in iPod dock. Airport would be a must. And the remote would HAVE to have the iPod wheel fer sure.

After that, I guess it's all pure conjecture. Would they try to make it a catch-all device? To integrate all of your existing media appliances? Would it have an HD and work as a PVR? The sky's the limit, really.

[Superchicken]

My theory, 1.3 or so Ghz G5. Stripped down version of OS X, perhaps Mac OS X Media. Or something. It would have to be able to play and convert to avc on the fly. Perhaps with a large buffer. I easily see it costing several hundred. Hopefully not much more than an iPod. It would need an iPod dock and software to auto sync your music over air port with your iPod. It'd also need to have the option to transfer your video to the iPod so that you could play it at someone else's house. Picture Steve saying, "well many thought that the iPod would do video, and we finally figured out a way to do it. With this video loaded onto an iPod can be viewed by any OS X Media equipped machine." And if you think about it an hour long TV show with AVC could easily be like 300 to 200 megs (Divx is normally 350 megs for 40 minutes least that's what all my torrents are and AVC is supposed to be much better.) So you could even fit a lot of video on your iPod. They could even advertise say, "a whole season in your pocket." Or something.

It'd be great if they offered features like it behaving like a node with Xgrid, or at least have the option to use it to use your other comp's processors to supplement and such. For example, it can only encode one show at a time, BUT if you have a Mac you could sent the video over AirPort and your Mac would give it a hand.

iBox would be a great name not sure if it'd work. But it'd be great to use it with your Macs. I know I leave my downloaded movie files on my iMac 333Mhz' HD and view em over ethernet with my PowerBook

Apple could do a lot with that sorta thing... I just hope they do something good.

[MindFad]

Wireless video would be so awexome.