Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event(apple.com)
apple.com
Apple – Live – September 2014 Special Event
http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/
396 comments
This article explains pretty well what went wrong with the stream. It wasn't Akamai, it was Apple. The interactive JSON-based elements that had on their page prevented it from being cached which resulted in the issues we were seeing. http://blog.streamingmedia.com/2014/09/why-apples-livestream...
hahah.. from all videos player i think apple video player sucks!!. I hate that.. not to say Apple event last night (MY time). I think youtube or google services are better video player. hmm.. why apple always wanted to create and use their own video player but they denide to develop it. I cannot play video in some websites. Sucks!!! Apple should change this. BTW Im apple fan though.
"Our live broadcast begins at 10 a.m. PDT."
Considering that the entire world uses GMT, and that only US citizens use PDT, they could have bothered to use GMT.
Or better still, they could have detected your location/system time and just put a countdown or your own local time.
Considering that the entire world uses GMT, and that only US citizens use PDT, they could have bothered to use GMT.
Or better still, they could have detected your location/system time and just put a countdown or your own local time.
Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer?
That pretty much covers entire world.
And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.
And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.
> Uhmm, did you not notice that HUGE countdown timer? That pretty much covers entire world.
It want's there when I visited. :-(
> And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.
But they must most certainly know their GMT offset, since it's the worldwide reference.
It want's there when I visited. :-(
> And, no, whole world doesn't use GMT (talk to Indians and Chinese about what time they use). Also, entire US doesn't use PDT time. You know, some people live on east coast.
But they must most certainly know their GMT offset, since it's the worldwide reference.
Indians, in particular, make it even more interesting with the extra half-hour offset. :-D
The screen is filled with a huge countdown. You can't add the countdown to your current time and get the answer? If someone is holding an event I would expect them to announce the start in local time - the people that need to know the time the most are the ones that are going to be there, why make it more difficult for them?
The timer was not there when I posted this (my complaint was, in part, that there wasn't one).
Or you could just Google the time in your timezone yourself.
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Honestly very excited about this... very excited.
Call me dull, but I'm looking forward for a new iMac 27". Apple recently renewed the 21" version, but I'm just waiting for a new 27" to come out.
The new iMac 27" should have a nice 5120x2880 screen. That would sure justify the hype.
But I bet we'll just get a 4.7" iPhone, Apple catching up to where Samsung has been for three long years now with a medium sized phone instead of a tiny chiclet. (I love the chiclet, but bigger would be better.)
And we'll probably get another lousy "smart" watch that needs charging every day and doesn't do anything you can't do by pulling out your phone for a second. Maybe fanatic runners like Apple's CEO will find it almost as useful as a fuelband or fitbit.
Note: Downvoters really hate the idea of a retina iMac.
But I bet we'll just get a 4.7" iPhone, Apple catching up to where Samsung has been for three long years now with a medium sized phone instead of a tiny chiclet. (I love the chiclet, but bigger would be better.)
And we'll probably get another lousy "smart" watch that needs charging every day and doesn't do anything you can't do by pulling out your phone for a second. Maybe fanatic runners like Apple's CEO will find it almost as useful as a fuelband or fitbit.
Note: Downvoters really hate the idea of a retina iMac.
I'm secretly hoping for some extra-wacky 30th anniversary Macintosh, kind of like what Jony Ive created for the 20th.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Anniversary_Macintosh
It's a little sad that the Mac hit 30 this year and all it got was a special web page to commemorate the event.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twentieth_Anniversary_Macintosh
It's a little sad that the Mac hit 30 this year and all it got was a special web page to commemorate the event.
Soon, but not this event!
This presentation looks like it's going to be on another level.. even for Apple standards.
How can I watch this on windows if I don't have Quicktime installed?
Even better, use VLC:
http://9to5mac.com/community/how-to-stream-apples-sept-9-iph...
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Dead
EDIT: Nvm it worked after waiting for a couple minutes.
EDIT: Nvm it worked after waiting for a couple minutes.
I'm not sure, but you can try these (should work on Android): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_Live_Streaming#Supported_p...
Here's a test stream http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbopgear1.html
Here's a test stream http://devimages.apple.com/iphone/samples/bipbopgear1.html
..And all the twitch streams have been shut down.
Use VLC, give it the livestream URI (inspect element on the QT inset).
Use any iOS device if you have one. Or use one of the streams on Twitch... http://www.twitch.tv/search?query=apple+event#stq=apple event&stp=1
> Use any iOS device if you have one.
Sorry, I'm not rich. :P
Sorry, I'm not rich. :P
I watch it here: https://www.google.com/finance?cid=22144
Genuinely funny. I wish the refresh rate was higher.
Apple.com/ has been redirecting to apple.com/live for about ~20 hours now. They're very confident about what's about to be presented.
They've been using a '301 MOVED PERMANENTLY' redirect, meaning they are extra serious about this.
Correct me if I'm wrong. IIRC, there isn't a status code for temporary moved *with a timeout. If you use 307, it means the browser will always still check the original apple.com first, then get redirected to apple.com/live. Using 301 would make browser go to apple.com/live directly which improves response time. When the event is finished, they can do a 301 on apple.com/live back to apple.com to overwrite the rule.
Or lazy about their redirecting. 301's are supported by pretty much every browser, indexer and wget/curl whereas 302's sometimes fail on those. Its also pretty easy to reissue another 301 from /live to com/
Considering I get this: "Sorry, your browser doesn’t support our live video stream."
I'm pretty sure compatibility isn't the reason of that choice.
I'm pretty sure compatibility isn't the reason of that choice.
I'm fairly certain they just want you to land on the live page, even if you can't view it in the current browser. It's about eyes on page to spur you to either stay tuned or move to a browser that works with it.
True. For any other site it would matter, as doing so hurts your search ranking, but I seriously doubt Apple.com worries about search rank.
You know what I wonder?
An alternative explanation to a very confident Apple is just that they changed their attitude about all this, thinking there is not really much of a difference between them providing a countdown or others doing it (before the last Keynote this countdown webpage got pretty huge), between them providing a liveblog or others doing it (there are always many liveblogs with often crappy photos, so why not shot beautiful photos and provide them directly?), unaware that would hype up the event.
I don’t think it’s that, but if they are sufficiently tone-deaf that could be the case. Apple historically hasn’t really been, definitely not when it comes to their events, but who knows …
An alternative explanation to a very confident Apple is just that they changed their attitude about all this, thinking there is not really much of a difference between them providing a countdown or others doing it (before the last Keynote this countdown webpage got pretty huge), between them providing a liveblog or others doing it (there are always many liveblogs with often crappy photos, so why not shot beautiful photos and provide them directly?), unaware that would hype up the event.
I don’t think it’s that, but if they are sufficiently tone-deaf that could be the case. Apple historically hasn’t really been, definitely not when it comes to their events, but who knows …
I don't think the big deal is them providing live coverage, it's that their homepage is redirecting to the stream 24 hours before hand. Considering how many hits apple.com gets per day that's a big decision indicating a huge event.
Why a countdown? Probably because they're launching a watch. Wait and see. My guess is they hint at the why during the event, probably in the opening minute or so. They will also probably use time-based headlines in the slides.
I wonder how much outside the realms of possibility a VR headset could be...? They have patents and seem to have become more serious about 3D graphics lately. Maybe I'm just dreaming though. Maybe a wearable could be something to allow an iPhone/iPod type device to function as headset?
I'm thinking something alone those lines... for TV.
I still expect Apple to do something very, very big with TV.
I still expect Apple to do something very, very big with TV.
Probably iPhone 6
Wow, they're going all out for this one. Lots of new things they haven't done in past keynotes. Can't wait to see what they show off.
Gruber has a spot on wrap-up: http://daringfireball.net/2014/09/prelude
How can it be a wrap-up, or judged to be spot-on in advance of any actual confirmed facts?
I'll admit he's probably mostly prescient, but we won't know for another hour or two.
I'll admit he's probably mostly prescient, but we won't know for another hour or two.
We'll see after the event.
Can you taste the distain in his words? Grumlbing like an old man saying "GET OFF MY LAWN" It's kind of odd, even for him.
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[Off-Topic]: The 12:44 pic might as well be a Starbucks ad (8:44 PDT)
Any chance we can keep all Apple discussion on HN contained in this thread?
Half the stories on the front page will be Apple stories within the next two hours.
The ranking algorithm will drop them off soon enough. Maybe the time coefficient should be stronger for days like today, though.
The ranking algorithm will drop them off soon enough. Maybe the time coefficient should be stronger for days like today, though.
>> "Maybe the time coefficient should be stronger for days like today, though."
I disagree. The reason the front page becomes full of Apple is because Apple launches all their stuff at once. There are only maybe 2 or 3 times a year that Apple releases new stuff. The discussions of these things are important. They shouldn't be penalised for happening at the same time.
I disagree. The reason the front page becomes full of Apple is because Apple launches all their stuff at once. There are only maybe 2 or 3 times a year that Apple releases new stuff. The discussions of these things are important. They shouldn't be penalised for happening at the same time.
Probably not. People are going to post the links to Apple's announcements which makes sense. I don't want to read the discussion of the iWatch along with everything else in one thread.
Unlikely. There will probably be 300+ comments on the iWatch alone.
Sadly, no.
Wall Street is going to be disappointed if there's no Singularity.
Can't wait to see the new iPhone 6, time to change my old iPhone 4 :)
This website says that live streaming requires OS X or iOS.
Why would they only allow already-customers to watch their presentation?
Locking out non-customers seems not the best way to get some.
Why would they only allow already-customers to watch their presentation?
Locking out non-customers seems not the best way to get some.
Because it ultimately doesn’t matter. Those who really want to watch it already have some device that can play it and the rest doesn’t care about it anyway so much to watch a 2hr commercial and will just read about it somewhere or see it on TV later. I think it’s as simple as that. That’s why Apple doesn’t really try to make this work for as many people as possible.
They probably use https://developer.apple.com/streaming/ , an HTTP streaming mechanism that's implemented by Safari that didn't get adopted by any other browser.
Ever since Apple originated consumer computer video with Quicktime back in the early 1990s, they've done a great deal to make it better, first for CD Roms and in a proprietary fashion. But when the net came around they opened up their proprietary format to become a standard-- the Mpeg4 file format is the old MOV format. They've also proposed a lot of improvements along these lines for other people to adopt.
Like Bonjour, I really don't understand why other companies don't adopt these open standards. They don't benefit Apple particularly. It's not like Apple has some competitive advantage in HTTP Live Streaming. Meanwhile these competitors rush to copy everything else Apple does.
Frankly, I think its appalling that youtube, for instance, is still running on flash. How many years ago did they first trial MP4 streaming? Why I can't I access all the videos over MP4?
Why would you want your browser to be bad at streaming video?
Like Bonjour, I really don't understand why other companies don't adopt these open standards. They don't benefit Apple particularly. It's not like Apple has some competitive advantage in HTTP Live Streaming. Meanwhile these competitors rush to copy everything else Apple does.
Frankly, I think its appalling that youtube, for instance, is still running on flash. How many years ago did they first trial MP4 streaming? Why I can't I access all the videos over MP4?
Why would you want your browser to be bad at streaming video?
None of those things are open standards. Both Mpeg4 and "Bonjour" require a licence to utilise. Maybe that answers your question, people don't want to pay Apple oodles of money?
> Frankly, I think its appalling that youtube, for instance, is still running on flash.
Everyone can turn on HTML5 for YouTube if they wish. They offer both. They give you the choice, the default is Flash (but Flash still has the widest support on older platforms).
> Why I can't I access all the videos over MP4?
Because people would have to pay licensing fees several times for the same stream (e.g. sender and receiver both have to pay $$$, sometimes the sender, browser vendor AND OS vendor have to pay $$$).
> Meanwhile these competitors rush to copy everything else Apple does.
And Apple copies everything their competitors do also. Just look at iOS 8, that was just copying some of the best features from their competition (not that I blame them, they were right to do so).
The new keyboard (Android), third party keyboards (Android), "Handoff" (everyone else), Spotlight web-search (everyone else), etc.
Apple hasn't done anything original since Jobs died.
> Frankly, I think its appalling that youtube, for instance, is still running on flash.
Everyone can turn on HTML5 for YouTube if they wish. They offer both. They give you the choice, the default is Flash (but Flash still has the widest support on older platforms).
> Why I can't I access all the videos over MP4?
Because people would have to pay licensing fees several times for the same stream (e.g. sender and receiver both have to pay $$$, sometimes the sender, browser vendor AND OS vendor have to pay $$$).
> Meanwhile these competitors rush to copy everything else Apple does.
And Apple copies everything their competitors do also. Just look at iOS 8, that was just copying some of the best features from their competition (not that I blame them, they were right to do so).
The new keyboard (Android), third party keyboards (Android), "Handoff" (everyone else), Spotlight web-search (everyone else), etc.
Apple hasn't done anything original since Jobs died.
Bonjour was released under an open source license, part of it the Apache license, and does not require a royalty to be paid to Apple.
I turned on HTML5 video for youtube and I still have this problem, because they don't encode all videos in MP4.
I turned on HTML5 video for youtube and I still have this problem, because they don't encode all videos in MP4.
You seem to have missed this bit
> Because people would have to pay licensing fees several times for the same stream
Many groups have spoken out about the licensing issues with pictures, video, and audio. That's what has created this mess.
> Because people would have to pay licensing fees several times for the same stream
Many groups have spoken out about the licensing issues with pictures, video, and audio. That's what has created this mess.
> Ever since Apple originated consumer computer video with Quicktime back in the early 1990s
I think that honor befalls the ITU with their H.261. It's only a few years difference and it definitely was never as wide spread as Quicktime but that's the first format that I remember that actually worked. It never succeeded on the web though there were a couple of companies that tried to do this using so called browser plug-ins.
Live streaming is mostly the domain of RTMP these days, HTTP doesn't lend itself well to live (but works just fine for streaming stored content).
As for why browsers don't all do MP4, you could ask why browsers do not natively support RTMP, that would solve the whole problem in one go.
I think that honor befalls the ITU with their H.261. It's only a few years difference and it definitely was never as wide spread as Quicktime but that's the first format that I remember that actually worked. It never succeeded on the web though there were a couple of companies that tried to do this using so called browser plug-ins.
Live streaming is mostly the domain of RTMP these days, HTTP doesn't lend itself well to live (but works just fine for streaming stored content).
As for why browsers don't all do MP4, you could ask why browsers do not natively support RTMP, that would solve the whole problem in one go.
What, what? YouTube has been doing an HTML5 based web player for quite some time now[1], and I believe it supports FLV video as well, though I can't find a reference for that.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA
[1] https://www.youtube.com/html5?gl=CA
I have uninstalled Flash from my system. A great many videos on YouTube give me the "you need the latest flash player to watch this video" error.
Yes, several years ago, I was getting MP4 video, and today, a portion (say %30-%40) just launch with MP4. But most of the time I get the "you need flash".
Yes, several years ago, I was getting MP4 video, and today, a portion (say %30-%40) just launch with MP4. But most of the time I get the "you need flash".
It's really weird. Using the built-in HTML5 player, half the videos don't load. But those videos do exist — Google just doesn't want you to be able to access them easily. I can watch them on my iOS devices, I can download them using dirpy.com, and I can watch them in my browser using the YouTube5 plugin.
I don't think you can use the HTML5 player for videos with ads. It's an elephant of a caveat.
This was true at one point, but no longer. The HTML5 video player displays ads just fine these days.
Serious question: what is the state of the art for in-browser live streaming to date ?
Twitch, Google Hangouts, any "live" sport event what protocol/technology do they use ?
A mix of HLS and flash ?
Twitch, Google Hangouts, any "live" sport event what protocol/technology do they use ?
A mix of HLS and flash ?
There are many protocols, including HTTP Live Streaming, RTSP, RTP, MMS, used by multiple browser plugins, such as QuickTime, Flash, Windows Media Player. A comprehensive list of such systems is on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_streaming_media_s...
Twitch uses HLS with a Flash front end. No idea about the others.
HLS is nice because it doesn't require any new servers or protocols -- it uses vanilla HTTP, and can be served up by basically any web server. As a result, it's much easier to make it work with a CDN.
HLS is nice because it doesn't require any new servers or protocols -- it uses vanilla HTTP, and can be served up by basically any web server. As a result, it's much easier to make it work with a CDN.
Thanks.
I guess the reason of having such poor support outside Apple browsers, despite the benefits, has to do with licensing issues and the complications of embedding ads, as someone pointed out.
I guess the reason of having such poor support outside Apple browsers, despite the benefits, has to do with licensing issues and the complications of embedding ads, as someone pointed out.
Yes.
You can watch in non-Safari browsers if you change the user agent.
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Yep, I noticed that the other day on their developers site. Couldn't watch a video on Swift because I'm not on OSX Safari! Something Microsoft would do 15 years ago.
Check the comments, someone already solved this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8290769
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8290769
Well, still, for a company that tries to make everything "simple and beautiful", why don't their video streams just work everywhere out of the box? That is the question.
What Apple's live streaming does, is in a CDN friendly way dynamically adjust the bandwidth going to a stream consumer. It's a great invention and there's no reason other people haven't adopted it. It's not being proprietary, it's simply being smart, because it's not trivial to do this kind of broadcast on the internet.
Here's the reality of video, and this goes for a lot of things that Apple makes "simple and beautiful". They fundamentally aren't. Video is a fundamentally difficult mess, a PITA, and the only way to have it work really smoothly is to have enough control over the entire stack to ensure that things work they way they are supposed to... and even then it doesn't always work. People adopting MP4 as a standard has gone a long way towards making things "just work" generally, but it's not sufficient by itself for a quality live stream.
I remember trying to watch a previous live stream from south america and the difficulties I had, even though I was using Apple devices and software the whole way.
Simple and Beautiful is a contradiction from "everywhere out of the box".
Those are two opposite goals.
This is an important thing to understand about software broadly, but with video it borders on impossible.
Here's the reality of video, and this goes for a lot of things that Apple makes "simple and beautiful". They fundamentally aren't. Video is a fundamentally difficult mess, a PITA, and the only way to have it work really smoothly is to have enough control over the entire stack to ensure that things work they way they are supposed to... and even then it doesn't always work. People adopting MP4 as a standard has gone a long way towards making things "just work" generally, but it's not sufficient by itself for a quality live stream.
I remember trying to watch a previous live stream from south america and the difficulties I had, even though I was using Apple devices and software the whole way.
Simple and Beautiful is a contradiction from "everywhere out of the box".
Those are two opposite goals.
This is an important thing to understand about software broadly, but with video it borders on impossible.
The thing is that any cable company in the US and Canada that streams content to their customers via the Internet is using adaptive bitrate streaming either using HTTP Live Streaming, MPEG DASH, HTTP Dynamic Streaming, or Microsoft Smooth Streaming.
It is far from impossible.
Everything is simple and beautiful if you are already embedded in the ecosystem/walled garden. If you are an outsider, it is another matter... Isn't it more or less the goal of every tech giant ?
Apple fans can justify anything - so don't expect anyone to say, yeah they are behind the curve on this.
The better answer is probably: "They simply don't care". No ifs and buts. Probably making it a bit exclusive and hard to get to only adheres to their marketing philosophy.
The better answer is probably: "They simply don't care". No ifs and buts. Probably making it a bit exclusive and hard to get to only adheres to their marketing philosophy.
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The community has closed this channel due to terms of service violations
This is nothing new. Their streamed events have always been locked down to Safari on OS X and iOS.
Can anyone recall if iOS goes GM / public release on the day of this? Or do we have to wait a week?
It always goes GM immediately but only dev program members can get it. I think for the public the update has varied between phone launch day and a few days after the event.
Historically, the new iPhone becomes available on Friday a week and a half after the event and the new iOS is released for older phones at the same time.
iOS major versions are usually released soon after the actual phone is released, so still another week or two to wait.
That rings a bell - thank you. :-)
The timer doesn't display for me. Is this happening with anyone else?
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Who wants to see the mac mini revived? ;)
Apple has a pattern before keynotes where they push out the less glamorous products. They keep them ready to go in the keynote in case something happens with a glamorous announcement they have filler. But when they are confident that they can announce the next iPhone, or whatever, they push out the minor rev of the iMac or whatever.
I'm worried. This is the machine I want to buy next. A modern mac mini would be ideal.
They should have shipped one early this year but didn't. That's ok, the mac pro took a lot of resources and is a major redesign.
So, then the next expected time is last week.
So, either the Mac Mini is significant enough to talk about today (with two phones and an alleged watch? that seems doubtful)... or it might be effectively cancelled.
I'm worried. This is the machine I want to buy next. A modern mac mini would be ideal.
They should have shipped one early this year but didn't. That's ok, the mac pro took a lot of resources and is a major redesign.
So, then the next expected time is last week.
So, either the Mac Mini is significant enough to talk about today (with two phones and an alleged watch? that seems doubtful)... or it might be effectively cancelled.
Or they decided to skip Haswell, and are now waiting on Broadwell, which is substantially delayed. I'd say a Mini early next year might be a good bet.
Seconded! I've been wanting to replace an older iMac with a mini for a some time now. The mini is in dire need of a refresh given that it's been since 2012 that the guts were updated and 2010 since the design was updated.
Me! I've been wanting to replace my Windows desktop machine for a year now, but I've been waiting for a refresh on the mac mini.
Why not get one of the many other mITX computers, or even an Intel NUC?
I use a macbook air all day for work. I built my windows box when I was doing .NET development, but I've long since switched to ruby -- ideally I'd like to have both running the same OS (which I guess could be a flavor of linux, but I'm too lazy for that).
Do you use to the mba without an external monitor and keyboard? I can seem to adjust to developing all day on laptop, thus wanting a mac mini upgrade.
Well, I share my desktop machine with my girlfriend. I could easily get by with a clean desk at home and just the MBA -- that said, it's not completely up to me. :)
Why don't you get a Hackintosh? Even old Acer Aspire netbooks can run OSX and there are plenty of tutorials online.
I'm getting older, so maybe my desires don't match up with the majority of tech people's anymore, but does anyone really want an iWatch (or whatever it ends up being called)? I am just not sold on the usefulness of such a thing.
Many moons ago I ran a research study for Microsoft on their SPOT watch initiative, and despite countless focus groups among many different consumer audiences, absolutely no one wanted a smart watch. Granted, their smart watch had some fairly large deficiencies due to the lack of mobile tech infrastructure available at the time.
I'm very intrigued to see if Apple can pull it off...
I'm very intrigued to see if Apple can pull it off...
That's the weird thing about fashion, which is precisely what this is. If Apple can make this thing fashionable so that people want to show it off, it will take off.
It's incredibly hard to predict whether they will succeed or not (although after the fact most people will say what happened was incredibly obvious beforehand). They'll bomb or they'll take off.
It's incredibly hard to predict whether they will succeed or not (although after the fact most people will say what happened was incredibly obvious beforehand). They'll bomb or they'll take off.
I didn't see the point of the iPhone or the iPad before they announced them. I haven't worn a watch for 20 years... but if they do announce a watch (I expect it will be a wearable more than a watch) I bet I will buy it.
Because I don't think they'd make it if it weren't worth making. Apple has never tried to create a new category when they didn't have something substantial to offer.
Because I don't think they'd make it if it weren't worth making. Apple has never tried to create a new category when they didn't have something substantial to offer.
My goodness you have a short memory.
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-old-apple-products-that-to...
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-old-apple-products-that-to...
Any newer entries? Post-iPhone, Apple (i.e., not Apple Computer) has been a very focused company.
There was an interesting presentation that Tim Cook gave where he said that every product Apple currently sold being was on a single table in front of him at the presentation - can't find the link now.
There was an interesting presentation that Tim Cook gave where he said that every product Apple currently sold being was on a single table in front of him at the presentation - can't find the link now.
I think there's going to be some sort of breakthrough using it as an authentication device. Possibly using heart rate as biometric identification combined with a clever universal challenge-response mechanism (using audio, maybe). That's my prediction. :)
People do not want a watch like the current crop of i-watches. They hope that Apple will create a watch the masses want to buy.
That's what the excitement is all about, either pro-Apple people that want to see Apple creating another iPhone/iPad/iPod market, or anti-apple that want another Apple TV to finally prove that Apple could not recover from Steve Jobs death.
Best of all, unlike monads, this is a topic everybody can have an opinion about, that's weeks worth of traffic guaranteed. Apple announcement themselves are valuable product for the media.
That's what the excitement is all about, either pro-Apple people that want to see Apple creating another iPhone/iPad/iPod market, or anti-apple that want another Apple TV to finally prove that Apple could not recover from Steve Jobs death.
Best of all, unlike monads, this is a topic everybody can have an opinion about, that's weeks worth of traffic guaranteed. Apple announcement themselves are valuable product for the media.
I didn't get the point of a watch either, then I started surfing and needed to know when to stop to make it to work on time :)
There is a whole market of people that want apps for running, surfing, and other things that are nice to have in wearable form, but cumbersome to use in a phone form factor--assuming the phone is even waterproof.
There is a whole market of people that want apps for running, surfing, and other things that are nice to have in wearable form, but cumbersome to use in a phone form factor--assuming the phone is even waterproof.
What about a regular watch? They are usually waterproof.
I too am skeptical, but I also felt the same way before the iPad announcement. So I will wait and see.
I'd love for it to be able to be an input device for macbook & imac. Something like the Leap Motion but worn on the wrist and auto linking with the nearest device.
I've worn an iPod nano watch for a couple years now. It's like min-maxing in an RPG: the wrist represents an extra equipment slot.
I am currently wearing an iPod Nano on my wrist using a wrist band that was designed for the nano. Yes I want an actual iWatch.
Personally, I'm not interested in an iWatch. I haven't looked at the specs, but I'm assuming the iphone connects to it. If it can notify meetings, texts, alerts, phone calls, etc. it might be really useful gadget for my wife when she is busy running behind kids around the house and at work.... bonus if it gave her an insight into how much energy she spent throughout the day, haha.
Yeah, if it can measure blood pressure, I want it.
iBeats smart headphones with voice-only UI. "Wish we could say more".
The video started for me a few minutes ago, anyone else notice that there seems to be two songs playing in the background at once?
I'm guessing that the mics are picking up the hall music, and some technician had instructions to play background music on the web feed.
Sounds right, I just heard a voice over the PA system.
Argh, yes...it's really unpleasant.
On the official stream?
http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/
http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/
Yup, seems a few people hear it as well.
Same here. It's very annoying.
Came here to ask if anyone else had that problem. The combination is really strange.
Yeah, it's quite bothersome. I've muted it until the show starts. Interestingly though, they seem to be playing a Tycho album in the background.
seventeen songs at once are playing
why am i getting bars
Anyone else seeing the TV Truck schedule instead of the keynote right now?
10:07 and still black bars. Idiots.
Edit- Getting it now, but I'm hearing a translator talking under Cook. Get it together.
Edit2 - stream keeps cutting out. Disaster.
Edit3 - Access Denied. And we're done.
Edit- Getting it now, but I'm hearing a translator talking under Cook. Get it together.
Edit2 - stream keeps cutting out. Disaster.
Edit3 - Access Denied. And we're done.
Yea maybe they shouldn't overly promote a stream (homepage redirect? WTF) if they can't scale it at all
Laughing out loud here because this was exactly my internal dialog as I tried to tune in. You nailed it -- Apple definitely did not.
Pretty embarrassing for the largest tech company in the world...
Someone will get fired over this.
Yes. And then there was 1 minute of the keynote shown with perhaps Chinese dubbing. Tim Cook has never sounded that feminine before.
I was. I refreshed and it got me the keynote, but with the audio for multiple languages at once (maybe the same root cause as the multiple songs on the TV truck screen), so I refreshed again. Now I'm back to the TV Truck schedule.
My guess is they underestimated the number of viewers and didn't have enough bandwidth prepared.
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Yeah, this is only the like second or third of these they've ever done, right? /sarcasm
Yeah, someone is about to be in trouble
Edit: Now getting "Access Denied" on http://www.apple.com/live
Edit: Now getting "Access Denied" on http://www.apple.com/live
yes. wow, they fucked it up!
The Twitter feed at the bottom says "It's showtime" but I'm just seeing the color bars and truck schedule, too.
press pause and then live
Now I hear live translation along side the speaker. Awesome.
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server.
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That, then video in multiple languages, then nothing, now:
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.1e111cb8.1410283041.b76d50
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.1e111cb8.1410283041.b76d50
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Switched to a crappy pre-recorded ad briefly, now back to the bars :(
I am. Music is still playing in the background.
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Yes, No idea why.
Yes. :/
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Restricting this to Safari only? Fuck you Apple. I'm on a god damned Macbook.
I hope this isn't a sign of things to come, they really seem to be clamping down on third-party competitors on their platforms.
I'm not even sure what the strategical advantage of limiting the stream in the first place. People who can't access it still want information about Apple, and often resort to 3rd party blogs, or someone else streaming the stream. I understand why apple has a closed door stance on technology, but limiting people from participating in a live event about Apple seems foolish and with no obvious benefit
Reduce server load?
It uses Apple HTTP-LiveStream library which only Safari has support for (even though its opensource and unencumbered)... It has little to do with lock in
VLC on Windows plays it fine from the direct stream.
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
EDIT:
I shouldn't say fine, the stream keeps dropping out completely or just has audio. But I think even the Safari people are having that problem.
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
EDIT:
I shouldn't say fine, the stream keeps dropping out completely or just has audio. But I think even the Safari people are having that problem.
Thanks, that should be the top comment! :)
Aaand japanese translations ???
It sounds like Chinese to me.
It sounds more like Chinese.
anyone else getting access denied?
Anyone hearing Chinese commentary?
Yeah I am. This stream is also super low quality… what is going on?
Yup
Solid black screen for me. Now, I have video, but why in gods name is there a Chinese translation?
Wow, this is an utter failure. Now video is skipping around.
Wow, this is an utter failure. Now video is skipping around.
getting translators for...mandarin? korean? over the sound of tim cook...
Is anyone else getting Chinese crosstalk on the audio?
Yes it's incredibly distracting.
Well someone's going to get fired after this is over. What complete shambles so far.
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OUCH! This is on a MacBook Pro running Safari:
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/" on this server.
Reference #18.342f0660.1410282543.baf7bd
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/" on this server.
Reference #18.342f0660.1410282543.baf7bd
"Sorry, your browser doesn’t support our live video stream."
My browser supports live video just fine. It's -your- streaming software that lacks support for my browser.
This illustrates why I never have, and never will own a Apple product.
My browser supports live video just fine. It's -your- streaming software that lacks support for my browser.
This illustrates why I never have, and never will own a Apple product.
As far as live feeds go, this is one of the biggest screwups I've ever seen.
Wow they seriously messed this one up.
WOW their streaming choices here have made me loose another notch of respect for apple WTF, safari only? This is 2014 apple grow up.
This has always been the case. Either setup VLC so http live streaming (which is JUST a m3u playlist of mp4 files that get downloaded in succession) or install safari.
now no audio?
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Can anyone see this right now? My video is seriously messed up. I have both VLC and Safari running the stream. It's freezing, jumping around from the iPhone 6 release back to the beginning video. The audio is a combination of glitches, Chinese, and skipping english.
Yes apple, I want to buy your products! Why? Well, because you showed such engineering prowess with your streaming service, that I am sure you know what you're doing!
whats up with the Chinese translations?
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Apple's web site has a curated set of "live" posts giving details. http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/
These highlights (with pictures) are coming in real-time and save the bother of trying to watch video.
Lessons so far: fragmentation is only bad when it's a criticism you can apply to other people.
EDIT: Additionally, losing Steve Jobs really was as damaging as many feared then.
EDIT: Additionally, losing Steve Jobs really was as damaging as many feared then.
Get it together, jeesh.
First no video, then constant mixing between the TV Truck schedule, a video of the crowd, a video of the presentation screen showing the apple logo, a message showing apple copyright.
Refreshed a few times, got 'access denied to server' page a few times. Then got video with Chinese translations talking over the presenter. Then it suddenly stopped, I pressed 'resume' to get the TV truck schedule again.
On an iPad.
Refreshed a few times, got 'access denied to server' page a few times. Then got video with Chinese translations talking over the presenter. Then it suddenly stopped, I pressed 'resume' to get the TV truck schedule again.
On an iPad.
A whole bunch of people don't have a job in the morning.
I dont normally agree with these kind of things but honestly this time they deserve it. If this event ( and iWatch ) is really that important ( for Apple ) then this is the biggest screw up ever. Thousands ( possibly millions ) of People waiting and hoping to share the moment together and watching it live and be disappointed.
This is the worst user experience ever.
This is the worst user experience ever.
And you really think people should lose their jobs over this? What's wrong with you?
You really don't? And you're trying to take some form of moral high ground over it?
The stream was a disaster and tarnishes the entire announcement, whose image is priceless to Apple. The jobs of the people responsible are in no way worth more to Apple than the damage done by said people.
The stream was a disaster and tarnishes the entire announcement, whose image is priceless to Apple. The jobs of the people responsible are in no way worth more to Apple than the damage done by said people.
I've tried the page from my iPad and my TV set which interestingly also has the user agent as Safari. The page makes both crash.
I've always believed that Google making their pages crash iPad's Safari can have benefits, but obviously the web developers who produced the Live page used only Safari on their big computers and never tested them enough on the iPads. That alone is really unacceptable execution.
The reasons the servers got under bigger pressure was obviously the wrong decision to have the video content page and the live picture and text updating resource and script hungry page as one and the same. The browsers of the viewers crashed, they attempted to view again, producing much more load to the servers than it would be if these unfortunate decisions (everything on the one page) haven't been made.
Independently, the stream was obviously botched at the source. It seems all parts of the world got the same Chinese translated pieces and the truck signals.
There were more smaller disasters there making one big.
I've always believed that Google making their pages crash iPad's Safari can have benefits, but obviously the web developers who produced the Live page used only Safari on their big computers and never tested them enough on the iPads. That alone is really unacceptable execution.
The reasons the servers got under bigger pressure was obviously the wrong decision to have the video content page and the live picture and text updating resource and script hungry page as one and the same. The browsers of the viewers crashed, they attempted to view again, producing much more load to the servers than it would be if these unfortunate decisions (everything on the one page) haven't been made.
Independently, the stream was obviously botched at the source. It seems all parts of the world got the same Chinese translated pieces and the truck signals.
There were more smaller disasters there making one big.
Well, that's sort of how business works, isn't it? I mean, they didn't just pick a few random techs and say "make this happen", they have people whose very job is the technology involved in making this thing happen. If someone demonstrates they fundamentally can't do their job, do you keep them on the payroll or do you find someone else who can get the job done?
I am sure they are the best for such jobs in the future - they won't screw up next time :)
i'm not sure why you're being downvoted. I sense a lot of trigger happy fanboys in this thread.
your point is totally valid. the odds these guys screw up again like this seem slim. especially if they were to lose their job over it.
your point is totally valid. the odds these guys screw up again like this seem slim. especially if they were to lose their job over it.
Anyone who screwed up like this in the world of broadcast television would certainly be fired. I am actually etremely impressed by the new products (in a way I didn't expect to be), but this webcast failure tarnishes the launch and will directly impact their bottom line in the short term.
You have got to be kidding. The viewers of the livestream are already Apple fanboys who are going to buy all this crap anyways.
Everyone else is just going to see it on Engadget, Gizmodo, Fox News, or wherever.
This will not impact their bottom line one bit.
Everyone else is just going to see it on Engadget, Gizmodo, Fox News, or wherever.
This will not impact their bottom line one bit.
It gives the press an unflattering story to run with besides "OMG new shiny", diluating Apple's carefully prepared marketing push. That's why it has impact beyond just Apple fans.
so you've never worked on or anywhere near a live production. am I right?
Responsibility.
From the prep of this whole thing, with redirecting apple.com to apple.com/live, I felt it was intended to replicate Steve Jobs's reality distortion field. "If we are going this far out, it must be huge!"
Ironically it's showing very clearly that the field has discorporated.
Ironically it's showing very clearly that the field has discorporated.
Not everything is about Steve Jobs. There were plenty of tech glitches in his keynotes, including with the live stream (when they rarely did one).
They should've used Google Hangouts on Air :P
Or, we had lunch
Or maybe a whole bunch of people don't live in the same time zone as you.
??? I think the parent's implication is that people will lose their jobs tomorrow morning, because of today's poor production.
Okay, I might have misread. From where I come from, when people watch something, say en Apple show, instead of working we say "some don't have work". That's what I misunderstood. I also assumed (wrongly ? I haven't checked) it was in California which meant it was morning already.
The parents say "don't" not "will not". Even though there are trouble I very much doubt people are fired on the spot, they're too busy fixing it. But sure, some might. Later, in the future.
Anyway, the comment was out of line an the downvotes deserves.
The parents say "don't" not "will not". Even though there are trouble I very much doubt people are fired on the spot, they're too busy fixing it. But sure, some might. Later, in the future.
Anyway, the comment was out of line an the downvotes deserves.
Magical, with a touch of whimsy.
It's not only the live stream which doesn't work, it's Apple's website too with a constant "Access Denied".
Yup, I got sick of it and just closed out Safari. Back to work I guess.
It seems to have improved by this point. No more ultra-loud dubbing or TV truck schedules.
But it freezes randomly, only thing I can do to fix it is reload the page, and 9 out of 10 times the page loads half-assed or there's no video at all.
Yeah, I spoke too soon. My stream has completely dropped out now, I'm not sure what's going on.
".. and we want to get rid of this .. " cut to apple logo " .so weve decided .. " apple logo * snippet of apple ad * ".. so there you have it!.. " -access denied-
MacRumors.com is intermittently going out. Jesus. You'd think after umpteenth Apple keynotes they'd have this sorted out. It's not like it's their first rodeo.
What I'm missing in this sub-thread is guesses as to what went wrong. The video quality of all past Apple events I've watched where border line perfect, and I've seen quite a lot of them! Any ideas?
Same here, really annoying.
And who says Apple can't do web services?
It has been a very special event, indeed...
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Same here
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Tim Cook's leadership right there. Jobs would never have tolerated this crap. Come on Apple live up to your hype.
Jobs led them to do it right in the first place. Quality does not happen after the fact.
That's exactly what I meant... Jobs would have made them stress test that system before the event so this does not happen. The most popular company in the world that creates the incredible hype for its events should have made sure the system worked unless they wanted some to feel left out thus igniting jealous resentment.
The majority of past Apple live-streams have had problems, though this one was perhaps one of the worst. It's less an issue of Jobs-era vs. post-Jobs-era, and more to do with Apple's culture of control being at odds with the complexities of network scalability. (They should really just outsource it to YouTube.)
The HTML summaries on apple.com were a nice touch, though, which softened the blow.
The HTML summaries on apple.com were a nice touch, though, which softened the blow.
Yeah, it's not like Jobs would have ever held an iPhone incorrectly totally screwing up his own presentation.
Dude is buried: let the dead lay dead.
Dude is buried: let the dead lay dead.
Does anyone know whose network is delivering the streams? Is it Akamai?
So the smart money is on:
- iWatch with less features, possibly just tracks your every move and becomes part of quantified self
- a new record label or Dre inspired mood
- two new iPhones
Possibly some or all put back till they are perfect.
Is this a correct reading of what has to be a record 150 HN posts in five minutes flat?
- iWatch with less features, possibly just tracks your every move and becomes part of quantified self
- a new record label or Dre inspired mood
- two new iPhones
Possibly some or all put back till they are perfect.
Is this a correct reading of what has to be a record 150 HN posts in five minutes flat?
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I'm getting
"You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.520fd717.1410283069.16b78ac2"
How come?
"You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.520fd717.1410283069.16b78ac2"
How come?
Getting 'Access Denied' now
I'm watching it using VLC. Media > Open Network Stream... > Paste this link:
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
Works just as bad. Actually managed to crash VLC somehow.
Ahh thank you! Now i can watch it on my laptop, and it doesn't cut out every 2 minutes
This works for me! Safari still shows an error.
me too. It drops out every now and again.. I close VLC and re-do the whole thing and it comes good again.
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This works for me too!
[deleted]
Right now i'm at:
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.2d2f0660.1410283131.13b065e3
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/live/2014-sept-event/" on this server. Reference #18.2d2f0660.1410283131.13b065e3
Right now there's no even access to apple.com
WTF per minute world record just got smashed to peaces
For those not able to see the video, text updates [here](http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2fwmcl/apple_special_...)
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I like working and having the text feed. I use:
http://www.macrumors.com/ feed of the event. It autorefreshes which is nice.
http://www.macrumors.com/ feed of the event. It autorefreshes which is nice.
The live stream is a disaster. Anyone experiences a homepaga crash?
The new iPhone 6000 SUX. Big is back! Because Bigger is Better! (c.f. robocop)
Maybe you all are too young to remember the 6000 SUX.
So I have to double click the home button to reach the top of the screen?!
The translation voiceover is pretty distracting.
Not sure what Apple is trying to do.
Not sure what Apple is trying to do.
Little onions love to disco. With Chinese translations. And the TV Truck. Maybe they have an augmented reality product coming? Bringing back the rainbow logo? This is terrible.
Yay! The Chinese translation has stopped!! It took only 26 minutes to achieve this.
I hope someone gets fired for these goofs. I expected better from Apple.
I hope someone gets fired for these goofs. I expected better from Apple.
I wonder if they started working on the bigger iPhones while airing this ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk
The new "reachability" feature is an interesting way to try to minimize the problem though, if a little cumbersome.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY4c2mh15Yk
The new "reachability" feature is an interesting way to try to minimize the problem though, if a little cumbersome.
Direct stream for VLC:
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
http://p.events-delivery.apple.com.edgesuite.net/14pijnadfpv...
quite a disgrace for a tech company of this size: either a black screen, an access denied error, stalling stream with a chinese (?) voice over…
but hey, the iphone 6 has rounded corners! B|
but hey, the iphone 6 has rounded corners! B|
Streaming seems to be better from the iPad than the Mac... weird
I'm getting an access denied page trying to refresh the stream
Summary:
2 new iPhone models: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. iPhone 6 is 4.7", iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5". Power button on right side. A8 chip - 13% smaller chip, 25% faster CPU, 50% faster GPU, 50% more energy efficient than A7. Battery a little better on the iPhone 6; iPhone 6 Plus has amazing battery life. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) - make calls over LTE internet instead of using minutes. Camera is still 8MP...
YouTube video stream is working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxCbIjAg6mg
2 new iPhone models: iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. iPhone 6 is 4.7", iPhone 6 Plus is 5.5". Power button on right side. A8 chip - 13% smaller chip, 25% faster CPU, 50% faster GPU, 50% more energy efficient than A7. Battery a little better on the iPhone 6; iPhone 6 Plus has amazing battery life. VoLTE (Voice over LTE) - make calls over LTE internet instead of using minutes. Camera is still 8MP...
YouTube video stream is working: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxCbIjAg6mg
> VoLTE (Voice over LTE) - make calls over LTE internet instead of using minutes.
That's would have been a killer feature if it had occurred when smartphones were new enough that providers were selling plans with limited call minutes and unlimited data, but now that virtually every carrier has smartphone plans that are unlimited phone minutes/unlimited text and limited data with surcharges for data overages, who is looking to move from using voice minutes to using data?
That's would have been a killer feature if it had occurred when smartphones were new enough that providers were selling plans with limited call minutes and unlimited data, but now that virtually every carrier has smartphone plans that are unlimited phone minutes/unlimited text and limited data with surcharges for data overages, who is looking to move from using voice minutes to using data?
who is looking to move from using voice minutes to using data?
The carriers. VoLTE is the way to do Voice+Data with a single connection saving power and finally unifying the GSM and CDMA worlds[1]. This could be the first iPhone that can be used in both AT&T/TMobile and Verizon/Sprint in LTE enabled areas. It could also allow mainstream use of Wifi for voice calls like Republic Wireless does[2]. Add something like Multipath TCP[3] and you could even do seamless switching between Wifi and LTE depending on availability/performance.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_(telecommunication)#Voice_...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Wireless
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath_TCP
The carriers. VoLTE is the way to do Voice+Data with a single connection saving power and finally unifying the GSM and CDMA worlds[1]. This could be the first iPhone that can be used in both AT&T/TMobile and Verizon/Sprint in LTE enabled areas. It could also allow mainstream use of Wifi for voice calls like Republic Wireless does[2]. Add something like Multipath TCP[3] and you could even do seamless switching between Wifi and LTE depending on availability/performance.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTE_(telecommunication)#Voice_...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_Wireless
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multipath_TCP
Also ironic as 4G (ala LTE) standard has VOIP routing for calls you make unlike 3G which uses a separate voice channel.
So if you can not make a call upon LTE normally out of your call minutes then you won't be able to make a call over VoLTE as they call it as it will just route from your device to the telco provder in the same way as currently and maybe less QoS tagging, so be supprised if there was any situation were making a pure VOIP call will be better than using normal call minutes.
Now as many say all packages tend to have more than enough voice and SMS included quota and tend not to have unlimited data.
Now for WIFI based calls with no or poor signal then this would be useful, also for long distance calls, which will probably not be included in that huge minute call bundle.
So given all that for most it will be a novel feature they will not use, but for those making calls that do not fall within their calling plan, then this may be useful.
Of note I was aware of VOIP over wifi being a feature in some phones (Blackberry and Nokia) over 10 years ago; But alas the carriers back then blocked such features from coming to the market. Nowadays carriers have changed and that may be in part how Apple initially pushed there devices onto the market allowing more clout and the fact such features will be more standard is only a good thing. Albeit for most they will be a feature they will not use.
So if you can not make a call upon LTE normally out of your call minutes then you won't be able to make a call over VoLTE as they call it as it will just route from your device to the telco provder in the same way as currently and maybe less QoS tagging, so be supprised if there was any situation were making a pure VOIP call will be better than using normal call minutes.
Now as many say all packages tend to have more than enough voice and SMS included quota and tend not to have unlimited data.
Now for WIFI based calls with no or poor signal then this would be useful, also for long distance calls, which will probably not be included in that huge minute call bundle.
So given all that for most it will be a novel feature they will not use, but for those making calls that do not fall within their calling plan, then this may be useful.
Of note I was aware of VOIP over wifi being a feature in some phones (Blackberry and Nokia) over 10 years ago; But alas the carriers back then blocked such features from coming to the market. Nowadays carriers have changed and that may be in part how Apple initially pushed there devices onto the market allowing more clout and the fact such features will be more standard is only a good thing. Albeit for most they will be a feature they will not use.
Really depends on how carriers choose to meter usage -- without knowing anything else about VoLTE, my guess is that voice data won't count against your cap, similar to how data from $CableCo_Video_Streaming_Service doesn't count against your cap.
Yes, this is Net Neutrality fodder.
Yes, this is Net Neutrality fodder.
VoLTE is all-IP, but it is not an "OTT" technology. It's "carrier SIP for your phone number." At best, it could deliver higher voice quality between compatible endpoints. But it hasn't taken off because the advantages are mostly theoretical.
Being a carrier voice product, it probably will not have any advantages over other carrier voice products, e.g. international calls will still be the same price, etc.
Being a carrier voice product, it probably will not have any advantages over other carrier voice products, e.g. international calls will still be the same price, etc.
IIRC, T-Mobile lets you use Wi-Fi calling on Android to make calls abroad for free. Now it's available on iOS. Really useful for travelers.
Though if you're on TMobile, you get roaming calls for $.20 a minute - now this seems like a lot, but we just spent 2.5 weeks in France, and our total bill for both phones using the data/voice/message roaming was like $40 (all voice, data and messages were free). We made lots of calls - and the local ones were charged at the non-usurious rate above. I pay nothing monthly for this perk and I didn't have to swap sims or anything like that.
Our least expensive portion of the trip and historically the most frustrating (well aside from the autoroute tolls that don't accept US credit cards).
Our least expensive portion of the trip and historically the most frustrating (well aside from the autoroute tolls that don't accept US credit cards).
Yeah, it's not terrible, but $6 for a half-hour conversation every few days will drain your coffer pretty quickly. I would have loved to have Wi-Fi calling at the start of my latest trip. (Now I just use Google Hangouts with my old cell # transferred to Google Voice. Hooray for free Wi-Fi calling!)
This could be a significant feature if one can make international calls for free.
I doubt VoLTE will make any practical difference in day-to-day usage, unless carriers allow customers to default to a custom SIP/IMS registrar -- which won't happen for a long time. Calls (signaling) are still routed through the carrier[1], and your carrier still has to interconnect with the other end. While most backbones have been all-IP for a long time, the copper/cellular last mile is still mostly circuit-switched, even more so internationally.
[1] I'd be very surprised if VoLTE traffic, including media, was sent over the public Internet at the same QoS as the rest of your data. Voice-over-LTE is a nice technical achievement -- IIRC reliability was very difficult to ensure, especially during 3G/2G handoff -- but to consumers, VoLTE means nothing.
[1] I'd be very surprised if VoLTE traffic, including media, was sent over the public Internet at the same QoS as the rest of your data. Voice-over-LTE is a nice technical achievement -- IIRC reliability was very difficult to ensure, especially during 3G/2G handoff -- but to consumers, VoLTE means nothing.
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This is a feature for the carriers, not users. It allows Verizon (and sprint?) to finally mothball their odd voice network over time.
I can't watch any of the video (using Chrome) so I'm just watching the live updates on the website instead with bullet points...which is apparently a lot more useful than the video feed. 200 comments and nobody is discussing the technology, what a shame after all that build-up.
Anyway the new iPhone looks more like a Samsung in terms of size, screen resolution etc. but presumably with a significant Apple technical edge. It seems like a really beautiful product, and I say that as someone who doesn't care for Apple's stuff in general.
I'm sad that the launch of multiple new products is being overshadowed by the clusterfuck of the presentation, but it's a great example of execution > ideas that will probably be taught in business schools for years to come :-/
Anyway the new iPhone looks more like a Samsung in terms of size, screen resolution etc. but presumably with a significant Apple technical edge. It seems like a really beautiful product, and I say that as someone who doesn't care for Apple's stuff in general.
I'm sad that the launch of multiple new products is being overshadowed by the clusterfuck of the presentation, but it's a great example of execution > ideas that will probably be taught in business schools for years to come :-/
The hardware decisions of the iPhone 6 (and especially 6 plus) closely follow what Android manufacturers have been doing for years.
Mostly but not quite. The iPhone 6 is still low res (720p-ish) compared to top tier Android phones (Galaxy S4 from last year is 1080p). The only HD iPhone is the iPhone 6 Plus, but that starts at $750.
Oh good, charts with no Y axis. How informative.
http://i.imgur.com/4UZk0MH.png
http://i.imgur.com/4UZk0MH.png
I like how there is a trend line that interpolates between different iphone generations. That's probably meaningful somehow.
Now redirecting directly to cdn (akamai) at http://www.apple.com.edgesuite.net/live/2014-sept-event/
Gizmodo's live blog here has been working well for me:
http://live.gizmodo.com/our-new-iphone-liveblog-starts-right...
How much will an unlocked version be of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+? If you buy full price from Tmobile.
Pretty sad, on my iPad I had it for a while first with the Chinese translation and then that faded out, then the video stopped but the 'live blog' updates kept going, and then Safari crashed. And now three versions: access denied, a plain text non-stylized page, safari crash.
Amazing that this isn't a solved problem by now.
Amazing that this isn't a solved problem by now.
The livestream of this event, both browser and Apple TV access, is an unmitigated disaster. I'm not sure I've ever seen something go this poorly, and I'm certain I've never seen an Apple event go this poorly.
ApplePay: I do this every day and have been doing this every day for the last year with my Android phone in Australia!
edit Admittedly the integration of all different types of cards with Passbook is good stuff!
edit Admittedly the integration of all different types of cards with Passbook is good stuff!
I have as well in the US.
It's almost disingenuous for apple to make it sound like this is such new technology...
But I'm not going to complain, now that apple has nfc payments retailer adoption is going to go up so that's a good thing for everyone.
It's almost disingenuous for apple to make it sound like this is such new technology...
But I'm not going to complain, now that apple has nfc payments retailer adoption is going to go up so that's a good thing for everyone.
When a technology is implemented in a way that adheres to a certain standard of quality that leads to widespread adoption, to consumers it might as well be new technology.
Yeah, because Verifone's extant NFC readers definitely aren't standardized at all and haven't worked for years, with wide enough adoption that Whole Foods, Circle K, and fast food chains have them already. Everyone's just waiting for Apple to come along with the "standard of quality".
You snark, but this has happened time and time again. It's a perception thing.
ApplePay seems to be doing things that others have basically done before, but doing it right in some important ways (credential on phone is for phone only, Apple doesn't get info on what you're buying), and I hope others follow suit.
Apple doesn't get info on what you're buying...
and I hope others follow suit.
Apple not having the data isn't dramatically more important than others not having the data, but having the data in fewer places is better for privacy (and the security thereof) and if "others follow suit" then they will start to not have that data. That said, Apple not having the data is more important than some players not having the data - there's more power in the consolidation of more kinds of data, and in a more complete picture of each kind of data, than in any individual datum in isolation - Apple touches large swathes of the lives of Apple users.
That's very disingenuous. Amazon, PayPal and Google rely on selling your data and selling you products based on your data to make money. Visa, Mastercard and Amex mostly rely on transaction processing fees, and make extra money on the data processing in a very limited way.
What Apple are doing is removing the middleman, purely making this about transactions, not data. This means they're avoiding selling private information as a revenue stream.
This affects you, it causes a filter bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble and means you're effectively less free to make a truly informed decision.
So not sharing your private information by default, is fundamental to your freedom. That's why we should all care, and why this is a great decision by Apple.
What Apple are doing is removing the middleman, purely making this about transactions, not data. This means they're avoiding selling private information as a revenue stream.
This affects you, it causes a filter bubble http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filter_bubble and means you're effectively less free to make a truly informed decision.
So not sharing your private information by default, is fundamental to your freedom. That's why we should all care, and why this is a great decision by Apple.
It's not that I don't care about this; it's that Apple is doing this cynically and for short term gain, not for substantial benefit. If they care about this as more than a marketing ploy, they would have set up an organization to set policies and to verify adherence. That would have been awesome.
"blah blah blah, and we don't store your financial information or transaction history. That's easy to say, but the pendulum has swung too far away from protecting our rights as consumers, so today we're doing more than that; we're announcing the Financial Information Security Organization and we're inviting companies to join us in making sure that all of our financial information is secure."
"blah blah blah, and we don't store your financial information or transaction history. That's easy to say, but the pendulum has swung too far away from protecting our rights as consumers, so today we're doing more than that; we're announcing the Financial Information Security Organization and we're inviting companies to join us in making sure that all of our financial information is secure."
While I share your intentions, as a practical measure, I doubt Apple could have dictated those terms to their financial partners. Have you ever tried dictating terms to a bank?
De-facto useless organizations like your FISO example with not enough players on board to start with are just lip service. Essentially you're arguing that Apple should be doing the governments job...
De-facto useless organizations like your FISO example with not enough players on board to start with are just lip service. Essentially you're arguing that Apple should be doing the governments job...
I doubt Apple could have dictated those terms to their financial partners.
Have you ever tried dictating terms to a bank?
De-facto useless organizations like your FISO example
I'm suggesting something along the lines of BrainTree's data portability organization (http://www.portabilitystandard.org/). Apple should be able to get a raft of players on board for something along those lines. If not, my original point stands: Apple was making a useless gesture.
Exactly. I do it in the US with Google Wallet + NFC chip in my phone.
It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology.
Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone
It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology.
Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone
> It's very surreal to see all the fanboys lose their shit in the audience as if this is a brand new technology.
That's pretty disingenuous. Everyone knows NFC exists, they're probably just happy it's finally coming to their platform of choice.
> Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone
You can!
That's pretty disingenuous. Everyone knows NFC exists, they're probably just happy it's finally coming to their platform of choice.
> Edit: Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone
You can!
> Would have been nice if you could pay with the Watch instead of pulling out the phone
You can.
You can.
Sure, and there were MP3 players for years before iPod
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The big win here will be increased adoption of NFC: Apple is going to drive the hell out of it, and it's going to benefit everyone.
There's nothing left to "drive." NFC is here and has been here quite a while.
My camera supports NFC, my WiFi router supports NFC (useless though), my laptop has NFC, tons of payment providers do NFC, my LG washing machine has NFC (seriously), and on and on.
Apple is stupid late to the NFC party. NFC is here, and it is already super-popular. They cannot drive anything, they can just follow along.
My camera supports NFC, my WiFi router supports NFC (useless though), my laptop has NFC, tons of payment providers do NFC, my LG washing machine has NFC (seriously), and on and on.
Apple is stupid late to the NFC party. NFC is here, and it is already super-popular. They cannot drive anything, they can just follow along.
Roughly 2% of the payments in the US are completed with NFC.
I wouldn't say it's "super-popular".
I wouldn't say it's "super-popular".
Will the new Apple devices support general access to NFC, or will it be locked up for payments only?
In Android, NFC is generally available to developers, but Apple may not want that, given their tradition of hiding complexity and choices from users.
In Android, NFC is generally available to developers, but Apple may not want that, given their tradition of hiding complexity and choices from users.
If apple really wanted to do something "revolutionary" you think they'd add cryptocurrency support to ApplePay.
They're no longer blocking Bitcoin wallets, and with the forthcoming APIs regarding payments and touch IDs, this could be a "third party opportunity": you pay with crypto, and the merchant receives dollars, with some arbitrary payment processor in between.
Reddit live link https://www.reddit.com/live/tjm08vw836vc
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tl;dr: they made a bigger phone and a watch
did anyone catch if apple devices can do peer-to-peer payments via apple pay? (e.g., one phone acting as a reader, à la square, another as payer)
Is it just me or the iWatch "looks" really ugly, at least when compared with Moto 360 which looks beautiful.
iWatch may win out on functionality and user experience etc., but it just looks funky.
There is something really weird to me about Apple arriving at almost the same overall design as Samsung after Samsung:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--L8XBEzVA...
http://cdn4.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//art/Watches/Samsung...
Especially with the Moto 360 already out there and the LG G Watch R coming later this year:
http://mashable.com/2014/09/08/lg-g-watch-r-hands-on/
Also very conspicuous that Apple made no mention of battery life, which is the achilles heel of all the current Android Wear devices.
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--L8XBEzVA...
http://cdn4.mos.techradar.futurecdn.net//art/Watches/Samsung...
Especially with the Moto 360 already out there and the LG G Watch R coming later this year:
http://mashable.com/2014/09/08/lg-g-watch-r-hands-on/
Also very conspicuous that Apple made no mention of battery life, which is the achilles heel of all the current Android Wear devices.
I was about to comment the exact same thing. Perhaps it looks better in person, but honestly I find it weirdly jarring and just wrong --I never thought I would feel such distaste for a millennial Apple device. It's a shame: if it looked like the Moto 360 (except with a fully-round screen), it would have been quite something...
But then de gustibus non est disputandum, so please don't flame me if you disagree!
(PD: Also it requires an iPhone to work at all?!?? Really?? That's just sad...)
But then de gustibus non est disputandum, so please don't flame me if you disagree!
(PD: Also it requires an iPhone to work at all?!?? Really?? That's just sad...)
Maybe Motorola beat Apple to the PTO with a design patent for a circle.
The crazy part is the Gold 'Edition' Version. It's not like a Swiss watch, which is sold to be passed on to new generations, since your children won't be happy to get such outdated tech. What will they do with old Gold versions? Smelt them?
Regarding the watch to be 'passed on to new generations', this is well worth reading:
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/11/luxury_branding_the_f...
http://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2011/11/luxury_branding_the_f...
Maybe, actually. Return your old gold watch when you upgrade, and get some credit toward the new one. I think they already do this with other Apple devices.
https://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/
https://www.apple.com/recycling/gift-card/
It's about short term profits to cash in on the hype. I wouldn't be surprised several iterations of the Apple Watch down the line when they abandon the gold edition altogether once the novelty of the product decreases and stays constant.
makes perfect sense to me. People wear watches these days for 1. fashion 2. status symbol (see omega, longines etc)
this just covers the status symbol portion of the market
this just covers the status symbol portion of the market
Doesn't matter. Before we know every other person will now wear a watch.
I had this cynical feel to practically every Apple product released in the past. This time I am resigned to it.
I had this cynical feel to practically every Apple product released in the past. This time I am resigned to it.
iWatch may win out on functionality and user experience etc.,
but it just looks funky.
I agree about the Moto-360: whatever its faults, it looks nice. I understand that the watch on my wrist right now is round because of the sweep of the dials, but it's also pleasant looking. What I find exciting about the Android side of the equation is that [in a couple of years] we'll probably have a crazy range of watches from which to select. Grab a Tag Heuer Android watch with replaceable innards or maybe a few cheap Fossils for variety.
> a Tag Heuer Android watch with replaceable innards
Yeah I definitely do want that. Would pay in the $1K range for a Tag quartz, if they could somehow keep an automatic movement in there...
Can't wait to see what happens when the watch companies adopt tech rather than the tech companies adopting watches.
Yeah I definitely do want that. Would pay in the $1K range for a Tag quartz, if they could somehow keep an automatic movement in there...
Can't wait to see what happens when the watch companies adopt tech rather than the tech companies adopting watches.
Yeah — I usually agree with Gruber, but I think round is just a better shape for something that's meant to be worn. Jewelry is generally round as well.
I have seen it through a techcrunch tweet with capital "it's beautiful". When the picture of the iwatch showed up I was shocked. Never expected such an ugly design.
I agree. I think the appearance of the watch is more important than the UX. You might interact with it for 10 minutes out of a day, but it'll be on your wrist for the whole day. The utility of the watch has long passed from telling the time to being a fashion accessory.
Does not look good to me, looks a bit like the first-gen iPhone.
I'll probably wait to see what they release next year.
I'll probably wait to see what they release next year.
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Are the top comments really about the livestream problems and not about what they released? http://www.theverge.com/2014/9/9/6125873/apple-watch-smartwa...
well yes, this thread was / is actually about that…
Off by 1 error in the new Fitness app. Apparently you can be 101% done with a run.
Question that I didn't hear addressed anywhere in the talk or online yet.
Will the NFC capability be exposed to third party apps through the SDK in any way?
I'm curious because they started talking about the apps for iWatch right after talking about its features, but they didn't discuss NFC in any other context but its use via Apple Pay.
What do you all think?
Will the NFC capability be exposed to third party apps through the SDK in any way?
I'm curious because they started talking about the apps for iWatch right after talking about its features, but they didn't discuss NFC in any other context but its use via Apple Pay.
What do you all think?
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I was really hoping the watch would be able to track gps for runs without needing an iphone. Am i supposed to wear the watch and then still have my iphone in my hand when I go for a run? Terrible user experience.
This site has the most and best comments on the disaster by Apple. I am a fan of Apple and use many of there products. To my disappointment I was not able to hear or watch any of the broadcast.
I agree with many of the comments...fire the bad guys!
People will get used to iPhone6 size, though many of iPhone5 users will feel like unfarily forgotten. I was betting on iPhone6 being same size as 5s and another on just a tad larger - I was wrong.
Apple Watch does not bring anything exceptional to wrist devices world, though overall functionality and UX is much better than those of Android. It's just an accessory for iPhone. One thing they got right - wristwatch is personal, so it should be able to be made look personal and different.
I can't say much about Apple Pay. Payments via iPhone look nice (fingerprint as authorization method) but paying via Watch just does not look very secure to me - how are you going to add that one factor? Also, it's another proprietary way of paying for stuff, which just does not feel right...
Apple Watch does not bring anything exceptional to wrist devices world, though overall functionality and UX is much better than those of Android. It's just an accessory for iPhone. One thing they got right - wristwatch is personal, so it should be able to be made look personal and different.
I can't say much about Apple Pay. Payments via iPhone look nice (fingerprint as authorization method) but paying via Watch just does not look very secure to me - how are you going to add that one factor? Also, it's another proprietary way of paying for stuff, which just does not feel right...
I was on IRC with other iOS developers viewing the streaming using Safari on Apple hardware with fully updated software all around (I know these people), in different parts of the US, people working at different companies, using different, very fast, geographically diverse networks, and all of us were seeing the same catastrophic problems at the same times: a mix of simultaneous multiple audio streams sometimes in sync, sometimes slightly out of sync, stopping and starting video, truck schedules for 5-10 seconds every minute or so, English over Chinese, audio temporarily resetting to beginning of stream while another track of audio continued at the current position superimposed over the let's-start-over audio, access denied errors, pause/continue buttons not working, refresh not working.. this went on for at least 40 full minutes as the problems started before the broadcast and didn't stop until after 30 minutes. And no, we were NOT madly hitting Refresh or pause/restart all the time, although we did try invoking them a few times and calmly waiting, usually to little avail.
I want to emphasize that when I saw a TV truck schedule on my screen in San Francisco, at that very same moment my buddies in other parts of the country started seeing the TV truck schedule on their screens as well. If we can say one thing for this broadcast, it is that the screwups were very well synchronized for many if not all viewers.
The mind boggles as to why the didn't have someone dedicated to be listening to a dog food channel of their own stream on a remote network, and report the problems back earlier, and whether they did or not, why they couldn't fix it sooner.