Got an iPad and its cool!

[heffneil]

Actually I got an iPad for the kids to watch movies and play around on. As I was watching and loading netflix for them I was really wishing for an iPad app for sagetv! That would be TOTALLY awesome. If anyone wants to make it and sell it I will be customer #1

Neil

[Fuzzy]

I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to whip up a flash based media player to run sage from.. oh wait.. nevermind..

[heffneil]

Sigh it is almost like having a sports car with three good wheels and one flat!

[Fuzzy]

Honestly, though it's been discussed here by users for many years, I don't expect a i-anything app from sage. It's simply not all that much demand, and a LOT of work, especially to get it actually approved. With Sage's stance on DRM, my bet is they are just as unlikely to use a platform where someone else has to approve their program.

There are apps like orb and such that can stream from your sage server. the navigation isn't perfect.. but I've been working on a solution to that (in my not enough spare time).

[heffneil]

I doubt it would be that hard to get it approved. There is a guy who built h@me for the omnipro home automation system and I have to figure it wasn't that hard!

There has been a lot of talk about the sling player on the ipad and I was thinking of using a slingbox with sage if I want to use it. I don't know if that will work I don't even own a slingbox. Any thoughts on sling?

If you look at the future of technology you have to take notice of the app store that apple developed and others are copying. It is a powerful paradigm and if you look at it, it could be an excellent source of adoption for sagetv in the mainstream market.

[Fuzzy]

I dind't say it would be HARD to approve, just that Sage didn't seem to like jumping through other's hoops...

As for others 'copying' the app store, sure they do.. but others don't put so many restrictions on it... the Android Market is free for pletty much anything...

Also, you could say that everyone is coppying microsoft's windows marketplace, as it was around LONG before the apple app store... and unfortunately, long before anyone knew why that feature existed.... everyone was still buying software at B&M stores then, so it was way before it's time, and as such, died a quick death..

[heffneil]

Sorry I equated a lot of work to hard

I guess I can understand why they don't want to be jumping through other people's hoops however it seems awfully short sighted and seems like a good play to gain adopters.
Just my 2 cents and I would happily purchase an app...

Neil

[stuckless]

SageTV's App Submission....

Dear Steve, we've spent a busy 6 months retooling our application to run on the iPad. Please accept our application and we eagerly await your response.

SageTV


Reply....
Dear SageTV, after a quick evaluation of your application, we've denied it. We do not see how this application can possibly bring value to our users. After a quick view, it became quite apparent that this SageTV application would allow users to watch "questionable" content on the ipad, and can cannot allow that. For example, it would seem that a user can access online feeds and downloaded/recorded content that is not appropriate. While we don't usually offer advice to app developers, i'm going to make an exception, since you've worked hard on creating this application. If you could change the app so that your users cannot access online content, and change the app so that they can only play files, if they've been approved by the Apple moral police (we'll provide a short list), then we may consider again. Oh, and we don't like the name, SageTV, it's obvious that you are attempting to make this application sound as if it's a part of the innovative AppleTV products.

Thank you for your submission. And please don't reply with, "but you approved...", we are so tired of those types of replies.


Next attempt...
Dear Steve, here's the updated SagePlayer application... I hope it meets your guidelines. We've basically don't allow the user to watch/see/listen to anything without first sending the filenames to Apple for approval.


Reply...
Dear SagePlayer, after a quick evaluation of your application, we've denied it. We do not see how this application can possibly bring additional value to our users. The built in media player is already more than capable of playing back the approved content. Thank you for your submission.




(it's a joke, people.... don't take it personally )

[sic0048]

I don't have a iAnything, so I may not understand exactly how things would work. But I do think anything more feature rich than the already existing web interface would be hard to have approved. Keep in mind that there is likely a huge push from AT&T to keep data sucking apps to a minimum. I personally would not want to go to all the effort to produce an app that I can stream SageTV video to because in all likelyhood, it would be denied because of the data usage rates required to do something like that.

[PLUCKYHD]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

Also, you could say that everyone is coppying microsoft's windows marketplace, as it was around LONG before the apple app store... and unfortunately, long before anyone knew why that feature existed.... everyone was still buying software at B&M stores then, so it was way before it's time, and as such, died a quick death..

I wouldn't say before it's time I would say bad idea of marketing. That is what frustrates me about microsoft altogher.

1. They don't advertise correctly to the public to show what they have or what thier stuff can do.

2. No integration. It seems to take moving mountains to get different departments on the same page and make their equipment work with other microsoft equipment.

#2 is the most frustrating thing to me. The need better across the board integegration and I think allot of times that is why apple wins because everything works together through itunes (I hate itunes!!!). I am not apple fan nor would I pay their overpriced prices for a computer ( no matter how much my wife begs for an imac ). I do however own a I phone because when I bought it almost 2 years ago there was nothing that even came close, but with the W7 phone that is coming that may change soon, but again they are not advertising that and building hype enough about all it can do.

of soapbox

cheers

[Fuzzy]

Well, it wasn't really about marketing it to consumers.. It was pretty well advertised to every user of windows XP as soon as it was installed (highlighted on the first pane of the start menu). the problem was, at the time, software developers didn't feel they needed to sell their software through it, because they already had the B&M retailers working just fine. This ended up with the only softwares available on the marketplace being MS software, and a very few others (I think a couple virus programs and such were on there). Either way, without a REASON for the devs to put their software on there, the idea failed. The reason it works for apple, is that is really the ONLY way to install apps on the device, without jailbreaking the device. The only way MS could have made it work, would be to make it so the only way to install programs in windows is to buy it through the marketplace.. obviously, that wouldn't fly on anything non-apple.. I don't really know why apple users think it's okay, but apparently, they have decided so.

Since the marketplace never really got it's developer attention it needed, it has since been changed into basically just a reference site, pointing to the developers sites.. basically just an add page that is bundled with windows...

[stuckless]

I don't know Fuzzy... I tend to agree with Plucky on this.... if MS did have something like you suggest, then it wasn't well marketed. I just asked a bunch of windows users if they ever heard of MS doing this... and they all said no. I also asked if they knew if the iphone had an app store, and they all said yes (yet only a handful have an iphone).

I've used every version of windows excep 1.0 and 7... and I've spent years in XP, and I've never seen the option to take me to marketplace. Out of curiosity, I had to google windows marketplace, and sure enough, it exists... and i can buy stuff there... but I'm not seeing a "Windows Marketplace" on my XP machine. The windows marketplace looks like a online store to buy shrink wrapped products... i think it missed the mark.

Your agument that the Apple store is successful because it's locked down, really doesn't hold water when you look at the android marketplace. I can install an app from anywhere... but I don't... I tend to use the easily accessible marketplace app on the device. The same is true for firefox extensions... I can install them from anywhere... but I don't... I install them from the extensions manager. The problem with MS and Apple is they need to control it, to the point that they could exclude anything that competes with their business... which is not optimal for a developer. This works on the iphone because Apple owns the phone and market... it's also why Windows is going the same way with Win7 Mobile.... They can't exist in a market with theirs fair competition, since they'd lose money on sales of their own software (especially true for MS).

I think where MS missed the mark is with marketing... and they under estimated the ability of the "little" guy wanting to write an app to make money. Did they put an ecosystem into place where when I could write an app and host it on their servers, and they take care of purchases, etc? Also, did they include free products such as open office and firefox in their marketplace? I'm not sure that MS could pull this off if they wanted to... It would kill them to allow someone to post up open office that someone could install with a quick search and an install.

In retrospect... I not sure that MS could ever succeed with this... since windows isn't really "app" friendly either. I mean, if you give a user the tool to install hundreds of free and paid apps... but you need to answer 100 questions and then restart after each install and uninstall... I'm not sure that's going to show very well... it's probably best they stayed out of the mainstream.

I had high hopes for the Win7 phone as well... but it seems that MS is now struggling to become to an Apple clone in every sense of their business.

[pjpjpjpj]

I read the subject of this thread ("...and it's cool!") and my first thought was, "well, of course it's cool, that's how Apple sells". All their stuff is cool, undoubtedly. Their gadgets are cool, their commercials are cool, the stores look cool (when you walk by), and the people who proudly used Apple (read:celebrities who generally have no tech knowledge whatsoever but are attractive) are cool. Apple won't produce anything anymore, unless it has the always-mentioned-in-threads-lamenting-the-Sage-UI, "bling" factor.

Now, "functional without severe restrictions", "better than other options", "worth the price", etc.? ... hmmm...

[Djc208]

I'd be concerned about Sage on the iPad/phone anyway.

One issue would be making sure people understand that this only allows access to TV content recorded using their SageTV program on a seperate computer. How many people (especially typical "it just works" Apple consumers) would download this thing for X-dollars thinking this is some sort of HULU-type service.

The second, is how many of those people also use Macs at home? Most of those will probably be laptops which aren't well suited for running a Sage server anyway due to their portable not-always-on nature. Plus the restricted hardware compatability with tuners on Sage for OS X.

Between the two I'd be worried you'd turn more people off of SageTV. It seems obvious for more advanced users but that's not the primary audience that these type of products attract.

[ccsmoke]

Having looked at touchscreens for a while, I was happy to hear about the ipad just for the fact of the new products it will spawn at a cheaper price point.

http://www.technotalks.com/reviews/a...-by-windows-7/

This should work good framed in the garage with sage support.

[Fonceur]

Originally Posted by ccsmoke

This should work good framed in the garage with sage support.

Well, the Android one, just as the Notion Ink Adam or the Archos 7 Internet tablet would work fine with taSageTV...

[ccsmoke]

I looked at archos 5 I think a while back and almost jumped on it, but after reading their forums and seeing they wanted money for codecs really turned me off. Not sure if the company has changed their stance yet.

Never seen the Notion Ink Adam before, thanks for the heads-up. Pretty decent specs with 3 sec boot-up time.

Cool application btw

[wayner]

Originally Posted by sic0048

I don't have a iAnything, so I may not understand exactly how things would work. But I do think anything more feature rich than the already existing web interface would be hard to have approved. Keep in mind that there is likely a huge push from AT&T to keep data sucking apps to a minimum. I personally would not want to go to all the effort to produce an app that I can stream SageTV video to because in all likelyhood, it would be denied because of the data usage rates required to do something like that.

The currently existing iPad does not use 3G - why stop such an app from streaming over WiFi? Particularly on your own LAN which is how I would foresee using this - having a portable Sage Placeshifter client. Carrying around an iPad makes it a lot easier to watch SageTV content while on the throne!

And I don't see how Apple could reject a Sage Placeshifter app for the iPad when there are already existing apps that allow you to stream video from your home server to your iPhone - such as AirVideo. And hasn't there been a Slingbox app available for the iPhone for quite a while?

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

And I don't see how Apple could reject a Sage Placeshifter app for the iPad when there are already existing apps that allow you to stream video from your home server to your iPhone - such as AirVideo. And hasn't there been a Slingbox app available for the iPhone for quite a while?

That's the problem... we don't see how they could reject it.. but without a clear consistent set of guidelines, you just don't know... so it ends up being a risk/reward type of scenario. I mean, there are lots of adult content apps that are basically just shaking their heads right now, since they got banned, but the the Playboy app... it gets to stay... so... yeah... apple is full of inconsistencies. The reality is that if at some point in time, AppleTV decided to allow recordings, or "placeshifting", then they could easily say bye bye to the SageTV app, and no one can do a thing about it. There have been rss readers that got banned because they happen to link to steve's version of some immoral content... yet you could browse the same rss feed using the safari browser.... inconsistent, to say the least.

[wayner]

@heffneil - Try downloading Air Video to be able to stream Sage content to your iPad. They are releasing an iPad specific app but it isn't out yet. There is an iPhone app that should work.

See:
http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html
http://www.inmethod.com/forum/posts/list/749.page