Got an iPad and its cool!

[wayner]

Sean - (1) unfortunately I am not a developer so it is not an efficient use of my time, and (2) I don't think it would be kosher for someone other than Sage to be selling an iPad/iPhone version of Sage Placeshifter.

Apps like Orb and Air Video get you most of the way there so there is no point in writing another app that let's you receive streamed video from your PC - it is the tie-in with Sage that is required to make this really work.

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by wayner

Sean - (1) unfortunately I am not a developer so it is not an efficient use of my time, and (2) I don't think it would be kosher for someone other than Sage to be selling an iPad/iPhone version of Sage Placeshifter.

Apps like Orb and Air Video get you most of the way there so there is no point in writing another app that let's you receive streamed video from your PC - it is the tie-in with Sage that is required to make this really work.

My apologies... I just assumed that you were a developer... after all, as a developer, I stated that it was non-trivial to implement the streaming, and your rebuttal was that just the opposite, that it would fairly easy to do.... I find it interesting how "non developers" just assume all this stuff is easy. As I stated before, companies like Orb, Air, Sling, etc... it's their business to know streaming media, including mobile streaming. Sling only released their iphone wifi streaming app sometime around mid 2009 (i think), that almost 2 years after the first iphone was released, and this is from a company that specializes in nothing other than how to stream media. I'd be surprised if there wasn't a developer at SageTV that isn't working on this as a pet project (ie, side project, probably on their own time), but it would take a lot of effort to get this working as well as Sling/Air/Orb, and to the point that it could be released, supported, and sold.

[Brent]

You guys are cracking me up. I think a mobile device placeshifting app (don't cha like how I kept that really generic) is a great idea, but I also think other priorities may continue to keep that a bit down the list of the next new thing from SageTV for a while. That pretty much sums up the situation. I think Jeff knows there are many of us interested in such a thing too - so we'll have to wait and see how it all plays out.

[wayner]

Sean - I never said it was easy. I said it was "not insurmountable" given that pieces of the required project (i.e. video player on iPad, server-side streaming/transcoding software) were already in existence as a foundation from which you could build.

Also, other firms with seemingly limited resources (Air Video) had managed to create the streaming software and get it working on the iPhone and iPad. Sage obviously has some experience in streaming media since this is the heart of the Sage Placeshifter and it is required to stream to HD-200s, particularly over the internet where transcoding is required.

But I totally understand that they have a limited staff and other priorities.

After all - they may just be waiting until they can publicly release the new Sage 7 beta with a new Placeshifter client for the iPad as there is no point in releasing a new client when a new version with a (perhaps?) new UI is imminent ;-)

[tmiranda]

Firstly, I own iNothing from Apple so thing is probably an i101 question. Must you have every application approved by Apple and then you can only sell it through the Apple Store? It's not possible for a company like Sage to develop an application for the iPad and then sell it on their own website without Apple's permission?

Maybe we should play that old "1984" commercial back to Apple to see if they remember what they used to think about Big Brother?

Tom

[Naylia]

There are other app communities for the iPhone/iPad but they are only available to people who jailbreak their phones.

[wayner]

That is true that everything has to go through the Apple app store.

But there are different models for exactly how this works - I have a Home Automation system called Control4 in my house. Control4 has a software client for the iPhone (I do not own this app) that you can download from the Apple App store for free to control your lights, HVAC, media, etc. But you have to pay your Control4 dealer $300 to activate the app. This seems expensive but Control4 sells their own dedicated touch screens that cost much more than an iPad + $300 and folks that have used both prefer the iPhone app to the dedicated Control4 hardware.

This is getting somewhat off topic but the iPad is going to change business models for some other types of devices. The aforementioned Home Automation market is one example where companies like Control4, Crestron, etc. will likely get out of making their own hardware products.

Another example is Augmentative Communication devices for non-verbal people, such as those with certain types of Autism (including my daughter). There is a device called the Dynavox V5 that costs about $8000 which is a portable touchscreen PC running WinXP with a special communication app. It is the size of a very large hardcover book (almost the size of a phone book) weighs about 5 pounds, is very slow to boot up and has about a 3 hour battery life. You can buy a $200 app called Proloquo2Go that gives similar functionality to an iPad/iPhone to get a similar device that is much lighter, boots up instantly and has better battery life - the cost is about 10% what a Dynavox costs. Even though the iPad is much less durable you could go through several a year and still have a far cheaper all-in cost than a Dynavox.

Despite the direction of this thread I am not an Apple fanboy. I have owned iPods since they first came out since I thought they were a great device, but I have never owned an iPhone nor have I owned a Mac. I do think that the iPad happens to fill a certain niche extremely well, and I just wish that we had a native SageTV app for the iPad since this makes a great playback device for media and Sage is the best PVR/ Media Center software on the market, particularly for a client-server implementation.

[tmiranda]

Thanks Naylia and wayner. My house will remain an iFree zone.

[Menehune]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

Maybe we should play that old "1984" commercial back to Apple to see if they remember what they used to think about Big Brother?
Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R706isyDrqI

[malbec]

I hate waiting, but the ingredients I am hoping for...

1 part TASageTV
1 part google pad

So while I should be able to actually do what I want, I will just need to figure out how to keep them from tracking everything I watch, hear, etc.

[flavius]

I have been using the airvideo app all around the house lately. It does quite well what it does. - I don't need everything else.