Apple TV: Rubbish, you don't like documentaries – I'll just flick to porn Fed up of having to pick up the remote controls to change channel when something boring comes on? Apple has just patented a broadcast device that will know - in advance - whether you're going to be interested in that nature documentary, and will change to something better so you don't have to. In patent 8,249,497 'Seamless …
There is loads of prior art. It's called the human brain connected to the fingers. When I stop liking something I'll change channels and find something else. You can't have a patent describing something that already occurs. Not even a software patent which mimics an existing action.
Bloody stupid and just shows that the whole patent system has been dragged into disrepute by Apple et al. Might as well shut it all down. It won't make much difference with patents like this on the record.
Prior art has become an irrelevant concept.
Anyone can now patent anything in the states, regardless of whether it has been around for 100 years, or is obvious, or is already patented by someone else.
The only people who will win are megacorps who can afford to spend millions on lawyers. This means that there is precisely no point in founding a tech startup or innovating at all in the US. (Except maybe if the intention is to sell out in short order to said megacorps on their terms.)
Waitaminnit... y'mean there are actually people out there who can't even be bothered to pick up a goddamn' remote and push a goddamn' button to flip the channel to something they like? Goddamn' lazy fat-asses.
Cripes, man... when I was a kid, I actually had to get up off the goddamn' couch and walk across the room, sometimes as far as twenty feet -- uphill, in the goddamn' snow -- to flip the channel over to "Creature From The Black Lagoon" after Bugs Bunny was over. ...But you try and tell young people today that, and they won't believe you.
But, seriously... this goddamn' tuner is supposed to know what I'm interested in how, exactly?
...By building up a preference profile for you.
And those preferences could get prodded out of you in different ways - by questions, by monitoring your playback history (what you switched off, what you switched on), and what's already loaded on your drives and media devices...
Oh, yeah, the goddamn' thing is going to spy on me, of course. How stupid of me.
Y'know, I've been a devoted MacOS user ever since the beginning, and I wouldn't use anything else, but jeeeezus -- Apple really is sailing off the edge of the Earth lately. Thanks, but no thanks; I'll stick to manual channel-flipping, on those rare occasions when the wife is out of town and I have the remote to myself and actually feel like watching a little TV (more often than not, usually either Turner Classic Movies or the NASA TV feed).
Reminds me of the classic Wired article "My Tivo thinks I'm Gay" where the writer dared to watch a sensitive "buddy" style guy movie, and then found his Tivo filling up with programmes intended for the gay community, he then tried watching macho stuff and some war films and it switched to regarding him as a neo Nazi and started recording biographies about the Nazi leaders and the SS, trying to second guess these things to get the programming you want can turn into a cat and mouse game.
Had a similar experience with the recommendations feature on Amazon, buy one kids book for a niece or nephew's birthday and you get bombarded by page after page of suggestions for little kids books.
Ok you will surely be able to turn this feature off, but Apple will have to go some to improve on whats been done before to make this a worthwhile addition
While my tivos never thought I was gay (phew), there was a time Tivo thought I liked Kung Fu (which I've never had even a REMOTE interest in). For a couple months at least I had to thumbs down what seemed like at the time a couple of dozen kung-fu oriented programs (this was I want to say at least 8-9 years ago) and movies.
But yeah as soon as I saw the heading I thought of Tivo Suggestions.
There's also this -
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=480450
"TiVo was issued a patent on Dec 13, 2011 for Intelligent System And Methods Of Recommending Media Content Items Based On User Preferences - Patent 8079046. "
Though I assume the current Tivo stuff doesn't apply to things outside of TV content. My most current Tivo is a series 3, so not sure what the latest premier has for suggestion integration with internet content.
Apple can probably get away with it given the broader scope, I don't think Tivo suggestions on my generation of Tivo probably applies enough, but I'm sure Apple couldn't go after Tivo for suggestions at least.
Hmm... not exactly seamless. Nerve wracking, actually, as the CD suddenly stops and some loud stranger with an even louder jingle starts yammering at 300 words a minute reeling off road designations and things my Beethoven-adapted brain isn't ready to receive yet. Now if it buffered the radio broadcast and faded the source I was listening to into the traffic bulletin...
TL;DR
Remember the annoying MS Office Paperclip?
Imagine that annoying you while watching TV
--
Will just continue to pay £14.99 for my Digiguide subscription which will continue to watch the TV schedules for me and find me something I am interested in - executing a custom app I wrote which will alert my internal webserver which will send a Google Talk message straight to my Android 15 minutes before said programme(s) is/are due to start. As for missing stuff....... that's what all the online catchup services exist for?
Seriously the first comment at the top of this page says exactly what my thoughts were - how will I know if I like the programme that I haven't seen if it decides I don't want to watch it?
How will it cope with things like - a new series starts, you have heard a lot about it - you watch the first episode - you don't like it - will it decide because you watched the first episode that you are into it and worse - other programmes of a similar nature? Maybe it will ask you at the end of the episode "Did you enjoy this?" that's actually a difficult question to answer - let's take Wilfred for example on BBC Three..... Episode 1 was odd to say the least - a lot of people weren't sure if they were going to watch the next episode of not.... thankfully BBC Three ran episode 1 and 2 back to back - if they had waited a week between them - most people probably wouldn't have watched Episode 2.
Maybe the best way of deciding whether to recommend that series in future is to ask you rate the episode... but you would have to ask after EVERY episode because let's face it - a series can start out good and rapidly go downhill (take Lost for instance).
Next you would potentially have to face the wrath of the broadcasters when they start suing left right and center because the wonderful iGizmo has decided that 80% of everyone watching TV on Monday at 21:02 didn't want to watch that new series the BBC has been banging on about for the last 4 weeks and has been hyped up in pretty much every TV Guide going - instead they all wanted to watch a documentary about the life and times of Steve Jobs after all they own a device manufactured by Apple so they must be interested in Apple right? Or..... because you have watched Mrs Doubtfire every single time it has been on - you would probably prefer to watch that instead of the Olympics opening ceremony.
Now - if we take what other commenters have said on board and assume it will ask you instead of just changing the channel - I shall simply refer you to the outcry over the Windows Vista/7 UAC prompts.... in general if someone is watching a programme on the Television (or listening to a programme on the Radio) it is because - they want to. If someone is however in the EPG trying to find something to watch - by all means offer them suggestions - just DON'T POP UP WHILE I'M WATCHING THE NEW SERIES OF DOCTOR WHO TELLING ME I MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN WATCHING FAMILY FORTUNES.
TV: Hey - Casualty is on now - do you wan't to watch that?
Me: No - I'll watch Casualty later.
TV: OK... Well.... there is a film about to start on Film4 and it has Gerard Butler in it and you like him - do you want to watch that?
Me: No - I'm watching this.....
TV: OK.... Oh hey you just received an iMessage from someone - do you wan't to see it?
Me: NO! I'm trying to watch this!!
TV: OK... Oh... I just received a software update - would you like to install it now.....
Me: ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!! PISS OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I assume by filtering out adverts, what they actually mean is that they'll filter out normal adverts and instead replace them with apple provided adverts which apple is taking a cut from....? other wise, no adverts = no content from most networks.
As for the viewers...... sounds like they're gonna have to be extremely antisocial (ie living alone!) for this profiling to work.
That the people likely to buy this product won't have families? I'd love to see how it would work out preferences from our TV...
'my viewer is watching Top Gear...QI...Er Tree Fu Tom...Horrid Henry...For Boyard...er... QVC...Bid TV.. Pick TV... er Russia Today.. Oh bollocks to that, I'm switching off'
Wonder if you could get a job a la Douglas Adams only instead of analysing neurotic lifts in basements it'll be TV's...
This is called putting users in a content bubble, and it's just as stupid as when Google does it.
Furthermore, it's not for the viewer's benefit! It's totally self-serving on Apple's part, since it introduces a mechanism to steer the viewer where Apple wants them to go. Does anyone believe the "suggestions" won't be weighted in favor of results beneficial to Apple? (or Google or whomever?)
"Personalized search" in all forms ultimately limits user choice, whether from deliberate result-twiddling or excessive focus on past usage. It's great if you have no imagination, terrible if you seek out New Things.
This is awesome......... Um Siri, during all commercials, play my vevo play list...... Pic hit vids..... And every 10 minuets get my bloomberg stock ticker rolling, you got my stocks to watch right? Siri??? Are you going to be able to handle double duty...... iPhone and web TV??? Siri............
Someone here once pointed out that if a service provided to you is free, then you are the product. Google being an example of this.
What Apple seem to be doing here - and this assumes the proposed device phones home with what it knows about you, (maybe on the pretence of keeping it in the cloud for your convenience?) - is creating a scenario where not only are you the product, but you're paying them for the actual device that's giving them your profile and preferences.
Very clever.
haha, a patent can be so silly these days with the right team of million dollar lawyers. i swear i read a book or seen a movie that had this already but off hand i have no clue what the name of it is.
I hope the usa figures out a way to police all these ridiculous patents once the world says FU.
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