Future iPhoto Suggestions
Some quick suggestions for iPhoto (submitted to Apple on 25/03/2010).
1) Timeline
We have alternative navigation paths to photos by people (Faces) and location (Places) but nothing particularly visual for browsing by time. Sure the Events or Photos library can be sorted by date, however this doesn’t give you a good view of the distribution of your photos over time, or easily jump to photos at a particular time.
Why not leverage the same timeline UI as Time Machine where the distribution of photos is shown in a histogram style graph down the side. Show the library of Events or Photo libraries disappearing into the distance (i.e. bottom of stack is further back in time, like Time Machine).
As your mouse hovers across the timeline, the main display will show the Key Photo for the event(s) on that day (i.e. don’t go any deeper to try to show individual photos). The idea is to find an event quickly, like a Birthday, then click on the Event or Photo library to display it’s contents in the traditional grid view.
Basically, leverage this UI metaphor across numerous forms of content in the OS. For example:
- Documents, based on version of document or backup (done, in Time Machine)
- Photos, based on date taken (as proposed above)
- Music, to browse music by era (e.g. to sort your iTunes library to view music based on when it was released)
- Web History, to view history of browsing.
You could alternatively use the Cover Flow UI (scrolling horizontally, list History in Safari) however I think that the “fading into the distance” metaphor reflects something over time better, so long as it is combined with a UI widget to also view/skip to a specific period of time (like the histogram in Time Machine).
2) Age of People
Not so great for adults, but for viewing photos of kids growing up this feature would be great. In conjunction with tagging photos with names (Faces), allow the user to configure the Data of Birth of that person. They, when you hover your mouse over a person in a photo, you could also calculate how old they were in that photo (e.g. “David (18 months)”). This feature would also allow you to search photos of a person based on their age in the photo.
3) Don’t Freeze
Hopefully this is just me, but iPhoto almost always freezes my entire iMac when I rotate photos too quickly using keyboard shortcuts (e.g. command R).
03.15.10iTunes Live! Idea for Apple to make iTunes social
I’m sure the smart people of Apple are already thinking of this, but since they are so often late to the party maybe they need a little prompting.
iTunes is an OK media library. It has the best backend store I’ve used (only one), integrates well with my iPhone and Apple TV — making my media almost seemlessly follow me — however the UI is pretty much designed like a boring filesystem. I can browse by many tags and search, but as my library gets bigger and bigger, I just don’t know what to watch/listen. I use Genius Playlists a lot for this reason – to pick a genre to match my mood, then play.
However iTunes could be much more. Assuming people opt-in, iTunes could know what lots of people are watching/listening to right now, then create a far more dynamic and engaging experience to sit back and watch/follow others. For example, if lots of people are watching a Video Podcast right now of Diggnation, show me this on a live homepage. Obviously filter the updates to my tastes (e.g. I’ve previous subscribed to same/similar podcasts).
Similarly, suggest music on my iTunes library, or related music on iTunes Store, based on what others are listening to. If I like Coldplay but the next thing others that like Coldplay are listening to is, I don’t know (because I’m trapped in the year I stopped listening to radio), Radiohead’s latest album. Put it in prime position on my home page.
Same applies to TV Shows and Movies. If I watched “Up”, and particularly if I rated it (ask me when I finish every show/movie, like rating an App), then my live homepage should show me related movies.
Now, let’s get interesting….
Next make different channels that I might want to watch (ala YouTube) that can pretty consistently give me content that follows a theme. So I could sit down on the couch and watch podcast, TV and movies back-to-back instead of live television. Keep track of the TV shows I have watched, and present me with the next episode in that series.
This is basically taking the current personalised iTunes Store home page and making more a consumption page rather than an online store. It must be available on my Apple TV though and constantly be showing something. Don’t just have a static “sales/suggestions” page — work with the TV studios to always be streaming something related to that “channel” (e.g. in the top corner). It might be free, but if I want to watch it full screen then I must pay (if you insist). Alternatively the studios may agree to give away the episode for free while in streaming mode (i.e. free if I’m happy to watch live now and, hey, it might actually entice me to buy the next episode).
It seems to me that iTunes is sitting on a goldmine of social data about peoples preferences, yet doesn’t seem to exploit this to a content stream. Assume people are lazy and unimaginative – if you don’t “tell” then watch to watch/listen, they won’t necessarily go looking.
As I said, I’m sure Apple are already light-years ahead of me.
03.9.10Apple TV as a gaming console
I should rename this blog to something related specifically to Apple predictions…
I was reading a blog today, Great Advances are Coming to Apple Remote & Apple TV, and suddenly a few pieces of the Jobs puzzle fell into place.
Specifically Patently Apple drops all the clues (my emphasis in italics),
Although the patent brushes over this fact quickly, the fact remains that Apple TV will be able run applications beyond iTunes, such as “email, web browsers, programming guide applications or game networks…” Yes, we can easily see that Apple’s iPad will also be able to work in sync with Apple TV which is likely to run to the same operating system in the future.
and this…
Apple’s patent point # 59 specifically mentions game networks (think OnLive, as an example) and the screenview of FIG. 14 below confirms this and also phrases it differently by including game station – which could be hinting at Apple working with one of the major gaming console makers.
and finally this..
And lastly, the patent provides us with a hint that Apple TV could, at some point in time, include cellular telephone communications protocols. That would hold some interesting scenarios indeed, but I think that such a feature is a little too down-the-road.
So, why would Apple ever partner with another games network when it has tens of thousands of games in the App Store? Why not have a “games network” where a user could, using their Apple TV, download any game from the App Store as required and play the game on their TV? Perhaps iPhone games (320×280) don’t have the resolution to do justice on TV (e.g. HD 720p is 1280×720), however games developed for the iPad (1024×768) would be getting much closer to acceptable on the big screen. iPhone games may not have the same depth as consoles, however with a wireless remote (i.e. iPhone/iPod Touch with accelerometer) there is potential for the same fun factor as a Wii. And the In App purchase model would allow for quick download of new content.
Another very new angle is the announcement of Steam for Mac, there would be potential to offer richer single and multiplayer games closer to consoles. I doubt you could sell an Apple TV for the same price with the required video card to do these games justice, however if Xbox and PS3 can do it, so could Apple if they wanted to be in this market.
My long shot prediction for the Jobs master plan is therefore:
- Support iPhone apps on the iPad to provide instant library of applications.
- Promote iPad app development for the larger form factor.
- Use the iPad to get movie / TV studios used to larger scale digital sales (i.e. improve access to content)
- Release upgraded Apple TV as a true media centre with TV, current movies, games (see below) in a closed in DRM protected package.
Conclusion
The Apple TV clearly has lots of potential as media device. Having owned one for over a year and love it as a media player, online video store (albeit older releases) and music player, to make it a killer media device I think it needs:
- Very latest releases, at least current with DVD for that country [1].
- Free to air TV, either via the Internet (ala Hulu) or a Digital Tuner.
- Recording, live pause and playback of TV
Addition of games for me is a nice to have, but I can see it rounding out the purchasing decision for a family wanting an all-in-one media device.
[1] As an aside, I would like to see iTunes and therefore Apple TV (or, to keep the movie studios happy, only Apple TV, to keep content viewing in the lounge room) offer variable pricing for TV/movie releases but with simultaneous worldwide distribution. For example, right now I would like to watch Caprica in Australia, however I would need to wait until an Australia network picked it up for this market. I’d be happy to pay say $5 per episode for the option to watch it in time with the US release. This high premium therefore should compensate studios for the lose of premier deals with local networks. This premium price is consistent with the premium budget of Apple owners so, in my view, takes the cream off the top for the studios, gives Apple an exclusive content offering to justify a premium product, and still leaves enough in the bottom end of the market for per country DVD releases without DRM. Brilliant.
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