Sachin’s Posterous

The AppleTV doesn't support Pandora. But, you can use Airfoil to send any audio signal from your computer to an Airport Express or AppleTV.

One of the new features in iTunes is genius playlists. It works quite well to generate a playlist of similar music. But, it only gives you *your* music. Why doesn't apple use this same technology to give you songs you don't own, just like Pandora? They could then have links straight to iTunes to purchase the song or album.

You could do this on the AppleTV too. How cool would that be? Let the AppleTV play a random selection songs based on your mood, even some you don't own. Then in two clicks you can purchase anything you like.
 
Is Pandora profitable? If Pandora can survive with this business model, I think Apple would do even better. Super tight integration with Genius/AppleTV/iTunes/iPod could be incredible. Just put recommended songs I don't own on my iPhone, and then let me buy them with 1 click.
 
Everyone wants new music, and there are services out there trying to solve this problem... But it won't be "solved" until Apple does it right and it's simply built in to the products we already use.

...using his Apple TV and his Logitech Harmony remote.

   

Click here to download:

My_dad_just_rented_an_HD_movie.zip (55 KB)

Those must be two of the best devices ever made. He's 57 years old!!!!

Two stories.

First. I'm in San Diego at my mom's house now. I was using her Apple TV, which his an amazing, underrated device. Incredible interface. All your media is on your TV. And instant HD movie renting. So great.

After a few minutes her photo screen saver came on. And Kate noticed a picture of us together. "How did that get there?" I thought. Then I got it. I post my photos to Posterous, which autoposts to Flickr, and my mom's Apple TV is subscribed to my Flickr feed. Amazing workflow. So every picture I post shows up on my mom's TV just like that.

Second. I was about to order an HD movie rental on her Apple TV. I love doing that. $5 for an amazing HD movie in seconds. But my mom had a coupon for a free movie on demand with Time Warner. Ok sounds good. Holy shit. That interface was so fucking bad it drove my crazy. And my mom even has the latest HD DVR. Kate and my mom picked "27 Dresses" (yeah, i'm outvoted here). It took me so long to finally get it started.

And once it did, it's in SD, PILLARBOXED. WHAT THE FUCK!!!!! My mom has an amazing HD TV. Most cable is widescreen these days. DVDs are all widescreen. Apple TV would have been widescreen. Are you fucking kidding me. We just spent $5 for the SD version of a movie, 4:3??? If it wasn't free, I would have flipped out even more.

God, I wish more people and companies cared about building high quality products and cared more about design.