Jony Ive – to the world he is Apple’s Senior Vice President, Design, reporting directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook. He is the leading technology innovator of the world, a whiz who has for decades been the head of the world’s best design team and whom Steve Jobs called his “spiritual partner.” However, little is known of Jonathan Ive’s true story and his rise to Apple’s chief innovator. Leander Kahney’s newest book, entitled Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products, has changed this and demystified the creative genius.

The biography, written by bestselling author of Inside Steve’s Brain, Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac editor-in-chief, captures the creative mind behind the most celebrated designer in the world quite vividly, spanning from his early childhood in the UK through his days as a student with dyslexia at an English Art school, to his journey as a technology designer whose insights have changed the entire world.

The book reveals not just the great mind that is Sir Jonathan Ive, but also some of the most guarded secrets of Apple. The unique insights that Leander Kahney has included about the ultra-secret Apple design studio are going to change every reader’s perception of the role design plays within Apple. As a matter of fact, Leander has provided the most detailed account there is of the development of the Apple products that came to be icons of modern world technology: iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad.

Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products is published by Penguin Portfolio and is available now through Amazon and Apple’s iBook Store.

Here’s the official book trailer:

Originally published on What’s On iPhone. 

The post Jony Ive biography goes on sale today appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

A few weeks ago, in collaboration with Squirrels (maker of AirParrot and Reflector) and Beamer, we started a contest inviting you to share with us (and the rest of the world) your vision of a perfect Apple TV – the Apple TV of your dreams. The participation was amazing (thanks!), we got tons of submissions and a lot of great ideas. Here is a short résumé:

Almost all of you think of a new Apple TV as a standalone TV set that features:

• a big, 3D, ultra HD display (Retina?)
• a built-in Kinect-like camera (FaceTime/Skype calls, gaming, face recognition)
• Siri
• App Store (yes, you want apps!!!)
• social network integration
• DVR functionality

All the above features seem to be a MUST for the future Apple HDTV.

Other ideas we liked:

• NFC
• push notifications
• multiuser personalized profiles
• gesture interaction with social media
• a full TV experience available everywhere (on the go!)
• wireless charging (in the fuuuuuture)

Interestingly, a lot of you want your TV to become… a phone.

Though these are all great ideas, we think we are still missing something here, a truly revolutionary, game-changing, killer future that could reinvent a TV and it seems that we will have to leave it to Apple to figure out what it is.

Here are some of your ideas:

Sean O’Neill

• My vision for the perfect Apple TV would require one simple interface addition: voice.  A few simple words should be all it takes to communicate with your TV, across all devices and services.
  Examples:
  “Hi TV. Change channel, CNN.”
  “Hi TV. Netflix, House of Cards. Episode 2.”
  “Hi TV. Search TV, Next Daily Show, New Episodes.”A minor hardware challenge would be including a small microphone in the remote, which would transmit voice commands to the box.An alternate approach to voice control would be to simply hold the current center button for a few seconds, which would trigger a high-gain microphone on the Apple TV itself. An animated speech waveform could be displayed on the TV to entertain the user & confirm actuation.Another interesting twist on this would be to provide multi-service search results, as Roku has done with the latest version of their Roku 3 player. e.g. “Hi TV. Iron Man 2. Anywhere.” might return a list of results on screen that list comparative pricing spanning multiple services, so users can select the best offering.

• Another “killer” feature would be Push Notifications. Users can register their favorite programs (via an Apple TV app, for instance, that could resemble a supercharged Remote app) using their Apple ID. They could then be notified about various events: when a favorite show is about to be broadcast, when a podcast they’ve subscribed to has a new episode, or when a movie they’re watching becomes available on Netflix, Amazon VOD, Vudu, etc. On acknowledging the notification, users could either select the content for immediate viewing, “Add to Queue”, or Record, depending upon the source.

G J P R Verasdonck

My Apple TV should be:

• any “computer” from which I can access the content from anywhere in the world (if I am on holidays in “Timbuktu” I do not want my screen to say that I am not authorized to view my content due to geographic restrictions)
• suitable for views on the go (e.g. iPad/iPhone) or at home (e.g. large screen)
• be “low-key interactive”: if I like the holiday program on Fiji Islands, I want to be able to look at booking options or in reverse: if i consider a holiday to the Inca ruins I want to be able to look for a travel program on the region I am interested in and see booking possibilities
• my TV should also be my phone; I like to see the people I’m talking with.

Mark Villapando

• Deals with all the premium channels for their on demand content
• Access to the NFL Network, or better yet, RedZone
• Deals with more sports networks to make pay subscription apps (to combat Internet piracy through illegal streaming sites)
• Easy ability to share viewed programs through social networks
• A VNC-like app to access the screens of computers on the network (from TV)
• Make iOS hackable again to allow programs like Plex, XBMC, or Media Player to stream local media (wishful thinking)

Alejandro Timpanaro

• A laser pointer (Wii-style)
• Google Chrome browser
• Google maps
• Access to Google Drive and other cloud services
• A download manager like Jdownloader.
• Backup config of the Apple TV in iCloud

Nicholas Chan

• Every single broadcast gets relayed to the billion-dollar data center for recording. This includes news broadcasts, morning/late night talk shows, etc. Everything gets recorded. A user with an Apple TV can then jump back in time to a specific hour to watch his/her favorite program from any channel, streaming directly from the data center. User does not have to worry about local storage. Program list can be sorted and presented in many ways. Programs can stream to iPhone/iPad/Macs. Premium channels are available to those that are paying for it currently.
• The Archive: for stuff that predates the Apple TV (stuff that didn’t get recorded at the data center), becomes available for on-demand streaming. Basically – Netflix. Score some deals Mr. Cook!
• Three ways to control the TV: 1) everyone has their phones with them, make that the remote (people would buy iPod touches dedicated for this). Very similar to the current Apple TV’s iOS remote. 2) if the phone isn’t in the room, use Siri, an obvious choice. 3) if all else fails, a multitouch display directly on a TV. Tap on screen to bring up a menu. Swipe to switch channels. Third party apps can utilize this. Apps can be educational and ask children to select things on screen, etc…(classrooms desperately need this feature available).
• Killer GPU for competition against consoles
• iSight -> direct all phone/FaceTime calls to the TV rather than your phone if your identity is detected in the room

Mike Bowen

• I’d like to see the TV have full touchscreen compatibility (you can’t play Angry Birds without a touchscreen)
• PIP of course that would support watching TV while checking apps
• Built in 4g & LTE support so you can actually make and receive phone calls from the TV set itself

Adrian Büsselmann

• I dream of gesturing from my couch to control the Apple TV. No more searching for the small controller. Apple TV could get a “Kinect” plugin to realize this
• Even a virtual keyboard can be shown on the TV and the Apple TV would see my gesture and get the right input

Eric Dykstra

• A monthly iTunes subscription (be able to watch everything on iTunes for a monthly cost; the cost would be high, $150+ per month)
• Control interface for cable and satellite (run the Cable signal through Apple TV, and change channels with ATV)

Eric Olson

• The Apple TV should be able to mirror to another apple TVs and support a “party-mode” where all apple TVs on the local network display and control the same media
• Open the “remote” IP port for 3rd party display of meta-data & control. This will make it easy to integrate an Apple TV into high & mid-range entertainment systems

Rik Moedt

• The Genius function that Apple uses to show you things you might like is going to be integrated. It will offer you playlist with things you might like to watch. In the playlist live television, on demand video and internet content can all be combined.

And the winners are:

1. Maria Panagi – for the brilliant idea of using simple gestures to interact with social media:

The Apple TV of my dreams would have highly developed gesture recognition, that would be used not only for playing games (bringing all the Wii feauteres) but the whole controlling of the TV would be based on gestures.

When it comes to social media, the gesture recognition would be highly integrated with the biggest social media platforms. On the above picture there is an example of Facbook ´Like`- the gesture of thumb-up would be recognized and would make it possible to give a like only using a gesture. Other gestures would be recognized as “share” and reading the news feed would be possible with a hand swing.

On the below picture there is an example of how the gesture control system could work with Apple TV menu. I believe that the main menu should have only 6 icons, so that it can be easily navigated with gestures (it would recognize moves: left top, right top, center top, left down, right down, center down). One hand swing would  bring another screen with the next set of 6 icons.

Prize: iPad mini

2. Cristhian Flores – for an idea of a fingerprint (on the remote)/face detection to recognize users and update the TV with their personalized profiles (channels, apps, movies, music, etc.)

Other ideas of Cristhian:

• Led notification for personal mail, Skype calls, or iMessage
• A built in mic on the touch remote to allow the user to communicate with TV without making too much noise around
• NFC chip, to allow smartphones and tablets to transfer information with a tap on the TV’s stand. When tapped to a laptop will also transfer information.
• All Corning Gorilla Glass with plasma like refresh rate 600HZ
• Has built in set-top box, way to activate is to call Apple and with their deal with Direct TV/Dish will transmit signal to the television to allow channel viewing
• Special coating on the television that activates when people (in a meeting) are trying to show their products can write on the screen with a stylus. This information is saved on the flash and can be transmitted to devices via NFC.
• Quad-core processor to allow heavy intensive applications to run, the visual would match the graphics of the Playstation 3
• 4GB RAM: allows applications to run at ease, also streaming any content while also doing iWork (multitasking.) It would allow either side-by-side or Top-bottom screen to be able to run two applications.

Prize: iPad mini

Runner-up: Leo Hellberg – for a futuristic idea of The Plug (wireless power) and professionally designed Apple-style graphic (below.)

Prize: free copies of AirParrot, Reflector and Beamer.

Big thanks to all for participation! Stay tuned for more contest and giveaways!

The contest was sponsored by Squirrels (maker of AirParrot and Reflector) and Beamer.

The post “Apple TV of your dreams” contest: winners announced! appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

There is 1080p, there is AirPlay and AirPlay Mirroring, there are some content deals, there are apps like AirParrot and Beamer, there is XBMC, Plex and aTV Flash on jailbroken devices, but it’s still not even close to what we think a perfect TV solution from Apple could look like. And now we have learned that the next Apple TV will probably come with a slightly improved processor and a new antenna/chip. Oh, come on Apple, you know you can do better!

But there is no doubt there will be a bloody battle for our living rooms and Apple will take part in it. We have no doubts that Apple will come out with something big: a revolutionary TV solution, whether it will be a standalone TV set or next generation set-top box. But since we are not hearing anything from Apple on this matter, we hope to hear something from you.

We are giving you a chance to share with the world your vision of a perfect Apple TV. The Apple TV of your dreams. The king of your living room. A standalone TV set or a redesigned set-top box? Apps, games, Siri, Facetime, gesture control, 3D, social networks? And what about the content?

You tell us how the next Apple TV’s hardware, software and/or interface should look like!

If you have graphic skills, mockups, renderings and all other kinds of concept designs will be more than welcome. If Photoshop is really not your thing, just write down your ideas and send them to us in a text file. During the contest, we will be regularly posting the best ideas on our website, Facebook, Twitter and Google+. The authors of the best works in both “graphics” and “text” categories will be awarded an iPad mini 16 GB, courtesy of Squirrels (maker of AirParrot and Reflector) and Beamer.

Rules:
–       The contest starts right now and ends on Sunday, March 17^th at 11.59 PM EST.
–       Submissions should be sent to editor@appletvhacks.net; the subject line should read “Contest: Apple TV of your dreams”.
–       All graphic and text file formats are allowed.
–       If you are submitting a graphic work, please include a short description of it.
–       Submission of work that has already been published elsewhere is not allowed.
–       Two winners (one in each category) will be selected by Apple TV Hacks editorial team and announced not later than on March 29^th.
–       The contest is open internationally.

The contest is sponsored by Squirrels and Beamer.

UPDATE: We got tons of submissions and we’re reviewing them now. The winners will be announced by the end of the week. We are sorry for the delay!

The post Design the Apple TV of your dreams and win an iPad mini [contest] appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

We are open for submissions: if you find anything related to Apple TV and you think it may fit here, send us a tweet or a Facebook comment and we’ll post it the coming week.

Edition 2:

1. The Apple Logo
2. Kicking in, Steve Jobs
3. The Mighty Jonathan
4. Pricing, Pricing
5. Cool!

The Apple Logo

Apple’s logo is probably one of the most easily identifiable. It has gone by several iterations [1] but has been easily recognised since the colour strips in the 80s. Designed by Ron Janoff, not by one of the company founders or designer, but by an advertising man [2]. Of course, being so distinctive ensures quick lawsuits if someone has a similar logo… Or even not a very similar logo, like this poor company in China has found out [3]. One more reason to be happy with our awesome new logo!

[1] Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl, The Apple Logo, Neven Morgan
[2] Creative Bits, Interview with Ron Janoff, creator of the Apple Logo,  Ivan Raszl
[3] GoChengDoo, Apple Tells Chinese Food Company To Change Its Logo, Staff

Kicking in, Steve Jobs

We’ll be seeing these kind of posts for a while. Remembrances of one of the technological leaders of our time, satyres to make us laugh, comics. What it feels to be Steve’s neighbour? It means seeing him almost every day, doing business in his garden. Walking around the street. And you also get to see how his sickness gets worse [1]. Sad story, about someone who has seen Steve very often. There are a lot of lessons we can get from Steve, and some of them are best seen in this short and sweet infographic [2]. And in case you missed, you can always watch the ever famous Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish Stanford’s Commencement Address [3]

[1] Palo Alto Patch, My neighbour, Steve Jobs, Lisen Stromberg
[2] The Daily Beast, The Ten Commandments of Steve Jobs [infographic], Leander Khaney
[3] Youtube, Stanford’s Commencement Address 2005: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Steve Jobs

The Mighty Jonathan

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer starts a new battle [1]. One of Apple’s strong points is design. Nice design, sleek design, perfect design. And Jobs and Ive share parts of the pie for doing Apple’s products the most brand-clear, sleek and sought after. Now “Jony”, as he is known will have to face the struggle for the perfect design (ignoring focus groups, market research and anything else as before) without Jobs’ support. Alone.

[1] LA Times, Apple Designer Jonathan Ive Enters a New Era, Jessica Guynn

Pricing, pricing

Apple gadgets are overpaid? A lot of people think so. But once you make the numbers, a MacBook, iPad or iPhone are cheap. You have top notch hardware, and a software capable of getting the most of this hardware without hassles. And if you are not convinced, check this [1] about managing supply chains to lower costs. Or compare a generic tablet with an iPad.

[1] Splatf, The New Apple: The Best Gadgets, but Also the Best Prices, Dan Frommer

Cool!

• The magic numpad, a sticky addition to your Magic Trackpad to turn it into a… numpad!
• Beta 7 of aTV Flash (Black): we’ll be following with a full blown post about this soon… Stay tuned!

The post Apple TV News from the Web: Edition 2 appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.