APPLE TV
The Background
Everything You Need to Know About the New Apple TV App Store
Because Apple TV is so new, there are huge gaps in the amount of programs and apps available to users. Entertainment takes a huge lead in the type of app available, while social networking for Apple TV is much more rare. There are only 31 attempts at Apple TV social networking apps, while there are over 1,000 apps for entertainment purposes. We came to the conclusion that we believe the Apple TV is missing something that most other Apple and smart products seem to support: a social platform. We want an app that you can use with your friends whether they’re in the same or different room, building or city as you.
Source:http://blog.appfigures.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-apple-tv-app-store/
Apps that Reveal Apple TV’s Potential
Articles such as, “Apps that Reveal the Apple TV’s Potential”, dipped into some of Apple TV’s interactivity capabilities. It listed several apps that explained to us how Apple TV has all the necessary capabilities for video, speed, etc., and it is only a matter of time before these components are taken advantage of. The article mentions the fact that the new Apple TV is a complete user experience and this needs to be used to its fullest potential. This is where an app to vote on movies to watch, restaurants to eat at, vacation locations, or workouts can be useful for a TV in a family or common area.
Source: http://tidbits.com/article/16060
Sergio Goldenberg
Sergio Goldenberg is a colleague of Harmut. His goal is to focus on creating a way for people who are all watching the same program to be able to interact with one another. In his Digital Media Master’s Project Design Document, he explained the goal of his project to be “interactive television applications using DVR platform that enables enhanced communications, impulsive interactions, sharing experiences, and active discussions of small viewing groups, such as family, friends, and classmates.”
- interaction must change to be between the viewers instead of broadcaster to viewer
- discusses using Skype to watch shows with his family when they are not physically together as a family.
Source: http://www.dm.gatech.edu/~sgoldenberg/msproject/Design%20Document.pdf
Zova
Zova is a free workout TV app that syncs to Apple’s Health app and Apple Watch so to monitor your heart rate. Zova has videos to instruct your workout for a mere $7.99 per month subscription. To acquire all Zova’s feature, however, the app and accounts all have to be installed on the Apple TV, Apple Watch, and IPhone, which can be a pain. We could improve this part by making the set up less complicated.
- apartment and home friendly
Source: http://tidbits.com/article/16060
Website: http://blog.zova.com/tag/fitness/
Periscope
Periscope is a live streaming app where you can instantly watch people’s lives on your Apple TV. You can create a video message of your day, or an exciting event that happened, and share it with your friends and family.
- “You, your friends and family, can share what’s happening in the world right now, together.”
- taking a day-to-day life experience and sharing it in a video format.
- “more authentic experience”
- Better than Snapchat because it lasts longer and can be watched over and over again.
Website:https://periscope.tv
Viggle
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Viggle is a free interactive application in which you earn points for watching or listening to music. The app recognizes what you’re listening to, then you accept the points you earned for tuning in. The accumulated points are used to earn items such as TV shows, movies, music, audiobooks, and more. We like this concept because it motivates users to use the app.
- Free application that is easy to use on IPhone and IPad
Website:http://www.vigglestore.com
Yap.TV
Yap.TV is an app that allowed you to start a dialogue with others about favorite TV shows and movies. You could see what friends recommend, liked, or disliked. The free conversation application was available on IPhone, IPad, and ITouch. Unfortunately the app doesn’t exist anymore, but its interactive concept would be a great feature for our new app.
- allowed you to vote
- Social TV Guide
- group chat
Source:http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/social-tv-apps/37703
Our Client
We were assigned the task to create an application for our client Apple TV. Because this technology is so new to the market, there is a lot of room for creation and innovation in terms of apps that could become available in the Apple TV App store. For example, currently no social media platform for the Apple TV exists. For our preliminary proposal for a new product, we would like to change that. There is also a lack of interactivity between Apple TV users. We would like to propose to our client a method for allowing more interactivity.
We propose a working app for Apple TV that allows users to work with athletic trainers and instructors via their device. The app will coach a user through physical activity and allow the user to see friends doing the same activity through an animation on the television screen. The app will also allow for instructors to upload their workouts to the app so anyone can access them at any time.
Final Deliverables
The Apple TV group will be creating an interactive exercise app that uses the expanded space of a 50 inch screen, while also creating a fun group experience. We are introducing an app that will use a video camera similar to Wii sensors. With our app the user will be able to select a work out, watch videos, and even use a videocam to work out with a friend. Users will also have the ability to record themselves work out and watch it over to see what they’re doing right and what they can improve on. With the ability to workout with friends and record yourself, we thought it would be important to create a social platform for people to share their experiences. We will be using some of the large screen to include a social media feed with news about the app and people using it. Imagine logging a workout and getting a notification that your friend is also logged in. You can instantly connect and share a workout experience.
Our Name
Apple TV Active
Our Plan
Our plan is to create a product for our target audience. In this case, our audience is Apple TV users and potential users between ages 18 and 35. In order to do this, we will continue to do research throughout the course of this project. With having such a new and unique platform to work with, new technologies and applications are becoming constantly available. It is important for our team to be up-to-date with these new advancements in case they can help us in our app creation.
Furthermore, we plan to place the development of this app at the forefront of our responsibilities throughout the semester. App development undoubtedly requires much time and dedication in order for it to work properly. If each team member dedicates class time as well as time outside of class consistently throughout the semester, we believe we will produce a product that meets our goals. Our plan will be made possible through weekly meetings outside of class as well as punctuality in completing assignments.
Certain assignments will require more time dedication than others. For example, the beta assignment as well the final app and presentation will definitely take the most time to prepare for and produce. This is because at that point the main focus will be on the functionality of our product. This means the app will have to actually work. Our plan for these assignments is to dedicate as much as time as possible to achieving full functionality.
Other assignments will not require as much time to complete. For example, some written assignments can be completed efficiently with every group member contributing to their section of the assignment. As long as we are collaborating and completing work in a timely manner, we believe we will also achieve our goals in this project.
It is extremely important for us to understand that procrastination will not help us during the course of the semester. Many of these assignments require full team participation as well as advanced planning. We think that with this in mind, we will give ourselves plenty of time to handle any obstacles we could face.
Challenges
Because our app is ideally going to have a motion detection feature, one of our biggest struggles is going to be actually getting this to work cohesively with the app. Most TVs at this point do not have video cameras built into them, so we are going to assume that in the upcoming years, that will be a common feature of TVs. Until this happens, we will offer an option to plug up your laptop/cellphone/etc., and use the camera built into those appliances. We will also give the option to purchase an attachable camera that can be placed on or near the tv. (Because our app will be free, this will be the only possible fee for using the app)
Not only do we want to have visual interactivity between users during the workouts, but we want to create a type of social media to enhance this activity. Because there have not yet been any successful social media apps, we really have no ground to stand on. We plan to research what has and has not worked in other attempts and find a way to beat these obstacles. We hope to have a stream of recommended workout videos, a running list of what workout videos other users are watching, and opportunities for users to upload their own videos. We feel that the best way to tackle this challenge is to focus on our specific goals with the social media aspect of the app and find the most efficient way to make this work.
One of our last main challenges will be interactivity. A vital part of our app is going to be the option to workout with friends virtually. We hope that the screen will provide an animation of a friend/competitor completing the same workout at the same time as the participant. We also want the app to connect to each person’s fitbit so the participants can compare stats if they wish and have a friendly competition. This will be slightly difficult because at this point we are unsure exactly how to go about doing this. One of our weaknesses as a group is lack of technological experience. Our plan to tackle this problem is to figure out logistics as to how we can make this interactivity a possibility.
Our Goals
Our safety goal is to have a functional streamed instructional workout available to users who download our app. Our main goal is to have interactivity between two different Apple TV users while using our workout app. Our reach goal is to have a sensor implemented into our application will detect body movements of both participants during the workout.
