[chris e boy]

Leopards features have been discussed a lot on these and other forums, but a lot of people tend to neglect FrontRow 2. We know its coming because Jobbsy mentioned it in his WWDC keynote last year. Personally I think FrontRow is one of the best features on the Mac and can't wait to see the next generation.

What sort of features are you guys anticipating / hoping for?

Im hoping they'll sort out the following:

1. EyeTV integration. This would be fantastic, enabling you to view live tv and recording directly from FrontRow. Im not holding my breath over this one though, unless Apple buy Elgato.

2. Fly-By Movie Covers ala AppleTV. Im a little sick of browsing my movies by text only. I'd say this has a 90% chance of being included since its in the AppleTV menu.

3. Resume shared movies. Its annoying when your watching a shared movie (all my movies are on my Mac Pro in the study), exit FrontRow for some reason or other and then have to start at the beginning when you go back into FrontRow.

4. Faster-Fast Forward. to be more specific, a skip-like function (like when you skip chapters in DVDs).

5. Native movie/music playing. Why must FrontRow open RAM hogging apps like iPhoto and iTunes in the background when its just playing?

6. More Superfluous Effects™ 'cos everyone likes eye candy.

[Wyatt]

I think FR2 is basically going to be the iTV interface, but to respond to your suggestions:

1. No chance. Apple will not program in features for third-party hardware. They might allow plug-ins (which would allow Elgato to develop their own hook), but they won't do another company's work for them (as you said).

2. Since I think Apple TV is FR2, obviously I agree.

3. I've never shared movie files, but that does sound nice.

4. That would be nice as well, and something that I wouldn't be surprised to see.

5. That's my biggest beef with FR as-is. I absolutely hate waiting for iTunes to open to listen to music in Front Row.

6. Well, duh, it's Apple.

[Buffalo]

I'd personally like to see it have a different transition from Front Row 1.0. I don't like the feel of it altogether really.

I'd also love to have it built into speech recognition so that you have the remote control with you all the time. It's something each one of us has: our our voice.

[mooty]

Originally Posted by fcgriz I think FR2 is basically going to be the iTV interface

Exactly my thoughts... I reckon it's simply going to echo the AppleTV interface, same functionality, different hardware

[turbulentfurball]

One of my pet peeves with Front Row is that I often like to have music videos playing in the background if I have people round or I'm tidying my room (ha!). However, Front Row only plays a single video then returns to the menu. It'd be great if Front Row 2 could allow me to play continuous videos. It's very annoying and easily fixable. I know I can do it in iTunes, but Front Row is prettier!

[hmurchison]

I'd like Apple to make Front Row 2 an interface where you could pick your movies using "Motion Coverflow" where snippets of the movie would play with the title superimposed over top. This should be relatively easy because I believe the latest QT can play a move over a OpenGL window of sorts.

I'd also like Apple to create a remote control with Multitouch that functions as an AppleTV and Front Row 2 interface. It would have some hard coded buttons for DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray playback and programmable virtual buttons. The screen would be a 3" touchscreen but not as dense as the iPhone. It would come with a base that rechages it and it would utilize Bluetooth and IR for connectivity.

[Miko]

Originally Posted by hmurchison I'd also like Apple to create a remote control with Multitouch that functions as an AppleTV and Front Row 2 interface. It would have some hard coded buttons for DVD/HD DVD/Blu-ray playback and programmable virtual buttons. The screen would be a 3" touchscreen but not as dense as the iPhone. It would come with a base that rechages it and it would utilize Bluetooth and IR for connectivity.

This will never happen the remote would cost 100.00 at least, and just to control the Mac? I sure wouldn't come in the box like the current remote does and seeing how FrontRow and AppleTV both have a iPod like interface you wouldn't need programmable buttons, IMO. Now if they were to produce an advance learning universal remote that uses Multi-Touch people may jump on the bandwagon, I still think the make or break price would be 99.99.

[hmurchison]

Miko

crap I forget to put in that this would be a Universal Remote able to control many of your popular brands a la the Logitech Harmony Remotes. It would be optional of course and I know I'd pay for it as long as it worked correctly. People that use nice UR like the Harmony series will not go back to swapping batteries in a bunch of remotes.

$99 would be a steal but I honestly thing profit could be made a $179. When you think about how this allows Apple to forgo on putting a LCD screen on the AppleTV itself it's a steal. Also it allows AppleTV usage with your TV off. AppleTV is nice but your TV has to be on to navigate the UI. Not cool.

[Miko]

that could sell I wouldnt buy it though, it would be sweet.

[Bryson]

I'd like the volume control to adjust the application volume, not the overall system volume.  I use iTunes with Airtunes, and I don't have a remote for the stereo, so it would be nice if changing the volume had an effect!

[euain]

Originally Posted by Bryson I'd like the volume control to adjust the application volume, not the overall system volume. I use iTunes with Airtunes, and I don't have a remote for the stereo, so it would be nice if changing the volume had an effect!

You can adjust the iTunes volume (slider or cmd-<up> cmd-<down> in iTunes) and it adjusts the volume through your stereo..

Though I think there may be a configuration setting that allows you to disable this. If it doesn't work for you, give me a shout and I'll look when I get home from work.

EDIT: You are probably talking about in Front Row rather than iTunes from the thread title.. in which case my reply is probably not relevant. Sorry!

[Bryson]

Indeed!