Apple launched the next phase in its Apple TV ad campaign with a number of billboards going up around the country featuring the same color bars seen in the promotional videos.
The new signage has been spotted in LA, New York, and Columbus already (photos below).
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- New York, via @ow
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- Columbus, via Greg Sabo
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- Los Angeles
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- New York, via tipster
Apple also recently published a new video featuring the Muppets promoting ABC’s app for the Apple TV.
If you happen to spot another of these billboards in your area, snap a photo and send them to us at tips@9to5mac.com.
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A hobby no more.
I hope so, but the launch outside of the US was incredibly tame and poorly supported. Amazon and Roku have managed international launches with the right local content deals and apps in place. Apple didn’t.
Hopefully if nothing else if the ATV is a success in the US it will force Amazon to write an app for it, which will benefit us Europeans too.
It’s Apple: It’s easy to criticise the initial product. I’m hoping that by WWDC 2016, we’ll have all the major UK streaming services on the App Store. But then, that’s up to the companies, I guess. Can’t see why we wouldn’t, as they’re all on iOS.
What if Apple intentionally chose the Test Card pattern to sparkle rumors about the rumored Live TV service?
That’s exactly what I thought. One could rationalize the videos (with the Test Card pattern as an intro). But to put them up on billboards, without accompanying apps (as the videos did)? That, to me, seems to be suggestive (whether Apple is just messing with the People, or not).
They are actually color bars and those bars and tone are the first things you record when recording a TV broadcast.
I’m dating myself but I have very fond memories of that image. Heck, it wasn’t long ago when one of HBO’s channels (I think it was the family or comedy channel) featured those classic bars around 2a or before 6a.
My generation had color bars and the Star Spangled banner to go to sleep to — followed by white noise — while this generation has the buffer circle. Can’t remember the last time I heard/saw an EBS (emergency broadcast system) ad on TV or the radio.
Spotted in Downtown Minneapolis as well.
I :heart: the purple town!
Makes me think of the original rainbow Apple logo
Sorry to say this doesn’t make me want to buy an Apple TV.
Yup, Looks like a double entendre to me
I’ve been buying Apple products for the past 15 years and this purchase was the most underwhelming.
There’s plenty of potential, but right now it’s weak sauce.
If it had *all* the streaming services, and they were all searchable with Siri, then it would be a thing of wonder. I suspect that day will never arrive however.
Am i the only one who associates those linse with when i would get a lack of signal or when something went wrong with my old tv? so basically “hey buy and apple tv and you’ll loose signal and your tv will break” thats what this ad makes me think
Well, it doesn’t at all indicate a lack of a signal. If you were watching color bars, there was a signal! There might not have been programming, since 24-hour television is a fairly recent thing. It also never indicated anything was wrong with your old TV. In fact, it meant that your TV was in fact locked onto a signal just fine. Color bars are used to help tune a receiver’s colors to make sure they are reproducing colors accurately, by tuning them against a known standard set of colors.
I love that they took the original color bar pattern but infused it with the original Apple logo colors!
Nice to see those colors back again.
http://fineprintnyc.com/images/blog/history-of-apple-logo/apple-logo-2.jpg