Primetime is the next big thing I wanted to do alongside Mover.
Primetime is an application which manages all the video in your library in such a way you no longer need to interact with your TV (or at most minimally) when you want to enjoy a particular slice of it.
Currently, Primetime produces schedules (think TV channels) from the video in your library starting from a number of tweakable variables. The idea is to reduce the number of variables the users need to tweak, producing "their own TV channels" automatically by deducing their tastes from the metadata saved in the video library, their viewing habits — and as little input as possible directly from them.
The current targets for this version of Primetime are:
- the iTunes ecosystem (iOS, iPod/iPhone/iPad, Apple TV).
- the Sony PlayStation 3 (via its web browser).
The idea is to provide scheduling and viewing for a decent range of devices, allowing one-tap access to right-sized slices of the user's library.
In my personal opinion, most video playing appliances suck — the first thing that happens when you turn them on is, they want you to pick stuff from a menu. That's because they do not respect that the most effective way to watch TV is, well, to watch it; although some of the time we want to pick our own entertainment, there is value in allowing somebody else to choose. Sometimes, we just want to drop on the sofa and watch TV.
Primetime tries to solve that problem by adding just a few more channels with the TV you want to watch. The eventual goal for this project is a TV UI that can be started with one button press and lets you see what you want to see without you having to think about it. This restores the typical TV UX and augments it by providing entertainment you care about (because it's in your video library, eg. after buying it from iTunes Store).
So: little UI, and "separation of church and state" — of management and viewing. Drop on the sofa, pick your Primetime channel, and watch away — nothing more needed.