Open Front Row to third party developers

I agree. This would allow:

Someone to create a plugin to allow browing images in any folder, not just iPhoto.
View any Video file playable in QuickTime and not just iTMS videos.
Play any video from VLC if we can get the VLC people on board.
Connect to eyeTV and watch TV shows. It'd be a real Media Center at this point.

This is what I want. Right now, the only thing I can use in Front Row is iTunes and I can get that without a TV. So please, Apple. Open it up to plugins! This is OS X, this is the Opensource age. You're Apple. This is not Windows and Microsoft here. Please!!!

I think it's an excellent idea. I think it would also be cool if a built-in RSS reader worked like the RSS screensaver in 10.4.

As a heavy user of Front Row, I gotta say it's somewhat disappointing. I love the remote control, but thing is buggy...VERY 1.0. My complaints:•It has been known to simply hang and stop responding on my intel mini.•The menus are designed like iPod menus. The allowed number of characters per line is ridiculously low even though there is plenty of screen real estate...and that's on my 640x480 TV!•The iPhoto library and album slideshows are not customizable...they ALWAYS have the crappy Ken Burns effect and Apple's awful stock music enabled with no way to turn them off. (I'm not talking about custom slideshows...I'm talking about just hitting play when selecting a library or album.)•I have a symlink pointint to an external drive's movie folder, which I titled "More" so that it would use that name Movies menu. Instead, it simply displays it as "Movies"...so that the menu hierarchy is now "Movies > Movies > blahblahblah".•My mini's DVD player is noisy as hell. I'll NEVER use it for viewing DVD's...and thus I wish I could hide the option.

Apple locks the (Intel GMA 950) integrated graphics at 64mb of vRAM (or 80mb depending on your take), but Intel's specs on the GMA 950 say that the chip is "programmable" to allocate up to 225mb (or some such number). Obviously, Apple locked it at 64mb because the basic minis config only has 512mb of RAM and they couldn't afford to leave Tiger only 250mb of system RAM when/if graphics-intensive jobs grabbed half the system RAM.

My point and question is, for someone like me who has the new mini with 2GB of RAM, is there a way to program or hack the GMA 950 to utilize the full 225mb of vRAM if required?...on my mini, it's obviously going to leave Tiger with plenty of system RAM

Frontrow already has hooks, it's called iTunes. Just have your code work with the iTunes Library and it will magicaly appear in FrontRow. For Example, the PVR would add any content under the TV categegory of iTunes.

Plug-Ins for Frontrow would be so great! I could watch Tv with my Elgate 310 or read the news or emails without leaving the bed... Please do it!

A GOOD iDEA?
When Front Row first came out, one of the first things that me and others were talking about, were features we wanted added. In fact, there are probably tons of features that we weren't mentioning, that would also be great.

TOO MANY?
As far as Kevin's comment about this leading to too many that would just clutter up the space in Front Row, all he has to think about is Dashboard. Why would Apple allow developers to come up with any widgets, if their isn't enough room on our screens to fit them all? BECAUSE EVERYONE ISN'T GOING TO WANT THEM ALL! The user will have to deal with the space they have available, and what is most important to them to have open.

Which Ones & How?
There is no question as to how. Just keep it how Apple has it designed, but increase the number of our choices. Then, once the ball is rolling and the stage is set, I'm sure we'll start seeing tons of little add-ons to Front Row. Like a PDF/RSS viewer, VLC player, NetNews Wire, iChat, and others. Hey, who wouldn't love to check their email on a 60" to 120" screen? With a remote!

Getting It Done?
I also agree with LoneWolf's idea of starting a fund for the first person to this. Heck, look at the guy who got WinXP on the MacBookPro. If enough people want it, then it can be accomplished. Even if we have to hire someone to do it.

***JMac***

I think it will be really nice to have VLC as the video player for FrontRow.
VLC is much better than QT and supports so many more codecs
without installing plug-ins.

I'm thinking of starting an online donation to get funds from people
who want the same thing. And then award the cash to the first person
to create such a good workable hack. Or can someone start this?
I can be the first contributor with $100.

Different world now 3 years later.

NO ONE would predict 1-BILLION songs sold. At best, people thought it would be a nice success but that it would take a while to get hold of - mainly because no one (again) would predict that people would swoop up 50 million ipods in 5 years so it's not the same scenario.

There isn't anyone who DOESN'T think video being sold online is NOT a major business or about to be very, very soon.

So, that's reason #1 and growing MORE important with every passing minute. As each day passes, the likelihood of an Apple DVR/PVR grows more remote for that very reason but I think more important - BE VERY CAREFUL OF WHAT YOU ASK FOR ...

Because an Apple one would have to have DRM.

So, when it comes out, I'll bet 99% of who are moaning for an Apple DVR will complain about that 5 minutes the specs are announced.

Right now, you have a bunch of choices ranging from FREE iRecord/iMovie (though not really DVR time shifting features) to a couple hundred bucks for full PVR/DVR's.

So, are you really willing to trade away your rights for DRM and/or having an extra boxes or two around your gear?

I'd love to be able to control my Sonos through FrontRow. Can't think of anything else I'd like.