Codename: iTV

Some More Details on the iTV

Some more posts from around the web about the possible inclusion of a hard drive in the iTV.

Apple Aims for the Living Room

TNL has a nice article about the iTV:

"Most surprising in today’s news was the fact that Apple pre-announced this product. There can be one or two reasons around this. The first one could be that the announcement was added in the last few days because Apple was looking to announce more partnerships with movie studios but failed to get the contract signed in time to make the announcement (rumors have been that negotiations between the company and the movie industry have been tense, as studio heads want to avoid a repeat of what happened to the music industry and also fear ostracizing existing players in the DVD distribution world while Apple insists on making movies available through its store on the same day as DVD release)."

Speculating On What's Under the iTV Hood

A posting on ArsTechnia speculates that the Conroe-L processor may appear in the iTV:

"The first thing I wanted to know when Apple announced the iTV was, what's under the hood? The answer to this question depends on how soon Apple expects to start selling HD content on iTunes. Right now, you don't need a whole lot of horsepower to do the kind of DVD-quality playback that the device is alleged to support. So some kind of embedded solution would work for the kinds of media that the iTunes Store currently offers. However, if Apple intends to launch HD video downloads and to add HD support with an iTV software update, then they'll need a processor that can handle the load."

iTV: What You Need To Know

Macworld posted a great "what you need to know" guide:

"Enter the iTV, which connects to your television and stereo and provides the remote-control-driven interface of Front Row without the keyboard-and-mouse issues of a full-fledged computer. Once it’s hooked up, the iTV connects to the network in your house and displays, right on your TV, a menu of options, all geared toward letting you play back digital content—stored on a computer in your house or somewhere out on the Internet—while sitting in your living room."

Some of You Aren't Going to Buy an iTV

Chuck Toporek of Oreillynet.com notes that everyone may not want an iTV:

"So, the main reason why I won’t buy an iTV (or whatever Apple decides to call it later) is simple: It doesn’t record. Will someone please tell me why I should get jazzed about this device, because maybe the lobotomy didn’t work the first time around. I need an iTV like I need another hole in my head. If it doesn’t record television, it’s a useless interface to me."

As Leo Laporte said on a recent "The Tech Guy" Podcast, the reason why Apple doesn't want to put in DVR functionality is that they want you to buy the content from iTunes, not record it from your television, thus taking money out of the iTunes Stores' pockets. A brilliant marketing decision on Mr. Jobs' part, I must say.

The iTV to Have an Internal Hard Drive?

The iPod Observer notes that Disney's CEO Bob Iger said the following:

"During the same Goldman Sachs conference during which he announced first-week sales of Disney movies through iTunes, CEO Bob Iger revealed that he has seen Apple's upcoming iTV device in action and that it has a hard drive, a feature that many assumed would be missing. He said: "It can also stream it live through the box to the TV or it has a small hard drive on it so they can download what you put on the device on your computer, on your iTunes, through the television set."

iTV Observations

Macrumors.com has a few notes and observations about the iTV:

"It's wireless. It detects the presence of computers in your home; in a very simple way you designate the computer you want to feed it and it wirelessly feeds whatever you downloaded on iTunes which include videos, TV, music videos, movies or your entire iTunes music library to your television set."

Hands on with Apple's "iTV"

Engadget got a chance to have a "hands-on" with the new Apple "iTV" prototype recently. Here's a snippet:

We're as surprised as you, but Apple actually put their iTV units on display right after the show! Really, there isn't a whole lot here that we didn't already see in the keynote and up on their site, but it's definitely Mac mini sized in terms of footprint, and is a sexy little bugger.

Head to Engadget to read more and see up-close photos of the device.

Apple Announces Set-Top Box

From Engadget:

In an unusual turn of events, Apple has pre-announced a wireless video streaming set-top box to be released in Q1 2007 with the tag line "you can take content to your computer or iPod, but now... TV." Going by the codeword of iTV, the box looks like a flattened Mac mini -- apparently it's around half the height -- and features a built-in power supply, USB 2.0, Ethernet, 802.11 "wireless component video", optical audio and HDMI ports, plus regular ol' RCA stereo audio ports. Controllable by the standard Apple remote, the iTV will come with an updated version of the Front Row interface that shares Front Row's smooth 3D graphics, but differs in that it has a menu on the right side of the screen. Apparently it'll work with both iTunes on both PCs and Macs, and will sell for $299.

Sunday, September 24, 2006