When Apple TV originally came out, it was made clear that this was a hobby device and not a major focus for Apple. In January of last year Apple reaffirmed the Apple TV was still a hobby area as well. Now, it seems things are finally changing.

Tim Cook recently spoke NBC’s Brian Williams and seemed to have a very different opinion about the idea of getting involved in the fight for your television entertainment needs.

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

With Microsoft and Google both putting more focus into the battle for the living room, Tim Cook’s change in stance isn’t all that surprising. For now it is hard to say what Apple is planning, but don’t be shocked if we see a future push towards creating a bigger multimedia and living room experience with Apple products. That said, this isn’t the first time that Cook has alluded to a possible interest in the TV space, and yet we still haven’t seem much change on that front.

If and when Apple does decide to jump further into the living room, what form would these efforts take? We can’t say for sure, but continued rumors give us a few ideas. We’ve heard in the past that Apple is looking to build a more powerful set-top box that would work with your cable and/or satellite programming. We’ve also heard about the possibility of an Apple-branded television set with a custom menu and other start TV features. All of it should be taken with a grain of salt though, at least until we know more down the road.

Will future efforts continue under the Apple TV brand or something entirely different? Your guess is as good as ours.

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It seems that Apple TV and Google TV might be getting even more competition in the set-top box space. While this isn’t the first time that the web has gossiped about such a device from Microsoft, it now seems that more sources are coming out and saying that an Xbox Set-top box is in fact in the cards.

The idea is to create two different Xbox devices for announcement in 2013. The first will be a more traditional Xbox gaming system with multimedia functionality. The second will be a set-top box that plays a few casual Xbox Live type games and apps, but otherwise focuses entirely on multimedia.

If and when such a device arrives, don’t be surprised if it comes packed with the same core technology found in Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8. It might even have limited support for apps and a store of its own. Would you consider buying a Xbox-branded Microsoft multimedia box for your living room or not?

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For nearly a decade now i’ve been telling my friends and family while we’re watching TV, “I don’t care who does it, I just want a small box I can connect to the TV that will replace these annoying loud commercials.” And who, none other than Apple has answered my prayers; at least they have begun to anyway.

Apple on Tuesday has been granted Patent No. 8,249,497 for “Seamless switching between radio and local media.” The system will switch between broadcast commercials and your personal media, allowing you to interject their content with content you have stored on a cloud or storage device of some type.

For example, you are listening to a radio station or watching TV, the system can skip sections that you are not interested in and fill that time with family photos, music, a video, in other words, something a little more relevant and personal.

A user, however, may not be interested in every media item provided as part of a broadcast stream. For example, a user may not like a particular song broadcast by a radio station, or may not like a particular segment of a talk radio station (e.g., the user does not like the topic or guest of the segment). As another example, a user may not be interested in content originally generated by sources other than the media source (e.g., advertisement content). Because the user has no control over the media broadcast, the user can typically only tune to a different media broadcast, or listen to or consume the broadcast content that is not of interest.

This technology would be an obvious enhancement to the Apple TV experience, or even an actual iTV we have been hearing so much about. It would give Apple a revolutionary edge, combining traditional broadcasting technology with new streaming on-demand content. The future of Television is in Apple’s hands.

[ via Apple Insider ]

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It seems that Apple started talking with a few different cable providers recently, with the goal of bringing a set-top box experience to cable subscribers. The idea with such a device would be to provide an Apple TV-like experience that also works through live TV and has special additional features like AirPlay functionality, iTunes capabilities (if cable providers would allow it) and more.

Why would Apple want to make such a move? The idea is simple, cable is where the content is. By working with a cable company, Apple could invade living rooms in a big way since set-top boxes wouldn’t need to be bought- instead you could rent an Apple TV box for a few additional bucks a month.

All we know for sure is that Apple is in talks to create something like a set-top box, the features and functions they are dreaming of are unknown, though I can certainly do a little speculating here.

Something tells me that, if they come up with an arrangement, it would involve streaming and sharing with iOS devices across the house. Imagine watching your favorite live TV channel through your iPad in the bedroom- while your set-top box is in the living room. Whether you would have to watch the same show that is playing on the Apple Box or if it would have an extra digital tuner is hard to say- but I could certainly see Apple trying a move like this. Keep in mind this is just speculation, so don’t take it too seriously.

Would cable providers go for it? Maybe, depends on how well they can profit. Just like DVRs allow recording of TV shows at a monthly additional cost for cable subscribers, networks like Time Warner could have a monthly fee for access to the TV show streaming capabilities. Imagine if you also do things like transfer DVR recording to the iPad and iPhone- that would be awesome, though probably less likely than the idea of streaming live shows.

If such a box existed, would you consider it? Do you think cable providers would go for such a thing?

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It’s official, the Hulu Blog has now confirmed that they are rolling out Hulu Plus to Apple TV boxes, today. While Apple TV is a beautiful box, it’s also been left behind a little when it comes to recent multimedia apps and programs such as Hulu, making this update an important one for those who enjoy the Hulu service. With both Netflix and Hulu alongside existing offerings like iTunes, the Apple TV is starting to look better than ever.

Similar to the Netflix version, you will be able to pay for Hulu Plus service through iTunes and it will feature styling that it very Apple-ish throughout the Hulu Plus app. For most users it should just auto-update, but if you aren’t seeing in on your device, try rebooting.

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This comes by way of an “anonymous source” to CultofMac, but this insider has come through with some juicy details before. In this instance, the upcoming Apple HDTV is going to look mostly like the existing LED backlit Apple Cinema Displays, except much larger. We can probably expect a small handful of models in the 40-inch to 60-inch range.

What’s interesting is that we’re hearing the new Apple HDTV will feature an iSight camera for FaceTime as well as the Siri personal assistant (from the iPhone 4S) for some navigation. Aside from that, details are sketchy, but we have heard that Foxconn has invested $1.6 billion in Sharp’s TV unit. There has to be a reason for that.

I don’t really expect Apple to make a TV just for TV’s sake. It’s going to be like the iPod or the iPhone in that they’ll create some sort of closed environment to “revolutionize” the experience. You can probably expect heavy integration with the iTunes Store, possibly at the expense of ousting “alternative” entertainment sources like conventional cable TV. We will see, but according to TV analyst Paul Gagnon, we should see this come to light some time in 2013.

[Source]

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Via a translation of his interview with France Info, Starck says that they have been working on “a big project together” and this new project is “quite revolutionary.” He cites the “religious cult of secrecy” for now being able to provide any further details as to what this product may be, but he does indicate that he had met regularly with Steve Jobs before the Apple co-founder passed away last year.

While Starck hasn’t worked with Apple directly before (at least we don’t think he did), he has worked with Parrot to create some premium iPhone speakers and headphones. Given that the new project is “quite revolutionary,” I doubt that it’ll be an incremental design change like what we’ll likely see with the next iPhone or an updated MacBook. So, it may be more likely that this is the new real Apple HDTV. Or it could be something else entirely. For now, we are being teased with some high dangling fruit. And that fruit could be the best ever.

[Source]

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The first big change with the refreshed Apple TV is the bump from 720p to 1080p full HD video support. That’s pretty significant on its own, but it’s also been updated to support video streaming from iCloud, taking in all of those movie purchases that you’ve already made. The processor inside is a single-core version of the A5.

As you can see, the interface has been updated too, taking on a little more of an iOS kind of look and feel. You can navigate through to see top movies and genres, as well as make use of that Genius functionality to find something to suit your tastes. As with the new iPad, the new Apple TV will also launch on March 16. As expected, pricing has stayed put at the usual $99.

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iOS Hackers Steve Troughton-Smith and @TheMudKip have been working hard to bring some iOS magic to Apple TV, specifically in bringing iOS Apps to your large screen without the sanctioned support of Apple.  So far their progress is very promising, they have managed not only to install iOS Apps on the Apple TV, but also get apps to appear full screen. In the video below, the hack by @TheMudKip showed iOS Apps like Facebook, YouTube & Maps running in 720p fullscreen.

All this is made possible by MobileX, it’s just like a SpringBoard on the iPhone but this one is coded just for Apple TV. It will be from here where you would be able to launch iOS Apps.

@TheMudKip said that he “rewrote SpringBoard from scratch using only QuartzCore.”

Next comes the question of controlling your iOS Apps on the Apple TV. As we all know, iOS is a touch based OS and not a hardware controlled one. In its early stages the hackers used VNC to control the apps, but Steve confirmed that he had cooked up a hack to control the apps via Apple TV’s IR remote control.

“The built-in menu controlled by the remote allows you to quit apps, launch Safari, connect to Wi-Fi, or show multiple apps side by side,” he said. “Audio and video work well too so many games and media apps just work, like YouTube.”

While rumors are around about a secret Apple TV perhaps emerging officially from Apple, we are not sure if and when Apple may reveal their own television, regardless, with this hack it looks like we might be able to taste a bit of iTV a little sooner once MobileX is ready for primetime.

Will this make you get an Apple TV?

(MobileX Running on Apple TV)

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Recently, information came to light about the possibility of an Apple-branded Television set. This news came about from comments Jobs left to Walter Isaacson, the writer of the recently pubihsed biography about the former Apple CEO. In the bio, Jobs spoke of future plans for such a TV set that would possibly integrate Siri, iCloud, and more to provide a high-end multimedia experience from a wonderfully capable HDTV. Many speculations have led to it having all the technologies of an integrated Apple TV entertainment device, and more.

The news of the device has sparked the imaginations of many, including Guilherme M. Schasiepen who has created a fantastic concept design for what he believes an Apple Television should look like. The concept is named the “iTV” and features a super-thin, minimalistic styling that is decisively Apple-esque. According to the concept the device would offer abilities such as Siri Voice Control, multi-touch, FaceTime HD, AirPlay, and no-glasses 3D technology.

According to Scahsiepen, the concept would come in 32, 42, or 50 inch models with at least 1TB of internal storage. As a design concept, I honestly think it is very beautiful and could certainly look a lot like what Apple might truly design. As far as the ‘capabilities’, however, this concept is probably shooting a little too high with 1-2TB of memory and no-glasses 3D; although Apple is very good at creating cutting edge products that redefine expectations, so we really can’t be sure.

What we do know is that if such a product surfaces, Siri is likely to be part of the package. What you have to wonder though is wouldn’t it be more cost effective to just make a more powerful Apple TV Entertainment device that offered Siri, internal storage, and even possibly PVR functions? If such an Apple TV device existed I would certainly consider purchasing it, but a $2000+ priced Apple Television set? For now we will just have to wait and see.

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