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Agree. We also think that the possible Apple HDTV could have additional value add over the existing Apple TV, and we think they could co-exist. For example, the Apple HDTV could have a built-in microphone for Siri and a built-in iSight camera for FaceTime calls, gesture recognition, and for recognizing individual users. Those features might be enough to justify a separate Apple-brand HDTV.

ATV was great until the recent menu remake trashed it. According to one of the former Apple developers Jobs had nixed what turned out to be the present abomination.

chimerical77, on 03 June 2012 - 09:09 AM, said:

Have you owned and used Apple TVs or are you just regurgitating stuff to troll? The new UI is a huge improvement over the older one, whether Steve liked it or not. He's dead, why bring him into it? I've owned Apple TVs since they the first week they were released so I know of what I speak. It's an amazing and useful machine that I use every single day.

Except for the paragraph with the utter nonsense of how Apple TV is better than the Mac Mini I have no disagreement and support Mr G's point of view. Yes, I have a Mac Mini purchased in the days when the original ATV was noted to be an egg fryer (not the convergence Tim Cook alluded to recently, I'm sure), inadequate hard drive, and with other quirks as well. And mine works well from 10' on a large HDTV with wireless keypad (for logging into the Mac) and occasional use of the wireless mouse to pause and to select from my saved library. I have added a 2 TB ext drive for the saved stuff.
If I was in the same purchasing mode today I'd buy the current Apple TV because it has a lot going for it for $99.00.

I seriously doubt that Apple will come out with a TV per se. Why would they when, on average, people keep the same TV for about 7 years. I'm pretty sure Apple will instead greatly expand on it's Apple TV's features and power so that it interfaces with your HDTV, Mac, PowerBook, iPhone, iPad, iPod, iCloud, Seri, etc.

You know, XBOX and Connect already have voice commands and gestures (I can wave my hand and fast forward, reverse, select movies and exit functions.. no controller, I am the controller)... and believe it or not... Microsoft executed it very well...

It will be interesting to see if apple tries to just re-invent what Microsoft has done.. XBOX will be hard to beat, unless of course Apple markets it like the greatest thing ever (which they do)...

I do like my Apple TV... but I don't think I'll buy an Apple TV that is a TV for mere voice commands and gestures... XBOX already does that... now if Apple tops it somehow, I will look at it.

The thing about Apple is this... they are doing great, on designs Steve did... they have done NOTHING new.. (adding resolution to a screen is not new)... the real challenge will be when they run out of things in the product pipeline and actually have to produce something new when others catch up... that is the real test, and with what I've seen so far, I don't think they will last... windows 8 may be to OS X that windows 95 was to os 9.

I can tell you right now since lion, OS X has become unreliable, limited, and as a server, unusable.

I do like my Apple TV, though its not perfect. Not sure why you think its "setting the tone" exactly though. Certainly it has distanced itself from some of its competitors like Roku, which some might argue has more content. But the XBox for example is far outselling the Apple TV and more people use it to stream say Netflix than use the Apple TV by a good margin, at least according to the Nielsen numbers. And Microsoft is continuing to plug away--adding Xfinity on Demand that doesn't count against your intent cap recently for example. I think Apple has some work to do myself...

dolph0291, on 03 June 2012 - 09:37 AM, said:

I agree, the UI on the Apple TV is the best.

ATV is simply the best piece of electronics you can buy for under $100. The functionality, utility and simplicity are simply amazing. I own three of them - one for the living room, one for the bedroom, and one for the road. Combine it with the Remote on an iPhone, iPod or iPad, and the one criticism you could make (entering text using the supplied remote is slow) disappears.

The real hurdle for the Apple TV, as for other set-top-boxes, is content. Right now content providers are falling all over themselves in the effort to make Internet access problematic. If Apple cannot get them all reading from the same page, I doubt anyone can. It remains to be seen if Tim Cook will have any more success than Steve Jobs did convincing them that Apple has a solution they can live with and profit from. The issue at the heart of the matter is monetization: how to make content distribution over the Internet pay for itself without cannibalizing existing income streams.

There are other issues, of course, bandwidth caps being the most significant secondary issue. Even if the confusion over content is sorted out it won't matter much if the bandwidth necessary to deliver that content is too expensive. Significant improvements in WiFi are on the horizon so the home network will be able to handle the traffic if and when these other issues are resolved.

Now, I wonder if Netflix is for sale? Apple would have to get over it's Blu-ray phobia, but if they can do that then buying Netflix would put them in the car-bird seat immediately. Imagine the leverage Apple and Netflix together could bring to the negotiating table with the content guys. On the other hand, if Apple cannot come to terms with Blu-ray, they'd best leave Netflix alone. We don't want them mucking up a good thing with their consumer hostile bias against Blu-ray. There's no way cable, let alone DSL, can deliver the video and audio quality of a Blu-ray disc. Steaming has a long way to go in that department.

HerbalEd, on 03 June 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

That's what it already - a couple clicks and my iPhone and iPad show up on my HDTV via Apple TV. My iPhone or iPad also make handy remotes for searching and playing content from Netflix, Apple's online services, You Tube and other offerings (it can be great fun creating your own programming with You Tube).

Surprised there is no comment/comparison to the Ikea TV - different, but similar.

HerbalEd, on 03 June 2012 - 03:28 PM, said:

The average Mac lasts between 7 to 10 years, so your statement is moot. I have and 8 year iMac and a 6 year old Power Mac with both 1st generation AppleTV and Second generation AppleTV, still working like champs on a daily basis. both 2 year old PC's in my house are no longer working or not connected to the Internet because they suck.