Apple Could Still Be Planning Television-Related Announcement for Late This Year

[bbeagle]

FYI, NEVER! It would have to pass the competition commission who would never allow it. Their would be far too many objections to the buy out across the industry, plus Apple hasn't got the money I doubt, you think it's going to buy iTV for a few billion and them dump the entire company and it's thousands of staff just for a name?

ITV's current market cap is 6.3 billion pounds (about 9.8 billion US dollars).
Apple currently has 145 billion dollars in the bank as cash.

So, Apple could DEFINITELY buy ITV if they really wanted to, in a hostile takeover by buying their stock, and still have 135 billion or so left.

ITV is super large and super powerful, but Apple is so much more so.

 

[gmcalpin]

As for the current Apple TV, it just needs content surely? It has a lot of competition out there and it's pricing isn't anything special, so it needs something pretty unique.

Well, part of opening up the SDK means there's gonna be games.

iOS 7 is already planning on supporting third party controllers, right? (What a coincidence.) And that makes more sense with AppleTV, really, than with an iPad.

So while I wouldn't call it a necessity, they're probably going to have Bluetooth 4.0 in the next AppleTV in order to pair with controllers more easily. (They're implementing this already, but using the iPad/iPhone's Bluetooth, since the current AppleTV doesn't have 4.0.)

Definitely gonna need expanded storage space, if they're going to support 4K content. They're huge.

For 4K content, you'll likely need a new box. For games, maybe not? Just guesses, of course.

 

[OllyW]

Theoretically, iTV is worth $750million.
Apple has over $120 billion in cash ... so yes they could buy them out IF they were for sale.
Don't get your knickers in a bunch mate!

Where's do you get $750 million from? ITV's market cap on the LSE is over £6 billion.

 

[sonicrobby]

FYI, NEVER! It would have to pass the competition commission who would never allow it. Their would be far too many objections to the buy out across the industry, plus Apple hasn't got the money I doubt, you think it's going to buy iTV for a few billion and them dump the entire company and it's thousands of staff just for a name? And again the competition commision would never allow it.

So unless you people are going to also conclude Apple is going to own it's own UK based TV production and broadcasting company that it will have to run and support, or that Apple will somehow persuade the competition commission's plus all the Apple share holders it's a great idea to totally damage it's public image and name, by spending billions for a product name and then throwing thousands of people out of a job,

THEN IT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN, GET IT IN YOUR HEADS!

Dont be so serious, we are calling it iTV for the purpose of no better name for it. No Apple will not buy iTV, and why those 2 are fighting over if Apple could or not is sort of moot, since they have no actual control over any of it. It doesnt matter.

Mark my words, there will not be an Apple TV set.

I would mark your words if they meant something. what i read was "I dont think there will be an Apple TV set". You nor anyone else has access to Apple's future. What they decide to do in 50 years no one knows. So try not to use definitives such as "there will no be" when you dont actually know for sure.

 

[musicianm]

Where's do you get $750 million from? ITV's market cap on the LSE is over £6 billion.

Sorry, just got the first part of WIKI's little detail from a google search.

 

[Moonjumper]

What new ways are left? Foot control?

Maybe they are going back to old-school dials on the TV set. Oh wait, LG have just done that.

 

[gmcalpin]

Mark my words, there will not be an Apple TV set.

With an AppleTV, any monitor is a TV. So Apple already makes Apple TV sets… from a certain point of view.

 

[macchiato2009]

Wow, it's been a long time we didn't have a stupid rumor about the Apple "TV"

let me guess, Macrumors will talk about the Apple watch soon ?

 

[sonicrobby]

Maybe they are going back to old-school dials on the TV set. Oh wait, LG have just done that.

Image

I like the retro look of it, but kind of impractical nowadays But hey, start getting the overweight population of America to move to change the channel, it may not be a bad idea.

 

[blodyholy]

Regarding the non-voice control aspect of this story, I wonder if "iWatch" could represent a double meaning...

...or maybe, iWatch isn't a watch at all.

 

[charlituna]

I used to love the interface too...until I ditched a cable box in my bedroom and started using the AppleTv exclusively.

My issue with the ATV interface was two fold

1. Music, movies etc took and might still take you to the stores. To me it was more logical to go to your local shared collection with a link at the top to the store or even a separate store icon.

2. The icons. They are way worse than anything in iOS 7 to me.

What makes more sense to me is an interface that looks and works like iOS. Same looks, same content, same organization control so you can put the apps you don't use at the bottom etc. Make the remote app such that it's a mirror of the screen. Tap music and the ATV music app opens.

Another thing hardware/OS wise I would like to see is a lot more storage. Like 64gb even. With that give us the ability to have the system preload season passes etc. So like say I get the pass for Hannibal. I select it as a preload and on Tuesday when it hits the storage my ATV downloads it so it's ready for me to watch when I get home.

Other things I would like to see are subtitle and language support across iOS. And with the Apple TV a second screen mode where users can choose to put feature stuff on an iOS device or picture in picture on the TV.

 

[Elbon]

who cares, roku is way better than apple TV

Why are you here?

 

[charlituna]

i wonder how their recommendation app will work

It won't be an app. They will roll the tech into their store

 

[JayJayAbels]

What it should do:

1. Allow me to subscribe (for a reasonable price) to only the channels I want. Apple should bypass cable entirely and work directly with the networks to stream live TV. Don't know how possible this is, though.

2. The remote control should be any ios device (including the iwatch). If using an iphone or ipad the interface should not be simply scrolling and play/pause. It should allow for content search, reviews, and then play what you've found. Social media tie ins would also happen so you can see what your friends are watching.

3. It should allow for other 3rd party content as well (e.g. Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, etc). Ideally, this would be tied into the content search capabilities, but if the 3rd party doesn't have an API for that, just launch.

4. When displaying live TV, there needs to be a record option.

^ This.

 

[charlituna]

Could it be something as simple as a box (Apple TV) that interfaces with an existing cable box that allows you to customize the look (icons) and location of your channels?

More likely Apple will try to kill the cable box. Make it all app based with more things like HBOGO etc.

Why customization would be via having the same 'folder' scheme as iOS devices. So then you could put things together by topic if you like. Sports might be your ESPN sports news plus NHL, MLB etc. News you could out CNN, WSJ etc. General might be YouTube, Vimeo, Vine. And so on.

 

[MJD Dawg]

The simplest way.

Mind Control.

The iThink.

So if it doesn't work properly, what would Apple say:

"You're thinking it wrong?"

 

[tekno]

this.

+1

 

[2bikes]

I`m not going to jump on the rumors but there are whispers that are not rumors but people are whispering and there are rumors which I don't want to get in to from people that whisper.

 

[cube]

Make expandable 2 and 4-socket Mac Pros first.

 

[charlituna]

As it stands the Apple TV is crap unless you meet a certain criteria (i.e Live in the US and like channels X and Y). It needs to be opened up.

That is the bigger issue. HBOGo requires a cable subscription with a company what wants to play nice. BBC etc are restricted geographically.
If Apple could get those kinds of things opened up it would be a huge draw to their system and possibly lessen casual pirating

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

Apple rarely (never?) invents new means of control - they normally get ideas from smaller companies and run with them.

Mouse came from Xerox, Multitouch came from Perspective Pixel, Voice came from Nuance...

They acquired some company that could track a ring you wore on your finger or something... maybe they'll use that for this? I can't see how that would be any better than Microsoft's Kinect, though, and Apple doesn't normally do what other companies have done unless they can come up with a better (generally simpler) way of doing it... my understanding is Kinect is already pretty dang simple.

I'm surprised Apple didn't buy Leap Motion.

 

[asthamapheo]

maybe a REAL apple TV, not a set-top box. apple should get in the TV industry, it has great potential, it can increase apple's revenue by billions

 

[charlituna]

Mark my words, there will not be an Apple TV set.

I disagree. There will be. But it's not what folks think.

 

[musicianm]

who cares, roku is way better than apple TV, apple will have to bring out something really significant, something really "must-have" if they want me to join their ship.
i wonder how their recommendation app will work

But... but.. it doesn't have mirroring???

 

[whtrbt7]

802.11ac support, 3D movie streaming, added "app" from content providers, and better airplay.