Looks like Apple will announce a new model of AppleTV very soon. Here is what I think it will be like.
The box will have HDMI in and HDMI out. You hook it up between your current cable box and TV, and it passes the video through, up to and including 1080p. The device can replace or overlay that video with its own. The CPU will be an Apple A4 or better, and the OS will be Apple iOS 4.1 or better. Main memory might be a small hard disk rather than a flash RAM as in the iPad.
The device can run all the App Store apps that the iPad can run. For touch input, you use a Magic Trackpad. These apps output iPad 1024×768 resolution. Watch video, play games, surf the net, do all the things you can do on an iPad. You can watch the Netflix and Hulu Plus apps, stream Pandora audio, download and watch podcasts and purchased or rented iTunes movies or TV shows.
New apps will be able to overlay their output on top of the pass-through video, allowing apps like a weather widget, a news or sports ticker, and so on. Multiplayer games will allow control via multiple Magic Trackpads.
I believe the device will sell for $199, with a Magic Trackpad included.
So, I believe the iTV or whatever it will be called will not be so much of a TV as it will be a wall-sized iPad. It will leverage the App Store as much, or more, than the iTunes store. Let’s see what happens!
It is a pity that they didn’t include a HDMI pass-thru option – lots of HDTVs have too few HDMI ports.
Your vision for AppleTV closely aligns with mine – Apple is making a move toward the “living room computer” – but Apple moves slowly and methodically, limiting functionality while using early adopters as test subjects and slowly refining their products.
In the iPad, Apple delivered something that I have been waiting for for the better part of a decade – the “coffee table computer” which I could use to browse the web, control my music on iTunes, etc. Turns out it does a lot more than I ever expected.
I do wonder if Apple plans on using AppleTV apps as a way of selling television programs (or channels) ala carte. Instead of getting HBO through cable, you could download the HBO App and pay monthy though an in-app purchase or subscription…
The AppleTV v2 *will* run apps, and it will be a cornerstone of the non-mobile part of their “computing for the masses” strategy. But our patience will be tested…