Apple's TV Dream Revealed

Over the last several months, Apple's vision for television has become clearer.

Thanks to work by Wall Street analyst Gene Munster on the hardware side and the New York Post's Claire Atkinson on the content and cable side, we now have a pretty good picture of what Apple wants to do:

• Build a TV set that is much cooler and easier to use than anything else out there

Read the rest of the features and future Apple strategy of TV launch: Business Insider

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Hackers Get iOS Apps Running On Apple TV At Full 720p Resolution

[ via Chip Hazard ] 1 Jan

Looks like it’s all work and no play for iOS developers Steven Toroughten-Smith and TheMudkip, as they have worked round the clock without celebrating the new year to successfully hack the 2nd generation Apple TV to run iOS apps at full resolution.

After getting Siri to work on older models, these developers started working on bringing compatibility for iOS apps on Apple TV and after successfully making it possible they now achieved to run the apps at full 720p resolution. 

Credit: Steve Troughton-Smith

A video was also released which showed the developers running the apps via custom springboard. However the compatibilty is still not official for public use at this time. At the time this hack serves only as a concept and it’s quite possible that such a hack would release in public which would definitely encourage Apple to make TV specific apps.

As Troughten points out, just like the treatment unofficial iPhone apps got back in 2007 which then made Apple to make an app store, same wold be the treatment expected with the current endeavor for Apple TV.

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Challenge for Apple In TV Market has nothing to do with the Television

[ via Business Insider ] 28 Dec

Apple's television set isn't being held back by technology problems, it's being held back by partnerships with big content companies, says Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu in an investor note today.

Apple wants to offer customizable channels for users, disrupting the cable industry as we know it. Understandably, Apple is getting resistance from the content providers like CBS, NBC, etc. who are generally happy with the cable model. (At least they know the cable companies. They don't really know Apple.)

Read more: Business Insider

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Apple's TV Plans Are Still 'Vague,' But Here's What They're Telling Media

[ via Business Insider ] 18 Dec

One of Steve Jobs' final visions was to reinvent TV, and he told his biographer Walter Isaacson earlier this year that he'd "cracked" it.

But despite Apple been meeting with top execs from content providers to describe its upcoming TV project, but the plans are still at the vision stage and Apple hasn't licensed any content for it yet.

Although Apple has made tall claims of their TV of the future in their meetings with media persons, one source familiar with the talks told the Journal that Apple's plans are still "vague," and the company doesn't know (or isn't saying) when the product will launch, or whether it will support traditional TV signals, or only have content from iTunes or another Apple service.

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