Apple TV

The next generation of Apple TV will feature the Netflix streaming-movie service, according to a report from the Bloomberg news service.

According to the Bloomberg report, Apple will debut the new feature along with the upgraded Apple TV during a media event the company has scheduled for Wednesday.

Apple TV users would need to pay Netflix's subscription rental fees to acquire the service, according to the report, which also said Apple will release a $99 version of Apple TV, $130 less than the current model.

This isn't much of a surprise. Netflix has worked closely to provide the … Read more

Long before the iPhone, the iPod was the device that helped transform Apple from computer company into a consumer electronics company.

But today, the ubiquitous music player has become less relevant to the company that essentially owns that product category. Apple still sells three-fourths of all MP3 players sold, but multifunction gadgets like the iPhone and iPad are getting the most attention from Apple customers, not to mention the rest of the electronics industry, and bringing in more revenue than iPods these days.

So when Apple convenes a special event in San Francisco to discuss music this Wednesday--as it has … Read more

Apple's big September music event, coming on the first day of next month, is less than a week away. But that still gives us plenty of time to wax philosophical on the whats and wherefores of the company's plans, as many techophiles are already doing.

This year, it's widely expected that Apple will add the "Retina" display and front-facing camera of the iPhone 4 to the iPod Touch. There's also been talk of changes afoot for Apple TV, including a scaled-down device, a much lower price tag of $99, and access to the App … Read more

We're hearing a lot about what might be announced by Apple at its now-annual September music event--but when will it be held?

On Tuesday, in a story about forthcoming 99-cent TV show rentals on iTunes, Bloomberg reported that Apple would hold an event September 7.

"Apple plans to hold a San Francisco event September 7, two weeks ahead of the start of the new prime-time TV season," according to the report, "to unveil the service and a refreshed line of entertainment products."

That's the same week Apple usually holds the event, but there's … Read more

Apple could be on the verge of giving users the option to rent television shows from its iTunes Store.

Citing "people familiar" with discussions between Apple and News Corp., Bloomberg reported Tuesday that 99-cent TV show rentals are being talked about. Users would have to watch the shows within 48 hours of purchasing the rental, according to the report.

The rental system sounds very similar to the one Apple uses for movie rentals on the iTunes Store, where users have a specified amount of time to watch the rented media before it expires.

Bloomberg also says Apple is … Read more

The Apple TV might soon be called the iTV. But U.K. television network iTV won't be happy about it.

Speaking to Pocket-Lint in an interview, Mike Large, iTV acting group director of communications, said his company values the iTV brand and has "vigorously defended" it in the past. He stopped short of saying iTV would go to court with Apple, but indicated his company plans on being the only firm to use the iTV name.

"iTV has a very strong brand, and a highly valued IP," Large told Pocket-Lint. He went on to say … Read more

That revamped Apple TV we heard about a few months ago? It might be headed our way shortly.

Apple TV has long been a "hobby" for Apple, a project the company considers a work in progress, not a flagship product like the iPhone or Mac. As such, there have been few changes to the video-streaming set-top box since its introduction in 2008.

In June, Engadget was told by some unnamed sources that a makeover for the device was coming--including a smaller footprint, iOS 4, the A4 chip, 1080p playback, 16GB of storage, and a $99 price tag.

On Wednesday, Engadget released updated expectations, citing the same sources, reporting that the same features are planned, with the exception of 1080p playback. The new Apple TV will not upgrade to 1080p, after all, but will continue to output 720p video, which matches the current capabilities of iTunes video. An iTunes-streaming service is expected to accompany its introduction.

But the report also includes some other interesting tidbits: that the device will have access to apps, like the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, something long been rumored and expected.

Perhaps more intriguing: Apple TV is getting a new name, according to the report. Well, an old new name. Apparently, Apple is rechristening the device iTV, which was the original name for Apple TV when it was first introduced.

Apple declined to comment.

While it's safe to say it's unusual for Apple to be so noncommittal on the name of a product that's already been shipped, Apple TV is a special case/"hobby." … Read more

A new Apple TV featuring 99-cent television show rentals is currently in the works, a report from GigaOm blog, NewTeeVee, claims.

According to NewTeeVee, which cited unnamed sources, Apple is currently trying to coax television studios into allowing the company to offer TV rentals for just 99 cents each on the as-yet announced new version of the Apple TV. Currently, Apple offers consumers the chance to buy television shows on its Apple TV set-top box for $1.99 for standard-definition episodes, and $2.99 for high-definition episodes.

Although details from NewTeeVee's sources are scant at this point, the blog … Read more

Like the lead-up to any big, annual Apple event, the weeks and months ahead of this year's WWDC brought the usual wash of rumors about new hardware, software, and online services.

The biggest unknown was not so much on the hardware side--as we all knew there was a new iPhone on the way (even what it looked like and whose fault that was), but the software and online services portion remained a mystery. This is typically the chunk of the WWDC keynote where Steve Jobs and company go into detail about the latest operating system tweaks and new software offerings.

There were rumors on both sides of the spectrum ranging from paid services like MobileMe going free and iTunes getting a streaming component to a fancy new wireless trackpad. Read on to get the details.

1. OS X 10.7

Apple's preview of OS X 10.6, nicknamed Snow Leopard, happened at 2008's WWDC. 10.5 was unveiled during 2006's keynote, and 10.4 in 2004's. Following that logic, 2010's show would bring a preview, or at least an acknowledgment that Apple had 10.7 in the oven. Though given the focus on Apple's iOS, and the shiny new device that will run on it, it's not all that surprising we didn't hear a peep.

An OS update, especially for the desktop, would have likely filled an hour or two on its own. Yet, the downside of this omission is that the eventual preview of that update will likely be shelved until next year's show, since WWDC is Apple's only big developer event of the year.

2. A developer preview for the iPad's iOS 4

When introducing OS 4 at a preview event back in April, Jobs said we'd be seeing a public release of it for the iPad sometime this fall. Again, logic would dictate that developers would get their hands on a build of the iPad 4.0 SDK at Apple's big developer event, alongside the first beta of the firmware for testing on real devices.

So why the no-show? Apple has likely had its hands full getting the iPhone and iPod Touch version of OS 4 ready to go in time for the iPhone 4 launch in two weeks. And developers only got their hands on the gold master candidate version of that late Monday. Maybe the delay was to include some new OS features being baked into the next batch of iPods this fall.

3. A Steve Ballmer appearance

In a note to investors, Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry claimed that Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer would be giving a seven-minute presentation of Visual Studio 2010 during the WWDC keynote. This was vehemently denied by Microsoft reps, then later retracted by Chowdhry, though many large news outlets (including us) picked up the story and ran with it.

There was some semblance of truth to the rumor of Microsoft having a presence at the keynote, in the form of Jobs announcing that Microsoft's Bing was now a search option in Safari, both on portable devices and on the desktop software.

4. iTunes streaming service

Like Apple's annual "buy a Mac, get a free iPod" promotion, which always manages to end just a few days before the company announces a new model, it seemed just a little too convenient music-streaming service Lala, which Apple bought back in December of last year, was being shut down just a week before WWDC.

Prior to Apple picking up the company, sources had told CNET that Apple was planning to purchase the company primarily for its music streaming technology and engineering talents. It seemed fair then (given the timing), that Apple would fill in the gap Lala.com's closure had left with something similar built right into iTunes, though that never came to fruition during Monday's keynote. Then again, given Apple's propensity for having its "music" events in September, we might just have to wait three months. … Read more