The rumors, frankly, sound extravagant, even fanciful:

• 60″ Apple HDTV
• 9.7″ Apple mini iTV for second screen experiences
• Apple iRing to wear and control your TV with gestures
• View content on your mini iTV up to 200 meters (656 feet) from your Apple HDTV
• Add up to four iTVs for each Apple HDTV
• Home security applications and integrations
• Video conference (FaceTime) and phone call integration
• Siri integration
• And yes, lest we forget, iWatch integration
• $1,500-2,500

Source: YankoDesign

An iPhone-controlling ring

They also sound very very cool and compelling, and perhaps just the thing Steve Jobs was talking about when he told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “cracked” the essence of the TV experience.

According to White, who says he learned this information at least partially by checking with component suppliers in Asia, “the ‘iTV’ ecosystem represents a major innovation for the $100 billion LCD TV industry that will revolutionize the TV experience forever.”

That’s a mark in the rumor’s favor, actually, in two ways.

Apple needs to revolutionize something, soon. After the computer (arguable, I know), the phone (not so arguable), and the tablet, Apple needs new device markets to reinvent. While still huge and critical, the phone and tablet markets have major competition at lower price levels and similar sophistication levels, meaning that profits are going to be drained from that swamp.

With Apple stock at year-long lows and analysts attacking the company almost daily, Apple needs something to reinvigorate itself.

And, Apple needs to approach markets with an ecosystem point of view. That’s exactly what won it the smartphone market and tablet market, and that’s the only way to build a somewhat defensible moat against the competition that inevitably arrives in any hot new space.

That all said, there are major challenges here.

TV is a massive market, with massive competitors — including Apple arch-rival Samsung. And it depends heavily on wealthy, entrenched enterprises with interests in content creation and transmission … and interests in maintaining control of those activities. Even more of a challenge, the TV market is commoditized, with little profit on the device side.

In addition, these rumors have been coming for so long that an Apple HDTV is almost a joke. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, for one, has been predicting the Apple TV since 2009, continuing in 2012. We have yet to see the product, and it’s a challenging one to anticipate, not least because Apple has an Apple TV set-top product, which tends to cloud the waters in conversations with suppliers and analysts.

So a good dose of skepticism is well-advised.

But where there is smoke, there’s often fire. And, of course, Apple has done this before. The above description of the TV market would have been a pretty good view of the mobile market before iPhone. And, as someone who wants to see Apple tackle massive challenges and innovate hidebound industries, I hope the rumors are true.

Certainly the timing is right for a 2013 Black Friday and Christmas shopping schedule.

Image credit: YankoDesign; Hat tip: 9to5Mac

After more than six months of neglect, Hulu’s design team has finally started paying some attention to its Apple TV app.

The original Hulu app for the device was welcomed with open arms by Apple TV owners, who patiently watched as nearly ever other set-top box gained access. That said, the old app was sort of boring and wasn’t very useful if you were just looking for something random to watch on the service. I’m not exactly sure how much of it can be blamed on Hulu, as the company was rumored to have gone through a lengthy approval process before being granted entrance to the device.

The latest update, however, brings a brand news user interface to the app that really opens up Hulu’s library of content. The old side bar navigation was replaced with a menu bar at the top that simplifies all the major categories of content (hot, TV, movies, Latino, Queue, etc.). The design team also replaced the side scrolling thumbnails of TV shows that occupied half of the screen (similar to how Apple displays album artwork while you’re browsing your music library on the device). Now, you’ll see a horizontal carousel of TV shows that changes automatically, which is similar to what you’d see on Hulu’s desktop website homepage. Also like the homepage are horizontal categories of shows, episodes, and clips.

The show pages have also been redesigned to make much more sense for people accessing Hulu via television. The left side of the screen features a thumbnail of the current episode along with a summarized description. It is worth noting that the episode description text is way too small, and pretty much be useless for anyone with a smaller screen and/or someone watching TV from across the room. On the other side is a list of episodes for a single season, complete with the length of each episode and thumbnails. It’s a nice change of pace from the old version of the app.

The Hulu app update also has some other nice additional functionality to help you get what you want quicker — or in other words, the developers take care not to waste your time. For instance, clicking the play button on a thumbnail will automatically play the most current episode of that TV show. You can also toggle on subtitles using the remote, thus eliminating another thing that would otherwise interrupt your viewing experience.

You’ll still need to pay the $8 per month for Hulu Plus to gain access to the new app, but if you’re a heavy Hulu user you probably already are. And in that case, the latest Apple TV update should make you very happy.

Feel like being disappointed? If your answer is “no,” then you probably shouldn’t read about the latest awesome rumor about the Apple TV.

Apple is allegedly planning a special event for March that could introduce a software development kit (SDK) for the Apple TV, according to a research note to investors from Jefferies analyst Peter Misek. Basically, an SDK would allow developers to start submitting applications that would be optimized for your television screen and available for purchase via Apple TV. It could be the start of a whole new era of TV — and even gaming — by some predictions.

Just like chronically incorrect Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Misek is under the assumption that Apple will eventually release a television set, which is what the SDK would pave the way for. He also expects the fabled Apple television set will have a screen size in the range of 42-inches to 55-inches that costs about $1,500.

And while Misek doesn’t expect Apple to mention the TV set at the rumored March event, he does anticipate that the Apple TV SDK will be available in September or October of this year.

But before you get too excited, it’s worth noting that most analysts have been absolutely wrong regarding Apple’s television plans, as VentureBeat previously pointed out. There’s also the reports that Apple is putting any of its TV plans on hold, which seems likely considering the company’s lack of enthusiasm about Apple TV during its last quarterly earnings call. Also, Misek’s predictions were dismissed with a simple “Nope” by The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, who has a decent track record for calling out Apple rumors.

Apple really hasn’t added much to the Apple TV in terms of media partners lately. Perhaps the biggest addition in months came yesterday with the news that HBO Go’s iOS app would now work on Apple TV via Airplay, but without a native app. That said, an SDK would certainly reinvigorate Apple’s set-top box.

Via MacRumors

Photo by Rob Boudon/Flickr

Rumors that Apple was working on bringing HBO’s streaming-video counterpart HBO Go to its Apple TV set-top box last week proved half-true today.

HBO Go’s iOS apps now work with the Airplay feature starting today, according to HBO president Eric Kessler during an interview at the D: Dive into Media conference. Anyone who has an iPhone or iPad and a existing subscription to HBO from their cable or satellite TV provider can now watch the streaming service from their Apple TV-enabled television screen.

HBO Go provides on-demand access to hundreds of movies and a complete library of all HBO original programming, such as the The Sopranos, True Blood, Newsroom, and Game of Thrones. This is probably a big win for anyone who stuck it out with the Apple TV as other streaming devices, like the Roku or Xbox Live, gained access to HBO Go nearly a year ago.

It also begs the question of whether Apple will eventually add a native application for HBO Go on the Apple TV in the near future — say before the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 3, maybe?.

Photo by Tom Cheredar/VentureBeat

The OLED Association says that Lee played a senior role in LG’s project to create a printed AMOLED TV. Printed products are created using a 3D printing process that essentially builds the entire product, layer by layer, simultaneously, as opposed to conventional products that are fabricated with individual components that are then fitted together.

Rumor mill, start your engines: This obviously means that Apple is now working on an actual flat-screen Apple TV.

Source: LinkedIn

James Lee

Apart from presumably well-medicated analysts who have been predicting Apple’s imminent launch of an Apple TV for years now, we’ve seen no real sign of an actual hang-it-on-your-wall Apple living-room device. But it’s worth noting that Apple builds a lot of devices with a lot of screens — tens of millions of iPads, iPhones, laptops, iMacs, and monitors — all of which could benefit from improved screen technology.

Interestingly, Panasonic recently unveiled a ultrahigh-def 4K AMOLEd TV that was printed, not conventionally fabricated, at CES in Las Vegas.

AMOLED stands for Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode, and it is an advanced version of OLED with higher screen refresh rates, lower power consumption, and higher contrast ratios. 4K televisions have four times the resolution of standard high-def TVs, with a resolution of 3,840 pixels by 2,160 pixels. Apple’s existing 15-inch retina MacBook Pros have a resolution of 2,880-by-1,800 pixels.

I’ve contacted Apple PR, but the company has not yet responded.

photo credit: jcoterhals via photopin cc, Hat tip: C|Net

Rumors are now circulating that Apple is currently in negotiations with Time Warner to bring the HBO Go app to its Apple TV set-top boxes later this year.

HBO Go is the streaming video service of the premium cable channel of the same name. This provides on-demand access to hundreds of movies and a complete library of all HBO original programming, such as the The Sopranos, True Blood, Newsroom, and Game of Thrones. The only catch is that you must already be subscribed to HBO through a cable or satellite TV provider, which costs anywhere from $15 to $40 on top of your regular monthly subscription bill.

The news, which comes from a Bloomberg report citing anonymous sources, might have been exciting a year ago when HBO Go first came to competitor Roku’s line of streaming devices, Xbox Live, iOS devices, and a handful of others. This is especially true when considering all of HBO Go’s setbacks.

In addition to not being able to pay for HBO Go as a standalone service (like you would with Netflix), it also requires authentication that you subscribe to a cable service before it gives you access. And not all cable providers enable their customers to access HBO Go seamlessly. Such is the case with Comcast, which only permits subscribers to use HBO Go via Xbox Live but not the Roku or iOS apps.

The point is, adding a HBO Go app to Apple TV isn’t going to make the device more exciting. At best, it’ll probably defer a few long-time Apple customers from buying a Roku or upgrading their television to a new Samsung Smart TV if they really want HBO Go.

Apple is clearly not making the Apple TV a priority, as we’ve previously pointed out, and the company dragging its feet on HBO Go is just another example.

Photo by Tom Cheredar

Apple sold more than 2 million Apple TV units in Q4 2012, which is about 60 percent higher compared to sales during the same period a year ago, the company said today during its quarterly earnings call.

And while those are relatively impressive sales figures, it seems clear Apple has no idea what to do with the Apple TV.

“What was a small niche at one time of people that love it is [now] a much larger number,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook of the Apple TV during the call. “It’s an area of intense interest for us. There is a lot we can contribute to the space. But I don’t want to be more specific.”

I’m not sure I buy Cook’s awkward comments, especially since Apple has been saying the same thing about Apple TV for quite a while now. A product that is selling well without lots of marketing and has lots of potential is something worth talking about.

That doesn’t mean Apple isn’t interested in delving further into consumer TVs, but it could mean that the company has reached a brick wall in terms of what it can do with the Apple TV set-top box.

Cook shot down a question about Apple’s interest in producing a company-branded television set from Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, a long-time proponent of such a device.

I love my parents, and I always I do whatever I can to upgrade their daily dose of technology whenever I can. But when it comes to watching television, they’ve made one thing abundantly clear: They’re not cutting the cord.

So for them and several others with loved ones who feel the same (siblings, brother- and sister-in-laws, best friends, and so on), I’ve put together a gift guide to help the proud cable TV subscribers upgrade their viewing experience. We’re not talking about replacing cable TV with Internet video here — just augmenting it.

Upgrading the remote: Samsung Galaxy Tab + Peel app

Most universal remote controls are overly complicated and contain an exuberant amount of buttons, most of which are unnecessary for each device. Instead, I suggest picking up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 ($199-$349), which contains the same IR technology used in remote controls. And once you’ve done that, make sure to download the Peel Android app (free).

Peel lets you set the channel guide to your local TV provider’s channel lineup. You can then track only the channels you actually watch. Instead of the standard grid-guide view, Peel shows you only the shows you’re interested in, grouped into genres and using familiar artwork. It even goes a step further and lets you stop tracking the shows you never, ever, ever want to watch (like the majority of all reality television shows and major sitcoms).

Upgrading the DVR: Boxee TV

You know those commercials DirecTV is playing that emphasize the growing strife between couples who are unable to adequately record all the TV shows they want to watch? Well, the Boxee team sympathizes, which is why it pivoted its company to start producing a new Boxee TV set-top box ($99) that allows you to record an unlimited amount of shows for one monthly fee ($15 per month). All your shows are available “in the cloud,” so you’ll need to have an adequate Internet connection. That shouldn’t be that big of a deal for anyone already spending $100 a month on their cable bill. Check out our hands-on of the Boxee TV for a closer look at how it works.

Upgrading the cable box: Xbox 360 + Xbox Live

If you’ve already got an Xbox 360 around the house that isn’t getting as much use as it should, this could be a good option for Comcast and Verizon FiOS subscribers. (If you don’t have one, a new Xbox starts at $199.) Microsoft has teamed up with these cable providers to essentially replace their own cable boxes with the Xbox 360 console. That means the channel navigation is faster and much prettier than what’s usually offered on the standard box. And as a side note, the Xbox can also give you access to HBO Go, Hulu, Netflix, and more. You’ll need to sign up for an Xbox Live Gold account, which costs $45 for a year.

Upgrading movie rentals: Roku

I can’t be the only person in the world who automatically cringes when I see my parents spending $6-$8 on a movie rental through their cable provider. I’ve suggested they use Redbox as an alternative or break down and buy a set-top box. Well, this year I’m just going to go ahead and buy my folks a Roku ($50-$100), which gives them plenty of options to rent and buy new releases from a variety of providers. The few come to mind immediately are Vudu, Amazon Prime, Flixster, and M-Go.

Upgrading photo/video sharing: Apple TV

If your family members are exclusively iPhone/iPad users, the Apple TV ($99) is a no brainer. You’ll be able to rent or buy movies/TV shows from iTunes, watch Netflix and Hulu, and, probably the most important part, share all your photos, videos, and such on a big screen TV via Apple’s Airplay feature. It’s very easy to use, so I’m guessing you’ll only have to walk your family through the process once before they get the hang of it.

TV upgrade image via iQoncept/Shutterstock

Ever since Apple chief exec Tim Cook publicly mentioned that the company’s television product efforts are no longer a pet project, everything old is new again when it comes to rumors.

And the latest old/new rumor indicates that the company has taken another baby step by testing the product outside its offices.

Apple typically tests its new products in-house, but now the company is conducting some tests for a large-screen television through an outside manufacturer, according to a Wall Street Journal report that cites unnamed sources familiar with the matter. The manufacturer is supposedly Hon Hai (aka Foxconn), which is working with TV maker Sharp to test large-screen LCD panels for what could be an Apple television set.

But before you start adding it to your Christmas list, one of the WSJ sources was quoted as saying  the Apple television “isn’t a formal project yet. It is still in the early stage of testing.”

The report is great and all, but it doesn’t really contain anything we haven’t heard before. First of all, Sharp and Hon Hai have a joint venture in producing LCD screens, so both the partnership and Foxconn readying its factories for LCD production isn’t new information. Also, we first heard rumors that Apple was in talks with Sharp on 32- and 37-inch screens that could be used for an Apple-branded TV set nearly a year ago.

So, essentially, we don’t know anything new about the Apple television set — except that the company might possibly, kinda be further along in getting it produced. Maybe.

In the most showy hint yet that Apple is building a television set, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a new interview that the TV set was a relic from the past and that his company is intensely interested in changing that.

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook said during an interview on Rock Center with Brian Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

Apple analysts have been speculating for years that Apple would release its own TV set, but it has not been released or announced. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has been particularly bullish on the coming device, predicting Apple will debut its branded television sets in November 2013. He predicted that two versions of the Apple television will come at that time — a 47-inch set and a 55-inch model that should cost between $1,500 to $2,000.

Steve Jobs also talked about an Apple television set in his official biography by Walter Isaacson. “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” Jobs said. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. … It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

During the same interview with Rock Center, Cook also announced that Apple will spend more than $100 million to bring some Mac production back to the United States in 2013.

Tim Cook photo: VentureBeat

With use at an all-time high for Xbox Live members, Microsoft could be planning to debut a new, cost-effective set-top box for streaming media.

The information comes from a report by The Verge, which cites unnamed sources familiar with the plans. The “Xbox TV” device would offer users a striped-down hardware version of the Xbox 360 console that’s optimized to play videos, music, and online games. It’ll run core components of Windows 8, and apparently scheduled for a 2013 holiday released date.

The new, cheaper Xbox TV is part of Microsoft’s plan to make sure its digital media efforts can scale across multiple devices, according to The Verge’s source. That makes sense because, if Microsoft wants to seriously take on Apple and Google, it’ll need to ensure that more people have access to Xbox Live through their television sets.

Apple and Google also have set-top boxes at a $99 price point, which is something Microsoft will need to remedy if the Xbox TV rumors prove true.

On a related note, Microsoft was also rumored to be working on a new Cloud TV service last week. It’s possible that these two rumors are related, but of course we won’t know until Microsoft makes an official announcement.

We’re reaching out to Microsoft for further comment, and will update the post with any new information.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has some new predictions about the highly rumored Apple television product, which could revolutionize the TV content industry as we know it.

Munster laid out the company’s product and software plans for the following year in a recent report, which indicates that Apple will debut its branded television sets in November 2013. In terms of specifics, Munster predicts that two versions of the Apple television — a 47-inch set and a 55-inch model — that should cost $1,500 to $2,000. Those sizes are larger than the 32-inch and 37-inch Apple TV set rumors mentioned last year.

One thing to note about Munster’s Apple Television predictions is that they are seasonal — sort of like holidays. This is actually his third prediction. The first came in 2009, when Munster claimed Apple would launch a television in 2011. However, he later went back on that information and pushed the launch to 2012. And now, Munster says we have to wait another year.

Munster’s predictions also aren’t consistent with others we’ve heard in the past several months. The most noticeable difference is that Apple had decided against producing its own television set in favor of an advanced streaming media set-top box that would work in conjunction with cable and satellite TV service providers. This was done because Apple was having problems partnering with TV providers. And more recently, Jefferies & Co. analyst James Kisner said that an Apple Television launch was “imminent.”

The television prediction was far from the only thing Munster predicted in his recent report. The analyst also outlined the full product launch schedule for the company. Apple kicks off 2013 in March with a new retina display-ready iPad mini, letting developers submit apps for the company’s $99 Apple TV set-top box, and the launch of Apple’s Internet radio service. Over the summer Apple will show off iOS 7 , a new version of OS X, and retina display Macbook Airs. September will see Apple announce an iPhone 5S and radically upgraded iPad mini.

Via BusinessInsider; iTV concept art by Guilherme Schasiepen

Apple may have sold 1.3 million Apple TVs during the fourth quarter, but that doesn’t mean the device isn’t still a hobby.

“If you look at the size of revenue for this business, it’s still quite small, so [Apple TV] still has the hobby label,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during Apple’s conference call this afternoon.

“But it’s a beloved hobby,” he added.

The “hobby” line is one that Apple has been toeing for a long while now — so the biggest surprise is that Cook is repeating it now. But it’s telling that Apple continues to downplay the Apple TV’s importance despite the device’s increasing sales.

Cook said that Apple sold a total of 5.3 million Apple TVs this fiscal year, almost double the 2.8 million it sold in 2011. But those numbers are still tiny in comparison to, say,  the 26.9 million iPhones Apple sold in just the last quarter.

Yet despite the non-yet-blockbuster sales of the Apple TV, Cook says he’s still confident there is some major potential in the product. ”We’ll continue to pull the string and see where it takes us,” he said.

Photo: Flickr/ Rob Boudon

Apple’s finally going to start streaming its events live again — starting with today’s Apple event, where we expect the iPad Mini to debut, on the Apple TV. Update: Apple just announced that it will stream the event online as well, but only for Mac and iOS users.

Apple TV owners will be able to watch the event via a special “Apple Events” app, MacRumors reports. The event is scheduled to begin today at 10 a.m. Pacific.

Apple hasn’t offered a livestream of an event since October 2010 (that was also only viewable on iOS devices). It’s unclear why Apple has gone so long without streaming its events, as I can’t imagine the cost is much of an issue. Perhaps the company finds it useful to let the media do most of its publicity work when it comes to events.

The Apple Events app also lets you view several older events — clearly catering to the Apple faithful.

VentureBeat will be on the ground at today’s event, so check back for updates and our live blog! We’re also hearing that Apple may debut a 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro and some refreshed computers.

What were you doing at 7 a.m. this beautiful Saturday morning?

If you were one of the 12 construction workers building Apple’s new “prototype” store in Palo Alto, Calif., you were working hard as the sun came up. Seven workers were pouring concrete, and another five were working on the roof.

Since hiring construction workers to be on the job early Saturday usually means paying them double time (or at least time and a half), that suggests that the contractor is in a big hurry to get the job done before a hard deadline. That could be October, when Apple is rumored to be planning another major announcement — perhaps for the iPad mini, but also possible for a new TV product from Apple.

Apple hasn’t officially acknowledged that this store belongs to it. But many details, including the store’s design, strongly suggest that it is a new Silicon Valley flagship location for the consumer electronics giant. In addition, the store’s location puts it directly adjacent to two of the highest-bandwidth Internet connection points in the Valley: the Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX) and a big AT&T switching facility. The store includes direct connections to both of these facilities, which suggests that it has an unusually high need for fast, low-latency Internet connectivity.

In short, it’s a fantastic location for a showcase of streaming video and Internet TV products.

It’s circumstantial evidence. But it’s another strong suggestion that Apple is planning to unveil a new TV product in October.

The photo above show the storefront as it appears today. Below, planning documents show what the storefront will soon look like.

Top photo: VentureBeat. Bottom image: Via Palo Alto Online.

If cable service providers want help revolutionizing the television industry, they definitely have funny way of asking for it.

During the Goldman Sachs Communacopia investor conference today, Time Warner Cable President Rob Marcus said his company would be interested in selling TV subscriptions using third-party technology under the right circumstances. Essentially, TWC is willing to give up control on certain aspects of the subscription experience (like the user interface) as long as it continues to deal with its customers directly.

To translate, that means TWC is open to the idea of using an independent set-top box as a replacement cable device.

Last month, rumors claimed that Apple was in discussions with TWC about a partnership allowing cable subscribers to use an Apple device to access content, as VentureBeat previously reported. The rumored Apple device allegedly would mix the innovation and developer enthusiasm of Apple’s App Store with the current pay-TV subscription cable and satellite services. However, the rumors also indicate that discussions weren’t going anywhere because Apple wanted more control than TWC was willing to give.

Having now used TWC’s user interface for a month, I can say with certainty that it prohibits me from watching a lot of cable TV content. I spend far more time on my Roku and Xbox watching Netflix and Amazon Prime than I do Time Warner’s live broadcast channels or OnDemand content.

That said, TWC’s cable TV interface is awful and should be entirely replaced. I’m guessing the company knows that, but it’s still a bit skittish when it comes to turning over the keys to its otherwise successful television subscription business.

While Marcus’ comment don’t necessarily confirm that rumors of its alleged discussions with Apple are true, it certainly adds credibility to the idea that the cable provider wants help revamping its cable television service.

At the same time, TWC could be positioning itself for offers from other set-top box/platform providers. After all, Marcus didn’t specifically mention Apple in his commentary. Roku is currently partnering with Dish Network, and Microsoft’s Xbox Live platform has deals set up with Comcast’s Xfinity TV, AT&T’s Uverse, and Verizon’s FiOS.

Via AllThingsD

Apple iTV mockup by Guilherme Schasiepen/Flickr

Yet another report has surfaced indicating that Apple won’t be releasing a new Apple television device this year, or for the foreseeable future.

The new device allegedly would mix the innovation and developer enthusiasm of Apple’s App Store for iOS devices with the current pay-TV subscription cable and satellite services. However, to accomplish success, Apple needs to forge partnerships with the media companies that produce popular TV content and ally with a cable TV provider allowing Apple’s new device to be used in place of a regular cable box.

Thus far, Apple hasn’t been very successful in its negotiations with media and cable companies, which put its plans for a revolutionary TV device on hold for the time being, according to a recent Bloomberg report. One of the main disagreements centered on how to sell the device. Apple obviously wants to sell it directly to consumers via its online store and many retail locations. Cable companies, on the other hand, are leaning towards distributing it along with a TV service agreement.

Bloomberg’s report lines up with early information indicating that Apple was hitting a brick wall in its content licensing discussions with major broadcast networks, as VentureBeat previously reported.

Some speculate that Time Warner Cable was the most likely candidate to partner with Apple, much in the same way that the technology giant partnered with AT&T to launch the iPhone.

Regardless of what Apple’s plans are for the television industry, it seems we won’t see any solid developments for quite a while.

Apple iTV mockup by Guilherme Schasiepen/Flickr

Apple is building a new store in the heart of Silicon Valley with an extremely high-bandwidth connection to one of the Internet’s major hubs.

With the 16,600-square-foot, two-story store, Apple will be trying out a “new prototype” of its retail environment, according to documents filed with the architectural review board in Palo Alto, Calif., where the store is located. Along with the familiar all-glass storefront and the prominent use of stone, the new store will include interior trees and a skylight.

It will also be linked to one of the busiest and highest-capacity access points on the Internet, the Palo Alto Internet Exchange (PAIX), which will give Apple the ability to demonstrate bandwidth-hungry services — such as live, streaming video — to hundreds of individual customers at a time.

Photographs of the building site at 340 University Ave. in Palo Alto, as well as construction documents filed with the city of Palo Alto, strongly suggest the company’s plans. None of the public documents name Apple, and the storefront does not yet carry the company’s name, but multiple strands of evidence point towards the site’s ultimate tenant being Apple.

• The architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, which submitted the architectural review for the site in 2010, has designed many Apple stores around the world.
• At the time of the architectural review, Palo Alto city officials were convinced Apple would be the store’s ultimate tenant, based on the details of the application. “It was clear, when they said where the sign was going to go and when they talked about the project details, who the tenant would be,” an architectural review board member said, according to Palo Alto Online in 2010. “It was just really obvious.”
• The construction firm overseeing the remodel of the site is DPR Construction, which also built Apple’s flagship store in downtown San Francisco.

As for the location, it’s just one block from the current Palo Alto Apple store. But the new location is just around the corner from PAIX, on Bryant Street. Located in the old “Telephone Co. Building,” PAIX is an interconnection point for Internet service providers including Equinix, Bell Telephone Canada, and others. Although crowded, this site still offers massive pipes for anyone who needs to send and receive a lot of data and wants to get its equipment close to the Internet’s major backbones. For instance, Facebook is a PAIX tenant.

PAIX is a high-security facility, whose windows have been replaced with opaque barriers. Guards and surveillance cameras guard the site. Behind PAIX and adjacent to the new retail storefront is a large private switching facility for AT&T.

Notably, the current construction connects the Apple store (or whatever it is) with both PAIX and the AT&T building. Plans filed with the city of Palo Alto call for a pedestrian tunnel, presumably leading between the Apple store and the telco facilities next to it.

Why would Apple need such high-bandwidth neighbors for its “prototype” store? Well, one explanation is that it wants to give the best possible showing to new video services, such as a revamped Apple TV. The company was recently reported to be negotiating with cable companies to offer them an Apple-made set-top box that would work with cable services, and it’s reportedly building a Apple TV that will blur the distinction between live and on-demand video.

But what if Apple decided to offer an Apple TV that worked with its own internet service, bypassing the cable providers that have so far rebuffed it? It certainly has the data centers and high-bandwidth server centers capable of delivering live video; it’s long been a leader in streaming video over the internet.

If you were showing off video services to an eager public, you’d want to make extra sure that your storefront had the best, most reliable, highest-bandwidth connections to the Internet. In other words, you’d want to make those connections as close to major interconnection points as possible.

340 University Ave. would be a very good location indeed.

Image credits: VentureBeat, Google Maps, Palo Alto Online

Apple reportedly plans to build a new device that replaces its current Apple TV and blends live and on-demand content. The Wall Street Journal, following up on a report yesterday, said today that the new set-top box from the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant will simplify how we access and view TV content.

Apple is in talks with cable companies to allow consumers to use Apple TV as their main set-top box and use it to view TV shows stored on the Internet. One cool feature is reportedly similar to Time Warner Cable’s Start Over. It will allow someone to start watching a show from the beginning, even if it has just begun playing at its scheduled time.

The device is expected to have a user interface resembling the navigation icons on Apple’s iPad. That design is subject to change, but the interface is expected to be easier to use than current cable TV user interfaces. Users will be able to share TV shows through services like Twitter. And Apple wants users to be able to access shows from iPhones or iPads. Apple declined comment on the matter to the Wall Street Journal.

It is reportedly in talks with Time Warner Cable as well as other entertainment companies that own their own TV content. That’s because entertainment companies may have to extend additional rights to enable Apple to deploy its box. Apple has had trouble getting those rights so far. The set-top box is part of Apple’s plan to succeed in the living room and make its Apple TV product into more than a hobbyist’s curiosity. Apple’s sales of Apple TV have been weak to date, at least in comparison to its iPhones and iPad sales. Any deal with the cable companies will be hard to achieve because of the fear that Apple would dominate the industry in the future.

Apple’s TV ambitions may be going through some changes.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Apple is trying to convince cable operators to pipe their content through an Apple-made set-top box.

If true, the report suggests that Apple is backing away from its rumored goal to license television content though its own Internet protocol television, which would put it in direct competition with cable operators. Companies like Samsung, TiVo, and Motorola already offer their own set-top boxes, so Apple would hardly be alone in the space.

But there’s one big problem: The cable operators don’t want Apple anywhere near them.

There are two main reasons for this: For one, Apple tends to dominate the industries it injects itself into, usually to the detriment of the industries themselves. And two —  the cable companies say Apple just wants too much money out of the deal.

But there are some benefits as well. Rather than buy cable boxes and lease them to consumers, by working with Apple, cable operators could just shrug the costs of the boxes onto consumers themselves.

In any case, Apple hasn’t reached a deal with anyone yet, so there’s no telling what its television offering will ultimately look like. But more and more it’s looking as if the cable industry is one area that Apple hasn’t found a way to crack.

Apple rolled out a software update for its Apple TV set-top box today that includes a new app for Hulu.

Apple TV owners have been waiting forever for Hulu service to land on the device. Previously, rumors indicated that a Hulu Plus app existed but hadn’t been approved by Apple. Some speculated that this was because a Hulu service would threaten Apple’s TV show sales via iTunes. And with OS X Mountain Lion’s new Mac Airplay feature, there’s really no reason not to put Hulu on the Apple TV.

To access Hulu content, users will need to have a subscription to the premium $7.99 monthly Hulu Plus service. However, Hulu is offering a free trial subscription (1-week of service) to all Apple TV owners. Hulu users should also note that not all content within their queue will be accessible via the Apple TV app, as many programs have web-only streaming licenses. (See photos of the new app in the gallery below.)

The more interesting thing about the new app is that it will allow you to sign up for Hulu Plus directly through Apple TV. Apple TV will use your iTunes account to process the payments. This is the same arrangement Netflix (and I’m assuming other subscription-based content channels) has with Apple.

It’s likely that Apple takes a cut of every subscription that’s paid for through a person’s iTunes account, but we don’t know the exact percentage of that commission fee. This detail is probably why it took so long for Apple to bring Hulu Plus to the Apple TV. If you take into account the possible loss from TV show purchases on iTunes as well as a dismal commission fee from bringing on new subscribers, it makes sense that Apple hesitated in bringing Hulu to its set-top box. If true, it could explain why Apple isn’t in any rush to bring additional streaming video services to the Apple TV.

This is well after the results are known to people who check the news online or read their Twitter stream.

I agree with a lot of the complaints. It’s 2012. The world is networked thanks to Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He was even featured in the opening ceremonies. (If, like the NBC commentators introducing him, you don’t know who that is, check out Wikipedia.) We know what happens as soon as it happens. Many of us have computers at our desks and can watch live streaming coverage any time of day. Some people care about obscure “sports” like dressage and handball.

But, to put it in terms that Silicon Valley understands, we’re edge cases.

We’re not like most of the people in this country.

Regular people:

• Have jobs where the boss would be pretty pissed off if you sat at your computer in the middle of the day and watched sports. (Many people even have jobs where they don’t sit in front of computers and can’t access Facebook or Twitter!)
• Don’t have friends all over the world who are tweeting up-to-the-minute sports results.
• Pay for cable and satellite. It’s a cheap form of entertainment. A month’s cable or satellite bill is cheaper than taking a family of four to a baseball game or a concert. The vast majority of American households pay for TV.
• Want to watch American athletes.
• Don’t know what sports they should watch and are happy to have someone curate for them.
• Want the sappy features that tell the backstory of the downtrodden athlete who came from a broken home and walked uphill both ways to train.

That is the audience that NBC is catering to. For them, NBC is doing a pretty damn good job.

Now, this doesn’t fit my style of viewing. I hate the sappy features. I TiVo the nightly Olympics broadcast and fast forward through all of the commercials, featurettes, interludes while waiting for scores and sappy features. I’ve nicknamed my TiVo’s fast forward button “Bob Costas,” because I hit it every time I see his face. I can watch five hours of Olympics programming in about two hours. If I happen to hit the live mark, I flip over to Netflix and watch an episode of Breaking Bad until there’s enough Olympics in the queue that there’s stuff for me to skip over.

But, again, I’m an edge case. Most people don’t have a TiVo, Apple TV, and Roku box. (And almost no one has the Nexus Q.)

Could NBC do better? Absolutely. But television is a complex business with a lot of mouths to feed. There are local affiliates, content producers, the networks, and cable and satellite providers. And the advertisers want to get their money’s worth.

Sports programming in particular has some especially big mouths, starting with the International Olympic Committee. NBC paid $2.2 billion for the rights to broadcast the 2010 and 2012 games to the IOC. That’s more than Google paid for YouTube. And that doesn’t include the substantial production costs. It’s not uncommon to broadcast major sporting events at a loss because the exposure can be used to promote the network’s other programming.

Comparisons to other countries are foolish. Many countries have state-subsidized television. In the United Kingdom, the BBC gets substantial revenues from a television licensing fee paid by consumers at a rate set by the government. The BBC also pays substantially less for broadcast rights to the IOC.

Change of the sort that Silicon Valley wants in the television business is going to take 10 to 20 years. TiVo was introduced in 1999. 13 years later, only about 43% of households in the U.S. have DVRs. (And most of them aren’t actually TiVos.) More households have VCRs than DVRs.

Even though many of us don’t believe in the linear programming model, it still matters. Just ask Conan O’Brien. If linear programming were dead, he’d still be on NBC.

Sports fans already have access to way more Olympic coverage than ever before. Instead of one network, NBC is offering coverage on multiple networks. And it is making thousands of hours of content available through online streaming for people who prove they have a pay-TV subscription.

Like many product managers throughout Silicon Valley, NBC has to make the best product for the greatest number of people.

Some fixes are within NBC’s control. For starters, get Bob Costas to stop being an arrogant ass during the parade of nations or when talking about foreign athletes. (If someone like him were to describe Americans on a foreign network, our athletes would be introduced, “Here come the Americans. They’re known for shooting each other for no reason and starting wars just because.”)

NBC should also learn that once something is out on the Internet, it’s hard to undo it. Reporter Guy Adams posted the email address of NBC’s Olympics president Gary Zenkel on Twitter. He encouraged people upset about NBC’s coverage to email Zenkel at Gary.zenkel@nbcuni.com. NBC complained to Twitter and Twitter suspended his account.

Clearly, NBC is unfamiliar with the Barbara Streisand effect. They should look it up. Possibly using that thing that Berners-Lee created.

[Top image c/o NBC Olympics website]

Apple sold 1.3 million Apple TV units in the third quarter, which is up 170 percent year over year, CEO Tim Cook said today on the company’s quarterly earnings call.

Cook has repeatedly referred to the Apple TV device as a “hobby,” and today was no different. He said Apple has sold 4 million Apple TVs in total for the fiscal year, but those numbers don’t stack up to the continued successes of the iPad and iPhone. Apple sold 26 million iPhones and 17 million iPads this quarter.

The tiny Apple TV box costs just $99 and makes it possible to access iTunes content and video-focused apps on your home TV. It also lets you play content from iOS devices on your TV using Airplay.

There’s still plenty of buzz surrounding a potential Apple TV set, and now Forrester analyst James McQuivey is offering his own speculation: Apple should avoid taking on the big-screen HDTVs already in our living rooms, and instead offer a complementary smaller screen

“Apple should sell the world’s first non-TV TV,” McQuivey wrote in a blog post yesterday. While I’ve seen more than  enough Apple television speculation for this lifetime, McQuivey’s report is particularly intriguing to me since it aligns with my predictions from last summer.

“An Apple television would most likely serve as a secondary television set — under 30 inches, and ideal for bedrooms, kitchens and college dorm rooms — instead of elbowing for attention in the living room,” I wrote, based on the fact that it would be easier for Apple to compete in the small TV arena, and that it wouldn’t compete directly with the existing Apple TV set-top box (which remains Apple’s gateway to large TV sets).

Now, McQuivey’s take:

Instead of selling a replacement for the TV you just bought, Apple should convince millions of Apple fans that they need a new screen in their lives. Call it the iHub, a 32-inch screen with touch, gesture, voice, and iPad control that can be hung on the wall wherever the family congregates for planning, talking, or eating — in more and more US homes, that room is the dining room or eat-in kitchen. By pushing developers to create apps that serve as the hub of family life – complete with shared calendars, photo and video viewers, and FaceTime for chatting with grandma – this non-TV TV could take off, ultimately positioning Apple to replace your 60-inch set once it’s ready to retire.

While we’ve seen reports pointing to Apple readying some sort of large-screened television, there’s still nothing concrete yet. That’s a good thing, since I still think a big-screen Apple television set would be a huge mistake. With Sony and many other electronics giants bleeding money from their HDTV businesses, it doesn’t make much sense for Apple to jump into that maelstrom.

Photo: Heather Kelly/VentureBeat

Apple manufacturing partner Foxconn will soon ready its plants to manufacture a television made by Apple, according to China Daily.

We’ve routinely heard reports that Apple’s “iTV” will be coming to the market before the end of 2012, but now it seems momentum is moving toward reality. In an update on company operations, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou reportedly said the company’s plants are being prepared for Apple’s television even though development or manufacturing hasn’t yet begun. Foxconn recently entered into a joint venture with manufacturer Sharp’s Japanese factory as one of the company’s preparations.

Apple’s “iTV” will most likely be a larger version of its Thunderbolt display, and will reportedly offer an aluminum build, voice control with Siri, and video calling to other Apple devices with FaceTime. Apple may also be in talks with movie channel EPIX about a streaming content deal that will be targeted at the new device.

Let us know in the comments if you’re excited about an Apple-made television and if you would consider buying one.

iMac photo: Apple

The fabled Apple television set that’s been rumored for years will probably be a premium piece of hardware, but not much more, according to Barclays media analyst Anthony DiClement.

In a recent note, DiClement said a Apple-branded TV set could look like a “large-scale iPad” with internet connectivity and the ability to sync with the company’s iOS platform. What it won’t have, however, is a radically different selection of content subscription options.

Most of this comes down to the large affiliate fees that cable TV providers pay to individual channels. Each channel within a bundled TV subscription from the cable company can cost anywhere from $1 to $15. It’s good money for some of the lesser cable channels because customers cannot choose their channel lineup à la carte. AllThingsD estimates that those distribution deals are worth up to $30 billion per year or $30 per customer per month. Apple is unlikely to guarantee that its new Apple television set service will bring in as much money, thus making it difficult for Apple to reach distribution deals.

So if we do see an Apple TV set, it’s likely to offer the same programing you’re already seeing from the likes of Comcast, AT&T Uverse, Time Warner Cable, and others.

DiClemente also indicated that the TV set won’t hit retail shelves in 2012, will likely use Siri technology for remote control functionality, start at a base price of $1,500, and generally break into the “more than TV” category with apps, gaming, and iOS device integration.

At $1,500, I’m not sure I’d be willing to buy an Apple TV set when my current TV is still functioning perfectly, along with my Apple TV set-top box. Of course, if the screen size was larger than the 32- to 37-inch range that has previously been rumored, I might change my mind.

[Apple iTV mockup image by Guilherme Schasiepen]

A seemingly curious investment of $1.6 billion in Sharp by Taiwan’s Hon Hai, which owns Apple-device manufacturer Foxconn, could be a huge indicator that an Apple TV set is on the way.

The deal was originally thought to be worth around $809 million in Sharp stock, or about 10 percent of the Japanese company. But Bloomberg today is reporting that Hon Hai and “related investment companies” will also buy 46.5 percent of Sharp Display Products, a joint venture with Sony, for around $800 million. Hon Hai will also take over 50 percent of LCD production at Sharp’s Sakai, Osako-based plant, where the Japanese firm recently halved its output.

There’s clearly a lot going on here, but according to BusinessWeek’s Bruce Einhorn, it looks like the groundwork is being laid for a future Apple television. He notes that the Sakai plant makes displays for TV sets 55 inches and larger, and that Hon Hai relied on Apple for 38 percent of its revenue last year (which could go up to 50 percent this year, according to Nomura Securities). The company definitely needs the capacity to build TV sets on a large scale if Apple goes that route.

It doesn’t make sense for Hon Hai to jump into bed with troubled Sharp, which expects to lose $3.5 billion for the fiscal year 2011, unless there’s a clear goal in sight. And by all accounts, it looks like that’s the rumored Apple TV set — something we’ve reported is on track for release later this year.

Hon Hai is also in a position to be freewheeling with its investments. The company reported record quarterly earnings today with net income of $1 billion on $35.8 billion in revenue. Executives pointed to Foxconn’s iPhone 4S contracts and its ability to produce more devices without defects. Clearly the controversy about Foxconn worker conditions didn’t hurt the company’s bottom line (though it has led to further investigations by Apple, and increased pay for workers).

Illustration: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

A former Apple TV engineer has revealed that the user interface implemented in the device’s latest update was actually rejected by Steve Jobs five years ago — a potential sign that cracks are beginning to appear in Apple’s design dominance.

Former Apple TV engineer Michael Margolis mentioned yesterday on his Twitter account that “the new [Apple TV] homepage UI makes me cry.” He then went on to reveal the following: “Fun fact — those new designs were tossed out 5 years ago because SJ didn’t like them. Now there is nobody to say “no” to bad design.”

Apple released a software update for its second-generation Apple TV in early March to coincide with the release of a newer and more powerful model that can play 1080p HD video. The new user interface is heavy on glossy icons and has been criticized by Apple TV fanatics  since its release.

Update: Margolis later made it clear that it was the grid design Jobs was specifically referring to — not the glossy icon design.

Since Jobs’ passing, everyone has been looking for signs of missteps. (Our own Jolie O’Dell wrote an impassioned post about the new iPad launch event.) The Apple TV redesign seemed like yet another example of bad design making its way into a normally flawless company. Ultimately though, the design is less of a problem than Apple’s abysmal support of the Apple TV platform (Where are the third-party apps? Why did this upgrade take so long?!).

On Twitter, Margolis made it clear he didn’t think this was a dramatic failure for Apple: “The new Apple TV UI isn’t a sign of a doomed “post-SJ” Apple, it’s a logical next step given their desire to match the iOS home page.” He added that the new interface is particularly exciting since it’s “just begging for apps,” something the original design didn’t support. Margolis also noted that much of the Apple TV design outside of the homepage remains the same, “I think that’s a testament to how good it was,” he said.

Via Macgasm

Like little kids on Christmas morning, Apple fans cannot wait to open up their shiny new toys. The new Apple TV is the latest Apple device to be disassembled in the name of curiosity. The teardown reveals the same amount of flash storage as the 2nd generation Apple TV, but an increased amount of RAM — 512MB, up from 256MB.

Intrepid forum commenter Aicjofs on XMBC.org did the dissecting, beating teardown experts iFixIt to the punch. MacRumors first noticed the post.

The big news is the RAM increase, and the poster deduces the 512MB RAM from Hynix is the same as what’s found in the Kindle Fire. The processor is an A5 chip possibly made in February 2012. The naming conventions indicate that this Apple TV processor (PL2498) is similar to what’s found in the standard dual-core A5 (APL0498).

There is 8GB of on-board flash storage by Toshiba, the same amount as on the last Apple TV. And Aicjofs spotted a mystery second antenna inside the third-gen Apple TV that didn’t exist in previous models, which will hopefully be used to boost the Apple TV’s steaming performance.

Photo by aicjofs

Apple will now recognize DVD digital copies as movies purchased through iTunes, which is good news for consumers — especially those who own an Apple TV set-top box.

The company recently announced an updated version of its Apple TV device that features a major software upgrade. Aside from the refreshed user interface, the new Apple TV software allows iTunes users to stream music, movies, and TV shows through the device via iCloud. However, the company neglected to mention that DVD digital copies will also be available through the iCloud service in its announcement.

Film distributors started including a “digital copy” of a movie with the purchase of a physical DVD a few years ago. It was partially an attempt to justify charging more for the DVD, but initially it wasn’t very useful for most people. The experience of watching the digital copy was a bit annoying because it required entering an authorization code to prove you actually bought the movie (if you didn’t have the code, the movie wouldn’t play).

The industry is now shifting its focus from those digital copies to a new UltraViolet platform, which allows the owner of the DVD to watch a streaming version of their movie on various authorized devices. It’s very similar to what Apple is trying to accomplish with iCloud, except most people probably haven’t heard of UltraViolet.

Now that iTunes recognizes DVD digital copies, more people are likely to start using the iTunes movie store rather than buying a DVD from a brick-and-mortar retail store or a digital copy through an official UltraViolet retailer. And that means the film companies will have to give Apple a cut of the profits instead of taking it all for themselves.

Is this the beginning of the end for the UltraViolet platform? It’s really too soon to tell, but the movie companies would do well to amend their own efforts in favor of an official partnership with Apple. For example, giving people who buy a physical DVD an iTunes digital redemption code.

Via Electronista