Here's What The Apple Tv Will Be Like (aapl)

The drumbeat is growing: a lot of people think Apple is going to introduce a TV set in 2012. 

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster reiterated his call for a 2012 Apple TV, and technology grandee Jean-Louis Gassée takes a stab at figuring out what it'll be like:

Imagine a true plug-and-play experience. One set with only two wires: power and the cable TV coax. Turn it on, assert your Apple ID credentials and you’re in business. The program guide looks good and is easy to navigate; pay channels are just a click and a password away. The TV runs apps, from games to FaceTime and Skype, it “just works’’ with your other iDevices and also acts as a Wi-Fi base station using the cable provider’s Internet service.

One problem is that the Apple TV would have to support the many cable systems. The TV would have to either only support a few operators, or be complex and prone to bugs. Cable operators killed the CableCARD, which was supposed to plug into your TV and replace your set-top box, because it would be too complex to service. Apple would have to either rely on the cable guys to play nice and support it or, Gassée speculates, create its own "Apple Geek Squad" that would come to your house and fix it. 

The other problem is that people don't upgrade their TVs as often as they do their other consumer electronics. Moore's Law ensures that computers and phones quickly become obsolete, and you have a reason to spring for a new computer and phone every year or every two years. Once a family springs for a big, great TV, they won't renew so often.

But you could have made the same argument with phones: carriers have different systems, have competing requirements, and Apple worked that out over time. The phone business is commoditized, with wafer-thin margins, and Apple came up with must-have devices that allowed it to get carriers to play nice and (thanks to subsidies) sell incredibly powerful phones.

As Munster says, "Apple will do to TV manufacturers what it did to phone makers with the iPhone."

Let's just hope they don't call it an iTV → 

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Here's What The Apple TV Will Be Like (AAPL)

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Want to make your TV show more social? Start with the script

We usually think of social TV when a show hits the air and viewers start tweeting about it and sharing moments on Facebook. But to leverage social media for TV promotion, networks need to think about how the campaign will fit in to the content itself.

Want to make your TV show more social? Start with the script

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Soon You'll Be Using FaceTime On Your TV (AAPL)

Here's another hidden gem we missed in the latest beta release of iOS 5.

Apple added AirPlay support for FaceTime chat.

That means you can beam your video chats from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch to your Apple TV and see it all on the big screen.

This will be great to set up quick video conferences with a large group of people on one end. However, there's no guarantee the FaceTime/AirPlay combination will stick around in the final release of iOS 5 this fall.

[Via Mac Rumors]

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Soon You'll Be Using FaceTime On Your TV (AAPL)

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Everything You Need To Know About Apple's Rumored TV Set (AAPL)

As we approach September and all those eagerly-anticipated Holiday gadget announcements, rumors have started up again that Apple is working on its own television set.

We've thought for a whole that an Apple-branded TV was the next obvious step for the company. and thanks to some leaked details a few weeks ago, it seems more and more likely to happen.

We put together everything we know about Apple's television set right here. Click below to check out the latest rumors.

The launch will coincide with the iPhone 5's in September (Maybe)

Some analysts think Apple will announce the television this fall when it announces the iPhone 5. That would be around the same time that the second Apple TV was announced, and just in time for the Holidays.

It will run the same OS as the current Apple TV

The television will run iOS, just like the current Apple TV does. Think of it as Apple TV without the box.

You'll be able to download apps from the App Store (Likely)

This is something many have been waiting for. The Apple TV set may finally allow developers to create apps for the platform. Google TV will be getting access to the Android Market, so it makes sense for Apple to do the same. Plus, who doesn't want to play Angry Birds in their living room?

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Everything You Need To Know About Apple's Rumored TV Set (AAPL)

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HOW TO: Replace Your TV And Phone With The Web

It's amazing what the internet can replace. What if it could replace your television and landline? What if that was money you were saving instead of spending each month?

It can be.

Don't worry -- you'll still be able to watch Real Housewives of Atlanta and call your sister to talk about it afterwards.

What follows are a few suggestions on how to get by without a TV and phone using only the internet.

Hulu is free and tough to beat.

Probably one of the biggest brand names for legal TV streams, Hulu should be your first stop when you want to get caught upon your favorite series. It's free and the streams are high quality.

Downside: Even if you pay for Hulu Plus, the expanded library of content that costs $7.99 per month, you're still subjected to commercials. Content can also disappear without warning.

Upside: Hulu Plus is available on a bunch of TV boxes, video game systems, and smart TVs so you can stream all that great content to your living room.

If you want hard to find movies, you want Netflix.

Netflix offers an astonishing selection of physical DVDs that you can have sent to your house for a reasonable monthly price, and its catalog of instant streaming movies gets bigger all the time. You can get the streaming-only service for just $7.99 per month. Plus you can stream Netflix movies to almost any device from iPads to big screen TVs.

Downsides: There aren't many. Maybe just the fact that it's a monthly fee. But we love Netflix.

iTunes has lots of TV shows and movies available.

iTunes lets you buy or rent TV shows for watching on your computer or iDevice. There are no worries about video format compatibility. You just buy, sync, and go.

Downsides: Paying for individual shows or moviews can be pricey. Unless you purchase a $99 Apple TV, you're stuck watching content on your computer or iDevice.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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• What The Heck Is NFC, Anyway?
• Here's Everything We Know About The Next MacBook Air So Far

HOW TO: Replace Your TV And Phone With The Web

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