Rosa Golijan/msnbc.com
In the biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Isaacson explains that the late Apple founder believed he’d cracked the secret to an innovative, simple television set.
By Rosa Golijan
Due to all the buzz surrounding the very soon likely arrival of the next iPad, we compiled the most significant iPad 3 rumors. But the tablet isn’t the only yet-to-be-announced piece of Apple gear on everyone’s collective mind, so let’s chat a bit about the other elephant in the room — the mysterious Apple iTV.
I call it “mysterious” because we’re not absolutely certain about anything when it comes to this device. we don’t know its actual name. we don’t know its specs. Heck, unlike the next iPhone or iPad or MacBook, we don’t even know if this will exist anytime soon.
What we do know is that whispers about an Apple television project grew to a roar the moment people read that late Apple founder Steve Jobs told his biographer, Walter Isaacson, that he wanted to do “for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: Make them simple and elegant.” And according to what Isaacson wrote, Jobs even had a plan:
“I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use,” he told me. “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.” no longer would users have to fiddle with complex remotes for DVD players and cable channels. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I have finally cracked it.”
According to the new York Times’ Nick Bilton, the idea of the iTV — as I’ll continue to call this project for the sake of simplicity — has been thrown around Cupertino for a while. ”[E]xecutives at Apple knew as far back as 2007 that the company would eventually make a dedicated TV,” writes Bilton. “One of the biggest hurdles, according to people with knowledge of the project, has been replacing the television set’s annoying best friend: The awkward and confusing remote control.”
So what solution did the folks at Apple find? why did Jobs feel that he cracked the problem?
One word, according to Bilton: Siri.
It makes perfect sense, as the new York Times writer explains:
It’s the stuff of science fiction. you sit on your couch and rather than fumble with several remotes or use hand gestures, you simply talk: “Put on the last episode of Gossip Girl.” “Play the local news headlines.” “Play some Coldplay music videos.” Siri does the rest.
Of course this experience goes beyond just playing TV shows or the local news. As the line between television programming and Web content continues to erode, a Siri-powered television would become more necessary. you aren’t going to want to flip through file folders or baskets of content, checking off what you want. Telling Siri to “play videos of cute cats falling asleep” would return an endless YouTube stream of adorable napping fur balls.
A recent report in the Globe and Mail supports this line of thinking. according to the publication, Apple has been quietly pursuing partnerships with various Canadian companies, such as Rogers and Bell. according to one of the unnamed sources used in the story, the iTV — which is supposedly already sitting in the carriers’ labs — will have Siri integration:
Viewers can then control the TV by voice or hand gestures, all from the comfort of a couch. An on-screen keyboard, meanwhile, can also be activated in a similar manner, allowing viewers to surf the Web, conduct video chats and use social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook — all without any physical interface.
Businessweek writes that Jefferies & co. analyst Peter Misek believes that the iTV will also include some sort of support for iOS devices. “User-generated video from customers who use iPads and iPhones as recorders may also play a role,” according to Businessweek.
This fits with a report by the Wall Street Journal, in which it is suggested that Apple executives have quietly “outlined new ways Apple’s technology could recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs.”
So basically the iTV should be a magically simple television which will allow us to control our media by speaking, gesturing, or using our mobile devices. It should be something that resembles an intuitive combination of Siri, AirPlay and Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect.
(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of NBC Universal and Microsoft, maker of the Kinect.)
Reports regarding the iTV’s release are scattered and uncertain, though several folks do believe that we’ll see the device at the end of 2012, based on whispers from component manufacturers.
But until then — until that unknown date — the above sums up the most likely rumors about the Apple iTV. In other words, it’s what we think we know about the device.
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<a href="http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/07/10341346-apples-mysterious-itv-what-we-think-we-knowtag:news.google.com,2005:cluster=http://gadgetbox.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/07/10341346-apples-mysterious-itv-what-we-think-we-knowTue, 07 Feb 2012 21:15:44 GMT”>Apple’s mysterious iTV: What we think we know