One way or another, the Internet is coming to your television viewing experience. Whether it’s talking to friends and family using Skype, keeping up with the world using Yahoo’s widgets for Blu-Ray devices or searching the Web with Google TV, the Internet is here to smarten up your idiot box experience, and it sounds like Apple is looking to jump back on the bandwagon.
According to the New York Times’ Bits Blog, Apple’s once-described “hobby” might be “heading for a major overhaul”.
The current incarnation of Apple TV sells for $229 with 16 GB, though a late-May rumor posited that a $99 version was soon on the way.
The Bits Blog’s Nick Bilton seems rather uncertain on the details, but one thing it seems certain on is that something is surely brewing at Apple headquarters. It cites “several people familiar with Apple’s television-related efforts” as saying that the company is, at very least, “working on an update to its television software” which it might base on its new iOS operating system. Another source tells Bilton that hiring moves at Apple, among other clues, could indicate a new design entirely, not only for the software, but hardware element of Apple’s television endeavor.
Could this all be tied to Apple’s move to the cloud? Maybe this $99 device will eliminate storage to drop some of its current price tag?
Whatever happens, we’re willing to bet that Jobs no longer views Apple TV as a hobby, as the Internet-connected television race has been heating up all year long and only got hotter with Google’s entry.
