There was one more thing coming at the end of Steve’s show today and this time it was one more HOBBY… The new Apple TV is here! This tiny matte-black box (80% smaller than the previous generation) will stream HD (720p) movies for $4,99 and commercial free TV shows for 99 cents  (ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America are on board;  all rentals, no purchases) and your Netflix content if you are a subscriber. It has HDMI, Ethernet, USB and optical audio ports, Bluetooth and dual band WiFi (802.11 b/g/n at 2.4GHz and 802.11 a/n at 5GHz). There will be no local storage. AirPlay – the new feature that will come with iOS 4.2 in November – will let you to stream movies from any iOS device to your HDTV through the Apple TV. It will be shipping within 4 weeks for the “breakthrough “ price of just $99.

It wasn’t too long ago when we heard from Steve that he had NO IDEA on how to succeed in the television market. Any chance it has just changed? Apple’s special event is set for September 1^st and what the world expects to be unveiled in San Francisco that day is an updated, upgraded, renamed, rebuilt, rethought, revamped, refreshed or completely new, long-romored, long-awaited, magic, revolutionary, shiny — Ladies and Gentleman — the new Apple TV. Well, maybe not the whole world, there are those skeptics who ask if Apple is really going to announce a TV gadget at an event with a guitar on the invitation. Pessimists aside, now, when everyone on this planet seems to have its own opinion on what is going to happen on Wednesday and when every little website in the cyberspace has its own rumor on the next Apple’s TV device, let’s sum up the most important ones. Here is a comprehensive list of what has been lately said about the new Apple TV.

General

• Engadget: new Apple TV called iTV: $99, A4 CPU, iOS, 16GB of flash storage, cloud-based storage, new iTunes streaming services, AppStore, no 1080p, quite small device with a scarce amount of ports (only the power socket and video out), “an iPhone without a screen”
• DigiTimes: “Apple is set to launch a new Apple TV using AMD’s Fusion solution and will not include a hard drive. The new device will adopt a user interface similar to the iPhone with support for social networking websites, network multimedia and the App Store.
• Kevin Rose: “From what I hear we should expect to see the iTV launch in September”
• Jason D. O’Grady on ZDNet: “iTV would no longer be a hard drive based setop box, but rather a live streaming device. Think of it as a combo iPad docking station and Airport Express with an HDMI port out the back.”
• AppleInsider via Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros.: “The biggest potential change to the forthcoming Apple TV refresh is the move to an ARM architecture processor running the same iOS software that powers the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. (…) The new Apple TV will have access to the App Store.”
• Gene Munster: Apple could offer an $1,800 to $2,000 “all-in-one Apple television solution that would replace the current amalgam of set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, PVRs, cables, game consoles and TVs in a typical home.
• Bloomberg: “Steve Jobs will rather focus on the ability for customers to watch TV shows and movies on their iPads, iPhones, and iPod Touches, says a person familiar with the plan. The company will announce that customers can rent many TV shows for 99 cents.”

Name

• Engadget: Apple will be officially changing the name of the device to iTV (that was the name of the Apple TV when it was originally announced by the company)
• AllNewsMac: Lawyers looking into Apple TV name change as ‘iTV’ is already taken

Hardware

• Engadget: A4 CPU, no hard drive, 16GB of flash storage, only 720p support, only the power socket and video out ports
• DigiTimes: AMD’s Fusion CPU, no hard drive

Storage

• Engadget: cloud-based storage, Time Capsule as an external storage component
• Rose: picture and video sharing feature powered by MobileMe

OS

• Engadget: iOS
• Business Insider: How will Apple’s touch based operating system work on a TV screen that will not be touch based?

Content

• Engadget: new iTunes streaming services
• Engadget: iTunes streaming video service coming soon? (“A new Apple iTunes customer survey lists “Titles are available to watch instantly” as a reason you might totally love watching video on the iPad. This could be a big hint that instant streaming is coming quite soon.”)
• Bloomberg: Apple Said to Prepare 99-Cent TV Shows (“Apple is in advanced talks with News Corp. to let iTunes users rent TV shows for 99 cents. Viewers would be able to rent programs from Fox for 48 hours. CBS, NBC and Walt Disney also are in talks about joining the effort.”)
• Rose: Expect to see an iPhone/Pad like marketplace for television applications. Video sharing/streaming/recording apps, interactive news apps, and of course games.
• Rose: a la carte (app) stations “With Apple’s iAds, content producers (eg. ABC/NBC/etc.) can directly monetize and distribute their content. This will eventually destroy the television side of the cable and satellite industry.”
• David Gewirtz on ZDNet: FaceTime could be Apple’s iTV killer app (“You no longer just have little tiny screens talking to little tiny screens — you can have grandma on the couch, talking to Baby Biff in his crib.”)
• Hardmac: Apple working on a new video format (“The ultimate goal for Apple would be to promote this new format to support 4 K video – up to 4096×2160.”)
• Macworld: Apple could let third-parties deliver the video content to the ATV (“So the next Apple TV becomes another iOS device that uses third-party apps. If Netflix or Hulu or ABC or NPR or whoever wants to get its content on the device, it simply makes a compatible app for it.”)
• new media age: Cloud-based iTunes “Apple purchased cloud-based music service Lala last year only to close it, prompting speculation that it will incorporate the online music streaming service into iTunes.”
• Apple Insider: Apple’s potential Web-based iTunes will be ‘social, not streaming’ (“Apple may reveal a “big overhaul” of its iTunes Music Store next week, likely to be a lightweight Web version, but the service will not be updated to allow users to stream their content from the cloud.”)

Controller

• Rose: The iPad will turn into one big badass remote control (“Imagine watching monday night football on the TV while viewing/exploring other camera angles on the iPad.”)
• Jason D. O’Grady on ZDNet: 7-inch iPad like touch device (iTV Pad)
• Venomous Porridge: An iPhone without the screen (“It’s the love child of an iPod touch and a Magic Trackpad. It has the same inertial and gyroscopic motion sensors as the iPhone 4, and the same multitouch surface we’re familiar with. A home button. Bluetooth. No screen.”)
• The Russians Used a Pencil: “Apple would never require a user to have an iPhone / iPad in order to use their Apple TV.” Other options: 1) Apple Remote, 2) Bluetooth Keyboard and Trackpad, 3) Game Controller

Games

• Bloomberg via Shaw Wu of Kaufman Bros.: “Apple TV could be a popular, low-cost game console for people who don’t care about running the most cutting-edge, graphics intensive games.
• Macworld: an iOS Apple TV could take a chunk out of the huge game-console market (“I know more than a few people who’d be happy to spend $200 or so on a system that doesn’t require you to spend $30 to $50 a pop for “family” games that are matched, both in visuals and gameplay, by $1 to $5 games for iOS.”)
• Macworld: “Provide an Apple TV that can play high-resolution games—with surround sound, an HDMI connection, and hardware controllers, yet—and you’ve got a fairly formidable hunk of hardware sitting next to your TV.”

Price

• Engadget: $99
• Jason D. O’Grady on ZDNet: By integrating the existing engineering from the Airport Express and scaling down the iPad technology (no need for Retina display, nor do you need 10 hours of battery life, or even 64 GB of storage) Apple could easily deliver a TV solution for $249.
• Mark Sigal on his blog: The $99 price tag implies one of three paths for Apple TV: 1) Limited Storage, cloud dependency path, 2) getting to $99 via Subsidy, as is the case with iPhone, 3) running on top of the Mac Mini as a $99 software add-on, with the user being able to choose between a $69 Magic Trackpad, a $200 iPod touch, a $99 iPhone or $500 iPad as the controller

Release date

• Rose: September
• Bloomberg: September 1st
• MacDailyNews: “Multiple” sources say that Apple’s busy prepping telesales employees for a new product that will be “huge” or “very big” and coming in “October”
• DigiTimes: Mass production of the device will start in December.”

Other interesting thoughts on Apple TV and IPTV

NYT: In the Living Room, Hooked on Pay TV
CNET: Content kings control the future of IPTV
Associated Press: Apple’s 99-cent TV show idea is no game changer
ZDNet: Apple, Google TV: Does Pay as You Go Make Dollars and Sense?
LA Times: Murdoch may be key to Apple’s plan to offer 99-cent digital rentals of TV shows
Game Theory: How App TV Disrupts the Console Industry

Apple TV Hacks will be providing all the latest news on the new Apple TV/iTV. If it’s coming… Stay tuned!

[images: ZDNet.com, venomousporridge.com, blog.monty.de]

Apple is set to launch a new Apple TV using AMD’s Fusion solution and will not include a hard drive. The new device will adopt a user interface similar to the iPhone with support for social networking websites, network multimedia and the App Store. Mass production of the device will start in December.

Well, Engadget’s findings that came earlier this year seem to be (almost) fully confirmed: no HD (cloud storage instead), iOS, App Store. Ok, there will be no A4 CPU, but, hey, AMD Fusion knows how to do the job well. According to AMD, the chip offers the following:

CPU and GPU capabilities for HD, 3D and data-intensive workloads in a single-die processor called an APU. APUs combine high-performance serial and parallel processing cores with other special-purpose hardware accelerators, enabling breakthroughs in visual computing, security, performance-per-watt and device form factor. Software developers, utilizing AMD drivers, libraries and either the ATI Stream SDK2 or the Microsoft DirectCompute API, can enhance the user experience and speed application performance by developing applications that fully utilize the unique computer power of the AMD Fusion™ Family of APUs and AMD discrete GPUs.

Already started to look for a buyer for your old device? If only someone could confirm the rumored $99 price.

WinX DVD Ripper for Mac is an all-in-one DVD ripper designed to make 1:1 DVD copy to hard drive and rip DVD movies on Mac OS to iTunes, MOV, MP4, FLV, etc., that playable on iPad, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, PSP and much more.

Let’s see how it works.

The program installs in a few seconds, the interface is friendly and very clear.

The options give you a complex control of the application. The ability to create your own profile is very useful and allows you to convert tones of movies without the necessity of adjusting the parameters manually each time.

Once the DVD is in (you can load from DVD driver by clicking “DVD Disc” or from DVD folder by clicking “DVD Path”), you first choose the output format (file format or the device of destination) and then select previously created profile or choose all the options individually for the exact movie.

Among the settings you can choose are:

Audio settings: audio quality, audio sample rate and volume.

Video settings: video quality, video frame rate, output image ratio, video resolution; you can also choose whether you want to use High Quality Engine or not (select for better image quality).

Output settings: language and audio format, subtitles, duration and output folder.

Advanced settings let you decide how many CPU cores you want to use, and whether you want to use Advanced De-interlace Accelerator and Intelligent A/V Synchronizer or not. “Run as Safe Mode” is said to guarantee you “unsurpassable stability and speed.”

Once the settings are done the only thing you have to do is to enter the movie title and director name and click Start button. The conversion is fast and the program doesn’t eat up all of your RAM. You can view the conversion progress and are able to cancel the converting process at anytime.

WinX DVD Ripper also supports extracting music from the DVD files and saving as MP3 format and taking pictures from the DVD movie and save as JPG, BMP.

According to the Digiarty Software, the developer, WinX DVD Ripper for Mac is perfectly compatible with Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard/Snow Leopard, working on PowerPC & Intel Mac.

GIVEAWAY!

We have 10 free copies of the WinX DVD Ripper for you! To enter the contest follow us on Twitter and retweet the contest message (Win DVD Ripper for Mac! Follow @appletvhacks and RT for your chance to win http://su.pr/8OAqci #giveaway #appletv). The winners will be announced next Friday (July 30).

Disclaimer
In the case of copyright protected materials such as movies or DVDs, it is our understanding that in nearly all jurisdictions it is not illegal to produce a copy of a DVD that one already owns, for backup or similar purposes. The legality of DVD ripping will vary based on your country of residence. We do not in any way endorse violation of the valid rights of copyright holders, and strongly recommends that you consult your country’s copyright and fair use laws before copying any video content.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

Recently released Remote HD is an iPad/iPhone/iPod touch universal and powerful application that gives you complete access to your AppleTV, Mac or PC. It works like an Apple Remote, but it can do a lot more – one of the greatest features is Remote View that brings your AppleTV’s display to the iPhone/iPad or iPod touch.

Remote View now also works with XBMC and Boxee.

The app allows you to reconnect to last connection – - if you use Remote HD mostly to connect to the same Apple TV, you can save the time of searching for available connections and tapping to connect.

Using Remote HD you can also put the Apple TV to sleep, restart it or even shut it down altogether. In addition, selecting “Log off” will perform a “soft” restart on the Apple TV.

Other great feature is that when you connect to your computer or Apple TV using the mobile network (3G, EDGE, GPRS), Remote HD kicks into a mode designed to save data transfer and optimize its performance based on the available bandwidth at any given time. Check out the rest of the features here.

The app is XBMC and Boxee compatible. aTV Flash has already added support for Remote HD (can be installed through the Maintenance –> Install Extras menu).

We have 5 free copies of the app to give away! To enter the contest follow us on Twitter and retweet the contest message (Win RemoteHD and access your AppleTV from your iPhone/iPad! Follow @appletvhacks and RT for your chance to win #giveaway). The winners will be announced on Tuesday (June 29).

Listen to Jobs:

The problem with innovation in the television industry is the go-to-market strategy. The television industry fundamentally has a subsidized business model that gives everybody set-top box for free, or for $10 a month and that pretty much squashes any opportunity for innovation, because nobody is willing to buy a set-top box. Ask TiVo, ask ReplayTV, ask Roku, ask Vudu, ask us, ask Google in few months. Sony tried as well. Panasonic tried. A lot of people tried. They all failed.

According to Apple CEO, we end up with table full of remotes, cluster full of boxes, bunch of different UIs. That’s the situation we have today.

All you can do is add a box under the TV system, Jobs said.

The only way that it’s ever going to change is if you can really go back to square one and tear up the set-top box and redesign it from scratch, with the consistent UI, across all those different functions, and get it to the consumer in a way that they are willing to pay for it.

And right now, there is no way to do that! – Jobs said firmly (damn…!)

So, that’s the problem with the TV market. We decided what product do we want the most: a better TV or a better phone. The phone won out. But there was no chance to do a better TV because there was no way to get it to market.

What do we want more: tablet or better TV? Well, probably a tablet, but it doesn’t matter because if we wanted a better TV there is no way to get it to market.

The TV is going to lose until there is available go-to-market strategy.

Otherwise you just make another TiVO. That’s the fundamental problem – it’s not a problem with technology, it’s not a problem with vision, it’s a fundamental go-to-market problem.

Is there any chance you partner with some cable operator? – Steve has been asked.

Then you run into another problem, which is: there is no cable operator that is national, he answered.

There is a bunch of cable operators. And than, this is not like there is a GSM standard where you build a phone for the US and it also work in those other countries. No, every single country has different standards, different government approvals, it’s very balkanized.

I’m sure smarter people than us will figure this out. But that’s why we say Apple TV is a hobby; that’s why we use that phrase.

Well, this could all mean that Apple focuses on iPhone and iPad, and they are not planning to introduce a new TV (new set-top box) in the near future. Hopefully there are people who see things differently: Engadget notices that Steve has all this stuff really mulled over – according to the guys at the tech blog this confirms that we’ll be hearing some next-Apple TV news at the WWDC10. TechCrunch even thinks that this all may push Apple to build televisions.

We hope Jobs hasn’t really figured out that there is no way to figure out good go-to-market strategy for the new TV by Apple.

Also read
New $99 Apple TV with iPhone OS, A4 CPU, 1080p and cloud storage

“The device is said to be quite small with a scarce amount of ports (only the power socket and video out), and has been described to some as “an iPhone without a screen,” says Engadget.

Engadget also claims that Apple will be focusing the new ATV on cloud-based storage, although there will still be an option to utilize a Time Capsule as an external storage component.

We can’t say we are surprised. We say: this is exactly what we expected to see happening.

First, Apple introduced iPad. What does the iPad have to do with Apple TV? “Well, take the Wi-Fi iPad, remove the screen and the battery, add A/V ports and presto, you have then new AppleTV hardware,” said awmyhr on his blog a few month ago. So, we already had the hardware.

Then, a job offer has been posted:

The Core Platform team within Apple’s Core OS organization is looking for a talented and inspired manager to lead a team focused on bring-up of iPhone OS on new platforms.

That was a first signal Apple was thinking of powering new platforms with iPhone OS; of expanding iPhone OS beyond iPhone, iPod and iPad.

“With the iPad having already been introduced, many believe the next logical device to receive the iPhone OS is Apple TV,” noted eWEEK. “Apple TV is the obvious choice,” confirmed Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research.

Gottheil said the primary benefit that the iPhone OS would bring to Apple TV is its browser. “In addition to being able to play your own content and App Store content, you’d be able to browse the Web,” he said.

Later, Apple introduced iPhone OS 4. We got brand new, powerful OS.

And finally, Google introduced Google TV. If Apple have already been working on the new set-top box for a while (according to Engadget, “this project has been in the works long before Google announced its TV solution”), the only choice they had to cat the “oh!, ah!” Google TV disccusions was to do a controlled leak about forthcoming update to the Apple Tv. Besides, iPhone OS for Apple TV is just a logical response to Android powering Google TV.

Also, MacRumors.com reported that Intel’s forthcoming Google TV hardware platform to be found in Sony TVs and Blu-ray players and in a standalone set-top box from Logitech utilizes the same PowerVR SGX535 graphics processor used in the iPad. “Hardware similarities between Google’s television offering and Apple’s mobile devices further reinforces the idea that such a transition [of iPhone OS to Apple TV] could be relatively feasible,” said guys from MacRumors.

Apple TV handles very well with the local content. But what is missing? Online content. We think: add apps with the ability to stream online content and you kill Boxee Box, Roku’s HD XR, TiVo Premiere.

Then, App Store is the world biggest free games platform. We say: add games (not only free) and — with the accompaniment of some good controller (iPhone?) — you kill Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii  and Sony PlayStation 3.

And Blu-ray? Don’t be funny! Apple wants us to BUY content (iTunes, apps), not to PLAY already paid content.

The only thing that is quite surprising — if Engadget is right — is that Apple will not introduce its new addition to our living rooms at the upcoming WWDC. We thought that it is going to happen after MacRumor revealed an e-mail exchange between Bryan Webster and Steve Jobs. “I hope you have some good WWDC announcements to blow [Google] out of the water,” Webster wrote to Jobs on Saturday. “You won’t be disappointed,” the CEO responded.

The mail may be fake. Engadget may be wrong. Anyway, we’re counting down to Steve’s keynote.