Deep inside the iOS 5 file system 9to5Mac has found an evidence for a next-generation Apple TV being in the works – a reference to ‘Apple TV 3,1’ (current model is listed as 2,1). According to 9to5Mac, the number changing from 2 to 3 should signify a major upgrade. What changes can we expect? Most likely, the device will get a dual-core A5 processor that would open door to true 1080p. In July AppleInsider reported that Apple may be preparing to begin supporting 1080p movies in its iTunes Store later this year. True 1080p would be a nice update for iPhone 4S owners since the device allows to shoot 1080p videos and then stream it to Apple TV via AirPlay. Games mirrored in 1080p, like Real Racing 2 HD, would also be awesome. The current Apple TV’s A4 processor only allows 720p playback.

The Apple TV 3 should also come with some more RAM and a bluetooth support. Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross thinks that Apple could even put Siri into the Apple TV or an Apple branded television, reports FORTUNE (click here to find out what our Facebook fans would say to Siri if it was running on Apple TV).

Unfortunately, we shouldn’t expect the new Apple TV to be out soon. MacRumors reminds that when the previous iPhone references have been found in iOS releases, we’ve seen a lead time of up to 15 months. Earlier reports claimed Apple is not planning a hardware update for the device this year.

You may also want to read:
AirPlay Mirroring Coming to iPhone 4S
Real Racing 2 HD First to Support Wireless Gaming over AirPlay on Apple TV 2
No Apple TV 2 update this year?

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

This week in “Apple TV News from the Web”:

1. AirPlay mirroring coming to iPhone 5
2. Anatomy of an Apple Rumor
3. Let’s talk… new Apple TV
4. Killer iPhone feature
5. Sharing some love

We are open for submissions: if you find anything related to Apple TV and you think it may fit here, send us a tweet or a Facebook comment and we’ll post it the coming week.

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1. AirPlay mirroring coming to iPhone 5

A source told TUAW that iPhone 5 will also feature AirPlay mirroring that lets wirelessly display everything you do on your iPhone right on your HDTV through Apple TV 2. We’ve been all expecting it but it can also be a… rumor.

2. Anatomy of an Apple Rumor

“Everyone, including your mom, re-reports Apple rumors,” claims PCMmag. The guys at the Magazine have a great infographic that shows the anatomy of an Apple Rumor. We know how it ends, but how it all begins? And what is your role in this process? Check it out on this graphic.

3. Let’s talk… new Apple TV?

Apple has finally announced that its upcoming media event will take place on Tuesday, October 4 at 10am Pacific Daylight Time on Apple’s campus in Cupertino and will be led by Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook. There are no doubts that Apple will focus specifically on a new iPhone, but is there a chance that Tim will surprise us with the updated of the company’s “hobby device”? There were some speculations that Apple may be releasing a new Apple TV with A5 chip making the device capable of true 1080p.

4. Killer iPhone feature?

9to5Mac reports that, according to a source familiar with the SOC’s manufacturing, the new iPhone will feature Apple’s dual-core A5 processor, 1GB of RAM and improved, 8 megapixel camera. But the new device’s biggest selling point and a game changer may be a software feature called Assistant – a Siri-inspired, system-wide voice navigation system. The phrase on this year’s invite, ‘Let’s talk iPhone,’ seems to confirm this. Check out 9to5Mac’s article to learn more on how the Assistant works.

4. Sharing some love

Our Facebook fan Erick Ramirez wanted to “share some love” to Apple TV Hacks by creatively playing with our logo. LOL, thanks Eric, we are impressed! We share some love too!

How do you like it?

You may also want to read:
Apple TV News from the Web: Edition 4
Watch HD Movie Trailers on Apple TV 2
Apple TV News from the Web: Edition 3

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Gurman’s guess is that Apple is positioning this bluetooth support mainly for keyboards (this could mean the company is working on Safari for ATV2) but perhaps this would also make it possible to hook up your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch (having more controllers would make bringing games and apps to Apple TV simpler).

According to 9to5Mac, users will be able to activate the device’s built-in bluetooth support via the standard settings menu. A standard pairing menu will then appear and users will need to connect with a provided passcode.

Apple is also rumored to launch a faster Apple TV this fall with their dual-core A5 processor and 1080P video playback support.

You may also want to read:
aTV Flash (black) Beta6 for Apple TV 2 Now Available
Real Racing 2 HD First to Support Wireless Gaming over AirPlay on Apple TV 2
AirPlay-Enabled Apps: Web Browser, Camera and Videos for Apple TV, TVOut Genie! (review)

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

“Relish Real Racing 2 HD’s superb visuals as they’re streamed effortlessly to your big screen TV. Grip your iPad 2 and steer with unerring precision and the freedom of wireless play. Stay closer than ever to the track with real-time racing telemetry, displayed directly on your iPad’s screen,” the developer said in the press release.

The current version of the game features full HD 1080p TV-out and dual screen gaming support on iPad 2, allowing you to play Real racing 2 HD on your HDTV at full 1080p using HDMI adapter.

AirPlay mirroring for iPad 2 is one of the new features of recently announced iOS 5. It lets you wirelessly display everything you do on your iPad 2 right on your HDTV through Apple TV 2. It will let you airplay not only photos, videos and websites (it’s already available on Apple TV 2) but also video games.

You may also want to read:

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

But before that happens, let’s focus on what we know about the second generation Apple TV so far.

The box

• 3.9 inches (98 mm)x3.9 inches  x0.9 inches (23 mm); 0.6 pounds (1/4th the size of existing ATV)
• built-in power supply
• no power button

Connectivity

• HDMI (cable sold separately)
• Optical audio
• 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
• Micro-USB (for service and support); loses host USB
• Built-in IR receiver

Wireless

• 802.11n Wi-Fi (a/b/g compatible)
• 2.4GHz and 5GHz

Processor
Apple A4 chip (replacing Intel Pentium M that powered the old ATV)

Storage
No internal storage – instant online streaming (iTunes, Netflix, Flickr, Mobile Me, etc.) and local streaming (from your mac or pc via iTunes).
But Steve only said there will be no “storage management”, no details were given on what exactly is inside the box, no details on RAM.

Video formats
H.264 (up to 720p, 30 fps)
MPEG-4 (up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 fps)
Motion JPEG  (up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 fps)

No 1080p, only720p!
According to Engadget, Apple felt that using 720p allowed them to strike a balance between quality and bandwidth.
In comparison to old, hacked ATV, the new device looses 1080p

Audio formats:
HE-AAC (V1), AAC, protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV;
Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound pass-through

Photo formats
JPEG, GIF, TIFF

Controller

• Aluminum Apple Remote (included)
• iPhone or iPod touch running Remote app (free). Not so comfortable as Apple Remote device, but facilitates writing: use your device’s QWERTY keyboard to quickly tap out the title instead of clicking letters on the Apple TV screen.

OS
No details on the OS are given by Apple. According to Boing Boing, an Apple spokesperson said that the new Nano and Apple TV don’t use iOS, but other sources reports he has only confirmed that the new Nano doesn’t use this OS.

Since the second generation Apple TV is powered by A4 chip, like other iOS devices, it probably runs some form of iOS, just not identical as iPhone or iPad.

Content

• Movies

-          iTunes rentals available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand and the United Kingdom:
-          HD: new releases – $4.99, library titles – $3.99
-          SD: new releases – $3.99, library titles – $2.99
-          instant access; you have 30 days to start watching, and once you begin, you can watch as many times as you want in 24 hours
-          availability: often the same day they come out on DVD
-          searching by top movies, title, or genre; trailers, reviews, Rotten Tomatoes rating

Older Apple TVs will continue to work as they have been working up to this point, and they will continue to be able to purchase movies and TV shows even though the new Apple TV is rental-only.

• TV Shows

-          iTunes rentals only available in the US
-          titles from: ABC, ABC Family, Fox, Disney Channel and BBC America
-          commercial free
-          99¢ per episode (HD and SD)
-          once you rent an episode, you have 30 days to press Play. Then it’s yours for the next 48 hours
-          Apple TV keeps track of your favorite shows so the next time you turn on your TV, you can see which season you’re watching and which episodes are new

• Netflix

-          only available in the US
-          Netflix subscription required
-          watch your content right away or add it to your instant-watch queue

• Mobile Me (access to Mobile Me galleries)
• Fickr
• YouTube
• Slidshows (various slideshow themes, music from your iTunes library)
• Internet radio
• Local streaming

-          music, videos and photos streamed from PCs and Mac
-          iTunes 10 required

Coming soon: streaming from iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to the Apple TV with AirPlay, a new feature that will come with iOS 4.2 in November. There will be no need to rent or buy a movie or TV show again if you already have it on one of your iOS devices.

Price and availability
Apple will start shipping the new Apple TV at the of September/beginning of October for $99.

Sadly, there will be no updates for current ATV.

Possible hacks
Hacking the new Apple TV will be much more difficult since it has no USB host (no patchstick, no external hard drive) and hard drive (no room for additional files). “The hacking will probably have to be done via hooking the AppleTV up like a hard drive, and I doubt it will be as easy as the original one,” thinks NitoTV. And if the device is truly based on some form of the iOS, we will rather have to talk about “jailbreaking”, not “hacking”.

But we are sure that together with the great and creative ATV Hacks community we will soon make the new device more “usable”. “We’re committed to developing for the AppleTV platform, and will continue to do so once these new models are available,” said Firecore, the developer behind aTV Flash. Fingers crossed!

Interesting comment from our Facebook page:
“The real question is whether app developers will be able to utilize “air play” for their apps.. If so then apps like HuLu+ pandora ect will be able to work on the new aTV that way and apps like stream-to-me and airVideo will be able to deliver any video codec from your Mac or network storage drive (if you have an iOS device).”

Hands-on
Engadget
WIRED
Ars Technica
Boing Boing

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

“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.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

It will be coming to XBMC on OSX, Linux, and Windows via the Broadcom Crystal HD Hardware Decoder (BCM970012). It is available now in a mini-PCIE card with ExpressCard and 1X PCIE form factors.

Good news is that it has a common programming API and it’s an open source solution with full source code for driver and library available for OSX and Linux under a GPL/LGPL license. Go ahead, 3rd party developers!

The Windows driver binary, as well as the Linux source code for the driver and library can be found at the Broadcom web site. For OSX, the binaries and source code for the driver and library will be hosted at google code. Users in the USA can purchase the Crystal HD mini PCIE card from Logic Supply for $69, and of course there’s always ebay for those outside the USA.

Source: XBMC

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

There are a lot of rumors and expectations about new Apple TV last time in the Web. Although Apple has never said a word that they’re going to release new device, it seems like people are very impatiently waiting for the new ‘shiny box of joy’.

A few days ago Michael Wolf from GigaOM asked on his blog: what’s next for Apple’s living room strategy? “Some have speculated they will produce their own television, others might suspect a Blu-ray player could be on its way” he writes and thinks it is time for Apple to refocus its attention on atv device: “Since the launch of Apple TV, the company has launched its app store, pushed into gaming, and started offering HD video content on iTunes (…) Add it all together on a refreshed box, and it could be a potent combination” claims Wolf.

GigaOM has asked their readers to share their perspectives. We summed it up and added some other “web’s voices”. Here you have the most frequently repeated expectations:

-    Media streaming (Hulu, Netflix, Pandora, Last.fm, etc.)
-    Blu-Ray/DVD/BD drive
-    App store access with ability to run iPhone apps on the Apple TV
-    App/widget channel for news, sports, stocks, weather, etc.
-    Live TV ability
-    Expanded gaming ability
-    Full Social Networks support
-    Support for 1080p content
-    TiVo functionality
-    HD video chat
-    Possibility to play ISO files without having to hack ´n crack
-    Desktop support and flash enabled web browser
-    A built in iPhone/iPod dock and Sync
-    Dual Cable Card slot
-    Price staying around $200-300

Feel free to suggest your ideas in the comments section.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!