Speaking at a breakfast hosted by The Wall Street Journal, Sony CEO Howard Stringer said the company is working on a “different type of TV” to re-energize the television market. Hi didn’t give any details on what Sony is developing but said “there’s a tremendous amount of R&D going into a different kind of TV set”. Stringer also said that he has “no doubt” that Steve Jobs was developing an Apple TV set. “That’s what we’re all looking for”, he noted.

Stringer admitted that he spent the last five years building a platform so he can compete against Steve Jobs. “It’s finished, and it’s launching now”, he said. He was referring to Sony’s “four screens strategy” designed to seamlessly sync smartphones, laptops, tablets and televisions. This includes Sony’s own acclaimed network services, like the PlayStation Network and Sony Entertainment Network. Stringer believes the company it’s well positioned to produce the changes needed in the making and selling of televisions, even as it faces design-savvy competitors like Apple.

There are rumors flying that Apple has already started the production of the Apple TV set. According to analyst Gene Munster, the new Apple TV, controlled by Siri, “will be the most revolutionary product ever created.” He believes that the device will be introduced around WWDC 2012.

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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. Steve and the TV puzzle
2. Apple is already building prototype TV sets
3. The Apple iTV gets mocked up
4. Hulu Plus coming to Apple TV
5. Apple TV and Siri

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. Steve and the TV puzzle

From the new biography of Steve Jobs author Walter Isaacson said that the new Apple TV could be the best innovation from the iPhone to the present. With this TV you will not have to use your remote and also you will not have to struggle with movies, everything will be just a “touch” away. The new TV would be synced with all of the devices and with iCloud, Steve Jobs didn’t want users to complicate with DVD players and cable channels.

TUAW, Steve “finally cracked” the TV puzzle, says bio
Computerworld, About this Apple TV revolution chatter

2. Apple is already building prototype TV sets

The analyst Gene Munster, who anticipated Apple TV set from a long time, says there are rumors that the company have already started the production. According to Munster, the new Apple TV, controlled by Siri, “will be the most revolutionary product ever created.” He believes that the device will be introduced around WWDC 2012. Also, on Sept-11, an Asian component supplier said that the prototype from Apple TV is in works.

CNN, Piper Jaffray: Apple is already building prototype TV sets

3. The Apple iTV gets mocked up

Soon after the rumors about the Apple TV set started to fly around, the new product got mocked up. Guilherme M. Schasiepen an artist on Flickr, said that iTV combines the best of Apple, with a multi-touch screen, iTV application, HD effects, Siri and iCloud.

9to5mac, iTV gets mocked up

4. Hulu Plus coming to Apple TV

The Hulu Plus app may run in the Apple TV 2. The first thing crossing your mind is that there has to be some technical issues, that the service isn’t available on the atv yet. Well, there are only political. Seems that the Hulu Plus app could get more sales that iTunes, and Hulu also wanted to sell itself to Google. But 9to5mac has gotten word that “inside Apple there are Apple TVs running the Hulu Plus app natively. The app is feature complete and ready to roll out to Apple TV users on current builds”. We should wait and see.

9to5mac, Hulu Plus app and Apple TV

5. Apple TV and Siri

As you can read from the news above, Steve Jobs was quoted saying that he made the final invention on Apple TV. The rumors are spreading to the web and many are speculating that the new Apple TV set could be controlled by Siri. Here, you can already see what an Apple TV without any physical controller can be, thanks to the newest episode from “30 Rock”, where Alec Baldwin boasts with his new voice recognition TV.

[image by Guilherme Schasiepen]

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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!

Welcome to the second edition of Apple TV News from the Web! In this issue we have a mix of Apple design history and present, mixed with more Jobs’ related news. After all, it’s only a week after his resignation. In case you missed, you can read the first issue here.

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.

Edition 2:

1. The Apple Logo
2. Kicking in, Steve Jobs
3. The Mighty Jonathan
4. Pricing, Pricing
5. Cool!

The Apple Logo

Apple’s logo is probably one of the most easily identifiable. It has gone by several iterations [1] but has been easily recognised since the colour strips in the 80s. Designed by Ron Janoff, not by one of the company founders or designer, but by an advertising man [2]. Of course, being so distinctive ensures quick lawsuits if someone has a similar logo… Or even not a very similar logo, like this poor company in China has found out [3]. One more reason to be happy with our awesome new logo!

[1] Neven Mrgan’s Tumbl, The Apple Logo, Neven Morgan
[2] Creative Bits, Interview with Ron Janoff, creator of the Apple Logo,  Ivan Raszl
[3] GoChengDoo, Apple Tells Chinese Food Company To Change Its Logo, Staff

Kicking in, Steve Jobs

We’ll be seeing these kind of posts for a while. Remembrances of one of the technological leaders of our time, satyres to make us laugh, comics. What it feels to be Steve’s neighbour? It means seeing him almost every day, doing business in his garden. Walking around the street. And you also get to see how his sickness gets worse [1]. Sad story, about someone who has seen Steve very often. There are a lot of lessons we can get from Steve, and some of them are best seen in this short and sweet infographic [2]. And in case you missed, you can always watch the ever famous Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish Stanford’s Commencement Address [3]

[1] Palo Alto Patch, My neighbour, Steve Jobs, Lisen Stromberg
[2] The Daily Beast, The Ten Commandments of Steve Jobs [infographic], Leander Khaney
[3] Youtube, Stanford’s Commencement Address 2005: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish, Steve Jobs

The Mighty Jonathan

Jonathan Ive, Apple’s chief designer starts a new battle [1]. One of Apple’s strong points is design. Nice design, sleek design, perfect design. And Jobs and Ive share parts of the pie for doing Apple’s products the most brand-clear, sleek and sought after. Now “Jony”, as he is known will have to face the struggle for the perfect design (ignoring focus groups, market research and anything else as before) without Jobs’ support. Alone.

[1] LA Times, Apple Designer Jonathan Ive Enters a New Era, Jessica Guynn

Pricing, pricing

Apple gadgets are overpaid? A lot of people think so. But once you make the numbers, a MacBook, iPad or iPhone are cheap. You have top notch hardware, and a software capable of getting the most of this hardware without hassles. And if you are not convinced, check this [1] about managing supply chains to lower costs. Or compare a generic tablet with an iPad.

[1] Splatf, The New Apple: The Best Gadgets, but Also the Best Prices, Dan Frommer

Cool!

• The magic numpad, a sticky addition to your Magic Trackpad to turn it into a… numpad!
• Beta 7 of aTV Flash (Black): we’ll be following with a full blown post about this soon… Stay tuned!

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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!

Whether Steve Jobs was bluffing at D8 conference when he said he didn’t have any idea how to succeed in today’s television market or not, one thing is for sure now: there was no word on any new set-top box (or platform) by Apple at Jobs yesterday’s WWDC10 keynote. But here comes Jason Calacanis, Mahalo founder & CEO, bringing hope to our wounded hearts once again. He says Jobs is “an excellent liar” and he claims that Steve will be doing a new television soon, so that we can expect next Apple TV coming to our living rooms by the next Christmas. Watch the interview with Calacanis and tell us in comments whether a) you absolutely love Jason because he reminds you that there is always a HOPE, b) you think “htf does he know what’s in Jobs’ brilliant, A4-powered head?!,” or c) you are just bored to death with all these next-apple-tv rumors and you will never ever read this blog again if we mention a single rumor once again.

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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!

Steve Jobs was on stage at the D8 conference and he shared with us some of his thoughts on the television market. Well, taking his words literally and assuming that Steve honestly shared ALL of his most important thoughts on the TV market, we’d say there will be no new Apple TV coming at WWDC 2010. We’d also say that nowadays Apple has no idea on how to succeed in the television market.

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

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!