There's quite a bit of speculation that Apple will be unveiling a redesigned version of Apple TV, dubbed iTV, at their upcoming Annual Music Event this Wednesday. The rumor mill, as always, has gone into overdrive on this particular technology, since it's the unloved child of Jobs & Co., reduced to just a "hobby." But who doesn't want to see Apple push that old non-dynamic TV you've got into awesome new directions? Which brings up a good question: if iTV gets an iOS overhaul, what about its remote?
Via 9 to 5 Mac, we find that Dan Wineman's been thinking extra hard about such things. He takes the rumors that iTV will have its own app store and runs them right to their logical conclusion. After all, the iTunes Store and App Store have been super lucrative for Cupertino. Why not give every iDevice an App Store? Well, what kind of apps make the most sense for a television set? Not Around Me or Twitter or Red Laser or Wobble, surely. The answer is obvious once you've given it a thought, and we think Wineman might be on something. Other than watch movies and shows, people play games on their TVs.
But clearly Apple's standard remote, while perfectly fine for navigating your meat-and-potatoes menu system to find titles, is going to come up a bit short on the gaming end of things. Also, limiting remote interfaces to people who own a $199 iPod touch or who have to be shackled to AT&T for the iPhone would really cut into sales of iTV. Not exactly the way to launch a product refresh.
Image Source: venomous porridge
No, what Wineman envisions is the beauteous lovechild of the Magic Trackpad and an iPod touch. The screen is the smooth Trackpad gray while the inclusion of the home button still provides basic return-to-previous-menu style features. Wineman goes so far as to add "the same inertial and gyroscopic motion sensors as the iPhone 4," plus Bluetooth for communicating with the set top box. And, of course, users would have the option of simply downloading an app to their existing iPhones or iPods that would give them the same useful functionalities as this device.
Even better, at least in Wineman's world, this remote would merely be an under $50 add on to the existing $99 iTV device.
The more we think about this remote control, the more sense it makes and the cooler the idea starts to seem. Wednesday can't come soon enough to find out.
tmhale13
August 30, 2010 at 12:27pm
...until you mentioned that "add on" price. At $99, there is no way that this level of remote could be a pack-in. But, at $99 the iTV would be an easy sell to current Touch, iPhone and iPad owners. Then, allowing a cheaper buy in for those that do not have an iOS device for control, would make it very attractive to the rest of the masses. I can absolutely see this improving the Apple TV standings and moving this nifty device right out of "hobby town" and right into the mainstream.
