9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman has revealed some new details on the upcoming Apple TV 4. According to “sources with knowledge of the product”, the new Apple TV will have a big focus on gaming. 

Users will be able to download games directly from the Apple TV’s built-in App Store and control them via a new bundled remote control that will include both tactile physical buttons and a touchpad interface.

A deep focus on gaming will also mean that Apple TV 4 will support “more complex, console-style Bluetooth game controllers with the pressure-sensitive buttons and joysticks previously introduced for iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches.”

For gaming purposes, the remote control will have the built-in motion sensors introduced in the iPhone, as first noted by TechCrunch, so that it can be used as a steering wheel for car racing titles and similar games.

Importantly, however, the controller is said to connect to the Apple TV over Bluetooth, rather than using a sensor bar with IR support. As a result, the Apple TV’s support for motion controls is unlikely to include a system navigation and pointing interface akin to Nintendo’s Wii.

According to Gurman, one of the new Apple TV’s main features will be “near-universal Siri control”:

One of the dedicated buttons [on a new remote] will be a Home button, while another will be for activating the integrated microphone, triggering Siri control of the Apple TV. A source who has used the product says that “you can navigate [mostly everything] on the new Apple TV [solely] using the new Siri button.”

Apple’s new Siri remote, akin to the current Apple Remote, will utilize a standard replaceable battery so users will not need to frequently recharge the device like an iPhone or Apple Watch.

The next Apple TV is also said to support the latest Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11ac wireless standards “for improved power consumption, data speeds, and signal reliability.”

It is widely expected that the new Apple TV model will be announced during Apple’s September 9th event.

Apple TV 4 is expected to be be thicker and slightly wider than the current-generation model and feature Apple’s A8 chip, a new, “drastically improved” remote with touchpad, more on-board storage, an improved operating system with support for Siri voice control and a long-awaited App Store.

Mark Gurman reported yesterday that it will be priced below $200 and is “on track to become available in October.”

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Is Apple TV getting a refresh on October 16th?

Apple just send out invites to their next event. The Cupertino company is notorious for hiding clues in their invites, as to what to expect at their events. And the one for October 16th reads: “Its been way too long”. Though most rumors point to an early 2015 release of the next Apple TV, the tagline of the invite is somewhat promising.

We are expecting the new iPad Air, iMac, Yosemite and Apple Pay at this event but none of them warrants such a tagline as they are either getting refreshed or launched according to their scheduled timelines.

Whereas if we look into other devices, the Apple (Thunderbolt) display (1119 days since last release), Mac Mini (715 days since last release) and Apple TV (945 days since last release; via Macrumors) are the ones which are waiting “way too long” for an update.

Apple has been continuously adding new content to Apple TV, the frequent references to the same in interviews and events, with all the hot rumors we’ve been hearing, plus Apple TV acting as the central hub of HomeKit, it seems likely that Cupertino had Apple TV in mind while designing such an invite.

As always, we can never be sure. The event is scheduled to be held on next Thursday at 10am Pacific Time, at the Apple Campus. If Apple TV 4 gets unveiled, we’ll surely be the first ones to let you know. Stay tuned.

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Looks like cord cutters waiting for the next Apple TV will have to hold on a little longer. Reading through dozens of leaked info from various sources, it was generally believed that the next Apple TV will be announced this fall to be available on shelves in time for the holidays – a perfect 100 dollar gift! But a new report from The Informant states otherwise.

According to the report, the next generation Apple TV won’t be released this year at all. They even go on to say that the current road map aims at an early 2015 launch, but even that is just a rough estimate and the actual dates might still be farther.

The funniest thing is that the cause of the delay is the same as the one we’ve been hearing since two years – deals regarding the rights to the content. It seems that Apple is still at square one with such talks with the media giants.

Apple employees have cited cable companies “dragging their heels” and the pending Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger as reasons the device and accompanying TV service haven’t launched. [..]

[..]On the content side, cable executives and TV programmers say Apple has bit off more than it can chew and deny they’re the holdup. They say Apple needs permission from multiple types of rights holders to create the service it wants to offer.

However, many analysts in the media and operator chains are criticizing Apple for trying to be too ambitious. Apple is said to be striving to bring a new OS, video-on-demand and cable content into the set-top-box all at once and the third one is turning out to be the trouble maker. Apple employees are accusing cable companies of stalling the process while the latter is citing difficulty in obtaining content rights as the reason.

In the end, whatever be the reason, if this report is to be believed, we can assume that the Apple TV 4 will not be a part of what Eddy Cue claimed to be the best product pipeline in 25 years.

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We’ve heard it all about Apple’s television set, but it is generally assumed that the Apple HDTV development is currently on halt. However, an interesting post which appeared yesterday on Seeking Alpha says differently.

The post speaks about a graphics chip and display processing firm, PixelWorks, which Seeking Alpha believes to be a good stock to bet on, thanks to its new client, Apple Inc.

PixelWorks’ revenue has increased by 64% since last year and it is reported that about 14% of the total revenue comes from Apple. This kept analysts wondering if PixelWorks are working on the GPU of iPhone or iPad or even the new iWatch; but the released time slots and Apple’s usual production schedules weren’t adding up.

However on another note, the CEO of PixelWorks, Bruce Walicek hinted that they’re working on a ‘large-display project’ for a ‘major client‘, which leads the author to believe that the company is partnering with Apple to produce the graphics processors for the Apple television.

Here is what Walicek said during the conference call from the last earnings report:

“More importantly, though, Q1 was a key quarter of progress as we completed a number of critical milestones during the quarter that advanced progress on our key initiatives; first, we developed the mass-production version of the advanced SOC for large-screen applications we developed under our co-development partnership.

And during the quarter, we received mass-production qualification from our customer. This is a major milestone on this project, and we are on track for volume production to begin in the current quarter and ramp it in the second half of this year, which we believe will result in significant market-share gains in 2014 and beyond.”

Seeking Alpha author, 3D Analytics, believes PixelWorks is working on a large-display project for Apple:

Based on in-depth research by 3D Analytics, it is our conclusion that the Pixelworks-Apple bond is rooted in the development and production of Apple TV […]

Apple has yet to enter the large-display market, and based on its current intellectual property, it does not have all the technology to build a TV. This is where we see the largest benefit to Apple in partnering with Pixelworks.

For now, things are working out great for PixelWorks as their stocks are soaring high since the post first appeared on Seeking Alpha; they sold about 10 million stocks in one day, as opposed to last 30 day average of 0.7 million.

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Last night, Eddy Cue and Jimmy Iovine were interviewed at the Code Conference post the announcement of Beats acquisition by Apple. Among a million other things, Apple TV popped up in between and Cue had more than a few words to say.

He said he feels that the current television experience “sucks” and even went on to compare it to the VCRs of the 90s, reminding us of the “When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years” comment made by Tim Cook in 2012.

Cue doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the current video-on-demand setup either, because signing into a cable provider account to access content is just “not ideal”.

Apple exec talked about the 20 million sales of Apple TV so far and said that this billion-dollar business will get bigger this year.

And although he feels the television market is still complicated

TV is hard. There is no standards, either locally in the US, in some regions, certainly globally. There are lots of right issues down to rights issues. It’s a complicated landscape.

he said that Apple TV “will continue to evolve” as the company continues to “improve the experience.”

Cue also hinted that Apple has “the best product pipeline in 25 years” coming up later this year and we expect the new Apple TV will obviously be on of the new products Apple will introduce by the end of the year.

Reading Cue’s words alongside with the rumors of a September-October launch of the next Apple TV, we can expect some revolutionary changes to the set top-box soon. If speculations are to believed, the overhaul will include a completely redesigned easy-to-use interface, an iOS 7 based firmware, separate App Store, an SDK for third party channels, support for games and MFi controllers.

And the undue delay in the release of Apple TV 4 also points to some huge incoming changes.

Read the complete interview with Cue and Iovine here.

Stick around here at Apple TV Hacks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) for more coverage on the new Apple TV.

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In 2013, rumors about Apple-branded TV set were circulating day by day, but after some point, the spike just flattened out. Well, now we have a reason worth believing: Brian Blair, an analyst at Rosenblatt Securities, has told Business Insider that Apple indeed had plans to release their own standalone television set, but it was shelved in the mid-2013.

With Steve Jobs’ biography mentioning that he had “cracked” the code for an “integrated television set” and Tim Cook calling the TV market “an area of intense interest”, readers were already hinted of an Apple HDTV in the oven. Many concept designs and speculated unique features in relation to patent filings and acquisitions were flooding the web.

However, after his recent tour to Asia, Blair claims to have learned a lot on Apple’s television dreams. According to him, Apple was actively working on a prototype HDTV and even reached a stage where they started connecting with display panel makers. But at some point in 2013, Apple decided to put a halt on the project. The reasons being:

Some of the concerns around a TV are believed to revolve around 1) the unique logistics that surround the TV business (you can’t easily bring one into a store for repair, for example) and 2) features that would differentiate it from competitive offerings. It is believed in the supply chain that Apple is still trying to find a way to make the product work, though timing remains uncertain. We believe that Apple is focused on building up content and establishing differentiated media relationships before reconsidering TV plans again.

At the end of the day, we can only speculate that Apple will be concentrating more on the Apple TV set-top box for the time being and try to dominate the living room via the black box, rather than lighting up a couple million pixels. Maybe the long delay in the next Apple TV indicates great things are coming. Fingers crossed!

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Though official announcements are yet to arrive, it is almost certain that Apple has made its largest acquisition yet, in the form of Beats Electronics, for a staggering $3.2 billion. Things are taking some interesting turns here for Apple TV fans, as Steve Jobs’ biographer, Walter Isaacson claims that the Beats acquisition is focused on video content streaming and the ultimate Apple TV experience, more than anything else.

And the cue here is Jimmy Iovine, the co-founder at Beats Electronics.

It was already reported that both Jimmy and Dr. Dre would take up executive positions at Apple, post to the acquisition. And according to Isaacson, this rather neglected part of the story is what makes the purchase worth every penny – Apple will get Iovine on their team. And why is that so relevant?

According to Billboard:

Isaacson thinks the Apple-Beats deal is not about headphones or streaming music but rather is about video. He speculates that Cook wants Iovine to run Apple’s content business and help Apple launch the TV product that analysts have been gossiping about for years. The product has been held up because Apple can’t get all the content owners on board.

Isaacson speculates that Iovine will be made the lead of Apple’s content delivery system and expects radical changes in how iTunes, Apple TV channels and future video content will behave.

What Apple needs now to make the revolutionary Apple TV possible is an insider directly involved with the content makers and the distributors, who can make use of his connections to good ends and pull off the deals which none of the other Apple executives nor Tim Cook himself could ever do.

As Micah Singleton reported to The Daily Dot:

Jimmy Iovine may be the most connected man in Hollywood, with an accomplished history as a music executive and producer, who has worked with Bruce Springsteen, Lady Gaga, U2, Tom Petty, and John Lennon. Iovine has also produced films, documentaries, and TV shows, giving him rare insight into all phases of the entertainment industry. 

What you can count on is Jimmy Iovine being Apple’s Hollywood liaison. Iovine can get deals done that Apple executives cannot. Hollywood runs on relationships, and thanks to running one of the biggest labels in the world and producing films and TV shows, Iovine has relationships with executives across the industry. Iovine may be tasked with reinventing iTunes at first. But when it’s time to make those content deals for the long-rumored Apple TV, you can expect Iovine to be in the room.

However, many analysts are responding against Isaacson’s predictions and rejects the possibility of him having connections with such deep insider sources. It also seems to be out of sense that Apple would add the whole company to the cart just for its co-founder and not its headphones or subscription service.

But at this point we can only hope that if the speculations are true, Jimmy does his job well and brings more channels and better content to the next generation Apple TV.

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The post Apple’s Beats acquisition might be directed towards new Apple TV appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

The WWDC 2014 is scheduled to be held a month from now in San Francisco and as usual, we’re in the dark as to what Apple is planning to show off. However, 9to5Mac seems to have caught with some sources with knowledge of the plans and brings the first glimpse of what we can expect. Though iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 would take the major flash, Apple TV is also on the agenda.

The major news is kind of disappointing as it says that the next Apple TV won’t be announced in the conference. Based on the recent rumors, we were expecting a refreshed Apple TV with new interface, SDK for third party channels, a standalone App Store and support for games and controller. It is reported that though Apple initially had plans of the same, the Apple TV 4 won’t be quite baked yet for the June event.

However, sources say that Cupertino is now planning separate launches for the Apple TV 4 software and hardware and that the WWDC may witness the former – meaning, the revamped firmware for the Apple TV and SDK for developers may be released at the event.

This also reinforces the earlier reports that the new software will be backward compatible and support at least the 2nd and 3rd generations of the Apple TV. So if things go as we hope, your old cluttered Apple TV might be running games, apps and new third party channels in a couple of months.

The other report is about a new feature in iOS 8 called multi-resolution support, which would help developers to adapt their games easily to the variety of screen resolutions of new iPhones and iPads. Analysts believe that if the rumored iOS sibling of Apple TV inherits this feature, many of the iOS games and apps will seamlessly start working with Apple TV with just few tweaks. And if that happens, the Apple TV App Store would gain millions of apps, within a matter of months.

But in the end, only June 2 will tell what Apple really has in those keynote slides. So what is that you are expecting the most from WWDC 2014? Let us know in comments below.

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I’ve just found a new device family reference in Siri’s ressources in iOS 7.1… New #AppleTV or #iWatch ? pic.twitter.com/Ak1PVuBmqc

— UNiCORN (@bp_unicorn) April 19, 2014

Later, 9to5Mac took a deeper look and found that both 7.1 and 7.1.1 has these references but not 7.0.6. They’ve confirmed that the number 3 is indeed referring to the Apple TV family and not any new devices, as evident from its previous references and Apple’s official documentation.

“As shown by Apple’s documentation, ’1′ and ’2′ represent the iPhone/iPod touch and iPad families. The ’3′ represents the Apple TV family. The Apple TV has been given the ’3′ designation ever since Apple TV became based off iOS. The Lowtide application uses the ’3′ identifier for instance, as do current Apple TV apps.”

Due to the absence of a built-in microphone on the current generations of Apple TV devices, it is unlikely that Siri will be making its way to them. But with the rumors of Apple TV 4 floating around, claiming a completely redesigned interface, support for games, third party channels and more, it is safe to conclude that the next Apple TV will be seeing Siri’s voice navigation functionality too.

Besides, with Amazon Fire TV promoting its voice-search feature as a major selling point, it is unlikely that Apple TV 4 won’t have a worthy answer to it.

Read more about Apple TV 4 and leran how to get Amazon Fire TV-style voice search on Apple TV.

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Yeah, you heard it right. This would probably be the most bizarre rumour you’ll be hearing about the next-gen. Apple TV, but it seemed too unique to be ignored. According to one of Apple’s recent patent filings (via Cult of Mac), Cupertino is considering a HMD (Head-Mounted Display), like the recently Facebook-acquired VR gaming device, Oculus Rift.

The device, described by Apple as a Goggle System, would be “a personal display system, comprising: a frame, a display generation circuitry…, data processing circuitry.. to provide media to the display generation circuitry; and a display screen coupled to the frame and operative to display images generated by the display generation circuitry.“, says the patent. In short, it is a new kind of personal media device which will be able to stream videos on-the-go and for your eyes only.

Here are some points worth noting:

1. The device will be able to stream videos from other devices like the Apple TV, Mac or PC.
2. It may even be able to stream directly from the cloud or download content to itself.
3. As seen in some images, it can pair with your TV or iPod.
4. It can provide slightly different images for each eye, thereby giving the perception of depth and 3D imagery.
5. It can even cope with the refractory errors of user’s eye by tweaking the visuals.

The 38-page long filing only has one mention of the term “Apple TV” and that too, is in an entirely different context of streaming content via Apple TV. But Cult of Mac speculates that this could be “Apple’s revolutionary re-imagining of Apple TV”, which kept a lot of us thinking. Though the possibility of future Apple TV being a head mounted device is rare, we do look forward to what this patent holds for future generations of Apple TV.

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