Apple TV 3

Looks like the just-released Apple TV software update contains strings referencing Apple TV 3,2, an as-yet unreleased hardware variant of the Apple TV 3,1, or the 3rd generation Apple TV with 1080p support that Apple released last March. The code name, J33I, as opposed to last year's simple J33, also suggest only the most minor of differences.

Apple has pushed out Apple TV software version 5.0.1 (4224), aka iOS 5.1.1 (9B206f). The update applies to both the 2010 Apple TV (720p) and 2012 Apple TV (1080p). No new features are shown following the update, and no new services seem to have been added, so this could well be a bug fix and performance enhancement release.

Some recent poking around inside Apple's third-generation TV unit show that there's actually a dual-core A5 processor inside, and not the single-core CPU listed on the spec sheet.

The new column. It comes after last week's column 2. If that confuses you, just call it the column (3rd edition). Yeah, I went there. It's been a heckuva week so cut me some slack. We've all been running on equal parts adrenalin and recklessly strong coffee and might soon be going into a collective apoplexy not dissimilar to what I'm sure faced the CEOs of rival tablet manufacturers sometime Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, I went there too. Here's why...

Apple has made 1080p TV shows and music available for streaming and purchase via the iTunes Store. The price is the same as the previous 720p HD content, but is the image quality better enough to justify the bigger download sizes and increased storage they'll require?

Once again, rumors are circulating about an Apple TV 3 update to accompany the new iPad 3/iPad HD.

Complete rumor rundown of Apple's upcoming iPad 3 event, from release date to hardware hopes and software speculation

Apple's next generation iPad 3 will almost certainly be announced on Wednesday, March 7, 2012 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, California. Everything else about it, however, is still up in the air. That's nothing new. The road to every Apple product release is paved and pot-holed with rumors true and fake, and this one is no different.

Still, while Apple is secretive they do tend towards patterns. What they've done in the past can indicate what they may do in the future. That's what we're going to look at here -- sift through all the recent rumors and try to figure out what makes sense.

iMore heard Apple was going quad-core with a full on, next generation A6-powered iPad 3, so did Bloomberg, but The Verge heard dual core and strings have been found identifying a less ambitious A5X chipset instead. Which one is it? Both? Neither? Mark Gurman from 9to5Mac thinks it's almost certainly both.