Apple TV

Apple has silently added a new "Apple Events" app to the standard Apple TV home page and is set to stream today's media event live. So far it appears that this will only be available to Apple TV users but we may find out more later.

Apple has been really busy the last few weeks and the Apple TV must have been feeling really left out seeing all Apple’s other iOS devices receiving shiny new upgrades to iOS 6. Thankfully Apple hasn’t been ignoring the Apple TV at all and has now released an update for the Apple TV second and third generations.

For those waiting on a full-on Apple television set, or even an enhanced Apple TV will more traditional capabilities, it looks like you'll have to keep waiting, at least for now. While Apple is likely ready to go from a technology standpoint, they can't seem to come to agreements with entrenched, terrified media companies over the future of the living room interface and experience.

Apple has pushed out an update for the Apple TV that brings an iTunes Festival app to the main screen. The iTunes Festival, much like the Hulu Plus app that appeared earlier this month, doesn't require a software update it just appears on your home screen over the air.

Yet more rumors are surfacing about Apple's plans for a set-top box that would provide access not only to traditional iTunes content, but traditional TV content as well.

Aside from a full-on Apple television, one of the longest running rumors in Apple living-room land is a deal with cable companies and/or broadcast networks for the right to air traditional cable programming on an Apple TV or similar set-top box. However, television is notoriously myopic and future-averse, and Apple has previously sought to disrupt rather than engage their business. But that might be changing.

Apple has just been granted a patent that it applied for 6 years ago that would allow them to turn the Apple TV into a cable box of sorts. This means instead of simply being able to stream content from iTunes, Netflix, and now Hulu, you'd be able to watch regular tv as well.

Hulu Plus, the U.S. streaming television service jointly ventured by NBC, Fox, and ABC, has suddenly appeared on Apple TV in America. This according to multiple tips, emails, tweets, and pretty much everything you can imagine -- except for official word from Apple or Hulu.

iTunes in the Cloud is part of iCloud, and lets you re-download or stream your previously purchased TV shows -- and music, movies, iBooks, and apps -- from your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Apple TV, or Windows or Mac PC. If you switch devices regularly, or don't want to take up space storing TV shows you watch infrequently, iTunes in the Cloud lets you keep everything you want to watch close by, and watch it whenever you want, wherever you want. You just have to make sure you're logged into your iTunes account, and you're good to go.

Here's how to access iTunes in the Cloud TV shows from your device.