Apple TV

A little while ago TiPb asked if the Apple TV should be switched over to the iPhone OS, but what about the Mac? Coincidentally, a recent Apple job offering was discovered by ComputerWorld that hinted Apple was seriously considering pushing the iPhone OS from phone, MP3-player iPod touch, and tablet iPad to further devices:

Should Apple TV switch to the iPhone OS? The Apple TV was introduced in late 2006 but debuted alongside the iPhone at the Macworld 2007 keynote. Since then, the iPhone has become a huge, mainstream success and the Apple TV... well it reamins just a "hobby".

Technically, Apple TV is included under Apple's iTunes + iPod offerings, and it's been referred to as a big iPod for your TV. While low end iPods continue to run their embedded OS, the iPod touch and upcoming iPad run versions of the iPhone OS, Apple TV, by stark contrast, originally used a special version of Mac OS X Tiger. Though it has been updated to 2.x and 3.x over the years (and gotten a price cut to boot!), it remains in a sort of no-mans land, with more functionality than an iPod nano but far less than a proper Mac OS X machine like the Mac Mini.

The set-top box market is nebulous at best, but Apple chose to engage it -- much as it has the equally nebulous tablet market with the iPad, so we wonder if they wouldn't do better engaging it on the same terms -- with the iPhone OS and its 150,000 apps.

MacRumors is reporting that Apple has sent out an email alerting customers to an urgent Apple TV 3.0.1 update to address an issue involving disappearing content. I haven't received the email myself yet, nor am I home to check (and I stream all my content anyway), but in case any of you on Apple TV 3.0 are affected, here's the letter they posted:

Dear Customer,

It still baffles us how iTunes LP and iTunes Extras content -- which was introduced in the seemingly Apple TV-ideal 720p format -- wasn't compatible with the new Apple TV 3.0 software to begin with. In fact, we've gotten Wall-E with iTunes Extras to play on our Apple TV already. But according to Apple, it's now really for real compatible...

Apple TV 3.0 (or Apple TV 3, or Apple TV Take 3) is the just-released third version of Apple's and Steve Jobs' "hobby". And, for good or for ill, its latest feature-set seems designed to keep iTunes' living room gateway as niche as ever. That's not to say it isn't good, because it is (though it does have problems we'll get into below), but it's certainly not great. Not yet. And we're beginning to wonder if Apple (now or ever) even wants it to be?

As rumored, Apple just announced Apple TV 3.0, with an all new interface and support for iTunes LP and iTunes Extras.

MacRumors has been tipped that users attempting to make purchases in iTunes today are being greeted with new Terms of Service (ToS) which include the following, tantalizing line:

The Terms of Sale have been revised to clarify that you can now use iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras on Apple TV with software version 3.0 or higher.

Is Apple planning a larger, touch-screen enabled remote control to go along with a next generation Apple TV? Boy Genius' tipster, the same one who leaked iTunes 9 app organization and social integration, says yes indeed. And if the image above is accurate, one of the updates will be -- Safari. (No sign of Apps yet, though...)