Photo: preetamrai / Flickr

You know those conversations you have with one eyebrow raised, and your jaw slightly agape, from a combination of disbelief, pleasant surprise and bewilderment? Yes? Well a ‘trusted tipster’ has uncovered code in the iOS 4.3 beta 3 firmware that hints at the Apple TV getting online gaming functionality soon.

ATVGames

The tipster told Engadget that there were several references in the iOS 4.3 code referencing ‘ATVGames’ and ‘ATVThunder’, with the former being Apple TV games and the latter thought to be a controller interface of some kind. These lines of code seem to reference leaderboards, a la Game Center, a store front much like the App Store/iTunes, and game scheduling for multiplayer presumably.

OnLive-esque approach

With the new Apple TV having limited storage capacity, the tipster suspected Apple would approach gaming from an OnLive type fashion, where games would be streamed to players, as opposed to stored locally. Again, this is just speculation.

Apple’s console

If this story proves true, it’ll once again be the repeating of a pattern we first saw when Apple launched its iPhone. While many speculated the iPod-maker would make a handheld console to compete directly with the Nintendo DS and the PSP, Apple’s gaming strategy was built around its smartphone and new age mp3 player.

While any murmurings of an Apple console have died in recent years, the Apple TV could again be the Trojan horse that allows the company to get gaming into your living room without sparring with the PS3 and Xbox 360 directly, which, if it works, would be genius.

Again, this is all a big ‘if’. There honestly is no way of knowing what Apple is cooking up, but Apple TV gaming has been mentioned before, and giving the company’s history, we think it likely Apple online gaming functionality will, in time, become a reality.

Photo: Apple

When Apple released the original Apple TV a few years back, it was technologically half-baked, and was supported very little by the Cupertino giants. It was so bad, in fact, the company went on to call it a hobby. As such, its sales reflected that of a hobby – not impressive by Apple’s own high standard.

The new Apple TV, however, is doing surprisingly good numbers, with Apple issuing a press release to announce that the hockey puck-like device will cross the 1 million units sold mark before the week is up.

Priced to go

Priced to go at just $99 (£64), the new Apple TV, will have generated nearly $100 million in revenue – a small, but not inconsiderable contribution to the company’s impressive cash haul.

Content distribution channel

Its true purpose, however, is to serve as a content distribution channel for Apple. Since it relies on a streaming connection to function, in that it doesn’t have a large enough on-board hard drive for storing content, insofar as its sales continue to grow, so too will sales of TV series and movies. In fact, in the same press release, Apple announced that ‘iTunes users are now renting and purchasing over 400,000 TV episodes and over 150,000 movies per day.’

Now, obviously, the new Apple TV is not the only way to consume that content, but it’s likely a significant contributor to the growing figures.

Just as Google TV sputters

What was notable, whether intentional or not, is how Apple just so happened to announce that its digital living room companion was doing well on the same day it was revealed that Google TV was struggling to get off the ground. Clearly that rivalry hasn’t died down one bit, and each company will look for opportunities to play one-upmanship.

For what it is worth, though, we think presently, there are superior streaming content boxes available for your living room, but it isn’t our opinion that counts. It’s consumers’. And they’re speaking with their dollars and pounds in favour of Team Jobs.

Photo: Apple

People love Apple’s products – one look at their earnings reports or press conferences confirms this. But many of Apple’s most hardened fans have become disenchanted with the company that once demanded we think different, but now kind of seems like the big bad bully it warned against. So we’ve dug through our product reviews and catalogues to find devices well capable of replacing your iPhone, iPod, iPad and Apple TV alternatives.

iPhone alternative: Android coming strong

In ‘Smartphone Land’, Apple has what many consider the best mobile phone in the world with the iPhone 4. But the competition, especially from Android devices, has been piling up fast! The Samsung Galaxy S phone is our current anti-iPhone device of choice – though its similarities to the iPhone 4 cannot be ignored. Prior to that, we were enamoured – and still are – with the HTC Desire. Now, with Windows Phone 7 series dropping soon, as well as the imminent arrival of HP’s Palm webOS 2 phones, competition in the Smartphone space is about to get very interesting.

iPod alternative: umm

Photo: Creative

Since the iPod Touch refresh, it’s pretty safe to say there isn’t a single personal media player that is even comparable. If, however, you use your iPod Touch for just music or have one of the other iPod device ranges, your options are well varied. iRiver and Creative have always been the strongest of the iPod competitors, and this still holds true today. If you want to throw your weight behind a juggernaut, you can grab the Microsoft Zune Player, but for value for money and capability, we just don’t think it makes that much sense to do so.

Apple TV alternative

This is one area where, for our money, Apple is easily the weakest contender in the space. Now, some people argue Apple’s simplification of the AppleTV will make it mass media, whereas for our money, it’s just a hobbled together inferior system. The Western Digital WD Live TV runs circles around Apple’s offering and that’s just our favourite of many alternatives.

iPad alternative

Photo: Samsung

These don’t exist yet. We’re waiting for them. The Samsung Galaxy Tab seems to be the best Apple alternative so far, but until the November flood of tablets arrives, you’ll have to show Apple some love with the iPad.

Rehabilitation

If you’re a self-admitted Apple fan – or an accidental fan – letting go of your beloved mobile gadgets may be challenging. But the truth is, if you search carefully, there are Apple alternatives aplenty. Are you prepared to make the jump, though? That is the big question.

Photo: Apple

The Apple press event finally happened and, needless to say, nobody was particularly surprised by what the company announced. Almost all the rumours in the build up to the event proved true, with the company updating its whole iPod range, iTunes and finally introducing the new Apple TV.

iPad gets Airplay

Apple showed a sneak peak at iOS 4.2, mainly aimed at the iPad, which will see release in November. The updated OS for their tablet device brings with it Airplay, the ability to print files via wi-fi, stream music to audio devices and even push video to the Apple TV, but more on that later. While not overwhelmingly spectacular, it made for a neat demonstration of the things Apple are thinking about and tweaking.

iTunes 10

The Apple press event also had some digital content goodies with it, with the company unveiling iTunes 10 and iTunes Ping, its new social service built around iTunes. Long and short of it is that Ping is Facebook for iTunes users. It even looks and feels like Facebook, too, so there you have it.

The Apple TV gets serious

Apple also revealed its new Apple TV. In black and at one quarter the size of the previous Apple TV, its design is reminiscent of a hockey puck. While our full stand-alone preview goes into deeper detail about the device, it’s essentially a media centre built around Apple’s walled garden, and US citizens will be glad to know the popular Netflix service is built into it, too.

The iPods

The showstopper was undoubtedly the updated iPod range. Clearly the iPod Classic has now gone the way of the dodo, so we can start waving goodbye to that. The iPod shuffle now has its buttons back, but retains the voice-functions introduced in the previous model. You pay $49 for the 2GB model. The iPod Nano now loses its buttons, and gets a full on touchscreen interface, as rumoured. And the iPod Touch gets the royal treatment with FaceTime, dual cameras, a gyroscope and retina display introduced, too. Apple went big on the ‘iPhone minus the phone’.

Overall

Watching Apple do its thing must be a painful experience for technology companies worldwide. Not only does the company have what is widely considered the best product range in the markets it competes in, but it has a super captivated audience, who hang on to every word and, occasionally, cheer on the most mundane things, too. Let’s be clear here, the Apple press conference was greeted with more excitement than the IFA 2010 conference – an industry-wide event.

But it isn’t just the popularity contest Apple is winning. The company may very well be in its product prime. Oh, and remember, for the thrifty, you can now begin picking up the iPod Touch 3rd generation, the Apple TV and the other products soon to be updated at giveaway prices

Photo: Apple

Apple has a big, big event happening tonight, as you know. What you may not have known was that Steve Jobs and friends plan a special Apple live stream for the event. This is actually quite remarkable, because it is Apple’s first live stream in a long, long while. But you’re not invited to the party if you’re not an Apple customer.

PC racist (uhm, ‘devicist’?)

You’re out of luck if you want to watch the Apple live stream on any device that is not made by Apple. Apple’s statement regarding the live stream reads: ‘Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad.’ Man, where’s the love? What’s worse is Apple is even punishing those Mac users who are still on Mac OS X version 10.5. Not cool.

New iPod Nano, FaceTime Touch, iTV

Apple’s autumn show has been greeted with tons of speculation, with the obvious being the iPod lineup will see some form of an update. Reports indicate that the iPod Nano will get a brand new interface, minus a click wheel.

In addition, the iPod Touch will reportedly get a rear-facing and front-facing camera, with Apple’s proprietary FaceTime software baked into the OS. FaceTime seems to be Apple’s big thing now – what, with all the iPhone 4 commercials showing it – and it would make sense for the company to spread its tentacles even further out.

Photo: Apple

The big, big deal may be the long-rumoured Apple TV refresh (expected to be renamed iTV). Various agreements with film studios have been discussed in finance publications, with all being curious on whether Apple can change the media centre game the way it did the personal music player, smartphone and tablet computer game.

Alternatives

For those of us who aren’t burning to watch the Apple live stream, you can catch the full video on Apple’s website a few hours after the event, or you can read the many live blogs across the web during the conference.

Surprisingly, I’m not as excited for this event as previous Apple events. How do you feel about it?

Photo: Apple

As promising a device as it was when it was first announced and launched, the Apple TV has turned out to be just a hobby for Apple. But if recent happenings in the webTV space (read: Google TV) and rumours are to be believed, a new Apple TV is about to get released, representing a major update for the device.

What’s in the pipeline?

All the rumours regarding the new Apple TV point to Apple putting its iOS platform into the system, effectively replacing the current interface powering their video device. This means apps developed on the iOS framework currently shared by the iPhone and the iPad might be capable of working on the new device. At the very least, it stands to reason that Apple’s suite of devices will be able to talk to each other, with the prospect of TV-to-iPad streaming being the most obvious, and the iPad behaving as a glorified media interface come remote being the other.

This also means other streaming services, like Hulu, BBC iPlayer, and Netflix, could have their own apps on the new Apple TV, having it behave more like a hub for content than a gateway to iTunes. In this respect, Apple would be focusing on the high-margin hardware that has always brought it money, leaving programming concerns to other companies who make all their revenue from content sales/distribution.

Reports spanning the New York Times to TechCrunch and most other major technology news websites have Apple ramping up hiring user interface experts and designers with experience in the broadcast industry to make this initiative come to the fore.

Media centre solutions for today

Photo: Apple

The undoing of the original Apple TV was the very limited number of file options it supported, as well as how rarely Apple updated it. Add to that the rapid improvement of video playback and digital streaming consoles like the Xbox 360 and the PS3 had, the less appetising the Apple media centre became. Somewhere in the hubbub that is the iPhone, Jobs and co stopped caring. Perhaps, all things considered, it is time to care again.

Do you own an Apple TV, or would you consider purchasing the new Apple TV if these rumours are, in fact, true? Let us know in the comments section.

Photo: Google

Having recently reported that Google was working with Dish Network to experiment with TV Search, it has emerged that their goals are even loftier than that, and a full-on Google TV, in partnership with Intel, Sony and others, has been rumoured to be in the making.

Internet on your TV

The New York Times reported that the technology would essentially be Google Android OS televisions and set-top boxes, all powered by Intel Atom chips. In addition, Google is reportedly building a new Chrome browser just for these televisions. Sony, with their Bravia pedigree, would be building the televisions for this service, and the option of bringing similar offerings to its other platforms such as the Playstation 3 and its Blu-ray devices is a possibility.

Android apps on your TV

Photo: Sony

What this means is Android apps should work on this Google TV. In addition, it is reported that Google will release a special SDK (standard development kit) for development on the television service. In addition to being a platform for Google Android OS applications, the aim is to make browsing the web, uploading pictures and social networking functionality integrated, as easy to use as flipping through channels.

The threat

The major threat a service like this has is for television networks and Pay-TV providers. Satellite and cable companies, who initially dismissed the web, then sued the web, and have since begun warming to the web, will now have disruptive web video services on the same platform. So, in this respect, gone will be the days of pesky YouTube at arm’s length, and on its way will be the days of getting services like Hulu and HBO Go.

Photo: Apple

The Google Android OS powered TV, as some outlets have pointed out, could also be the spark that stokes the fire on Apple executives to start treating the Apple TV as something other than a hobby.

What’s next?

It’s still too early to tell what the Google TV will even be or when to expect such a service, but given how much entertainment is consumed on the television, which presents a valuable audience to advertise to, it was only a matter of time before the separate worlds of the Internet and the television set come colliding.