Back before Apple officially debuted the AppleTV, it was widely speculated that it would be dubbed iTV. Well, according to “endgadget” (http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/11/upcoming-apple-tv-loses-1080p-playback-gains-apps/) Apple is renaming its “hobby” to … yep … iTV to bring more in line with “its current iOfferings” and making some major changes.
The article says Apple is planning an US$99 version of the Apple TV/iTV that will be similarly sized and packed with internals akin to that of the iPhone 4 (A4 CPU, 16GB of flash storage), and will introduce new iTunes streaming services the box could take advantage of. But, per “engadget,” there’s also a change that I certainly hope isn’t really coming.
“Apparently the box won’t be capable of handling (or enabled to handle) 1080i or 1080p video,” the article says. “Instead it will only push out 720p clips. The word — and cause for much internal debate, we’re told — is that this has something to do with the A4’s inability to crank on higher resolution content, but we don’t see how that’s possible considering the iPhone 3GS could play back full HD video.”
— Dennis Sellers