Apple Insider has a story up about rumors circulating around Apple’s Special Event next week (on September 1, 2010). Apple has sent out invitations to the media for an event in San Francisco at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, starting at 10 am Pacific Time. The invitation has a guitar with an Apple logo cut into it, and you can see it here at AI.
Speculation is that there will be a redesigned Apple TV at a $99 price, and that the focus will be on selling or renting video content to be streamed throught to HDTVs. It’ll possibly have its own apps available through the App Store, allowing for other features that typical DVRs/receivers aren’t capable of, including more mainstream games. Obviously it wouldn’t replace a regular console such as a Sonyt Playstation 3 or Nintendo Wii, however for some the iPhone has replaced handhelds such as the Sony PSP and Nintendo’s DS line, and Apple has refused to support Blu-ray viewing on Macs, something that is a major selling point of the Playstation 3. Apple’s view is that they want content, HD or not, to be purchased through their store or added through iTunes and then consumed on everything from an iMac down to an iPad or iPhone.
I would agree that it will probably be based on Apple’s iOS that powers iPhones and iPads. That makes a lot of sense. A new Apple TV has been described as the “tail end” of Apple’s video strategy, and this doesn’t necessarily make sense in Apple’s overall strategy as far as consumers and home products.
I’ve been asking for some kind of Apple home server since at least January of last year. The reason is that a lot of people who buy Apple products are reaching a critical mass with their devices and computers. I can easily see scenarios where you have some kind of Mac portable (MacBook or MacBook Pro), and an iMac or Mac mini, plus an iPhone or two along with an iPod, and now even an iPad. You are looking at a lot of content that is being consumed (through iTunes Music Store) and a lot of content that is being generated – photos and videos from digital cameras, video cameras (think Flip cameras at Amazon for cheap). Cameras are taking larger resolution photos and even the iPhone 4 is generating HD video content. Both of those start taking up a lot of space.