As rumors of an Apple television set continue to swirl, The Telegraph reports that the UK TV network ITV has written a letter to Apple to warn it against using the name "iTV" for its future television product. Though, ITV said that there has been "no communication" between it and Apple. The "iTV" name was previously rumored to be used for Apple's revamped iOS powered Apple TV in 2010, which was said to have made network executives "furious."
Apple anticipated television has been called the "iTV" by some pundits, following the same branding as Apple's other popular products like the iPhone and iPad. ITV, short for Independent Television, has been on the air since 1955, and is the broadcaster of the popular show "Downton Abbey." The network has also spawned three sister channels using its same name: ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4.
Apple reportedly assured the ITV network in 2010 that Apple would not use the "iTV" name. But the death of Steve Jobs is said to raise a serious concern of the network. ITV executives are said to be concerned that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook could take a different stance from his predecessor.
Apple is widely expected to reveal its next-generation iPad at a special media event in the first week of March. The iPad 3 is believed to carry a ultra-high resolution 2048x1536 display that exceeds the resolution of 1080p content. Now Apple offers a maximum of 720p HD content on their iTunes Store.
We've already seen evidence that Apple has been working on a next generation Apple TV. Back in October, references to an unreleased "AppleTV3,1" model were found in the latest versions of iOS 5. Meanwhile, Apple has reportedly asked movie studios to start submitting 1080p content to the iTunes Store late last year.
Apple today announced that it would support Paul McCartney's new album release. The company plans to steam a special free video of the live concert on Thursday, February 9 via iTunes on Mac and PC. The video will also be available directly on users' Apple TVs, signalling new efforts by Apple to increase the utility of its set-top box.
To celebrate the release of Paul McCartney's latest album — available now — we're streaming his exclusive performance at Capitol Studios on February 9 at 7 p.m. (PST). Watch the concert on iTunes on your computer, or stream it on your TV using your Apple TV — just choose iTunes Live from the Internet menu.
Best Buy has decided to carry out a survey related to the rumored Apple’s HDTV powered by iOS that, noteworthy to say, has not been released yet. The questionnaire notes that the 42-inch Apple HDTV "finally reinvents what a TV can do," with a 1080p LED flat panel display, connectivity with iCloud, and the ability to use an iPhone or an iPad as a remote control, and "iSight" camera. Such details, however, look like speculations on the part of Best Buy. Since introducing FaceTime video chat, Apple has referred to its forward-facing cameras as FaceTime cameras, not iSight.
Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster told that he had recently spoken to a "major TV component supplier" about Apple's rumored plans to release its Apple TV and received the following answer that Apple had contacted at least with one supplier "regarding various capabilities of their television display components."
In January 2011 Apple reportedly held a meeting in Asia that suggested Apple was investing in manufacturing facilities for LCD displays as large as 50 inches and in September 2011 the company held another meeting with a "contact close to an Asian supplier" who claimed prototypes of an Apple set are in the works. Now Piper Jaffray believes that Apple will likely release its television at the end of 2012, though, as usual, the timeline could be changed at any moment.
John Sculley, former vice-president and president of PepsiCo and CEO of Apple between 1983 and 1993, and a Silicon Valley investor nowadays, believes that Apple is the only company that would be able to change the first principles of the television experience. In an interview with BBC Sculley confessed that has not read Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Apple’s late cofounder and CEO, but admitted that the television industry is about to experience Apple’s magic touch:
I think that Apple has revolutionized every other consumer industry, why not television? I think that televisions are unnecessarily complex. The irony is that as the pictures get better and the choice of content gets broader, that the complexity of the experience of using the television gets more and more complicated. So it seems exactly the sort of problem that if anyone is going to change the experience of what the first principles are, it is going to be Apple.
Rupert Murdoch confirms Sculley’s words about Apple television, writing on Twitter this morning: “All talk is about coming Apple TV. Plenty of apprehension, no firm facts but eyes on their enormous cash pile”.
The iPhone Dev-Team has updated PwnageTool with support for the iOS 5.0.1 untethered jailbreak. PwnageTool lets you easily create a custom ipsw for upgrading to iOS 5.0.1.
Unlockers can use custim firmware to preserve baseband version and unlock with ultrasn0w or gevey. Depending on your device you can also configure the ipsw with boot logos and Cydia packages.
PwnageTool 5.0.1 supports iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad 1, Apple TV 2G, iPod Touch 3G, iPod Touch 4G.
You can download the new version of PwnageTool 5.0.1 from here.
UPDATE: Here are our step-by-step tutorials that will guide you through all the process of untethered jailbreaking iOS 5.0.1 with PwangeTool 5.0.1:
Citing an anonymous source who worked at Apple, USA Today revealed that 50-inch Apple television is said to be housed in the secure California studio of Jonathan Ive. The same source also said that Apple is looking to build an LCD television sized 42 inches or larger with built-in Wi-Fi functionality, because Apple is not interested in building an HDTV with a screen size of less than 42 inches.
Author Scott Martin notes that Apple's rumored TV set is going to receive "big buzz" at next week's Consumer Electronics Show, even though the Cupertino, Calif., company isn't attending the event.
The story also features a quote from Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who said he expects Apple will make "an attempt" to build a TV. He believes the living room will "remain a center for family entertainment, and that touches on all areas of consumer products that Apple is already making."
The report offers little else that is new about Apple's anticipated television set. Some reports have indicated that Apple plans to use custom chips, like it does with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, others suggested that Apple could include AirPlay and iCloud into its new product. Rumors also claim that Apple wants to be able to offer customers customized channel lineups with its anticipated television set to choose whichever channels or shows they want for a monthly subscription fee.
According to the Daily Mail report, Apple wants to bid for rigts to stream English Premier League (PM) games. English Premier League is the England’s top football league and one of the most popular football leagues worldwide and it is expected that bidding for the rights to stream its content will generate billions of dollars for the league and the teams. The league will consider bids for the next football season after the rights to stream games expire at the end of the current season. Read the rest of this entry »
All Things D reported on Monday that Apple is reportedly planning an event scheduled to take place in New York at the end of January. The company is said to use the event as a platform for an advertising or publishing announcement. Of course, many anxiously await the announcement of a much anticipated iPad 3 or new Apple TV, which some think will be launched later in 2012. Apple usually reserves product launches and important announcements for its home-state like the latest iPhone 4S, which debuted on Oct. 4, 2011 at Apple's campus.
According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.
Per the usual caveat, the tech giant is well known for moving around their public show-and-tells, so this could certainly change at any moment.
Several of Apple's media and advertising units have significant presences in New York City, and Apple Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue (Cue is currently heading up the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore) is said to take part in the end of the event that has caused rumors suggesting that Apple’s announcement may be connected with advertising or publishing.
Seas0nPass has been updated to perform an untethered jailbreak of the Apple TV running iOS 4.4.4.
Happy New Year! Today we are happy to release an updated version of Seas0nPass that supports an untethered jailbreak of the latest 4.4.4 (iOS 5.0.1) AppleTV software. Big thanks goes to the world famous @pod2g for doing the lion's share of the work to make this new version possible.
Apple is expected to build its own chips like in the iPhone and iPad for its anticipated television set, instead of utilizing third parties chips from a company such as Intel.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Advanced Semiconductor Engineering and Siliconware Precision Industries are three companies expected by DigiTimes to bid on orders with Apple. The companies could build custom ARM-based chips to power an Apple television, much like the A4 CPU, first released in the iPad in 2010, is found in the current Apple TV set-top box.
Earlier this year we reported that Apple signed the agreement on the production of next-generation "A6" and "A7" processors for the iPhone and iPad with TSMC and would utilize its 28nm and 20nm process technologies. It is possible that Apple television set will use the same iPhone and iPad’s chips. The Apple TV is also expected to be assembled by Foxconn Electronics, which is the manufacture of most of Apple’s devices.
Apple will have finalized the hardware standards for its television set by the end of the second quarter of 2012, only after that, the company will begin placing orders for its customized chips. Apple already used such approach to build its iPad and iPhone lineups.
Digitimes reports citing its industry sources from the Asian supply chain that Apple is going to launch HDTV in 37-inch and 32-inch variants in summer 2012.
In mid-August Evernote acquired Skitch and released it as as a free program on the Mac App Store. Yesterday the company fulfilled its promise to launch a version of the program for iOS. Skitch for iPad is now available, allowing users to annotate, take notes, edit existing images and more on your Apple tablet.