Apple Tv

Editors' note: This is an update of our previous Apple TV review, reflecting a lower price and new features added early this year. The hardware has not changed; existing Apple TV customers can add the new functionality, including movie downloads, with a free firmware update. In addition to providing access to YouTube videos, Flickr and .Mac photo streams, and all other iTunes content, Apple's revamped set-top box now brings high-definition and standard-definition video rentals from the iTunes Store to your TV. But it still tries to keep you in Apple's backyard,...

Amazon may be making a major new play for the living room, according to reports that the e-commerce giant is developing a "Kindle TV" set-top box to compete with AppleTV and Roku. The way we watch television is changing, fast, and Amazon is looking to jump into the fray with its own device that brings its streaming video content to users' televisions, Bloomberg reported Wednesday . The device could be introduced this fall, the report said. Amazon already offers free streaming video as a part of its $79 annual Amazon Prime...

Apple's long-rumored television is reportedly at the working prototype stage, with an unnamed source telling Cult of Mac that he's seen the device firsthand. According to the report, the television has Siri controls and iSight camera that tracks faces and movement and AirPlay capability to let people stream music and movies from their Apple devices. Visually speaking, he said that the television resembles a large version of Apple's Cinema Display monitors. Of course, the report cautions that this is a source who's seen a...

Samsung is making a move into the brick-and-mortar world, announcing Thursday that it will launch 1,400 mini-stores in Best Buy locations across the United States starting this month. The effort fits well with the company's marketing push as it ramps up its competition with Apple — which, of course, has mini-stores in Best Buy locations as well. According to a press release from the smartphone maker , around 900 of the mini-stores, which will showcase a range of Samsung products, will be up and running by early May. The...

Apple rolled out a software update for its Apple TV set-top box Tuesday that includes a new app for Hulu . Apple TV owners have been waiting forever for Hulu service to land on the device. Previously, there were rumors that a Hulu Plus app was created but wasn't approved by Apple. Some people speculated that this was because a Hulu service threatened Apple's TV show sales via iTunes. And with OS X Mountain Lion's new Mac Airplay feature, there's really no reason not to put Hulu on the Apple TV. To access Hulu content, users will...

Earlier today Apple debuted the third version of its Apple TV set-top box, which enables higher-definition video playback, a new user interface and some additional integration with the company's iCloud service. After downloading the updated software to my existing Apple TV device and imagining the speedier media playback with better picture quality, I'll admit that the overall device is coming into its own. But most of what's new about the Apple TV's new version is purely cosmetic and shouldn't have taken over a year to see...

A one-sentence mention of the Apple TV in the authorized Steve Jobs biography has sparked a whole lot of chatter about what, exactly, Jobs may have "cracked" about the interface of the connected television. In his column for The Washington Post, Joshua Topolsky posited that Apple TV would be valuable because it would let users beam content among their phones, tablets, computers and televisions. Others have suggested, perhaps, that the mobile devices or voice control would replace the remote...

Rumors of an Apple television have resurfaced with supply chain sources telling DigiTimes  that they're starting to prepare components for 32- and 37-inch "iTV" sets launching in Q2 or Q3 of 2012. According to the Taiwanese publication, suppliers will begin preparing materials in Q1 to prepare for the mid-year production ramp up. The mythical Apple television has been rumored for years, but picked up steam after Steve Jobs was quoted in Walter Isaacson's biography saying that he'd " finally cracked it . "...

The new biography on Steve Jobs has a major product reveal: Apple may drop a full-fledged television. Right now, the company sells a set-top box that company officials have called a "hobby. " But his comments in Walter Isaacson's authorized biography — which was reviewed by The Washington Post — hint at something more to come. "He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant," Isaacson wrote.

In a speech at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet conference Tuesday, Apple's chief executive Tim Cook hinted at the company's plans for the television space while simultaneously declining to comment on what Apple's plans for a television are. Apple's only television product, the set-top box Apple TV, has long been classified as a "hobby" by the Cupertino, Calif.-based company, but that hobby has sold 1.4 million units in the last quarter alone....

Roku's latest set-top box, the Roku 3, is built to be faster, better-looking and easier to use than its predecessors, but the company has stayed true to the general aesthetics of its device. It's clear from just looking at the $99.99 box that the company wasn't going for a radical redesign. There's no hint that Roku is looking to try out new tricks such as adding voice or motion controls. Instead, the company's made a series of smaller changes aimed solely at making the device easy for anyone to use. For...

Intel is joining the video wars. The company confirmed Tuesday that it is planning an Internet television service and set-top box, confirming rumors that had been circulating since late last year. Speaking at the All Things Digital Dive into Media conference in Southern California, Erik Huggers , general manager of Intel Media, said that the company's service will launch this year and that Intel is planning to market a set-top box to hook into the service. All Things Digital's...

Apple had quite the year, refreshing the majority of their product lines, dealing with a controversy or two and fighting off the competition. The company was also the subject of close scrutiny, as investors and others obsessively analyzed Tim Cook's first year as chief executive officer. Legal battles, new competitors and expectations have all buffeted Apple's ship this year, but at the end of the day it still carries the title of the world's most valuable public company. Product success: Apple has had a...

Apple is working with Asian manufacturers on a device that may change how we all watch television, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday . But it's still not clear whether that device will be a TV set itself or simply a robust version of the Apple TV set-top box that Apple already has on the market. According to the report, which cites officials in Apple's supply chain who "declined to be named," the television project is still informal and in the "early stages" of testing.

In the most showy hint yet that Apple is building a television set, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a new interview that the TV set was a relic from the past and that his company is intensely interested in changing that. "When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years," Cook said during an interview on Rock Center with Brian Williams . "It's an area of intense interest. I can't say more than that. " Apple analysts have...

Microsoft is building a TV set-top-box based on Windows 8, according to a report from the Verge . The device will offer consumers access to online video and TV services also found on the Xbox 360, plus some casual games. Microsoft is planning to release the device in time before the 2013 holiday season, according to the Verge. The set-top-box will reportedly complement Microsoft's next-generation gaming console, which has been dubbed Xbox 720 . The idea is that heavy gamers will buy the...

Now that the new iPad has launched, Apple fans are left to buzz about the company's next steps in the television space. Last week, the company unveiled a new version of its Apple TV set-top box, which gave Apple TV users access to the videos they had purchased from iTunes in the Cloud. But, according to the Hollywood Reporter , that's not all that Apple had planned for the television space. CBS chief executive Leslie Moonves said Apple's late co-founder Steve Jobs approached him to talk about a subscription streaming...

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster has some new predictions about the highly rumored Apple television product, which could revolutionize the TV content industry as we know it. Munster laid out the company's product and software plans for the following year in a recent report, which indicates that Apple will debut its branded television-sets in November 2013. In terms of specifics, there will be two versions of the Apple television — a 47-inch & 55-inch set — that will cost $1,500 t0 $2,000.

Apple hasn't live-streamed an event in more than two years, but the company has announced that it will be sharing today's expected launch of an iPad mini live, with the world. Or, to be more precise: live, with the Apple gadget world. Those interested in the event can watch over Apple TV or through Apple's Web site, provided they have the right Apple devices. To watch online, viewers have to have Safari 4 or later for Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) or later, or the...