The latest Apple TV 3 update allows us to figure Bluetooth into a future view of using XBox Kinect-style gesture controls and the voice-activated Siri for the ultimate of all Apple TV hacks - Apple TV menus you can control with gestures and voice commands.
A new report from 9to5Mac finds that the new iOS operating system has lines of code for using Bluetooth, a wireless capability that lets you connect devices without using wires. So Apple could be getting rid of the octopus of wires, a good start. It could also include a wireless microphone to let Siri take voice commands from you to change channels. Very cool.
But then, ZDNet throws in the capabilities behind the XBox Kinect for reading gesture controls for video games, and it's a short leap to using Kinect-style technology to read gestures from you to further navigate the Apple TV menus from your couch. Which means the rebirth of the remote control as we've known it. Minority Report becomes reality, brought to us by Apple. The touchscreen did wonders for the smart phone, and gesture-controlled, voice-activated menu for the living room TV experience would redefine the whole thing.
Not to mention what it could do for gaming, theorizes VentureBeat, the Apple App store's next conquest could be the video gaming market, allowing developers to use iCloud and to create Apple TV apps to create a whole new wave of cloud based video games. We've had a pretty steady stream of updates on the web about an Apple TV 3 update for iOS5 to know that something is definitely happening.
In the Apple TV vs Hulu Plus battle, this would be no contest, as Hulu is just a web-based media service without hardware. In the Apple TV vs Google TV throwdown, Google could get in on the action. As far as Apple TV vs. Roku ... that's gray area right now, but Roku could certainly reach for this kind of a capability by opening up its TV box to new things.
Let's remind ourselves we collectively wipe the drool of awe from our chin that these aren't Apple TV rumors, this is taking existing findings from sites with a proven track record like 9to5mac and projecting those findings into the realm of the possible. The Spacelab tagline is "Reinventing the Future," after all.
The Apple TV with Siri capability is one I threw out into the wild earlier this week for the also speculative Apple TV set. We also know that the new Apple Thunderbolt Display is out there, one that leads to more fodder on the Apple TV Set in HDTV with iCloud and iTunes support is possible. The Apple TV set (a.k.a. iTV) is total theory at this point, but an Apple TV update is all but certain at this point.
So are you ready to get all Minority Report with your new Apple TV 3 update? Would this make you want to buy an Apple TV box? If you're an app developer, does the idea of creating new Apple TV apps with iCloud, gesture controls and voice-activated commands excite you. Help us reinvent the future with some ideas below.
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