Next Apple TV is $99, HD 'iPhone with No Display'

1080p at decent frame rates??....I'm skeptical.

aside from the fact that it is apple (although kudos to $99, its an apple first) cloud-based storage completely turns me off of a product like this.

WTH is this o.O

They must be getting desperate or more greedy than usual. I'll stick with my crappy VHS and DVD player. Note I very rarely watch TV at all, all those hours spent playing wow.

In other words - iTunes streaming from other machines on the network and TV show/Film/maybe Music streaming straight from Apple. If they were to offer something like that but with a reasonably priced season pass for all TV Shows, for example, then it could become a real competitor to the likes of paid satellite and cable. 1080p would be easily doable on such hardware provided a graphics chip that supports hardware acceleration is included.

"An iPhone without a display"? This is probably a stupid question, because I don't know much about these devices, but how can you watch it, if it doesn't have a display?

Sorry if it's a stupid question.

It's a box that you plug into your TV. : )

Knowing apple thogh, they'll give is composite video out only, because 'thats all anyone will need'.

So the display costs the other $500?

It's based around the iPhone 4 architecture, which means it's good enough for... wait for it... gaming at the same graphical level as PS2 and (original) Xbox. This could be Apple's icebreaker into the gaming market if they play their cards right. A $99 device that not only provides cloud-based TV recording and playback, but basic gaming capabilities? This could be the ace up their sleeve.

If its anything like the current one, 1080p really means "1080p but compressed to a lower bitrate than DVD's".

I'm not seeing it. An Xbox360 arcade for $150 will run circles around this thing and already provides more capabilities, features, inputs, etc etc.

Apple? $99? What? Wait, considering that the Ipad screen cost nearly $100 and it also lacks many of other things a phone has (speaker, battery, motion sensor, and such) the price isn't really surprising. The CPU chip and memory is less then $60 total (numbers from the Ipad building cost) so the $99 price tag is about what Apple will price it.

A Nettop (netbook with no screen or keyboard) is about $200-300(and does a lot more), but I do see how a device like this might be attractive. Meanwhile, I'll stick with my laptop and plug in to my TV when I want a bigger screen (yaya HDMI and DisplyPort)

First of all, you're missing the fact that an Xbox 360 Arcade has virtually no built-in storage for media files, and it's still a Microsoft product that costs more than the comparable Apple product. That never happens.
Secondly, it would take nothing for Apple to release game controllers that utilize the iPhone's built-in bluetooth. Not to mention the games that are currently available for iPad probably would look decent at 480p upconverted.
Thirdly, find me a new Xbox 360 Arcade for $150. Or $99 for that matter.

The real point is Apple (and Google) will provide the customer with cheap hardware and software solutions to view streams of TV and movies on which they will make A LOT! (I have nothing against that)

Apple should get a history book sometime. Remember AOL, they tried to create a caged Internet... And what happened to them?

The best Apple can do is make their Apple TV is to make it compatible with what Sony and Google have in mine (which is open). Otherwise we'll be saying "Remember that company apple ?" 10 years from now.

I was half expecting to see an announcement that apple would be making TV monitors also and that their AppleTV would only work on their TV's. I'm sure this will be popular, just as the iPhone was/is, but I'm afraid that this will just degrade into the same issues that exist today with Apple products: too expensive (I'm sure there will be a monthly subscription fee for the cloud storage and "exclusive" content) and too controlled (no Flash, porn sites blocked, etc...).

Actually... Since it's Apple shouldn't we expect a $99 Apple Video Adapter since composite video is universal?

The current AppleTV does not support composite...I would say they'll give HDMI 1.4 as a standard..

I purchased the old AppleTV 2nd hand about two years ago - after the first day hacked it and installed XBMC to stream all my series and movies from a NAS. Recently installed the Broadcom BCM70012 HD Decoder and now streaming the latest MKV full HD videos. This is a device I use on a daily basis and feel this new AppleTV will do well.

1080p with DRM speedbumps in place, with the A4 chip when Core solo can't hande it? Bull.
Apple introducing a new hot device... for $99? Bull.

Speculation and wishful thinking.

I wonder how well the multi-touch will work on these

what is this less connectivity, less option? Im not buying it.

hoenstly i'm sick of companies lookign for new ways to profit of every thing ,i wil likely avoid this thing the same as i avoided the ipod the ipad, the zune , the tivo and a million other gadgets that have tried to digitally pentrate consumer's wallets. i know odd sentiment coming from some one that is in school for game art design, bnut yeah i like computers i like computer hardware and i like games , it doesnt mean i like the fact that our society is becoming zombied out on a milion tech gadgets. you know how many people i see in a day that are totally oblivious to thier surroundings due to some digital device , and i mean folks walking around a mall. jsut saying some times life is jsut better when you go "unplugged" i don't even own a cell phone and i get by just fine.

This is awsome, "iPhone without a display". Apple is really going for the minimalist in tech. First we get a mouse with only one button. Then we get a laptop with no replacable battery, then a laptop with no keyboard. And now we get a device without a display. At this point we will soon be blessed with "Apple iSmoke", the PC with no interface or physical parts. It does something, but only the Apple faithfull can see it. If you can't see what it does, you are not worthy to use it.

i see the trend
apple will eventually add a 42 screen on this thing and call it the iTube (aka iPad XL aka iPhone XXXL)..... it might make phone calls too....

Another "magical device" from apple... Magically stupid imo.

Apple TV HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

No.

If they would just equip it with a USB for external storage...
NTFS/FAT32/ExFAT for USB sticks or external HD is more than enough!
A digital converter box costs around $70 too, so it's not really that much.

I suspect TV will merge with the internet eventually. This is a good step in the right direction.

"at $99, it's cheap, but given that it's described as 'an iPhone without a display' it's hard to imagine how they could charge any more than a hundred bucks for it."

what? so then how come the iphone is like $500?? (yes thats right, look past the vale of carrier subsidies that you pay for with expensive locked in contracts, to its true price).

the iphone always looked like a rip-off compared to the itouch, but now this is just ridiculous, I suppose we can expect the next iphone to be $200 outright then?

The best apple TV is a used Mac Mini with Front Row anyhow, this new whatever it is is much less compelling than the original apple TV, and that says something.

"Apple should get a history book sometime. Remember AOL, they tried to create a caged Internet... And what happened to them?"

Yes, and AOL got away with it for a long time, in part because like with Apple, the US media was an unconditional supporter of AOL; but then the truth hit the dumb masses that were flocking to AOL.

Hopefully the dumbed-down cowed sheep currently flocking to Apple will awaken and cut the feeding line to this sickest of parasitic companies.