In line with Apple’s other iOS-based devices, the iTV (as named by the media) will apparently connect to the internet, synch with other compatible products and allow the download and streaming of films. According to a report on The Guardian website, Japanese manufacturer Sharp will start production of the screens in February 2012 and the TVs will launch by the end of the year.
In his biography, released shortly after he died, Apple visionary, Steve Jobs talked about his dream to create an “integrated television set,” but made no reference to voice and gesture controls.
"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it," he told his biographer.
Evidence that iTV may indeed seek to change the way we watch television landed in October, when a patent was filed in the US pertaining to "real time video process control using gestures," a technology that works in a similar way to Microsoft’s Kinect peripheral - enabling users to use movement to control what appears on screen and shout out commands to navigate through its menus.
Consumers can currently use a device called Apple TV to mirror what they view on the small screen of their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad on the large screen of their television sets, so a fully-integrated product does seem like the next logical step. With added gesture and voice-control, however, Apple would certainly revolutionise the way we watch television. The question is: are consumers ready for it and how well will it actually work?
Benedict Evans, of tech experts Enders Analysis, thinks that gesture control would pose a few problems for consumers.:“It would be like sitting in Sothebys and desperately not moving so you don’t accidentally make a bid for £10million,” he told the British newspaper.
Apple has yet to comment on the existence of iTV..
