It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
For all of you who got an ipod video for christmas a new one in the making! Apple really likes to stay ahead of things and this proves it. The first image I have is the actual patent request that apple submitted.
Visitors to Apple's website on the first day of this new year were met with the above image, a teaser that speaks of Apple's long history as a force in the computer industry and makes a rather compelling promise regarding the Company's roll in shaping 2007.
As many of you are aware, Apple's big yearly event - MacWorld Conferencce & Expo held at San Francisco's Moscone Center - begins on Monday, and what bits of magic CEO Jobs will unveil during Tuesday's keynote is a matter of intense speculation. New iPods? New Macs? The iTV? We will all know, shortly. The last time Apple gave a pre-Macworld teaser was in 2002, when a series of seven different taglines appeared on Apple's homepage in the week leading up to the event.
For the past year, rumors of a large-screen, "Video iPod" have been circulating. Reports call for a ~4-inch touchscreen that covers the entire face of the unit, with an on-screen clickwheel, rather than a physical one. The latest reports call for a rollout sometime in Q4 of this year.
In a shocking report, X-bit labs indicates that, according to analysts, the forthcoming Video iPod will feature a 3D-capable graphics processor from Nvidia rather than the standard Broadcom hardware. From the report:
"Based on our analysis, we believe Nvidia is designed into the next-generation vPod socket at the expense of Broadcom. We believe the Nvidia chip adds 3D graphics functionality in addition to all of the existing features (such as H.264 [decoding]) that Broadcom supported with the existing vPod," said Satya Chillara, an analyst with American Technology Research wrote in a new report.
This month's Apple Special Event was about more than just iPods. In a rare move, Steve Jobs announced Apple's forthcoming set-top-box, codenamed "iTV" - months before it will be released, during the event keynote. While certain details were provided, much is unknown about this intriguing device, but in the past few weeks a number of additional details have surfaced.
For one, the iTV has a small hard drive. We knew it runs what's basically an enhanced version of Front Row. So...is it a little Mac? ArsTechnica thinks it may be, as indicated in their recent article that speculates that the low-end Conroe-L single-core processor may lie a the heart of the iTV. As they point out, a very-low-end, non-Mac, embedded processor solution would likely not have the horsepower to deliver high-definition video down the road, if Apple has such an offering waiting in the wings (which we're guessing they do). A few more details can be gleaned from Macworld's Q&A.