12 Sep 2006 1407H

On the forthcoming Apple “iTV”

It’s being widely reported today that Apple will finally be launching their long-awaited digital hub/set-top-box thingamajiggy, codenamed iTV, next year, at a cost of $300. According to CNet’s News.com, the wireless hub will contain

802.11 wireless built in, wired networking, USB, an HDMI connector, and also component video, analog audio and optical audio. It will be controlled with an Apple remote and hooks directly to a TV or to set-top box or home theater system.

All this is well and good, but even the newly upgraded 640 x 480 resolution for video downloads on the iTunes Music (TV and Movies) Store won’t be cutting it for many current and new TV sets, which are capable of displaying a 1080i signal, and the price by next year certainly will be dropping to the point where these sets will be quite widespread. Thus I suppose the launch of such a product implies that HD broadcasts and movies are just around the corner for Apple. . . this comes as no surprise. Four Blockbuster Videos have closed in the area I grew up in, near north suburbs of Chicago; you could say it’s a case of Internet Killed the Video Star. About five years ago I started using Netflix, and more recently have been downloading via BT and other P2P technologies; these channels, along with the generally poor quality of films that Hollywood and Hong Kong insist on putting out, have probably contributed to the downfall of the traditional video rental market.

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