Apple Working On New Video Technology [Apple Is Reportedly Working On A Technology To Bring Video To Televisions, Some Suspect iTunes Replay In Works]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Friday, 26. August 2011 under: Audio,Visual, Internet Highlights

It’s no secret that Apple, either Jobs-era or Cook-era, has its eyes on your living rooms. The progenitors of the greatest devices for wasting time during commercials want in on your home theater, and they’re said to be working on something new to get video to your television? Is it the rumored iTunes Replay service? Or something else entirely?

Current reports are saying that Apple’s working on an entirely new technology to deliver video to televisions. The nature of that technology is, not surprisingly, under very, very tight wraps, but there have been some earlier stirrings that suggest a possible direction.

One key point is the possible existence of iTunes Replay, a redownload / streaming service that combines cloud technology (not to mention massive data centers like that monster one Apple put in North Carolina) to allow you to buy content and then download it as needed from the cloud, download to local devices, or just stream from iTunes proper. Some note here that Steve Jobs had once mentioned never doing a subscription iTunes service, but it’s important to note along with that that 1. he said the same thing about video on a small screen before bringing video to iPod and 2. he’s not there any more.

So just what is it they’re working on? No one knows just yet but Apple, and of course, they’re not telling. But a subscription based streaming service for video has already been shown to do well in the market–consider Netflix and Hulu, not to mention YouTube’s enormous hit counts on amateur video–so as long as Cook et al can get the content in place (and considering Apple’s cash reserves, I can’t see them having a problem), they should be primed and ready to go.

And what do you guys think? Would you use a subscription service from Apple? Are you hoping for a full-on Apple television instead? There are plenty of ways to go here and we’d love to hear what you think about them, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!