For months it has been rumored that Apple would soon deliver an Apple TV refresh as the Cupertino-based tech giant delves deeper into the burgeoning market for a fusion between digital and broadcast entertainment.
On Wednesday, Engadget reported that Apple is, indeed, still moving ahead on the aforementioned refresh, but the device will be re-branded “iTV” to keep consistency with other products in the iDevice line.
What’s expected for the re-introduction is a much smaller set-top box that will cost only $99 and deliver a multitude of new features.
Unfortunately, Engadget’s sources indicate that Apple TV will not be able to provide support for 1080i or 1080p HD playback.
Instead it will only push out 720p clips. The word — and cause for much internal debate, we’re told — is that this has something to do with the A4’s inability to crank on higher resolution content, but we don’t see how that’s possible considering the iPhone 3GS could play back full HD video.
According to Engadget, the “iTV” revival will likely come with its own set of dedicated applications and possibly even a dedicated “iTV App Store.”
