The real question what “else” they will be designing into it that a set top box alone can’t manage. Unless your a TV junky you dont buy many TVs very often. Over the course of my parents life they’ve had 3 TVs thus far a dinky little black and white, a color Zenith my grand baught them cause he wanted to watch the Lakers play in color, and about 10 years ago a then modern CRT TV because the Zenith kicked bucket.

There needs to be something REALLY super about a full blown Apple TV to make it survive the market. I don’t think Siri will be enough. Harware lockin is an issue. One can replace a $99 set-top box every 2 to 3 years for the latest upgrade… A TV is a totally different story. The only way I see this being effective over the long haul is if the primary guts of the TV are actual an insert-able kinda like an iPod Nano sized card with all the processing and storage that can be replaced at a lower cost then the whole set.

Steve said “simplest interface”, rumor says developer of Itunes…. Pick one!

@icebreaker – by that statement, Apple had no knowledge or capacity to build iPods, Tablets, or Phones… Now they have the hottest selling of all 3… Who’s to say they can’t do a good TV? If they are indeed jumping into TVs then they probably have some kind of new tech that “changes everything… again”.

We need things like Siri to begin that step on getting away from all of that. The idea that we can literally talk to a computer to achieve complex tasks in a much shorter space of time and having to know virtually nothing to do so will be when the tech revolution really kicks off. The day when it truly comes of age is when we no longer see the technology, no longer realise the complexities behind it and it just becomes a part of the fabric of society, of us, making life easier all round and a more beautiful and joyful experience for everyone. I think it could be great, and I say it will take another 50 years at most to get somewhere there looking at how fast things have come along even in just 20 years.

One day I envisage your TV sits in your room and rather than be a device just to consume over the air TV shows it becomes one of the hubs of your lifestyle. It records shows you want to watch (as much as Apple want to sell you everything for now they’ll need to make a broadcast receivable device that uses PVR functionality). I hope you can pick up your iPad or iPhone on the go and tap into your recorded shows, whether off Apple directly, or off the networks. The TV will tap into your photos, music, magazines, the web, even appropriate apps that work across your devices.

Siri, which will go onto be a consistent, truly intelligent and (hopefully) customisable part of the experience will be ever present, ever listening out for mention of it’s name and eventually be intelligent enough to join in conversation when it feels it is needed. You could literally sit with friends conversing about some TV show you all watch, casually mention a particular funny moment and Siri joins in and offers to show a clip to you, or maybe it’s asked in such a casual way that Siri/Apple becomes truly a part of your life, another member of your family in a way. Just ask to see the holiday snaps and it delivers.

iCloud plugged into an evermore intelligent Siri ideal one day will help in all sorts of unforeseen ways. I’m sure this sort of truly futuristic yet conceivable image was what Steve Jobs has had in mind for a while now. It will be fantastic. iCloud and Siri allows Apple to muscle into your lifestyle in a far more present manner than it has done thus far, to the point where it will be hard to imagine living without it. Scary thought perhaps but we couldn’t live without cars in our modern era, in the future we may struggle to live without our digital assistants holding our digital lifestyle history in the cloud.