Apple’s much anticipated press event is only less than 24 hours from now, and I’m looking forward to several potential announcements: iTunes in the cloud, TV show rentals, a redone Apple TV (renamed iTV), and a revamped iPod Touch.  However, I’m eyeing two markets in particular where Apple can make significant inroads: Video calling and console gaming. (more…)

There’s little doubt that TV and the internet world will eventually merge, and Google and Apple are both making efforts in that direction. Devices based on Google TV are launching this fall, and Apple is expected to launch a new, stronger version of its Apple TV (now dubbed iTV) sometime next year… (more…)

Apple likes to control the end-to-end user experience by integrating hardware and software. A good example is the iPhone (contrast this with Android-powered phones, for which Google only makes the operating system but third-party manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC make the devices). The home entertainment space poses a potential problem for Apple because in order to integrate vertically, Apple needs to make the TV itself. Techcrunch has even suggested that Apple would launch its own TV (as opposed to a set-top box) at some point and thus bypass the problem of fragmentation altogether… (more…)