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Rumor Roundup: Apple-branded HDTVs, Blu-Ray, more NVIDIA

by Michael Rose Oct 12th 2008 at 12:15AM

The rumor mill is heating up this weekend in advance of Tuesday's press event, and one left-field rumor is coming from a familiar, yet unlikely source: Weblogs Inc./Mahalo founder and TUAW godfather Jason Calacanis, who dropped a mild bombshell in an interview with a CNET.uk blogger on Friday (yo, JC, where's the love?): Apple is developing HDTVs that will support streamed content from iTunes, says Calacanis, integrating the Apple TV functionality along with the display and tuner.

I would file this one under "signs unclear, ask again later" -- while Apple clearly has both the display and playback engineering already done (Cleve @ 9to5Mac suggests that "[t]echnologically speaking, Apple could probably put together [this] product in a three day weekend") it's not clear that a single-box product is that much more compelling than an Apple TV with a cheap HDTV. Then again, the magic of Apple integration could make the whole a stronger sell than the sum of its parts.

Word from London, meanwhile, reported via Edible Apple: star rumormonger and Digg founder Kevin Rose announced his expectation that the next round of MacBook laptops will feature Blu-ray drives onboard. This one rates a "probable" and certainly would be a great value differentiator for the new machines.

Lastly, as the NVIDIA-related reports continue, AppleInsider and PC Perspective are stating with high confidence that the new MacBooks will be the first to move away from the Intel integrated graphics chipset and onto the Nvidia MCP79 'system on a chip' platform. Intel processors will still be at the core of the laptops, but the NVIDIA chip will handle graphics, memory access and more. Interestingly, one of the purported features of the NVIDIA hardware is full Blu-ray functionality... ties in nicely with the Rose rumor above. Call it "more than likely."

[via Techmeme]



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The rumor mill is heating up this weekend in advance of Tuesday's press event, and one left-field rumor is coming from a familiar, yet...
 

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David Werjefelt

New Dispays + Macbook with dock-port
= laptop behind screen (portable iMac-thingy)

A laptop easily docked inside a screen would be really nice.
Wouldn't it?

October 13 2008 at 11:06 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
joerussell

Hmm... I kinda wanna call bullsh!t on Blu-Ray coming to the Macs and here's my reason:

- Jobs doesn't like movies on disc, he wants folks to d/l them from iTMS.

Apple could have put them into the machines over a year ago, but didn't because it would have been a direct competition to folks doing movies via AppleTV and iTMS.

Oh and as far as Blu-Ray as a backup media... I had an external LaCie earlier this year that I used a couple times and then sold it. Why? Because burning gobs of data takes a ridiculous amount of time compared to hard disk backups.

Y'all... disks are going away.

J.

October 13 2008 at 10:12 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to joerussell's comment
JC

Discs may be going away eventually, and Apple may not include them this go round, but that wouldn't prevent them from putting Blu onto their machines now that the "format war" over high-definition has narrowed itself down to only ONE option, so the barrier that prevented an HD optical drive from going in to their computers is now no longer a problem.
PC vendors are already adopting the technology in their notebooks, and by comparison, the value equation should make Apple question how long they can hold out on implementing technologies that are basically standards before they take the flack for it. As successful as the iTMS/AppleTV model is (and as significant as it is to Apple), I don't think Jobs would risk the growth of the Mac userbase over iTunes. Customers who are truly interested in buying and owning HD movies through Blu-ray can still have an interest in renting "HD" content from Apple.

October 13 2008 at 11:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
artifex

Well, heck, a major store here locally has advertised internal BD drives for under $100. So it's certainly already becoming a cheaper option. Writing is still expensive, however...

October 13 2008 at 3:50 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Bobby

Apple-branded HDTV! Great, cause I was looking to spend about 25% more for an HDTV, just like you can on their absurdly overpriced displays.

October 13 2008 at 1:52 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Bobby's comment
vandil

Let's be fair. If Apple came out with an HDTV it would:

- automagically discover your wireless network out of the box.
- have push connectivity with your MobileMe account data.
- be superior to an AppleTV+HDTV (or Mac+HDTV) in every way.
- be remote controllable with your iPhone/iPod Touch
- built-in upconvert DVD player.
- DVR/Tivo TV to iTunes, transfer to iPods/iPhones. Not burnable to DVDs
- have the best start up chime of any TV, ever.

October 13 2008 at 4:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
takeo

If you remember from one of the keynotes, I think it was '07 or '08, Steve Jobs re-introduced Apple TV. But he made a point of saying it was being renamed Apple TV from iTV or whatever. He slipped up once or twice during the address too. It may not have meant anything, but it was enough to get me thinking about the possibility of an Apple brand TV!

October 12 2008 at 8:31 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
XIV

An HDTV with built-in Blu-Ray and Hard Drive, I'd be interested !

October 12 2008 at 4:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew

I have problems with my screen scrambling, but it is after I unplug my 20" Apple Monitor DVI connector. Sometimes, when I plug it in, my screen blinks and blinks and blinks and it doesn't ever solidify the connection. Does this mean, I have to take my MBP in to get fixed for the NVidia problem?

October 12 2008 at 2:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
rcmarz

I need this to haapen!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcmarz/2931738501/in/set-72157607935697570/

October 12 2008 at 12:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Galley

All I want is a $200 external Blu-ray SuperDrive for the 24" iMac I bought a few months ago, and movie playback support in 10.5.6.

October 12 2008 at 10:32 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam

You know, I'd finally like the new computers to be able to play/read mini DVDs. Even if you can't import them into iMovie, it would still be nice to play them. We all know the technology is out there (the Wii has had this ability and it's been out for a couple years now).

And this is just speculation, but if Apple would decide to support Sony and include a Blu-Ray drive in the new notebooks, could they possibly finally support Sony's digital camcorders?

October 12 2008 at 10:11 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Adam's comment
homan2

Considering that there isn't even a built in memory card reader or broadband access (2 things I would consider to be MUCH more widely used than a mini-DVD), combined with the need to switch to a tray (since, AFAIK, there are no PC slot-loading optical drives that accept both full size and mini/business card optical media), I would not count on it.

Whew, that was a long sentence.

October 12 2008 at 9:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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