Hasta La Gadget!

So we know come the 10^th of September that Apple will be holding an official event in San Francisco in which the company’s new iPhones (the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C) will officially debut. However will that be the only thing Apple unveils at their upcoming event? Thanks to a recent bill of lading information from the US Department of Homeland Security, it shows that Apple has recently taken three shipments of “Set Top Boxes” from one of Apple’s suppliers in China. Based on this it has been speculated that Apple could be announcing new Apple TV devices at their 10^th of September event as well.

Interestingly enough it seems that rumors of the iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C, and Apple’s new iPads might have stolen the spotlight from the Apple TV as we have not heard any rumors regarding the device until recently. The Apple TV product was last refreshed back in March of 2012, and given that it’s more than a year old, we guess it’s about that time of the year when it is refreshed. It is unclear as to what sort of new features and improvements we can expect from this refreshed Apple TV (assuming that the shipments are indicative of a new Apple TV), so we guess we will just have to wait for Apple’s event to see if the Cupertino company has anything to share.

New Apple TVs Rumored For 10th September Announcement original content from Ubergizmo.

Rumor has it that Disney is developing a Star Wars app for the Apple TV. The app or channel is expected to be launched for the company’s set-top box around the holiday season. It is said that Disney will stream the final episodes of the animated Clone Wars TV series through this app. This report comes from Jedi News, who claim to have received a tip from an unnamed source. Disney hasn’t commented on the rumor as yet. It purchased LucasFilm and the Star Wars franchise last year.

The source claims that Clone Wars’ final episodes will be distributed exclusively digitally only through the Apple TV for a limited period of time. The app will reportedly also be used to deliver Star Wars 7 production news in 2014 followed by Star Wars Rebels in late 2014 continuing until the release of Star Wars 7, though this plan is said to be in early stages right now. It is also claimed that distribution will only be on Apple TV devices that are capable of running iOS 7, which means that only the second and third generation set-top boxes will be compatible with the app. There’s no confirmation right now if the app will also be released for iOS devices.

Star Wars App For Apple TV Apparently Being Developed By Disney original content from Ubergizmo.

This week the folks at Apple have pushed a new set of channels to their television companion device Apple TV. These channels include Vevo – a channel that works with massive amounts of music videos, and the Weather Channel for starters. Also up for grabs this week are Disney and the Smithsonian Channel. Disney comes […]

Apple continues its selective content partner rollout today with an update to Apple TV software that adds Vevo, as previously rumored, as well as Disney Channel, Disney XD, The Weather Channel and Smithsonian via new dedicated apps, as 9to5Mac reports. All those content providers are live in the U.S., but U.K. users and other regions will see only select channels via update.

The Apple TV update actually marks the first time that Apple has provided weather information on the Apple TV, something which now seems like a long overdue addition to the platform. With that addition, the Apple TV starts to take on more of a general services dashboard tone, in addition to its video and entertainment content sources.

Vevo was rumored to have been preparing a dedicated Apple TV application last week, the Wall Street Journal reported, which is part of its efforts to distribute content from its network more widely outside of YouTube, which currently powers a huge share of its views through a licensing agreement between the music industry joint venture and Google.

Disney content appearing on Apple TV via dedicated channels is also something that isn’t all that surprising, considering the cozy relationship that exists between Disney and the Mac maker. Disney CEO Bob Iger sits on Apple’s board, and Steve Jobs famously sold computer animation studio Pixar to Disney. Disney has been a strong, longtime partner for the iTunes media store, as well.

Apple building out content relationships for Apple TV seems to be the way the company prefers to welcome third-party material to the platform, rather than via opening up an API and providing an application store as it has done on iOS. The new partnerships today could help boost the device’s appeal among the teen set, as well as with younger kids thanks to Disney and Disney XD, and overall more content sources = a wider potential audience, but Apple clearly wants to make sure that new content sources also fit with its overall vision for a home media streaming device.

Rumors of a dedicated Apple television, or of a new next-gen media streamer launching later this year continue to swirl, so a staged content buildup could have something to do with those plans, too.

The fabled Apple television set is still a fable, lo these many years after it first was whispered into the waiting ear of an analyst or blogger, but today Apple has secured a new patent (via AppleInsider) which could renew interest in rumors of Apple’s television plans, since it describes an iPhone-based remote control system for completely setting up a home theatre system tailored to specific types of content, moods and themes.

Apple’s multimedia system/smart home-type remote would be able to recall, store and set things like lighting, channels, music and window shades as well as set stereo components like amplifiers and more to desired settings. It’s essentially a Logitech Harmony universal remote, with settings like “Watch a movie” or “Play a game” very similar to those available on Logitech’s highly customizable home theater control devices, but with a lot more options and features thrown into the mix, and a control scheme that extends to connected home devices, which could conceivably include things like Philips Hue connected lighting system.

The system also has some neat automated components, like suggesting themes and whole home settings based on metadata associated with content being watched. This means that you don’t have to sit down with intent aforehand to watch something and choose the appropriate theme – while you’re browsing or channel surfing, and if you happen to light upon something you seem to like, the system could suggest an appropriate mode to go with it. So if you get sucked into Spartacus, for instance, Apple’s iPhone-based multimedia concierge could offer to change your system over to the idea setting for classical epics with a single tap.

Apple’s patent appears to be designed to work with content sources including broadcast television, since it contains a provision for waiting for a commercial break before it even offers up any kind of scene suggestions at all, so it could definitely be included in any kind of over-the-top service that the Mac maker might have in the hopper. The patent application itself is quite a few years old, which might be reason enough to suspect this idea has been shelved, but at the time of its original filing it also would’ve looked a lot more science fiction than it does given today’s technology.