Hasta La Gadget!

You’d be naive to think Apple churns out hit products without doing homework first. Before gadgets hit the market, companies invest heavily in research and development, which often results in early prototypes that rarely see the light of day. A good example is a prototype of an Apple television box (above) from 1995, which recently sold on eBay for $46.

The Apple Interactive Television Box (ITV for short) was made 10 years before the release of the Apple TV. It kind of looks like a retro TiVo. The box features chips made by Motorola, Texas Instruments and VLSI Technology.

It was equipped with a bunch of old-school ports that you’ve probably forgotten about today: stereo audio RCA jacks, a Mac serial port, S-Video, RF in, RF out, RJ-45 Ethernet, ADB port, HDI-30 SCSI port and dual SCART connectors. The OS was a subset of the Mac OS with QuickDraw and QuickTime software, according to the Apple Museum.

Apple tested the ITV prototypes only internally in 1993, but in 1994 the company formed a partnership with British Telecom to launch a consumer trial with 2,500 households participating. The project was canceled in late 1995 when it was clear that ITV would not become commercially successful.

Home entertainment has been a tough market to crack. Apple still refers to its Apple TV, which was released in 2005, as a “hobby” due to its moderate success. And it’s obvious why: There are just so many different ways people watch video content, whether it’s through digital cable, On-Demand, iTunes, DVDs and so on.

Another great example of a classic prototype was Bashful, an early Apple tablet made with the help of Frog Design back in 1983.

See Also:

• Hideous iPhone Prototypes on Ebay
• MacBook Air Prototype Sold on Ebay
• New Phone Prototype Tries To ‘Con’ its Way Into Your Portable …

Photo: eBay

Boxee Beta, the free media-center software that pulls in TV shows, movies photos and music to your computer through a custom, remote-control-on-the-sofa friendly interface, has come to the Apple TV. This software alone justifies buying the little video-box.

The original, private-beta version of Boxee has been available for a long time on the Apple TV as well as OS X, Linux and Windows, but was left behind in January when Boxee went public with its updated, slicker public beta. Now there is an installer for the Apple TV which makes it dead easy to get the software on your box.

Just download the ATVUSB-Creator and run it on your computer. Plug in a bootable USB drive (or stick) and run the program. You’ll be left with a drive that can be plugged into the USB port of the Apple TV and which adds a new “Boxee” option to the main menu. Select this and sit back. Boxee will be installed and, after a reboot, you will now have a proper media computer instead of the crippled, Apple-dependent box you had before. Cancel that cable subscription now!

Get a bite of this – Boxee Beta on AppleTV [Boxee Blog]

Image credit: Boxee blog

See Also:

• Hands-On With the Boxee Set-Top Box and Remote
• Boxee Unveils Public Beta, 'Boxee Box' Hardware
• Boxee Beta Is a Web Video Streamer's Dream
• Boxee Plans to Offer Paid Content
• Boxee Gets a Box, Made By D-Link

Breathe easy, Apple TV owners. Apple loves your baby as much as you do.

According to a presentation made to the Goldman Sachs technology conference (and recorded by Business Insider) Apple has no plans to discontinue the Apple TV. Yet.

“…There’s people — and I’m one of those — that they’re avid Apple TV
users, and so, because their gut says something there, we’re continuing
to invest in this,” Cook was quoted as saying. “But today it’s just a hobby.”

Apple has always been a bit indifferent to its little set-top box, even as rivals have begun creeping into the market (Seagate and Western Digital have both launched media extenders), or paved the way, as with TiVo. Still, many look ungainly compared to the Apple TV, with its integrated 802.11n networking and storage. Cook said that December sales of the Apple TV were up 35 percent.

Cook also reportedly said that the company has no plans to enter the TV market, which I wouldn’t think would be a big priority, given the lack of success companies like Gateway and Dell had a few years ago.

Disney and Apple — now, where have we heard about these two mingling in content related activities before? Sure enough, whispers of a potential tie-up regarding a $30 per month TV service for iTunes are turning into more of a gentle roar, with The Wall Street Journal reporting today that both CBS and Walt Disney Company are “considering participating in Apple’s plan to offer television subscriptions over the internet.” Naturally, this comes from those ever present (and perpetually undisclosed) “sources,” but considering that the outfit just shelled out for Lala, we wouldn’t put anything past it. As the story goes, CBS is considering offering up content from CBS and CW, while Disney could include programming from ABC, Disney Channel and ABC Family networks; details on the purported program are obviously still under wraps, but we know that both of these guys would be looking for some sort of monthly compensation in exchange for access to their lineups. Whatever the case, it’s being bruited that Apple could complete licensing deals and introduce the service sometime in 2010, so we’ll be keeping an ear to the ground for more.

Disney and CBS interested in Apple’s subscription-based iTunes TV idea? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 05:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple sent a note to Apple TV users on Saturday, warning them that content may disappear from the system until it is resynced. Fortunately, a patch is available, which will upgrade the Apple 3.0 software to Apple 3.0.1.

“This prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced,” Apple said.

Users are advised to hard reboot the Apple TV by unplugging and reinserting the power cord. From there:

“Select *Settings > General* from the main menu
Select *Update Software*
Select *Download and Install*.

Apple has also posted a support document describing the issue.