I have to admit to getting caught up in the excitement when rumors of a new Apple TV surfaced in the runup to WWDC.
It went like this: the new Apple HDTV (my name) would be a smaller $99 device that ran iOS with no local storage. Yup, everything would be stored on the cloud.
The lore had it that the new Apple TV would be based on Apple’s A4 chip and include 16GB of flash memory. Ever the minimalists, the new Apple set top box would only have two ports, power and video out. But a kick ass video out at that, sporting 1080p (high-definition) output presumably via a HDMI or (more likely) a Mini DisplayPort. Some referred to it as “an iPhone without a screen.” (Since I doubt that it would make phone calls, an “iPod touch without a screen” is probably closer to the mark).
Alas, it wasn’t to be.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/is-the-mac-mini-the-new-apple-tv/7230
