There will be an announcement from Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco (note I make no mention about the iPhone with which I am heartily up-fed) about a streaming media device, according to a report by Apple Insider.

iTV coming soon to a big screen TV near you

The software is still being worked on and it will be released, not immediately after MacWorld, but a few weeks after that.

The additional time is necessary to fine-tune an embedded version of the Mac OS operating system that will reportedly run on the streaming media device — a most vital component responsible for ensuring a flawless user experience on the consumer end.

We have already seen it last September at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. And we know it should be priced at $299 and is intended for every household that has a largish screen digital television which, shortly, will be the vast majority.

Walt Disney chief executive and personal friend of Jobs, Robert Iger, said each unit will also include a ’small hard drive’ that will allow for some local content storage.

Iger continued: ‘It’s wireless. It detects the presence of computers in your home. In a very simple way you designate the computer you want to feed it, and it wirelessly feeds whatever you’ve downloaded on iTunes, which includes videos, TV, music videos, movies or your entire iTunes music library, to your television set.’

This device, call it the iTV although that will NOT be the final name, will finally bridge the gap between the home PC and the living room, promising to deliver wireless streaming content — such as movies, music, and photos — from computers running iTunes to televisions located throughout the home.

Brave New World Revisited Real Soon Now.

Related:

Entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 5:24 pm under Apple, Media players, Technology.

Read more entries by Gareth Powell.
Stumble It!