Is Apple TV the next great gaming console?

fourth dimension was , you could observe Apple and gambling in the same sentence and enumerate on taunting laugh before you got to the period . Through the decennary , the company has repeatedly proclaimed its commitment to the game market and repeatedly fail to render . Yet today ’s Apple is not remotely the company that launched the badly - destine Pippin biz console in the ’ ninety . The iOS is already a massively successful political program for handheld gaming , and if Wednesday brings an iOS - based Apple TV , Apple is poised to make some serious noise in the console table gambling market as well .

As Dan Frakes pointed out , for a company that keeps crank up out hit products , Apple ’s set - top “ hobby ” sticks out . It ’s outdated and lack many features offered by rival . But if the product gets a rethink , initiate with base it on the iOS rather than Mac OS X , watch out out . Sure , such a twist would presumptively be a smashing culture medium player for goggle box , movies , and music . But as an iOS twist , it also opens up the possibility that all your favourite iPhone and iPad game may be short playing on your flatscreen HDTV .

This presents a challenge and an chance for Apple . With this putative Apple TV , users would have approach to a giant screen on which to bring games . But what about the controls ? Your idiot box is n’t a touchscreen , and unless you ’re a James Bond villain , it ’s improbable to be check with an accelerometer or gyro . But what if you could apply your iPhone , iPod touch , or iPad as a controller for your Apple TV ?

Not only would using your iPhone or iPad solve the touchscreen issue , but it also opens up the hypothesis of Apple truly entering the play console market . image it : you ’ve download an software to your iPhone that lets you dally Angry Birds on your huge flatscreen in your bread and butter way . You snap your fingerbreadth on your iPhone ’s touch screen , and on your television screen door you see your hoot go flying . Or imagine multiplayer games where gameplay occurs on the handheld screens and the vainglorious screen simultaneously ; that concept potentially works well for both pub - trivia contests and high - fastness racing game .

One inquiry I have is , what will the graphic capabilities of this AppleTV gadget be ? At 720p , an HDTV contains more pel than either an iPhone 4 or an iPad . Another one is onboard storage : many home - media devices and biz console arrive with large amount of repositing for games and medium files ; if this bruit AppleTV has only flash - establish storage in a relatively small amount , will it be enough ?

If Apple answers those two question in the approbatory — namely , if the Apple TV ’s computer graphic accountant has the dynamism to play 720p game and enough entrepot space to accommodate medium filing cabinet and plot file comfortably , then the ship’s company will have essentially designed its own video - game console , and one with an existing group of developers who know how to spell secret plan for its base operating system . There ’s gravid hope in that .

If Apple go down this route , it ’s move about it in on the dot the opposite way as most entertainment - hardware company usually do it . Instead of create a play machine that also play videodisc , Apple is poised to make the opposite : a machine designed for watching television receiver and picture show that also wager games . While this may seem like a weird style to get into biz , Apple would n’t be the first mass medium - focused hardware company that also threw its hat into the gambling ring . ThePhilips CD - I , however , would not be something Apple would want to emulate .

award , if Apple were to make an declaration about Apple TV on Wednesday , it is unlikely you ’ll see Steve Jobs up there playing a first person shooter on a TV projection screen , the video streaming from his Apple TV and his hands deftly using an iPhone as a controller . But do n’t be surprised if developers see the potency for gambling , and other mass medium diligence , if Apple television runs on iOS . The piece are all in plaza . Let ’s see what Apple does with them .