Apple just dropped a big clue about a major new product coming in June
Apple on Tuesday announced that its annual developer conference, WWDC, would take place June 8-12.
The artwork for the announcement suggests Apple will be releasing a major overhaul to Apple TV.
"I usually don't play the 'let's read into the design of the Apple event announcement' game, but damned if the center of this doesn't look like an Apple TV," Apple writer John Gruber says. "And the slogan - 'The Epicenter of Change' - would fit with an expanded HomeKit role for Apple TV."
Here's a look at the logo for the event; note the rounded square in the middle:
And here is an Apple TV, which has the exact same shape.
Apple CEO Tim Cook for years has spoken about his interest in TV. In September, here's what Cook said in an interview with Charlie Rose:Cook: A TV is one [product] that we continue to have great interest in.
Rose: [laughs]
Cook: I choose my words carefully there. TV is one of those things that, if we're really honest, it's stuck back in the '70s. Think about how much your life has changed and all the things around you that have changed. And yet, TV - when you go in your living room to watch the TV or wherever it might be, it almost feels like you're rewinding the clock and you've entered a time capsule, and you're going backwards. The interface is terrible.
Rose: Yes.
Cook: I mean, it's awful. And you watch things when they come on unless you remember to record them.
Rose: So, why don't you fix that?
Cook: Well, you know, I don't want to get into what we're doing in the future. But we've taken steps with Apple TV. And Apple TV now has over 20 million users. It has far exceeded the hobby label that we that we placed on it. And we've added more content to it this year. There's increasingly more things that you can do on there. But this is an area that we continue to look at.
It looks as if Apple is finally ready to do more than just talk about its interest in TV.
In March, John Paczkowski at BuzzFeed News reported Apple was planning "a significant overhaul" of Apple TV. It will get more storage and a faster chip, and Apple plans to roll out an App Store for Apple TV, according to Paczkowski.
Also in March, The Wall Street Journal reported Apple was planning its own web-based TV streaming service. The TV service will not launch until the fall, according to The Journal, but it will presumably be tied to the new TV box.
That same month, Cook told Jim Cramer on CNBC that the three big markets for Apple to attack in the future were the home, the car, and health. The Apple TV, which sits in the middle of the living room, is the perfect device for taking over the home.
Apple's tagline "the epicenter of change" suggests it has big plans for the TV beyond just a TV service.
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