Apple TV - History

History

Apple TV was unveiled as a work in progress called "iTV" at a press conference in San Francisco, California on September 12, 2006. Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated a modified Front Row interface using the Apple Remote. Industry experts described the appliance as a "short Mac mini". Jobs announced that Apple would start taking pre-orders for Apple TV on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld Conference & Expo. The name "iTV" was originally going to be used to keep it in line with the rest of their i based products (iMac, iPod, etc.), but was not used because television broadcaster ITV holds the rights to the name in the UK and threatened to take legal action against Apple.

Apple TV started shipping on March 21, 2007. Apple released a 160GB model on May 31, 2007; it discontinued the 40GB version on September 14, 2009.

At Macworld 2008 on January 15, 2008, Jobs announced a major (and free) software upgrade to the Apple TV. Dubbed "Take Two," the upgrade turned the Apple TV into a stand-alone device that no longer required a computer running iTunes on Mac OS X or Windows to stream or sync content to it. Jobs said, "Apple TV was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer. It was not what people wanted. We learned what people wanted was movies, movies, movies." The update also allowed the device to rent and purchase content from iTunes directly, as well as download podcasts and stream photos from MobileMe (.Mac at the time) and Flickr.

The second-generation Apple TV was unveiled during an Apple press conference on September 1, 2010.

In the March 7, 2012 presentation that mainly dealt with the 3rd generation iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced a third version of the Apple TV. The new Apple TV is externally identical to the previous generation and includes a single-core A5 processor. It also supports 1080p content from iTunes and Netflix.