Google and Apple Finally Teaming Up?

nieske writes "Rumors are spreading about Google and Apple teaming up to form a video alliance. Google might provide streaming video content for Apple's upcoming iTV, which was revealed in last week's Apple event. The only thing that seemed to be missing in the iTV preview was streaming video, and with Google's Eric Schmidt on the Apple board of directors, this alliance might actually not be so far-fetched."

What exactly is an iTV?

[acb]

Does anybody know what exactly the iTV is based on? Is it based on a special edition of OSX (akin to Windows MCE), a new real-time OS based on Darwin/xnu, Quartz, Cocoa and QuickTime (though lacking large chunks of OSX which are irrelevant), the iPod RTOS, or something else?

Huh?

[diesel66]

From TFA:
"It's not hard to imagine a Gapple iTV that that would not only allow you to consume media files on your home theater system, but also stream television content and display relevant advertisements from Google..."

Let's see, iTV plays movies, TV shows and music I buy from the iTunes music store, why do I need Google? To show me targeted ads? No thanks.

"...especially since this device requires a network to do anything useful."

Yeeeaaahhh.... I have broadband just like all the other people the iTV will be made for. What the hell is he talking about? My computer needs a network to do anything useful. My cell phone needs a network to anything useful.

Another crappy blog to ignore.

Al Gore is on the Board too... But you don't see

[SirStanley]

Apple isn't teaming up with Phillip MOrris or US Tobacco to make iSmoke or anything like that. And Karl Rove still loves his Apple Powerbook. Just saying that's all.

Re:Poo Pooing ITV

[MrAnnoyanceToYou]

That's the situation NOW, but give it ten years and we may have all the bandwidth necessary to stream hi-res. The technology's still in its infancy, really.

Dumb, dumb, dumb rumor...

[donnacha]

This is a particularly dumb example of classic "slap-2-big-names-together" rumor production. All Apple really has going for it in it's negotiations with the studios is that they, Apple, are the experts when it comes to online distribution. Why in the name of God would they blow that by being seen to defer to Google?

Re:Poo Pooing ITV

[Firehed]

Let's not forget a DVD player. Yeah, they're cheap, but the fewer devices I need hooked up to my TV, the better. And not only for space purposes - I don't want eight sets of cables and need two strip outlets just to hook everything up. As far as I could tell, it didn't have one - which I understand for space purposes, but I really think that it could end up as a fatal flaw (or at least not making it available on a slightly taller $349 model).

Seeing that it's not a DVR, there's really no purpose to have a tuner in there anyways, as you should be able to assume with reasonable certainty that your TV is going to have one... though it would be absolutely bitchin' if it could act as a wireless DVR device (that's to say, stream the TV signal input from the tuner to a computer that would then store that content). However, that's not going to happen - Apple wants you to buy the content from iTunes, not pseudo-TiVo it. I suppose the real question is whether it'll interface to the iTunes Store and let you download the content to your computer from your TV, then stream that content back to your TV (and doing so as it downloads, a double-streaming of sorts). Of course, it'd be borderline-hellish to navigate iTS with a six-button remote, but I think that's too big of an opportunity to be missed.