Apple's stealth TV patent

Is an Apple coming to your television soon? Maybe so. According to the Patently Apple site, a patent published on Thursday "insists that the company's Apple TV remote is to work with a clearly defined television – beyond what we know as Apple TV - the set top box style unit." In one of the illustrations in the application, everything appears "normal." It shows a remote that can manage a notebook computer, a set-top box connected to a display (what we would assume is the Apple TV box), and another mobile device sitting in a stand, which I assume to be an iPad. Each item is numbered and that's where things get interesting the article suggests. Author Jack Purcher points out that Apple makes a distinction in its filings between Apple TVs and televisions. And what appears to be a monitor or an iMac in the illo is called a television.

I'm just going to point out that Apple mentions "television" separately from Apple TV noted as a "set top box," eleven times. What threw me for a moment is that Apple's patent Figure 2 shows a computer display-like device and of course my mind paid no attention to their visual that they presented. Well, until Apple insisted that it wasn't a desktop computer nor a computer display – that is. In plain English, they're calling it a "television." See for yourself in the opening cover graphic – it's patent point 208. Looks like a computer display to me - but that's what they wanted us to think. Sorry, but that wasn't an accident. Engineers who design Apple's products aren't going to call something a television that is clearly an iMac, a desktop or simply a Cinema Display. Sometimes a television is just that, a television. So while Apple's executive officers do the right thing by denying interest in a future product – we who read and report on their patents will continue to show you the facts occurring in Apple's labs – no matter how minute they may seem to be at the moment or how contrary they appear to be from public statements.

The application says the remote can control a variety of electronic devices for example, a laptop computer, a set-top box, a television and "mobile phone/portable music player docking station 212 with mobile phone 214."

In some embodiments, the remote controller may communicate with the electronic devices other via communications network 216 or via a different communications network (e.g., an IR network). For example, the laptop computer, set-top box, television 208 and docking station can respectively include wireless receiver windows 218, 220, 222 and 224 for receiving wireless communications from remote controller 100 using communications network 216. In addition, each of laptop computer, set-top box 206, television 208 and docking station 212 may be inter-connected via communications network 216 such that the devices of system 200 may communicate amongst themselves (e.g., using a protocol supported by communications network 216).

Purcher points out that the communication with the television is broken out from the set-top box. Apple executives keep downplaying the company's involvement in televisions. Yet at the same time, the company stocks the iTunes Store with episodes and there are reports of discussions with content companies such as Disney, CBS and Time Warner over increasing the sales of TV shows. So, will Apple work its interface magic through your television? Maybe. Still, it's a mixed message. For example, when I ran through the latest transcript of Apple's quarterly financial conference call the only mentions of Apple TV were about how the changes in how its accounting was being reported. And if I remember Steve Jobs correctly at the iPad rollout event, the big new platform for viewing shows will be its tablet. Still, one doesn't rule out the other. Just as we have iTunes support in our cars, it's natural to suppose an Apple interface on televisions. Check out: Apple results: First look