Apple has always been extremely quick to refer to the Apple TV as their "hobby" project whenever the little black box gets a mentioning at any kind of press event. When the second-generation Apple TV was announced and launched, I got the feeling that it was a result of damaged pride, with the company needing to prove that it could be a viable product after their initial soiree into the set top box market failure. Even though they have continued to develop the product, release a new and improved 1080p version of it, and dumped significant resources into it, they still publicly refer to the gorgeous little entertainment provider as a hobby.
The millions of Apple TV owners around the world who regularly rely on the great little product will more than likely be inclined to disagree with the official Apple verdict on the unit, but it would also seem that the internal opinion could be changing, with the company exploring potential revenue streams and ways of monetizing the after-sales channels, as well as bundling addition features into the device. Most recently, we have seen Apple using the Apple TV to provide a live stream of their iTunes Festival event to users around the world, something that definitely showcases the potential of the device.
It now seems that the release of Apple’s latest version of their mobile operating system, iOS 6, could bring with it iBooks in one form or another to the Apple TV. The possible inclusion of iBooks within Apple TV has come from an attempt to download an e-book on an iTunes account that was also shared with the Apple TV unit. A user-facing error message claimed that the relevant software wasn’t installed, even though iBooks was indeed on the iPhone and iPad that were logged into the iTunes account.
It seems rather far-fetched that users would load up your average storybook on the Apple TV, sit and flick through the pages on a high-definition television set, but there has been significant updates to iBooks in recent times that allows interactive books to be created and displayed using the software. This could potentially be something that would fit in extremely well with Apple’s public commitment to education and could possibly see schools, universities and other educational establishments utilizing the Apple TV hardware for interactive learning.
(via AppleInsider)
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