Apple TV's new functions revealed

PatentlyApple reports that on the 20th of May the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple which reveals two new functions for Apple TV.

"While Apple TV is considered to be a hobby device for Apple, the fact is that they continue to evolve the device in their labs.

This particular patent covers Apple TV's proposed function simply called "Learn Remote." Apple TV will be able to be controlled by future HDTVs from Sony, Samsung and Hitachi or even a DVR from DirecTV. Yet for the most part, these functions are already found and explained on Apple's website.

The second aspect of this patent involves a possible winning marketing twist that could involve Apple TV being able to present a "Simulated iPhone" on a future HDTV so as to allow users to make a phone call or perhaps better yet, interact with one of a Gazillion iPhone Apps or even access one of their new iBooks. Apple tries to hide this feature by illustrating its presence on an illustration yet refusing to elaborate on this point. That's fine, I just did and I'm sure that your imagination could think of other interesting spin-off possibilities for this powerful marketing twist. "

Visit PatentlyApple to have a look at the figures which graphically explain the patent.

In the original patent application on the iPhone Simulation software, is given the following examples of what it can:

The patents states that "an embodiment of the invention can be used to provide a demonstration of the operation of a multi-touch enabled device so that a user can decide whether to purchase that device." That could be useful if Apple introduces a larger tablet format that introduces advanced gaming, ebook or DJ capabilities which could be simulated on a Windows PC to give the user temptation to try out the software. On that single count, the proposed software has some potential.

What do you think, does it have potential, a simulated on-screen iPhone for consumer devices such as the iMac?


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