Since they've just released a new client, and people always eagerly scan the plist's looking for nuggets of information, I think it's safe to assume that it won't be anything client related (sorry, no WiFi syncing or cloud storage). So it's almost certainly Store related.
It's interesting that Japan get a clock (no Australia, which is a bigger market). Just last week Japan got the ability to purchase & rent movies, and that this announcement comes so soon after is probably not a coincidence. So something with the store, and something to do with movies.
Making this big a deal of an announcement, so close to the holiday season, makes me think that it's also something that is intended to give people a reason to buy Apple hardware.
Side note: Back when AppleTV2 was unveiled, Jobs said that you would be able to rent movies "day and date" with DVD releases. That hasn't been true to this point - embarrassingly Iron Man 2 which he demonstrated on stage wasn't available for rental until the DVD had been out for some time.
So I'm going to go with better movie rentals - earlier availability (perhaps much earlier, for a premium), possibly bundled movies, possibly the removal of the stupid contractual stuff where some movies become unrentable due to TV deals and hampers the library.
I'm sure Apple would love to give lots of families a reason to buy themselves an Apple TV's for Christmas this year, particularly with Boxee/Google now pushing into that market.
Though I doubt it would be possible because of licenses, (and also a relatively small number of people interested in that) the different clocks and the chosen time (which covers most of the world being awake) make me hope that they move to a somewhat global iTunes Store, where one can buy and gift music, apps, movies across country-specific stores.
Just last week, I couldn't gift an iPhone game to a friend because he wouldn't have been able to get it from his "local" store.
Comments
Since they've just released a new client, and people always eagerly scan the plist's looking for nuggets of information, I think it's safe to assume that it won't be anything client related (sorry, no WiFi syncing or cloud storage). So it's almost certainly Store related.
It's interesting that Japan get a clock (no Australia, which is a bigger market). Just last week Japan got the ability to purchase & rent movies, and that this announcement comes so soon after is probably not a coincidence. So something with the store, and something to do with movies.
Making this big a deal of an announcement, so close to the holiday season, makes me think that it's also something that is intended to give people a reason to buy Apple hardware.
Side note: Back when AppleTV2 was unveiled, Jobs said that you would be able to rent movies "day and date" with DVD releases. That hasn't been true to this point - embarrassingly Iron Man 2 which he demonstrated on stage wasn't available for rental until the DVD had been out for some time.
So I'm going to go with better movie rentals - earlier availability (perhaps much earlier, for a premium), possibly bundled movies, possibly the removal of the stupid contractual stuff where some movies become unrentable due to TV deals and hampers the library.
I'm sure Apple would love to give lots of families a reason to buy themselves an Apple TV's for Christmas this year, particularly with Boxee/Google now pushing into that market.
Though I doubt it would be possible because of licenses, (and also a relatively small number of people interested in that) the different clocks and the chosen time (which covers most of the world being awake) make me hope that they move to a somewhat global iTunes Store, where one can buy and gift music, apps, movies across country-specific stores.
Just last week, I couldn't gift an iPhone game to a friend because he wouldn't have been able to get it from his "local" store.
Actually they have found some references to something... not sure if it's related to tomorrow though. Time will tell!
http://erictric.com/2010/11/15/itunes-live-stream-reference-...
The Apple TV just isn't an attractive offering in the UK at the moment. No TV rentals, poor selection of Films, nothing like Netflix.
The UK clock has me in agreement with you. Making the Apple TV a value proposition in the UK.