

Rumors have it that Apple TV is about to get redesigned and rebranded as "iTV," with a new architecture based on iOS4 and an A4 processor, just like the iPhone 4 and iPad.

The good news? The new iTV, expected this fall, will cost just $100 and will be able to run apps from Apple's iTunes App Store, according to Engadget.

The bad news: It won't be able to handle 1080p or even 1080i video: 720p is the best you're going to get. Engadget's sources suggest that the limitation is because of the A4 chip.

Apple TV has been something of a flop for Apple, sticking out among the company's string of recent consumer product success stories like a sad, bedraggled kitten in the middle of a bunch of LOLcats. At $230, it's a pricey TV accessory, all the more so given that it doesn't have a Blu-ray or even DVD player, integrates poorly with cable TV shows, and can only be made to work with Hulu and Netflix movies via workarounds.

Apple TV doesn't get top billing on the company's website, has been called a "hobby" by CEO Steve Jobs, and currently hovers around the 400-something position on Amazon's list of bestselling electronics.

The new iTV may not address all of these problems, but at $100 it would be much more reasonably priced, and would presumably have access to at least some subset of the 200,000 titles in the App Store, as well as a small army of developers. That might be enough to move Apple's television efforts from "also ran" to "not dead yet."

Engadget via Gizmodo

Photo Credit: Niall Kennedy / Flickr

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