Apple TV and cross-device user-interface integration

Imagine a shiny Apple-branded TV. It’s got a power cord, an Ethernet jack, and audio out jacks, full stop. The TV has a built-in Wi-Fi hub (AirPort), so you don’t need another one.

It doesn’t have a dedicated remote control, but instead it uses your iPhone or iPod Touch or iPad. (Read all this as “Google TV” and “Android phone”, if you prefer.) And it’s the best remote control you’ve ever seen. Wi-fi fast and no need to point it at your screen. It has natural, context-dependent, easy-to-use controls, making use of multitouch and other gestures. A TV can have an amazing touch interface if you’re holding one of the screens!

And content will be almost magically flexible. Got a movie on your iPhone you were watching on the subway? It streams wirelessly to your TV when you get home. Watching a movie on TV but have to move to the other room? Now it’s streaming to your tablet. Watching something with multiple views, like sports? Picture-in-picture is so ’90s, it’s two screens now. In fact, you can easily switch any content from one screen to another, or use one device for audio and one for video of the same content.

Your TV doesn’t feel like a separate appliance anymore, it’s an extension of your handheld device, with both connected to the cloud. Apps can make use of both screens (and both CPUs), separating controls from content, or primary from secondary displays in games, or any number of other things.

Imagine how much simpler and less frustrating this experience could be! Somebody make this happen!