• Fast Company et al., Wednesday, September 1, 2010 2:04 PM

In anticipation of an Apple media presentation at 1 p.m., impatient industry watchers spent the morning trying to predict the big news. "The invite ... shows a guitar, which usually suggests music, but that hasn't stopped the buzz about video," wrote paidContent.

     

"Apple Inc., preparing to announce a new set-top box that delivers video to consumers' TVs, will include programming from Netflix Inc.," assured Bloomberg, citing three people with knowledge of the plans. "The streaming service would be available on the revamped version of Apple TV."

  

Indeed, "As part of the Apple event Wednesday, News Corp.'s Fox and Walt Disney's ABC networks are slated to be announced as offering 99-cent rentals of television shows through the iTunes store," seconded The Wall Street Journal, citing sources.

  

"The device may be aimed at lower-cost movie and TV-show rentals, a feature that would mark Apple's entry into the burgeoning online rental business," added the Los Angeles Times.

  

Playing it safe, the Associated Press said Apple was "hosting a music-themed event Wednesday that is likely to yield updated iPods."

  

Meanwhile, some members of the media showed more interest in Apple's planned delivery than in the news itself. For the announcement, Apple is using a new system called HTML Live Streaming, which only works with Apple devices.  

   "It's all about Apple's content-streaming future," Fast Company said of the maneuver. "It's a neat way for the company to achieve one behind-the-scenes task: Test out its mysterious new North Carolina data center, specifically relating to how well the hardware and its Net-connecting pipelines can cope with streaming large amounts of video data."

  

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