Jonathan S. Geller ponders the next-gen Apple TV (meaning an actual display) that’s been on the tech press’s horizontal for a few years now:

It’s not a rumor, but a fact that Apple is looking at bringing a game-changing TV experience out of Cupertino. We just don’t know when or how. Or do we?
I think we do and it’s here in the form of the little, black set top box I have at home. This isn’t what the tech press wants to hear. They want a new shiny thing to pick apart and praise and bash and post pictures of the get clicks. Tough shit. It’s the cake that everyone who has $100 can eat right now.
I’ve been thinking this is a reasonable conclusion for a while now, but I’m seeing more and more evidence that validates it.
Like this recent post from Shawn Blanc on how to rearrange and remove channel apps from Apple TV (I’m a little embarrassed I didn’t know this trick). They just added Vevo,Weather Channel, Disney and Smithsonian. Next thing is maybe folders and ways to customize your Apple TV interface more. Then more gaming integration.
The pieces are sliding into place, bit by bit, or as John Gruber would say, they’re rolling into place.
It’s the same reason Apple doesn’t need to launch a big black or white box to compete with Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft in the gaming market.
As Jonathan S. Geller also noted back in June:
By introducing a game controller standard (this is incredibly helpful since developers now can build games that recognize a standard set of button controls and inputs that will work across every single game in the App Store), Apple has started to turn the volume up on Sony and Microsoft. Soon, you are going to be able to play a console-quality game on your iPhone or iPad with a game controller, and you’re going to be able to see it on your big screen television without any effort.
This is asymmetrical thinking. Cable television without the cable. Video games without the console.
(Iron Man just popped into my head, “Why not a pilot without the plane?”)
If/when Apple unveils an integrated television display, it will simply be the icing on the cake we’re already eating.