Leak Claims New Apple TV in 2014, Hints at Steve Jobs's 'Cracked Code'

Apple TV 2014 or Bust!Apple TV rumors have been relatively quiescent in the last six months, but a report from Bloomberg promises to kick that topic back into gear. Citing unnamed sources, the news service said that Apple is planning a new Apple TV settop box it could introduce as early as April, but that could ship as late as the December quarter.

In addition, those sources said that Apple was in negotiations with Time Warner Cable for content licensing negotiations, suggesting the sources come from either within that company or parties associated with Time Warner Cable.

Bloomberg's sources said the device would have a faster processor than the current Apple TV and an updated interface, "to make it easier for customers to navigate between TV shows, movies and other online content."

Boom, that's the juicy bit! Now we're talking about Steve Jobs's claim about having 'cracked the code' for making an interface for a connected TV that doesn't suck. This was included in Walter Isaacson's biography Steve Jobs. In the year after the book's release all anyone could do was talk about a new Apple TV, be it a new television set or a new settop box.

Those rumors slowed down in 2013, and in the later part of that year, were supplanted altogether by rumors about a new play in wearables—the much-anticipated "iWatch." But now the Apple TV is back, and in a strong way. This rumor is solid—it was sourced with two different people—and what few details it includes are reasonable and logical.

The next step in The Apple TV 2014 Watch will be other stories coming from other sources in the TV industry, which is largely constructed of sieves. The Apple TV settop box is a simple enough device that the chances of leaks from Apple's supply chain are much smaller than for any Mac, iPhone, iPad, or even the fabled iWatch.