Apple TV: Your Thoughts?

Tomorrow is the big day. Everyone is expecting a new Apple TV. In fact, the excitement is palpable. This is somewhat strange, given that enthusiasm for the device has been limited to the truly diehard Apple fans in the past. Is the excitement justified? No one can say yet, but we're all eager to see how the iPad and other iDevices fit into Apple's grand scheme.

One of the problems that has been brought up in recent days is how exactly your iDevice might control the action on the screen. Touch controls are an obvious necessity, as are accelerometer-based gestures. This sort of thing makes sense in the context of having a new or updated Remote app that controls your Apple TV.

But when people start talking about App Store accessibility on the Apple TV, things get a little trickier. How will you coordinate your hand gestures to what's on the screen, given the lack of a pointer--a la a mouse? You can't look at the TV screen and the iPad at the same time, for instance, at least not very well. If the image is duplicated on both screens, that will just look silly, and if the two screens are displaying in different resolutions--and thus different screen shapes and sizes (the iPad isn't widescreen, for instance)--things could get really complicated.

Out of the gate, we don't anticipate much more than those things we've already mentioned: alternate camera shots and angels being displayed on the iPad and remote-like features. For more complex apps, we're not sure a touch screen cuts it. But then again, Apple is free to prove us wrong with something groundbreaking.

Come back tomorrow for our full report on the proceedings of Apple's big September announcements. In the mean time, share your thoughts and predictions by either leaving us a comment below or sending us a tweet @padvance.