Here are your Apple rumors and AAPL news items for Thursday:
Macs to Get Microsoft Kinect-Style Interface? Apple Insider on Thursday reported on a newly public Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) patent application. The patent in question describes technology for Apple’s Mac laptop and desktop computers that will allow users to control the device without a keyboard or mouse, but instead by waving their hands in front of the screen. The “Three-Dimensional Imaging and Display System” is similar to Microsoft‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Kinect device. Kinect — available on the Xbox 360 game console and Windows PCs — allows users to control their devices using only broad motions with their hands and arms, as well as their voice. Apple’s filing describes technology that would be “economical, small, portable, and versatile,” hinting that the motion-control technology would be included with its successful line of MacBook Air laptops.
Google exec Predicts Google TV Domination in 2012: Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) executive chairman Eric Schmidt is awfully confident that Google TV — the company’s Internet TV platform built into Sony‘s (NYSE:SNE) Internet Television HDTVs — is going to be successful next year. According to a Paid Content report (via Apple Insider), Schmidt spoke at the Le Web conference in France this week and said, “By the summer of 2012, the majority of the televisions you see in stores will have Google TV embedded in it.” Considering Google TV has been a black eye for Google since it released in October 2010, it’s hard to imagine Schmidt’s prediction coming true. To date, Google TV has only come built in two retail products — Sony’s aforementioned televisions and Logitech‘s (NASDAQ:LOGI) Revue set-top boxes. The Revue performed terribly for Logitech, costing the company an alleged $100 million in profits, leading CEO Geurrino De Luca to say that partnering with Google for the device was a “big mistake.” Apple is expected to deliver its own Internet-connected television by the middle of 2012. If Schmidt’s prediction is true, Google TV had better change dramatically between now and then to compete for consumer attention.
iPad 3 Will Be Thicker Than Current Model: For the obsessive consumer patiently waiting for news about next year’s iPad model, Japanese blog Macotakara (via Mac Rumors) has some new details for you. In particular is word that the new iPad 3 will have a significantly thicker body than the iPad 2, though it will have the same 9.7-inch screen. The report includes an image of what might be a prototype of the new model.
As of this writing, Anthony John Agnello did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned stocks. Follow him on Twitter at @ajohnagnello and become a fan of InvestorPlace on Facebook. For more from the company, check out our previous Apple Rumors stories.
