The Apple TV is a curious product. On the face of it Apple TV would appear to be a very temporary technology with a life expectancy of maybe five years. Why do I say that? Simply because once your TV has Wi-Fi embedded in it, or your set top box, why do I need the Apple TV? For the moment the product's reason for being is to act as the middleman between downloaded content living on your PC from iTunes like movie The Apple TV is a curious product. On the face of it Apple TV would appear to be a very temporary technology with a life expectancy of maybe five years.Why do I say that? Simply because once your TV has Wi-Fi embedded in it, or your set top box, why do I need the Apple TV?For the moment the product’s reason for being is to act as the middleman between downloaded content living on your PC from iTunes like movies, pictures or TV shows and your television. So if the TV became part of your network, just another node why couldn’t you transfer all of that content from your PC to the TV directly? But then there’s that USB port. What’s that for? Could it become the link to a series of other boxes sitting atop the Apple TV. Maybe it becomes the hub for your home entertainment center or a sort of portal for unified communications? Imagine the Apple TV with a dumb IP PBX plugged into it and the Apple TV has the smarts, so you could manage all communications from one central console: VoIP, email, IM, even downloaded faxes and old fashioned cellular and analog phones as well.It’s sort of a fun guessing game. But the nature of high tech is such that anytime someone in the industry comes out with a box, almost any kind of box, everyone with a little imagination can see a whole world of possibilities. That’s what makes it fun. So, anybody out there want to add to those possibilities. Technology Industry