“Apple Inc. is turning to the software engineer who built iTunes to help lead its development of a television set, according to three people with knowledge of the project,” Adam Satariano reports for Bloomberg. “Jeff Robbin, who helped create the iPod in addition to the iTunes media store, is now guiding Apple’s internal development of the new TV effort, said the people, who declined to be identified because his role isn’t public.”
“Robbin’s involvement is a sign of Apple’s commitment to extending its leadership in smartphones and tablets into the living room,” Satariano reports. “Before his Oct. 5 death, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had “finally cracked” how to build an integrated TV with a simple user interface that would wirelessly synchronize content with Apple’s other devices. ‘It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,’ Jobs told Isaacson in the biography ‘Steve Jobs,’ released yesterday by CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster.”
Satariano reports, “One of Apple’s goals for a new TV is to let users more seamlessly search for a show or movie, said one of the people. For example, instead of having to separately check to see if a movie or show is available through Netflix or a cable service, all the material could be integrated, this person said… Robbin, the software engineer helping lead the TV effort, was hired in 2000 to develop iTunes after Apple bought the SoundJam digital music player he developed. ITunes, introduced in January 2001, became Apple’s digital hub for synchronizing music, video and applications across Apple’s devices, including the iPod, iPhone and iPad. According to the biography, Jobs considered Robbin such a valuable employee that he wouldn’t let a Time magazine reporter meet him without agreeing not to print his last name, for fear that he would be poached by a competitor… Robbin also was closely involved with the development of the iPod.
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]