Smaller Apple TV hits the FCC

It’s far from their most successful piece of hardware, but there are plenty of reasons for Apple fans to love the Apple TV. Now it seems the set top boxes are right around the corner from an update, if the recently revealed FCC documents are any indicator, bringing with it a smaller chassis and more efficient hardware inside.

The Apple TV is a shiny little box that sits on your entertainment center until you want to push content to a television via AirPlay. There’s no one currently making a wireless playback and gaming service for TVs that comes close to matching the quality of AirPlay, though Intel and Google have certainly figured out that there’s a market for it. While Miracast and WiDi work on getting up to fighting strength, it seems Apple is working on refining the hardware in the Apple TV units.

The software update to iOS this week included a mostly featureless push to the current and previous generation Apple TV. After some digging around by Brin Klug at AnandTech, it seems that the purpose of the update was to prepare for the release of some new hardware.

In the FCC filing, it is made clear that the current design with separate Bluetooth and WiFi antennae is being replaced with a single chip that will handle both through a single antenna. Additionally, the revised Apple TV will feature the new 32nm A5X processor instead of the existing 45nm chip. With everything getting smaller on the inside, it is Apple’s fashion to make the outside slimmer as well, and that’s exactly what we can expect from the next generation device.

With these FCC documents in hand, it seems that Apple shouldn’t be too far away from officially releasing this piece of hardware, and possible announcing new features to compliment the adjusted build. There’s no expected timeframe for this announcement, though with Mobile World Congress right around the corner it wouldn’t be unheard of for Apple to steal the spotlight for themselves with a well-timed launch.

Texas Instruments to cut nearly 5% of its workforce

“Texas Instruments Inc. said it will cut about 1,700 jobs, or 4.8% of its global workforce, in a cost-reduction move as it shifts away from the mobile market,” Kristin Jones reports for The Wall Street Journal.

“The Dallas company said it expects restructuring charges of $325 million, mostly in the fourth quarter, in connection with the job cuts. It expects annual savings of roughly $450 million by the end of 2013,” Jones reports. “TI recently had around 35,000 employees, according to its website.”

Jones reports, “The company has said the smartphone and tablet markets, among the fastest-growing parts of the technology sector, have become less attractive over the past year because big companies like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. have increasingly been making their own sales.”

Read more in the full article here.