A new Apple patent may give some foresight to the company's plans for offering a "true" multimedia center experience for the living room, as either enhancements to the Apple TV or an entirely new device. The patent is for a "Multi-media center for computing systems" and describes a system involving a central multimedia hardware hub that can make use of a number of external "modules," all controlled through a centralized menu system on the device.

These external modules can consist of anything that a multimedia center might want to read from, be that a computer, iPod, external DVD player, or hard drive. However, the module could also (speculatively) be something like a recording device or something to stream from/with, like a Slingbox. According to the patent, the modules would not interact with each other at all but would be managed dynamically by the central multimedia center through a main user interface. The device will also be able to function as a traffic manager, with the ability to "instantiate and keep track of media-modules, route events associated with user input, and control what is displayed."

The patent text also says that the system could take inputs from a variety of different things, such as a keyboard and mouse, over the network from another computer, or remote devices (such as a "media-player with remote control capabilities"). Some have theorized that perhaps the iPhone—or really any type of mobile phone—may be able to control the media center's menu capabilities via Bluetooth or some other wireless option.