These rumors have been out there for awhile, but they seem to be getting more airtime today:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050223/tivo_stock_2.html?printer=1NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Tivo Inc. surged Wednesday because of Internet speculation that Apple Computer Inc. may be planning a bid to buy the company that popularized digital-video recording of television shows.

That would so cool! I have visions of 1,000,000 channels on-demand that are being produced by 10,000,000 Macs.

If they buy them it'll be a huge boom in the Internet/Television convergence. Microsoft just doesn't have "it" - my PC got a virus the otehr day and blew away all my data. I think Apple is the best company to merge the two mediums...no one has done what they have done with simplicity - they make computer easy. The Internet/TV thing will surely be led by Apple, in my opinion!

Personally I have to agree with the following article, that it wouldn't make sense for Apple to buy TiVo. They could do their own DVR if that market interests them. http://www.forbes.com/markets/2005/02/24/0224automarketscan10.html?partner=yahoo&referrer=

I also think they have everything in place, just re-package the iMac mini with an onboard tuner, special version of the OS and voila, instant TiVo clone, software upgradeable, QuickTime saavy, ready for IP multicast and comes with iTunes... oh and has Firewire and burns DVDs!

Because Apple has so much experience with Akamai and QuickTime streaming and broadcasting, they could package and deliver content to the device, de-intermiediating the whole cable television industry. All that is needed to connect millions of consumers with Apple is the Mini and a broadband connection.

At first it would work like your basic TiVo recording from the tuner, but in parallel it could pre-download content from Apple, doesn't even have to be in real time because of the TiVo concept. You could either record things or download things. Cool!

The more I think about it, the more sense it makes.

I guess TiVo might prefer to have Apple as an ally instead of as competition and that is probably what the talks are all about.

Highly unlikely. (http://macminute.com/2005/02/24/tivo/)

heath

Here's another article on the TiVo saga: http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_11/b3924095_mz063.htm

This one is not very optimistic about TiVo's futurethere are plenty of reasons TiVo isn't likely to hook up with a suitor anytime soon. Fact is, for all of its passionate followers and its legendary ease of use, TiVo does not fit neatly into the business plans of industry giants. And it threatens to undermine revenues and upset relationships with Hollywood.The author also wonders whether one of the studios or networks will end up buying the company just to kill it...