Apple TV: Steve Jobs' Final Gift?

Biographer Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography was published Monday. In it, one little-known fact has the tech world wondering about a final project Jobs worked on before he died.

It's believed that Jobs may have been working on the next Apple TV. What Apple already has is a TV that lets users stream all content by connecting the box to a TV or computer monitor. Still ahead a wirelessly synced version of the existing Apple TV.

For $99 now, Apple TV provides access to YouTube, Netflix and iTunes. Tech site Mashable says the new version of the TV would include a cloud-based system, allowing users to search seamlessly through content either from Apple itself or other third-parties. Then, instead of having to look separately through Netflix for a movie or show, users could directly access the content that should already be integrated on the system. The idea is to create a single source for locating and watching all TV content.

Bloomberg reported the Cupertino, Calif.-based company assigned software engineer Jeff Robbins, the iTunes creator, to lead the project on this new TV. Analyst Gene Munster pf Piper Jaffrey said Apple has a prototype in the works.

Another game-changing feature some are expecting is Siri's voice-recognition integrating with the Apple TV. If it happened, Siri could be running more than an iPhone 4S.

Licensing terms with content service providers remain unresolved. This has been a major obstacle to HDTV. In 2009, Apple was said to have pitched an iTunes subscription plan to those content providers, but the plan was never ironed out.

Munster predicts a product launch could happen in late 2012 or 2013, but Apple has not commented yet.