How would you reinvent the idiot box?

I suffered the wrath of the Apple fanboys over at the Sydney Morning Herald last week after wondered aloud what Cupertino could possibly add to the rumoured Apple Television that would convince me to buy a whole new television.

I noticed a few trends in people’s responses. Some argued in favour of tight integration with the iTunes ecosystem, which is understandable but I think Apple could cover this using the Apple TV set-top box rather than expecting me to buy a new television.

Others argued that today’s televisions are too complicated and they're sick of struggling with multiple remotes. They want a television which “just works”. I see their point but I don’t think the television is to blame for the fact we’ve got so many devices connected to our televisions. The obvious answer is to buy yourself an intelligent universal remote such as a Logitech Harmony, which lets you jump between devices with a single button press.

The other alternative is for Apple to build the functionality of all those boxes into your television, but I couldn’t see Apple releasing a television with a built-in HD PVR, Blu-ray player and streaming media player. I couldn’t even see Apple releasing a set-top box with all these features. Apple tends to simplify things by stripping out features it believes you no longer need. As such, an Apple Television could be nothing more than a monitor with an Apple TV media player strapped to the back and super glue in all the HDMI ports.

Obviously the Apple Television would need to offer more than the Apple TV if people beyond the Cupertino cheersquad are going to buy a whole new television. What could Apple do to reinvent the idiot box?