Could Apple’s revolutionary re-imagining of Apple TV not be a set-top box at all, but rather an Oculus Rift style headset?

A patent published Thursday hints that this might be the case, as it refers to a head mounted display (HMD) capable of providing a personal media viewing experience for users.

The patent describes how data processing circuitry could feature optical component capable of adjusting left and right images to display 3-D media, or else to account for a user’s eyesight limitations.

You may have heard that Comcast wants to buy Time Warner. In a proposal published today that pitches the merger to the FCC, Comcast drops a hint about Apple’s future plans for the TV.

Although by no means a definite indication beyond the previous rumors that something new is coming, Comcast says that Apple is working on a set-top box. Given that Apple and Comcast have been in talks, the cable giant would be in a position to know.

Apple is awarded a lot of patents, many of which it never does much more than sit on top of. After all, in the high stakes (and highly litigious) world of mobile, it’s better to patent a potential innovation than let a potential enemy do so.

Even so, today was a banner day for Apple. In just a single day, Apple was granted a whopping fifty-one different patents, ranging from older products like the unibody MacBook Pro to some much wilder stuff, like a possible 3D Apple TV remote control system.

At an event in New York City this morning, Amazon finally announced FireTV, its long-awaited Apple TV competitor. It’s three times faster than its competitors, with a “best in class” quad-core processor and a dedicated GPU, and it runs the latest Android games.

Apple TV may have scored sales of $1 billion in 2013, but that hasn’t stopped Roku CEO and founder Anthony Wood from branding the device a “a money loser” and questioning why Apple would want to keep selling it.

The comments were made at the inaugural Code/Media event on Thursday, hosted by technology site Re/code. They arrive at a time when Apple is reportedly preparing a new version of the Apple TV that will integrate with Comcast’s network to provide users with a streaming TV.

The last Apple TV concept we saw had us swooning for a redesigned Apple remote/gaming pad, but if Apple decides to reduce the Apple TV’s size to take on the Chromecast and the new Roku stick, this Apple TV Air concept from Curved might be spot on.

Rather than running an HDMI cable to Apple’s little black box, the Apple TV Air concept would plug directly into your HDMI port, allowing you to instantly beam video from your iPhone to your big screen TV over AirPlay.

Take a look:

We’ve seen Martin Hajek’s incredible Apple TV concept with a touchscreen remote before, but in an update to the project, Hajek has imagined what the Apple TV would be like if the next gen set-top box didn’t ship with just a touchscreen controller, but a traditional gamepad as well.

I’ll say this for Hajek’s Apple TV gamepad: it looks like a controller Jony Ive would design. Thin, sleek, classic, beautiful, and utterly unsuited for actual gaming.

What do you think? Additional images after the jump.

Amazon’s much-anticipated Apple TV competitor will finally launch next month, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal. The device will offer incentives to members of the Amazon Prime subscription service, sources claim, and it will be powered by a custom version of Android.

The best basketball conference in the country just got a front row seat on the Apple TV thanks to the new ACC Sports channel added to the device’s lineup Monday morning.

A new Apple TV is expected in the coming months, but little is known about the hardware. Apple has yet to redesign the basic remote it ships with the Apple TV, and instead the company has put out a Remote app for iOS.

This concept reimagines the Apple TV’s remote with a touchscreen and home button, effectively turning it into an iPod touch for the living room.