Edible Apple

Despite rumors over the past few months that Hulu was on the verge of being acquired, it appears that the streaming video site won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. So putting those tantalizing Silicon Valley rumors aside (remember when Google was reportedly going to bid a few billion for it?), 9to5Mac is reporting that a Hulu Plus app is all finished and ready to launch on the AppleTV.

There’s just one hold up: Apple.

Even though the app has reportedly been ship-ready for over a month, Apple to a certain extent is wary that the app may eat into sales of iTunes TV sales via the AppleTV.

Hulu Plus is available on the iPad and other iOS devices but unlike many other content apps, you can’t AirPlay them to an Apple TV like Apple’s own iTunes videos. Additionally, you can use an HDMI cable to watch the iOS Hulu Plus through an iPad on your HDTV, but mysteriously only in Standard definition, not the native HD Hulu or iTunes quality.

And so Apple continues to try and figure out the mystery behind the sale/rental of TV shows. Apple you might remember recently stopped allowing users to rent TV episodes, claiming that rental numbers were low. While we have to take Apple’s word on this, TV shows are fundamentally different than music to the extent that most users, we feel, aren’t keen on owning the shows they watch.

Still, Hulu Plus is quite the service if you’re prone to watching TV for hours on end. For $9.99 users gain unfettered access to complete seasons of popular Television shows. The free version of Hulu, in contrast, only offers users the ability to watch the 5 most recently aired episodes of any particular program. Hulu Plus also lets users watch complete back seasons of classic shows no longer on the air.