With Apple consolidating its Apple TV offerings this morning down to a single 160GB SKU at a lower $229 price point, we’re once again split between Apple axing their “hobby” or giving it a much-needed refresh.

If Apple does axe the Apple TV, however, something would need to take its place in the living room. Could that something be the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch G3 and the still-mythic iTablet? Dock them properly to an HD TV, and could you have a solution with one heck of a built in controller?

We know the iPhone (and likely new iPod touch) can support 720p and 1080p out. We even hoped Apple would flip the switch on that feature last week in order to better position themselves competitively against the about-to-ship Zune HD. They could still flip it at some point, however, along with introducing new HDMI-based video output cables.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster today issued a note to clients this morning offering his team's thoughts on 14 "unanswered questions" about Apple. Several of his more revealing comments relate to the iPhone, which Munster feels will see its reach broadened to multiple carriers in the U.S. sometime within the next year.

Munster points to data from France, where Apple was forced by the courts to adopt a multi-carrier model, as an indication that Apple will rapidly transition its distribution model to multi-carrier agreements wherever possible, suggesting that such a change may occur in the U.S. next summer during the next probable iPhone refresh.

By way of example, for various reasons the company moved from an exclusive relationship with French wireless carrier Orange to a multi-carrier model. In France, the company now enjoys dramatically higher market share (in the 40 percent range vs. about 15 percent in ROW) than in countries with exclusive carrier agreements (such as AT&T in the U.S. where the iPhone has market share in the mid-teens).

The talk of "convergence" - the unification of computers, set-top boxes, and mobile devices - has been around for a while. And for the most part it's been pure vapor. However, there's reason to believe that if anyone can do it, it's Apple.

There's an increasing crescendo of rumormongering - most of it emanating from Piper Jaffray research analyst Gene "Herman" Munster - of a new Apple TV release on September 9. You remember Apple TV, right? Everybody's favorite WTF? device has been sort of hanging around waiting for its killer app. iTunes downloads and Flickr galleries, obviously, were not it.

Munster thinks the announcement will involve a DVR, which Dan Dilger from AppleInsider thinks would be a terrible idea. More interestingly, Munster has suggested a subscription on-demand service, like Hulu or Netflix.

A tantalizing hint comes in Snow Leopard's support for HTTP Live Streaming, which does an end-run around closed formats like Real and Microsoft's ActiveX streaming. Like Shoutcast, it uses a simple HTTP stream, unlike RTSP streams which are often blocked by firewalls.