Patently Apple picked up a very recent patent application for DVR technology likely to be employed by Apple any day now.  This promises to (if we’re lucky) finally blur the lines of distinction between local content sources.  In other words, perhaps when combined with the Home Sharing feature recently added to iTunes, we’ll no longer have to figure out whether the latest episode of Big Bang Theory is on the Mac, the AppleTV, the iPod, the iPhone, or still somewhere out in the cloud (perhaps at the giant MobileMe datacenter being built in the Carolinas?).

Expect to either see the role or layout of iTunes to completely change.  This is probably why Apple’s invested so little in Front Row of late, instead choosing to allow it to continue looking like AppleTV 1.0.

More here: Apple’s Media Players will One Day be Both Portable TV & DVR – Patently Apple.