Dan Wineman from Venomous Porridge suggests that Apple could potentially announce a new trackpad-like gesture based remote control for the rumored iTV.
Its the love child of an iPod touch and a Magic Trackpad. It has the same inertial and gyroscopic motion sensors as the iPhone 4, and the same multitouch surface were familiar with. A home button. Bluetooth. No screen.
Wineman suggests that iPhones and iPods could also be used as remotes via an iTV app. That way you wouldn't need to buy a lot of controllers for visiting friends.
Some games will make use of those screens if theyre present: you could do the SCRABBLE Tile Rack thing, for example.
The remote controllers are theorized to cost less than $50 with one shipping along with the device to replace the standard remote.
Sounds like a good solution, but what about text input? Maybe the multi-touch surface will light up to reveal a keyboard.
I do remember reading about an apple patent a while back where they proposed drilling hundreds of tiny holes in metal that would allow light to shine through and display controls.