Tim Cook Talks About Mac Production In The U.S., The Mysterious iTV, and Steve Jobs

Tim Cook has been a busy man lately, he was interviewed by NBC’s Brian Williams and also profiled by Bloomberg’s Businessweek on his first year as CEO of Apple that appeared online earlier today. The much anticipated interview on NBC with Brian Williams will be airing tonight at 10PM EST, but we are already learning much of what will be discussed during the conversation that took place in, among other places, Apple’s Grand Central retail store location in New York.

The topics of conversation range from bringing Mac production back to the U.S. to the mysterious Apple TV set (iTV) and more.

Details of Cook’s plans to bring at least some production of the Mac back to the U.S. in 2013 were revealed in the Businessweek profile, he also hinted that the company has big plans for a next-generation Apple TV product. According to a preview of the interview on NBC’s website, Cook referred to the project as an “intense area of interest,” opposed to the “hobby” the company has considered the product since its inception:

“When I go into my living room and turn on the TV, I feel like I have gone backwards in time by 20 to 30 years,” Cook told Williams. “It’s an area of intense interest. I can’t say more than that.”

Cook also discussed Steve Jobs with Brian Williams, saying that Steve removed a huge burden from him when he told him to just do what’s right for the company and never worry about what he [Steve] would have done. You can watch that clip below.

“I loved Steve dearly, and miss him dearly,” Cook told Williams. “And one of the things he did for me, that removed a gigantic burden that would have normally existed, is he told me, on a couple of occasions before he passed away, to never question what he would have done. Never ask the question, ‘What Steve would do,’ to just do what’s right.”