The rumors … they are a swirling.

Apple’s patent application dated November 2, 2006 outlines techniques for acquiring a season’s worth of TV shows. However, TiVo is only mentioned once in the entire document, and it’s only in a generic sense, describing recorded digital video.

PVRBlog is taking this a step further, reporting Apple will license TiVo software for its upcoming iTV box, which will reportedly be called the Mac Media Capsule.