Here is an article about the "Next Big Thing" from the archives at Business Week Magazine from 1996, written By Peter Burrows.
It begins:
"It lets a TV do a PC's work, but it may be too late
In his grim final days at Apple Computer Inc., former Chief Executive Michael H. Spindler took every opportunity to talk about Pippin, a technology that would be Apple's most aggressive move into consumer electronics. Based on a scaled-down version of the Macintosh operating system, Pippin would make possible gadgets to let the TV-viewing masses play Mac games and surf the Net from their couches."

Read more:
Apple's Pippin: A Pip--or A Pipsqueak?