Apple today introduced new Apple TV 3.0 software featuring a redesigned main menu that makes navigating your favorite content simpler and faster, and makes enjoying the largest selection of on-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes Store even better on your TV. You can now enjoy iTunes Extras and iTunes LP in stunning fullscreen with your Apple TV, as well as listen to Genius Mixes and Internet radio through your home theater system. The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners, and Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for US$229.
“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services, in the press release. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”
The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access to your favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well as other content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube, are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software also allows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek” or classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and albums such as Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Platinum Edition)” and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.” iTunes Extras gives movie fans great additional content such as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.
Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theater system and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customers can also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stations to listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced with iPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on Apple TV, as well as iPhoto Faces, which gives access to photos organized by people identified in iPhoto.
Apple TV users have direct access to a catalog of over 8,000 Hollywood films on iTunes including over 2,000 in stunning HD video available for rent or purchase. Users can also choose from a selection of 11 million songs, 10,000 music videos and over 50,000 TV episodes to purchase directly from their Apple TV or browse and enjoy the iTunes Store podcast directory of over 175,000 free video and audio podcasts. Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their Mac or PC or all current generation iPods or iPhones (movie rentals work on iPod classic, iPod nano with video, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS). iPod touch or iPhone users can download the free Remote app from the App Store to control their Apple TV with a simple tap or flick of the finger.
The new Apple TV software is available as a free automatic download to all Apple TV customers. The 160GB Apple TV is available from the Apple Store, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers for a suggested retail price of $229. Apple TV requires an 802.11b/g/n wireless network or 10/100 Base-T Ethernet networking, a broadband Internet connection and a high definition widescreen TV. Video availability varies by country.
Apple TV easily connects to a broad range of widescreen TVs and home theater systems and comes standard with HDMI, component video, analog and optical audio ports. Using high-speed Wi-Fi, Apple TV automatically plays your iTunes content without setup or management.
MacDailyNews Note: To update your Apple TV to the current software version:
1. Select Settings > General > Update Software using your Apple Remote.
2. Select “Download Now” to start the download process. When the update has finished downloading, an Update Now message should appear.
3. To start the update process, select “Update Now.” During the update process, your Apple TV will conduct a restart which is followed by the Apple logo and a status bar.
Note: On some TVs, the screen may display black for up to 15 minutes and the Apple TV may flash an amber light; this is expected behavior. Do not unplug your Apple TV during the update process.
After the final restart, your Apple TV plays the opening video and returns to the updated main menu.
So much for tv Take 3 hardware to go along with it.
Blame the studios for being stingy on content and pricing. Apple won’t heavily invest until they come ready to play.
I love my ATV. Keep it going Apple.
Finally, Apple TV supports Events from iPhoto! It’s about time.
I am eager to get this downloaded to try it out. I’ve got a rented movie to watch this weekend.
Hah! This is (personally) hilarious.
Not 45 minutes ago I checked for an update. None available.
Since I am in the process of moving, I then started disconnecting my entertainment system.
I’m in stitches….
Someone PLEASE tell me if the background is still BLACK and not the nasty White of iTunes 9 if it is I’ll be sticking the the version I have
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Bummer. I won’t get to upgrade until tonite. Anyone upgraded yet? How is the UI?
I hope the support for iPhoto Events truly works so I can torture visitors with my vacation pics.
I did something wrong. All I see now is a Windows Login.
As an AppleTV owner, I’m glad Apple is still paying attention to the device and giving us a better software experience for free. I was worried for a while that AppleTV was gonna go the way of the dodo.
HMCIV
Welcome to the Social(disease)
I was hoping for new hardware, but I’ll probably bit the bullet soon and buy it … mainly for music and photos connected to home entertainment center. It pretty much does what I want; however, like everyone else I’d like more storage and 1080p.
Why can’t Apple get all the studios to release movie rentals on iTunes the same day the dvd is released? Why would the studios care if their revenue comes from dvd rentals or iTunes rentals. This is the single biggest thing not allowing everyone from having an appleTV. If Apple ever got this done, that would be the end of Netflix.
I wonder if we will see the ability to play other online content, specifically the new music video venture called vevo.com?
The as yet to be released vevo, is a partnership between Google/YouTube, Universal Music and AT&T;.
The videos will connect to iTunes and share revenues with all parties. MTV for the digital living room.
more info [url=”http://www.geek.com/articles/mobile/vevo-partners-with-att-for-music-videos-on-the-go-20091027/
“]here[/url].
No subscriptions offered? I’m glad I sold mine 2 weeks ago. mac mini with a 32 inch Samsung HDTV is the way to go
Lava Head,
Don’t worry, the main screen mostly black, but the very top has some light gray. The rest of the UI is the same. Overall, I think it looks pretty good.
Well, my Pioneer was still hangin’, so I just plugged that darn TV back in.
Internet radio looks good.
Basically they just shifted the main menu horizontally with the submenus underneath each.
Seems snappier….
I’m off to upgrade my Apple TV. Sweet…..
it’s black. streaming Internet radio!
why oh why won’t Apple enable the ATV’s USB port to allow connecting a big external drive so the ATV can become your complete home media server? the software update for ATV needed to make this work should be simple for Apple, given all the sharing options OS X already offers.
(you can accomplish this now kind of with an external drive connected to any Mac on a home LAN – if that Mac is turned on and the correct user with the master iTunes and iPhoto libraries is logged in. but that is clearly not as good as an always-on always-accessible-to-everyone ATV HMS.)
MS. HP, and others are already selling HMS products. there is a real need and market for it.
Jobs is so damn stubborn.
@John E
Maybe you might like this set up
davecc
http://www.atvflash.com/
And what about front row?
Does any body knows i it is possible to control “ElGato eye TV” from with in the front row?
Jobs is truly stubborn. I am buying me some MSTV. Gettin my movies from iZunes store. That will show that stingy old Steve.
@Troy
You can control EyeTV from your iPhone or iPod Touch thru Wifi with Keymote. Great app. And of course you can control part of ATV with Remote iPhone app as well.
Loving the new interface. Especially nice is the new ability to stream internet radio directly from Apple TV, as opposed to streaming via computer and AirTunes.
One can easily imagine streaming internet TV this way too..
Thanks Apple!
.:.
first impressions:
Clean and Snappy!
radio is great too.
g’bye, have to go play around some more