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.
more focus on MY Movies too. the top bar shows “Unwatched Movies” in my library. whether I bought them from Tunes or not. nice
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@ Lava_Head:
Apple just released iTunes v9.0.2, which now includes an option to switch the background back to black. Just for you.
portrait pics show up as landscape. that’s a pretty awful bug
Still white on black, very little has changed apart from the top menu design and a move to HELVETICA.
Why is there not an iTunes visulizer- THAT would look great coming across my 46″ TV.
Does that mean we’re now calling the next hardware upgrade tv 4.0?
I’ve held off so long I gave no choice but to hold off longer.
I love the new user interface! Great improvement! Has this thing exited “Hobby” status? If not, it’s about time it does!
Well, until there’s some sort of official support for both Hulu and Netflix watch it now (yes, I do realize that these conflict with iTunes, but screw it; this is what I want!) or the ability to record HDTV programming direct to the ATV (better yet, to upload to my home computer using the ATV as the converting and uploading device), I’ll pass and get one of the new Mac Minis, thanks.
Will not buy ATV until it is full 1080p and plays AVCHD files from my camcorder.
Good for you, US customers, but please realize that most foreign iTunes stores (e.g., Belgium) don’t even offer a single TV-show or Movie.
This is crazy, because a not negligible fraction of the available TV content is being produced in the US anyway, so Apple knows exactly who the royalty fees should go to.
Apple! Please clean up your act before the cable companies command the movie market!!! The time window for Apple to is closing fast.
How long do we have to wait before Apple’s distribution model will compete with the cable companies?
@ vanfruniken
Unfortunately (and don’t quote me here, Im not an expert), from what I understand the stoopid movie studios are calling the shots on iTunes/ATV on this one.
Deal with the devil I guess. But I may be wrong here. Anyone know why Apple seems kinda stuck in limbo on this?
Thank you! Davecc
yup thanks davecc. atvflash pretty much turns an ATV into an HTPC for just $50! $279 total vs. $599 for a Mac Mini.
still cannot fathom why Apple doesn’t offer the same thing, or most of it anyway. only hobbyists buy the Mini to use for an HTPC, a much smaller market. whereas the expanded ATV could sell ten times as many.
Wait Till January…
I’ll stick with the new WD TV LIve. For half the price it does everything the AppleTV does and more. Everything except the Itunes Store (which is fine by me anyway, I have A PS3 if I want to do HD movies). If Apple TV supported Matroska and other media containers/codecs and could see them over the network, I’d be all over it. But sadly at twice the money it still doesn’t….
We’re getting there folks! Games and a game controller are next. Also, streaming movies, video, music, and pictures to any Apple device (including the iPhone and iPod touch) eliminating the need for storage is the next step. Anywhere in the world – anytime.
Why doesn’t Stevie just combine the marginal product that is AppleTV with the excellent imac w/27″ screen (or let’s make that screen as large as we want!) and achieve total convergence of web/tv/radio/all media!?
I would buy that product no matter how ridiculously it was overpriced.
Mr. Convergence
Anyone know how big the download is? I’m on Hughes Satellite, and don’t wanna get fapped. I wish Apple would throw us a bone here, and let us schedule downloads in ATV, iTunes, and Software Update. I could actually purchase from the iTunes Store if I could schedule the download for 3AM.
anyone know if there is a way to add more internet radio stations?
Does it sync them from your iTunes? or does it maintain it’s own library of stations?