I’ve never really been a fan of Apple TV.

Sure, I get it’s purpose of being the quick and easy place to buy, rent and stream media in your home but there are just too many limitations such as lack of 1080p playback, poor HD download bitrates (although in fairness I blame the UK internet infrastructure for that one) closed format support system (yeah, thanks for the H.264-only), and horrible UI (why it isn’t identical to Front Row is beyond me) for me to shell out my hard earned cash.

Ok, so you can hack it with apps like the PatchStick but then you could just as easily get better results from a bog standard Mac Mini albeit a slightly higher price (VNC, more powerful CPU etc)

Anyway.. it looks like the Cupertino-based company has added some nice features to the newest ATV update (2.2) so I’ll let you decide if it’s worth the hassle..

Apple TV owners can download the new updates from their Apple TV’s by accessing the “Update Software” menu option in their Apple TV’s settings. 

Aside from addressing some security issues, Apple has also included support for features introduced in iTunes 8.0, including Genius playlists. 

- Music Video playlists
- Genius playlists
- On-the-Go Playlists
- Standby Option
- HD TV Show Playback and Purchase

Reports from the forums across the Mac ecosystem still say that it runs hot while in standby mode, and that features added to the device pre-2.0 are still absent. Perhaps due to copyright claims? Who knows.

It would be nice if some of those with an Apple TV could convince me to buy one, but I guess I’m too lazy / tight to rip my DVDs and leave my Mac Pro on to stream the content in my house (let’s face it sync would be too much of a hassle for a large library). I’ll wait for revision 2.

UPDATE: iTunes 8.0.1 is also released for those in the mood for some hardcore get-it-while-it’s-hot updating. If you’re one of those grab it over at the usual place http://www.apple.com/itunes