APPLE TV, TAKE TWO

I'm loving the new AppleTV software update. It's like getting a whole new gadget.

And it's actually a more viable gadget now, with HD movie rentals and full iTunes music store browsing right on the device (purchased music even syncs back to your main iTunes library automatically). My favorite parts are the fully searchable podcast directory (there's a lot of HD video podcast content to watch out there) and Flickr photo browsing -- perusing my entire Flickr library (and my contacts' libraries) on a big-screen TV in high resolution is pretty darn awesome -- I've got no need to sync my AppleTV with iPhoto at all anymore, really.

If you wanted to, you could basically use it *without* any connection to a desktop computer at all. Yes, I know you can already do many of these things with game consoles and PVRs -- I have 'em all (an XBox360, a PS3, a Wii, and a TiVoHD), but none of them are as ridiculously easy to use as AppleTV -- especially when it comes to online/downloadable content.

My only minor quibble is the time you get to view rented movies -- you can keep the downloaded file for up to 30 days, but once you start watching it, you only have 24 hours. Here's hoping they extend that a bit -- it seems too restrictive.

I bet Apple will continue to lower the price and ultimately market it as "the living-room computer for your grandma", so people can share podcasts and photos easily amongst non-computer-savvy family members.