New Apple TV: Apple Updates Set-Top Box Device At IPad Event

The iPad wasn't the only Apple gadget that got some update love on Wednesday afternoon at Apple's : CEO Tim Cook also unveiled an update to the Apple TV.

The new Apple TV will support 1,080p high-def content and features a redesigned user interface, though the physical set-top box will look the same as its preddecessor.

The simpler interface displays "big billboard images for movies," per Engadget's live blog of the event. The Verge compares the new look to that of the iOS user interface.

“People are going to love streaming movies and TV shows in 1080p with the new Apple TV, and photos look beautiful displayed at the maximum resolution of your TV,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, according to a press release. “Apple TV is easier than ever to use with its new icon-based interface and the ability to access your purchased movies, TV shows and music right from iCloud.”

Cook also said that Apple's cloud-based content storage system iCloud will now support movies, in addition to TV episodes and music, for streaming via Apple TV.

The new Apple TV device will go on sale on March 16 for $99.

Since the release of the first Apple TV in 2010 (not counting the big "iTV" box from 2006), Apple has sold about two million units worldwide, according to analysts.

Though the Apple TV update is exciting, it is perhaps not the Apple TV news that many were hoping for: It has long been rumored that Apple is working on a high-definition television set, with Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs telling biographer Walter Isaacson that the company had "finally cracked it" in an interview in 2011. Though a working 50-inch model of the television is rumored to be in Apple design head Jony Ive's studio, and though it has been widely reported that Apple is in talks with cable companies and television networks about radical new subscription models, Apple has not yet addressed these rumors, and did not do so on Wednesday, either.

Check out our live blog of the Apple event for more updates.

Take a look at the slideshow (below) to see photos from the March 7 event.

Comments

[iZombo]

12:15 AM on 03/13/2012

I have converted a huge library of my movie and tv show DVD collections into iTunes because its simply easier than having racks and racks of DVD and bluray disks cluttering my house. The interface is clean and easy to use. Since Roku has taken forever to get their devices to Canada, I've lost interest and find that Apple TV easily integrated with the rest of my Apple devices anyway. I have completely cut the cable and now use only Netflix, Apple TV rentals and my own collection as well as Airplaying the latest tv shows for free from my iPad apps. The AirPlay streaming in HD from iPad of all major Canadian networks really clinched my love for Apple TV.

[lutherdoberman]

10:40 PM on 03/12/2012

I have a Google TV Revue that does all of this and more. I can browse the internet and watch whatever I want using the chrome browser built in. It also supports android apps you can download directly to it. It also has usb ports for external media, not to mention the cool wireless keyboard controller it came with. This is what really makes these devices worthwhile. Why didn't Apple make a product with at least the capabilities that it's competitors have and more? I was waiting for Apple TV hoping it would be better than the Google Tv Revue since logitech doesn't make them anymore.

[jsgaetano]

10:16 PM on 03/08/2012

I'd love to see Apple bring out something which would make cable TV set-top boxes stink a lot less. I was hoping TiVo would accomplish it, but it appears they didn't have the business savvy to get wide adoption.

[Drama Llama]

10:10 AM on 03/08/2012

"Apple is in talks with cable companies and television networks about radical new subscription models, Apple has not yet addressed these rumors"

Because they are RUMORS.. Apple is a pay per play shop.. I seriously doubt they will ever go the subscription model for anything media based

[AngryMonkey]

10:46 AM on 03/08/2012

Well I love my Zune marketplace, integrates with everything and subscription I like.

[Drama Llama]

11:14 AM on 03/08/2012

Finally gave up my zune a few months ago.. Just got tired of toting around two devices since work gives me an iPhone.. I miss my Zunepass

[Rynox]

10:09 AM on 03/08/2012

Soo... it's basically a Roku? I got my HD Roku from woot.com a couple months ago for like $35 and it works perfectly fine. I presume the Apple device costs a bit more? :)

[JohnTheMac]

08:10 PM on 03/08/2012

That's great.
The rest of us will pay $69 at Amazon for a HD Roku, or the newer XD Roku.
Your's was cheaper because they are lower def, 720, compared to the newer Roku or the new iTV.

[Justtheobvious]

09:26 AM on 03/08/2012

Just what we need. Apple tracking what we watch as well as where we walk/talk.

[Nam-Myo-Ho-Renge-Kyo]

09:02 AM on 03/08/2012

I live in Europe. I have satelite dish (50 euros) and HD receiver (150 euros). I have 4 LNB's feedhorns and can get on Astra 1, Astra 2, Astra 3 (all HD) and Hotbird.

These satelites are not available over the North American continent. I get over 5000 TV and radio channels. Most of them FREE to AIR.

What I did was took feed from them to my PC and bought a SAT PC card. I record TV shows directly to my PC and then if I want can put them on my Samsung Galaxy NOTE (5.3 inch) screen to watch while travelling.

APPLE TV? no thanks. more overpriced crap that has already been around for over 2 years.

[a4plus]

08:36 AM on 03/08/2012

Apple TV is a lot faster than my Panasonic DVD, I like it

[frank day]

08:08 AM on 03/08/2012

apple? LOL

The real questions is Roku or Boxee?

[gdfreethinker]

07:40 AM on 03/08/2012

Apple TV is a sham...a way to push you to buy content - through Apple. I bought the last version fully expecting to be able to stream content from the internet, only to find you can't! About the only thing you can get for free is content you've already bought and YouTube.

[WestSeattle8]

08:22 AM on 03/08/2012

How unfair that you should have to pay for what you want to see. I suppose the actors and all the people working on producing shows should just work for free?

[SFMuscular]

08:45 AM on 03/08/2012

Well done! But it is fair to say that Apple is getting the bad rap it deserves. It was, after all, Apple that initially sold its technology to the public by bragging how easy it was to steal music. Never once did "rip, mix, burn" involve a legal purchase. Before Apple was in the iTunes business, it couldn't care less about how it was ruining the music business. It made no efforts whatsoever to suggest that "rip, mix, burn, distribute" was wrong or that people should always pay for the copies they send to others. A lot of musicians and singers (especially the obscure ones) have been harmed by music theft because Apple initially made stealing cool.

[gdfreethinker]

12:28 PM on 03/10/2012

Not talking about STEALING content. There is plenty LEGAL free streaming content on-line. Apple just locks up the Apple TV box -- it should be gateway for me to access my PAID internet service.

[studana51]

05:54 AM on 03/08/2012

My Samsung Blue-Ray and Roku already due all this. Do we real need more slave labor in China ? Save your $$. A. real apple would be better for you, I like Granny Smith's.

[WestSeattle8]

08:23 AM on 03/08/2012

Like your samsung has any better labor standards. Ha!

[SFMuscular]

08:46 AM on 03/08/2012

South Korea has much better labor standards than Foxcon in China.

[AngryMonkey]

10:07 AM on 03/08/2012

As a matter of fact they do. Even the Apple plant in South Korea pays way better than FoxConn

[juliad7777]

05:47 AM on 03/08/2012

niceeeeee!

[phoenixbc]

02:38 AM on 03/08/2012

Oh, thank goodness! I was running out of cheap crap to buy from Apple that duplicates everything else I buy from Apple.

I'm still waiting for that surround-sound keyring to enhance my "viewing experience" on a screen smaller than a 3X5 card.

[Robg264]

02:33 AM on 03/08/2012

Oh look I'm on the Apple Huffington Ipad website again. How can there be a tech section where the majority of articles posted are Apple? What happened with Roku, Western Digital, Acer, Asus, Toshiba, HP, Unbutu, Portable Linix Boot Drives, Dropbox, etc..?

[Amalek]

05:46 AM on 03/08/2012

Those products are all obsolete.

[mados123]

09:44 AM on 03/08/2012

Sorry but Western Digital is what stores Apple data today on their laptops and iMacs and Dropbox's technology *is* essentially the first iCloud and still going strong.

[Danilo Gurovich]

06:24 AM on 03/08/2012

I'm typing this from the Linux laptop I own because all of my other Apple goodies have been absconded by my wonderful wife. I haven't owned anything on with Windows on it in almost 10 years.

My linux laptop is a Dell. I have a MacBookPro 17 that was purchased at the same time. It Weighs half as much as the Dell. Screen resolution is astounding. It has gone through 1 battery, and the Dell has gone through 2. Unfortunately I purchased the WRONG Dell battery, even though it fits, so I can't actually boot my computer with that battery in it, so I use the old battery that won't hold a charge and so I have to leave it plugged in all the time or put up with the weird booting issues.

The Ubuntu is rock solid. A little quirky, but my 11 year-old daughter can pretty much do what she wants with it. Wife hates it, but hey! She's got a MacBookPro!

Don't hate on Apple. They're huge because they really build a good product. It lasts twice as long and is a pleasure to use. My friend says it best. When you use Apple products, you're not continuously asking a friend "how do you...."

If ya think about all the Wintel laptop makers, what exactly is there to review? When was the last time anyone saw a huge line out of a Best Buy waiting for the new Dell anything?

[Robg264]

08:08 AM on 03/08/2012

Sure the outside appearance may be solid but this inside has issues. I owned a mac G5 Tower about 5 years ago and after my warranty was over I started having issues with the machine telling me that it was overheating. I had the machine repaired and it still told me it was overheating. Took it back to the apple store and turned out the main board was bad and couldn't believe it costs me $800 to replace it. I couldn't believe the price to replace a mainboard. I could've bought a new laptop for that price. I paid for the repair and gave the machine away months later. I saw a lot of people had similiar problems. Saw people had problems with their all-in-one machines and funny thing is apple never issues a re-call on their products. They always say its a software update. I don't think so.

[onceler]

01:31 AM on 03/08/2012

how can Apply keep justifying these prices when we know how cheap their labor costs are?

[Roaming]

03:17 AM on 03/08/2012

Somebody's gotta pay for those Chinese funerals

[frank day]

08:10 AM on 03/08/2012

And the suic ide nets.

[SFMuscular]

08:50 AM on 03/08/2012

I find it inexcusable that Apple has not directly intervened to protect the Foxcon workers. Frankly, people working on Apple products could receive fair wages, but Apple seems hesitant to add $40.00 to the retail cost of an iPad to protect the assembly line workers. I would gladly pay the premium because I felt awful after I learned what life was like for the people who made my iPad 2 and my iPhone 4S. I want those products, but I'd like to go to sleep at night thinking I contributed to giving the workers a better life, not a bad one.

[AngryMonkey]

10:10 AM on 03/08/2012

Or they could charge you the same and still figure in an extra 40 per unit to the workers. They have the cash.

[onceler]

09:24 PM on 03/08/2012

well, they've hired a 3rd party firm to audit the factories there, so I'm interested to see where that goes. I'm just saying, in the mean time, they should lower prices and get real with people. they made $40 billion last year for Fs sake! they can cut $100 or $200 off of some of these products. it's not like only Apple is guilty of this, every electronic device that's at all comparable is made by Chinese workers under conditions no American would accept. I just think that there's an obvious move for them to make in favor of fairness and justice, and part of that is making sure they're laborers are treated fairly in a real way, and part is not gouging their own loyal customers.