Once Taken

When we last visited the Apple TV back when it came out we loved some of the syncing features but thought the lack of hard drive options and access to the iTunes Music Store gave it less appeal than it should. Well, a year later, Apple answered our call.

Take Me

The Apple TV Take Two update, free to all Apple TV owners, downloads in less than five minutes and installs through a series of reboots. Once you get through the brand new and fun opening video the new menu structure is shown. The old front-row-like structure is gone and in its place is a new dual paned approach. We did find it funny that as soon as OSX 10.5 Leopard catches up to Apple TV, it goes another way.

Navigation is easy to movies, podcasts, music and television. All just a few clicks away. We tested out subscribing to the Totally Rad Show video podcast and within seconds the HD version was playing in the living room.

The Big News

The big news is the renting of videos and yes they come in standard and high definition format. Once you get your iTunes account all set up it is just a click away and while the selection is growing it is no Netflix killer just yet. You have 30 days to start watching rented movie and 24 hours to finish it after starting it. We also tried buying music and videos which worked very well and are great additions.

Maybe Take Three

While the update has a lot of new features there are still some that seem to be glaringly absent. The podcast listing is sparse as we couldn't find our favorite over at Jet Kingdom. You also can't buy HD movies, although at this point we don't know why anyone would want to actually buy videos anymore when they are almost always available for rent somewhere. Also still missing is interaction with real TV and recording. It is probably not something that Apple will get into, but still missing.

Our Take on Take Two

Overall this is a great update and brings the Apple TV much closer to being the full living room media player that it wants to be. Apple should focus on getting more content in the stores as well as ways of accessing content from different devices seamlessly.