You have to hand it to Apple, they usually get things right on the first try, and when they don’t they fix it pretty quickly. That appears to be the case with AppleTV as “take two” makes it a whole lot simpler to download and watch high quality long-form content on the TV. To sweeten the deal Apple dropped the price on the 40GB model to $229.
At Macworld today, CEO Steve Jobs said that “Apple TV was designed to be an accessory for iTunes and your computer” but they quickly learned people expect more from the set-top box. The next generation offers 720P High Definition downloads with Dolby 5.1 surround.
Through deals with all major studios Apple will offer more than 1,000 titles for download by the end of February priced at $2.99 for library titles and $3.99 for new releases. The initial 100 HD titles are priced at $3.99 and $4.99 for library and new releases respectively.
While the initial offering is only a fraction of the titles offered by existing rental services the library should grow rapidly. Both Netflix and Blockbuster were down significantly on the news. Blockbuster hit a new low as investors abandon the last of the dying breed of brick and mortar video rental stores, which when you think about it is really kind of sad.
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