Product Reviews

When Steve Jobs announced that the Apple TV had failed, it was an unusual admission that sometimes Apple doesn't get it right. The first version failed for several reasons, so Apple has re-focused its living-room offering with take two of Apple TV. If you had invested in a first generation Apple TV, you'll be glad to know that this improved Apple TV is simply a software upgrade, which can be downloaded for free.

With the UK version, there are a couple of features still missing after the update. The vagaries and difficulties of negotiating international movie licences mean that film downloads or rentals aren't available here. Also, we don't get the price cut that the US received. Why that particular keynote announcement wasn't replicated over here is a mystery. It essentially means that we are not only paying more for the Apple TV but also getting one with fewer features for our money.

Physically the Apple TV is the same hardware, with the same ports and disks sizes as the first version. A 40GB and 160GB model are available for £199 and £269 respectively. However, the Apple TV software has been radically remodelled and now it can be used without the aid of a Mac. Setup is a breeze and even if you do want to tie your Apple TV to your Mac the process is as simple as it was with the original software.

The main menu has lost the Front Row styling and is simply a table with content types on the left and the options within these are displayed on the right. The movies option is there but it only allows you to watch trailers or view movies that you've copied to an iTunes library.

We do get TV shows from a selection of networks in the UK. Navigating the

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download options is simple and elegant. When you choose a show to download, you're asked for your password and then the transfer begins. We chose an episode of The West Wing and it was ready to watch within a few seconds of the download beginning. That's quite impressive if you bear in mind that this is a 50-minute programme. Image quality is very good, though it's not exceptional; we'd say it's on a par with DVD content - no better no worse.

Buying music on your Apple TV is a great addition to the process. You can navigate through with a selection of hand-picked albums that Apple thinks you'll enjoy. If Morrissey and the soundtrack to Juno aren't to your liking though, you can search for alternatives. This requires that you use the Apple remote to select individual characters but the predictive search does a good job of narrowing down the choices. We only had to type 'eme' to get to Emerson, Lake and Palmer for instance.

Podcasts, Photos and YouTube navigation are all much the same. The Flickr integration is a nice touch and being able to add multiple contacts increases the appeal of the photo aspect of the Apple TV. Watching low-resolution video of teenagers dancing to the latest chart topper doesn't yet hold a mass appeal but the Apple TV does offer one of the few good methods of transferring this online technology to the living room. When the quality of the video and the production values improve, however, the YouTube content will be really worthwhile.

We're still a little hesitant to recommend the Apple TV even in this much improved second coming, although the changes to the interface and the ability to purchase music and TV shows is really excellent. The HDMI port can now output a full signal 1080p, and best of all this update was free. However, there are still a few insurmountable failings. The lack of PVR functionality, or ability to add one is disappointing. The fact that the UK didn't get the price cut is unforgivable and, though we can understand why we don't have movie downloads or rental yet, it's still frustrating.

If this had been the Apple TV take 1, there's no doubt we'd have been raving over it but this is the second swing of the bat for Apple and though it's not the miss of Apple TV 1 it's not the home run we wanted either.