TVSquad

If you were a bit underwhelmed by Apple's first set top box, the Apple TV, you weren't alone. At Macworld today, Steve Jobs pretty much admitted that the Apple TV was a failure. Part of the reason for that is that people didn't want a two-step solution that required them to download videos from the iTunes store on their computer and then stream them over a home network to the Apple TV for watching.

So Apple TV take 2 lets users download movies from iTunes directly. No computer required. Oh yeah, and you can also rent movies now, with prices ranging from $2.99 to $4.99. Older movies will be at the lower end of the scale, with new releases and HD rentals filling out the higher end.

There's also support for more watching more YouTube videos, Flickr images, and .mac support. Apple has also dropped the price of the Apple TV from $299 to $229. And current users can get all of the new features through a free software upgrade.

There's still not PVR functionality, which some people were hoping for. But all things considered, the new Apple TV at $229 is a lot more attractive than the old version with fewer features for $299.