Man, it snuck up on everyone, but the second-gen Apple TV got a huge update in the last hour. The iOS 4.3.3 update for the Apple TV 2 does add some minor things like Vimeo support to the feature set of Apple’s set-top box, but here’s the real biggie: you can now buy any television show directly from your Apple TV, then access and stream them using your iTunes account.
This is pretty swank. No longer is the Apple TV just a rental box: it’ll now let you buy and stream indefinitely any television show iTunes sells. Arguably, it should have done this all along, but hey, better late than never.
The best part? If Apple can do this for television shows, movies are coming soon.
Like we said, the update is now available. Get downloading. There’s no reason to miss this one. You can also download it here.
[via 9to5Mac]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
23 responses to “Apple TV Just Got A Huge New Update With TV Show Purchasing and iCloud Support”
I’m wondering how many shows I could buy before the cost surpasses my cable bill. Keep in mind I would only be buying the handful of TV shows I currently follow. That’s about 4-10 depending on the time of year (season /off season)
Not huge.
Or, if you’re in the rest of the world…
…Just Vimeo.
Yay?
Yes there is a reason to wait… It will kill your ATV Flash or XBMC…. I’ll wait until a new jailbreak comes.
What exactly is Vimeo? I checked out their website but it just looks like a “high class” you tube. Someone let me know if I’m wrong.
Overall this is a weak update. Let us install iOS apps using an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad as a controller, that would be an update.
iCloud has been added to the iPad as well. The iTunes app and app store are now showing the iCloud icon next to previously purchased items.
http://ipadhelp.com/ipad-news/…
That’s what my wife and I do. No cable and we each watch two shows a week.
Anyone know if this is being offered in Canada / RoW? It’s why I still have to old Apple TV – you can’t rent TV shows here – so the only way I can easily watch shows is to purchase off old Apple TV – and no I don’t want to download to my laptop first, then airplay to the ATV.
Too bad there isn’t anything good there at all.
Just went and checked TV section, same stale stuff that’s been there for the last year or more.
I own an AppleTV and I wish I could buy content from Apple but Netflix is where the content I want all is. Especially foreign stuff, BBC, Masterpiece Classic, indie movies, classics and so on.
I’ve said before: Apple should buy Netflix.
Couldn’t you download TV shows on the original Apple TV?? I know I’d rented movies, I was under the impression this stuff was already around back in the day.
Between Netflix, Hulu Plus and Broadband EST (think Vudu or Zune) there is absolutely zero reason for cable. For the handful of sporting events I want to see live, I go to my local pub.
Check out this awesome apple blog!
http://applefanboynews.com/