Apple is back with a new tearjerker of a Christmas ad, entitled “The Song.” Like last year’s Emmy-winning TV spot for the holidays, the company has chosen to showcase how its products make people feel, rather than what they do.

This time around, a young musician uses Garageband on her Mac to make a song for her grandmother. Expect to start seeing this on TV quite a bit over the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday, we were excited when a major update to the Apple TV introduced a major redesign of the set-top box’s official YouTube app. Today, though, we’re a little less enthused, because it turns out that along with getting a new look, it also got ads.

It’s been over two and a half years since Apple TV was updated, and while Apple’s been happy resting on its laurels, its biggest competitors are passing it by.

Google’s Chromecast is now more popular than Apple TV, reports Parks Associates, which says streaming media players become more popular than ever in the first three quarters of 2014, as 10 percent of U.S. households bought at least one new streaming device.

We know that Apple is interested in giving the Apple TV Kinect-like motion sensing abilities — they bought the 3D motion tracking company behind the tech last year, after all — but who knows when, if ever, it will actually come to living rooms.

If you want to start waving your way through your Apple TV’s interface now, though, meet the Onecue. It’s a cool little gadget that grafts Kinect-like functionality into your home entertainment system.

Today CBS News added a new channel to the Apple TV. The network’s CBSN channel is the first of its kind to offer live, anchored coverage without a cable subscription.

CBS is now seriously competing with Fox, ABC, CNBC and other competitors on the Apple TV with a mix of streaming news and on-demand content.

If you’ve been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to have every episode of The Simpsons ever streamable on your iPhone or iPad, there is no longer any reason to, as a certain yellow-skinned tyke might say, “have a cow.”

You can now stream the complete Simpsons archive over an iOS app, no matter where you are. But there’s a catch.

The death of cable TV bundling is nearly upon us, as signaled by HBO’s announcement today that it will offer an internet-based streaming subscription in 2015.

“That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped,” said HBO CEO and chairman Richard Plepler. “It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO.”

That’s big news in an industry that has been incredibly resistant to disruptors like Apple. And the Apple TV specifically stands to gain immensely from this shift towards Hollywood finally selling premium content unbundled.

Will the Apple TV become a hub for controlling your smart home in the near future? Signs are pointing to yes.

Apple is quietly testing HomeKit support for its TV set-top box with developers. The functionality can turn an Apple TV into an always-conntected bridge device for communicating between hardware peripherals that support Apple’s HomeKit framework.

Tim Cook sat down with Charlie Rose for what looks like a pretty unscripted interview. A couple of clips have been made available ahead of the first part airing on television tonight, including Cook’s admission that Steve Jobs’ office at Apple remains untouched to this day.

When pressed about Apple’s plans for TV, Cook revealed that the Apple TV now has 20 million users. “It’s far exceeded the ‘hobby’ label we’ve placed on it,” said Cook. He also said he thinks watching TV is like “entering a time capsule” and that the whole experience is stuck in the 70s.

Another topic of conversation was Apple’s purchase of Beats. Cook shared a story about how he was skeptical about Beats Music until he used it one night. Based on the few minutes we’ve already seen from the interview, it looks like the full conversation will prove to be pretty interesting.

Apple TV added Showtime’s new on-demand video service, Showtime Anytime, to the list of channels available to Apple TV user in the U.S. today.

The Showtime Anytime service has been available on a number of other set-top boxes, including the Roku, Xbox 360, and Amazon’s FireTV, but is finally coming to Apple’s set-top box as it amps up content ahead of a rumored 2015 redesign.