New Apple TV

At the recent Apple Music Event earlier this month, Steve Jobs’ announced his little pet project would be receiving an update, officially yanking it out of the “hobby” phase and popping it right next to the rest of the Apple family of products.

The new Apple TV fits in the palm of your hand, literally, and loses the hard drive, turning it into a complete streaming device for all your iTunes content. Apple also added an optical audio port to take advantage of home theatre setups. Apart from that though, not much has changed. The interface remains the same from the previous model, which in all honesty didn’t have many faults. You still have a single HDMI port with a maximum resolution of 720p, which given the inclusion of Apple’s new A4 chipset, seems a bit confusing.

Releasing in late September, the redesigned Apple TV will have some stiff competition from the likes of Google, Tivo and Boxee for the crown of digital media streaming among many other about to enter the fray.

Can Apple produce another admired and sought-after device? Well, the price is right, hitting consumers with the US$99 (AU$129) price tag. But with the decision to not include the rumored iOS App functionality, does the Apple TV have enough features to stave off the competition?