I’ve made no secret of my overwhelming enthusiasm for the iPhone, and have sung its glories here and elsewhere many times. That doesn’t mean that I never get irritated with the device. I do. And, by far, my most frequent annoyance is with Safari — especially when using it with the EDGE network.

The problem starts with the obvious: The EDGE network can be impossibly slow. Its speed appears to vary from moment to moment, as a function of the current signal strength as well as more mysterious factors that you can neither predict nor control. Its speed range varies from barely tolerable to virtually useless. And the greatest negative impact of these slow speeds occurs when using Safari. There are times when it can take several minutes for a Web page to load; assuming it ever completely loads.

But the problems with Safari on the iPhone extend beyond just the overall slow speed. What often happens is that, after tapping to load a Web page, your hopes are initially raised. You see the progress bar advance (indicating that more and more of the page’s elements have loaded) to as much as 80% completion in a relatively short time. Then it all just grinds to a halt. There is no more movement for an indefinite number of minutes.

Even this might be tolerable if, in fact, 80% of the Web page was now loaded and accessible. It might turn out that all you need from the page is within that 80%. However, more likely, your Safari screen will be blank. Absolutely nothing appears until after the bar moves past this 80% barrier. As a result, there are many times when I have given up entirely — until I can get to a Wi-Fi connection.

If you do wait long enough for the Web page to appear, your troubles may still not be over. Suppose there is a link on the page that you want to check out, but you also want to be able to return to the page you are now viewing. For example, suppose after you load the New York Times’ home page, you want to click a link to read an editorial; but you also expect to return to the home page to scan the remaining article listings.

On your Mac, you would do this by opening up the editorial in a separate window or tab. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s version of Safari does not support any variation of this capability. The best you can do is go to the editorial and then tap the Back arrow to return to the previous page. Ideally, this page should at least load faster than it did initially, because Safari had cached its contents. Don’t count on it. Safari does do caching, but it is very ineffective in my experience. Typically, I have to wait almost as long for the page to reload as I did in the first place. Once again, I often wind up just giving up on Safari until I can get to a Wi-Fi connection.

What can be done to improve the situation? Four things, none of which should be a surprise by this point: (1) Improve Safari’s caching of Web pages; (2) Improve Safari’s ability to display partially loaded pages; (3) Add a tab (or similar) function to Safari; and most-of-all (4) offer a faster network than EDGE.

Happily, the faster network is all-but-certain to arrive with the new iPhones (apparently expected to ship any day now!). These new iPhones are widely reported to support the much-faster-than-EDGE 3G network. As to the Safari-specific upgrades, it’s not as promising. The version of Safari included with the latest builds of the iPhone 2.0 SDK appears very much the same as the current version. Of course, Apple could be holding back a revamped version until the public release. I certainly hope so.

Consumer Reports finally gets it right!

Consumer Reports may not be the most influential voice in determining which computers are most preferred by the buying public. But it matters. Each year, for the past who knows how many years, the magazine has dutifully provided its assessment of the best and worst in computers. And almost from the get-go, its overall assessment of the Mac has been negative.

At best, the magazine viewed buying a Mac as an oddball decision, only advised for those willing to swim against the tide and venture beyond Microsoft’s ubiquitous Windows universe. At worst, it downgraded and dismissed the Mac as being too expensive, too underpowered, and generally just too weird to be taken seriously. It never seemed to understand that the Mac OS was substantially different from (and, in the view of many, significantly superior to) Windows. It couldn’t see beyond the superficial similarities of the Mac and Windows desktop interfaces. And since Windows PCs ran much more software than a Mac (even if most of the software was crap), why get a Mac? This was the essence of the magazine’s logic.

I would regularly feel my blood pressure rise as I read these reports. “They just don’t get it,” I would wail. “They’re not taking into consideration how much extra stuff comes built-in to a Mac. They’re picking a low-end Mac to compare against a high-end Windows machine.” And on and on. I despaired of ever seeing Consumer Reports giving the Mac a fair shake.

Yet, over the past couple of years, the seemingly impossible has happened. Consumer Reports’ attitude has turned around. It’s been awkward and a bit slow, much like an ocean liner attempting a tight turn in a harbor. But it has happened.

Some may argue that the attitude shift is more due to improvements in the Mac than to a change in Consumer Reports’ perception. Or they may point to the ever-growing importance of the Internet, which has in turn minimized any software advantage of the PC. Plus, the Mac can now run Windows. Others might suggest that the shift simply reflects the increased status and popularity of the Mac, in this post-iPod world.

Perhaps. Or perhaps, after all these years, Consumer Reports at last gets it. Whatever. The completion of the pro-Mac attitude shift is readily apparent in the magazine’s current (June 2008) issue. Here are the ratings highlights:

The 15″ MacBook Pro was the highest rated 15″ workhorse laptop.

The 17″ MacBook Pro was the highest rated 17″ workhorse laptop.

The MacBook Air models were the second and third highest rated slim-and-light laptops (only slightly trailing the Sony VAIO). Even the MacBook made the list here.

Moving on to desktop Macs, the 20″ iMac was the top-rated all-in-one budget computer. Actually, it was in a category by itself here; there was no second place.

The 24″ iMac placed a strong third in the all-in-one workhorse computer category.

In the magazine’s separate Quick Picks listings (which consider value and tech support, in addition to test results and features):

The 15″ MacBook Pro was included in the “Best for features and performance” list.

The 17″ MacBook Pro was cited as a “Best desktop replacement.”

The MacBook Air was a Quick Pick in the “Best lightweight laptops” category.

The 20″ iMac was (no surprise) the lone Quick Pick for “Best inexpensive all-in-one.”

The 24″ iMac was cited as “Best for features and performance.”

In a separate assessment of companies’ technical support, Apple was far and away the winner. It received the highest ratings by a wide margin, both for laptops and desktop computers. Apple outpaced the second-best rated company by 17 points for laptops and 25 points for desktops!

The only place where Macs didn’t score was in the component desktop computer category. The Mac Pro is Apple’s entry here, but it didn’t even show up in the magazine’s listings. The high price of the Mac Pro was probably a factor in the magazine’s decision. With one exception, the rated computers in this category were $1300 or less, often much less. However, the one exception was the “high end” Dell XPS 420, listed for $2975. This is certainly in the same price bracket as a Mac Pro, which leaves me a bit uncertain as to why a Mac Pro was not included.

Apple’s Cinema Displays were similarly not included in the article on monitors. Once again, I suspect price was the primary reason. The most expensive rated monitor was $500; the least-expensive Cinema Display (20″) is $600.

Still, why quibble? Taken as a whole, Consumer Reports gives the Mac line-up a super solid endorsement. If you want a laptop, you want a Mac. If you want an all-in-one desktop computer, you want a Mac. If you’re concerned about technical support, you want a Mac. That’s just what I’ve been saying all these years. Now Consumer Reports is saying it too.

In this month’s User Friendly View column, I offer my take on what an iPhone 2.0 future will be like. There were a few thoughts tumbling around in my head that didn’t make it to the column. I offer them here, as overflow comments.

First up is “push.” The demonstration of push email, contacts and calendar events at the March 6 iPhone Event was quite impressive. Unfortunately, as I understand it, these capabilities only work if you are connected to an Exchange Server. The only more general push function remains the one for Yahoo! mail (as noted here), which worked with the iPhone from Day 1.

I hope that Apple finds a way to extend these push features so that all users can get the benefit. One such solution would be for the iPhone to sync with .Mac. In this setup, when you sync Calendars and Contacts with .Mac (as determined by the Sync tab settings of the .Mac System Preferences pane in Mac OS X), any changes to the .Mac content would be instantly “pushed” to your iPhone. Your .Mac email would be similarly pushed. Some complications might crop up when you next sync your iPhone in iTunes, but these should be resolvable.

Not only would this open up push features to all iPhone users, it would provide an additional incentive to subscribe to .Mac—making it a win-win for both Apple and iPhone users.

Speaking of enterprise, the initial reaction to the new enterprise features in iPhone 2.0 have been largely very favorable (see this Macworld article for one example). Although I am not an IT person or enterprise user myself, it certainly seems that Apple did a bang-up job here. Still, I retain some substantial skepticism about what will happen down the road. Apple, from the earliest days of the Mac (I am thinking back as far as to when the LaserWriter was introduced in 1985), has had its eyes on the business and enterprise market. Yet, despite many attempts (some of which seemed very appealing at the time), it has never succeeded in getting a significant share of this market.

I have to wonder whether the iPhone may run into similar trouble. Some have already cited the iPhone’s restriction to one carrier (AT&T in the U.S.) as a significant impediment. This echoes opinions, from years past, that PCs were preferred over Macs because IT people did not want to risk dependence on only one vendor (Apple) for hardware. Apple is much better positioned today (with billions in cash and a sterling reputation) to refute similar arguments for the iPhone. But they will still come. There are also the traditional cultural conflicts that Apple always has to contend with (as detailed in this Mac Observer column).

Personally, I am betting that the iPhone can defy the naysayers and break through the enterprise ceiling (much as the iPod did in its market). But past history tells me to be a bit cautious in my optimism.

Finally, going back to the March 6 event itself, those on the stage were able to demo the iPhone by mirroring the iPhone display to a large screen. As someone who gives presentations from time to time, I would love to be able to do this myself. Unfortunately, this is apparently not possible with the iPhones currently for sale. Yes, there are composite and component video cables for the iPhone, but these only work to “watch videos or slideshows” (as quoted from the Apple Store description). Isn’t it about time that Apple gave this feature to “the rest of us”?

Apple’s iPhone media event ended just minutes ago. So this is a very rough first take of my reaction. And my reaction overall is positive. The news is much better than my worst fears, although a little worse than my highest hopes.

Here are the upside highlights:

• Developers will get full access to the iPhone’s toolbox. From the sound of things, any software that Apple can write in-house, developers will be able to do as well. For example, the iPhone accelerometer will be accessible, as seen in some of the cool games that were demoed.

• Apple will release an iPhone Simulator that allows developers to test out their iPhone apps on a Mac.

• The iPhone SDK is free to developers and a beta version will be available today!

• Distribution of iPhone apps to users will be through an “App Store” application on your iPhone. YES! This means that you will be able to get software onto your iPhone directly from the phone itself. You won’t need to go through the iTunes application on a Mac or PC (although there will be iTunes access to the apps as well). Steve said you should be able to access the App Store via Wi-Fi or EDGE.

• The App Store will permit distribution of free software. Other than an initial $99 fee to publish software, there will be no charge for posting free apps. Developers will get to decide whether and what to charge for their software. Apple will take 30% of the price, if it is not free.

• Although Apple will place some limits on what software is allowed (no porn was mentioned, for example), it seems like Apple is not going to be overly restrictive here.

Now for the bad news:

• The iPhone Software Update 2.0 that allows users to get all of this software will not be available until June. The wait continues!

• Apple will apparently do its best to prevent developers from distributing software on their own. Exactly what this will mean for the software currently available via jailbreaking is not clear. Maybe Apple simply won’t officially support alternative distribution methods, but will still tacitly allow jailbreaking to continue. However, I suspect Apple will try to put an end to jailbreaking. Whether or not they can succeed remains to be seen.

• Aside from the new enterprise features (which I am skipping over here, except to say that the ability to mass delete and move email messages is extremely welcome!) and AIM for the iPhone (which may be included as part of a default iPhone installation), no other upcoming new iPhone features were announced. There was no mention of a 3G iPhone, more open Bluetooth access or voice-dialing, to name three things that I am especially looking forward to seeing.

• There was also no mention of whether or not third-party software will be able to allow hardware devices to connect to and work with an iPhone. I am especially thinking of something like a wireless keyboard. It remains unclear whether or not such devices will be possible via the SDK, but it seems unlikely. Apple did specifically say that they would not support any apps accessing the Dock Connector, outside of those that are approved for Apple’s “Made for iPod” program.

Bottom line: Having to wait until June for the Software Update, after expecting it to be available by February, is obviously a big disappointment. However, once June rolls around, all will be forgiven and forgotten.

Most users will be more than satisfied, at least in the short term, with what the Software Update allows. I would guess that about 90% of the third-party software now available via jailbreaking will wind up in the App Store. For the typical iPhone user, that should eliminate virtually any incentive to jailbreak their iPhone. Some software, perhaps apps that allow direct manipulation of the contents of the iPhone’s drive and certainly apps that perform actions that Apple does not want to permit (such as unlocking the SIM), will still have to depend upon jailbreaking. But most users won’t want such stuff, or at least won’t want to risk jailbreaking to get it.

On the plus side, by Apple completely opening up its iPhone toolbox and providing a “legal” method for third-party development, we should see a much wider and more elaborate selection of software than now exists. The games that were demoed today, for example, far exceed the rather minimalist games now available via jailbreaking.

So yes, we could have gotten a bit more. But we could have gotten a lot less. Yesterday, the iPhone was one of the greatest technological devices ever invented. Today it is even better—much better. It’s hard to complain about that.

Recently, I recommended against jailbreaking an iPhone running the latest software, unless you were in a risk-taking mood, especially with the SDK’s arrival expected so soon. If you were already using a jailbroken iPhone, running iPhone software 1.1.1 (as was the case for me), I recommended sitting still, again until after Apple’s SDK release.

However, as is common in the rapidly-changing world of jailbreaking, I have already changed my tune a bit.

First off, jailbreaking methods have improved and become more reliable. And don’t worry if you’ve just upgraded from version 1.1.3 of the iPhone software to version 1.1.4; most 1.1.3 jailbreak methods still work for 1.1.4.

Second, what I predicted in a previous blog entry has apparently been confirmed — at least as much as these things can be confirmed in advance of Apple’s official announcements — by iLounge.com. In particular, Apple’s SDK announcement coming this Thursday is not likely to signal an end to the advantages of—or need for—jailbreaking. Jailbreaking is likely to remain the only way to get third-party applications onto your iPhone for months to come—and perhaps much longer, if ever, for applications that don’t make it to Apple’s “approved” list.

As a result of these two converging facts, I decided the time was ripe to update my iPhone to version 1.1.4 and jailbreak it. So I did it today. Even if it turns out that the news on Thursday is better than I expect, I no longer see a downside here. Still, if you are thinking you’d rather wait before jailbreaking, I wouldn’t argue with you.

For the record, I used ZiPhone to jailbreak my phone. I highly recommend it. It worked perfectly and took only a couple of minutes. To avoid some potential problems, I restored my iPhone before doing anything else. This had the side-effect of updating my 1.1.1 iPhone to 1.1.4. I next launched ZiPhone and selected the “Jailbreak” option. ZiPhone did all the rest, including installing the key Installer application. After that, I added my selection of “hacked” applications and resynced the phone. Done.

One caution: ZiPhone still does not work on the latest iPod touches. Otherwise, it seems as easy and as solid as you could hope for.

Next stop: Waiting for Apple’s March 6 iPhone event.

The more closely I scrutinize Apple’s latest iPhone event invitation, the more I begin to believe that we will not actually see the SDK released next week. And it may be even longer before users have access to SDK software.

For starters, there’s the wording: “Please join us to learn about the iPhone software roadmap, including the iPhone SDK.” Why use the word “roadmap” at all? Why not simply say: “Please join us to learn about the iPhone SDK” or “Please join us for the unveiling of the iPhone SDK”?

The word “roadmap” suggests a journey. And a journey takes some time. It makes me think that we are going to learn new details about Apple’s plans for the SDK next week, rather than actually see the release of the SDK.

Then there’s the graphic image of the roadmap itself, which shows a road with markers for “Enterprise” “SDK” and “Software Update” spaced out along the way (in that order). One interpretation of this is that new Enterprise features will be made available (or even just announced) first, followed by the release of the SDK to developers (perhaps a beta version initially), followed by an iPhone software update that (finally!) allows users to obtain the SDK-dependent software.

Within such a framework, the SDK could be out within a few weeks while the Software Update may not become available for another several months.

And yes, this is all just speculation. Perhaps I am over-interpreting the tea-leaves here. A week from now, we’ll know for certain.

Apple came out with new MacBooks and MacBook Pros yesterday. Aside from the new additional features announced, there was one subtraction: The laptops no longer ship with a remote control. It’s now a $19 option.

I imagine there will be some grousing about this among users, complaining that Apple is increasingly “nickel-and-diming” us, removing default components and charging extra for them.

But let’s be fair. Apple has gone both ways. For example, an AirPort Extreme card and Bluetooth support are both standard with laptops, even though they were optional when they first arrived on the scene.

In the case of the remote control, I suspect Apple simply made a decision based on cost vs. use. That is, if the vast majority of people who purchase a Mac laptop never or rarely use the remote control, then Apple is wasting money by providing it to people who will just let it sit in a drawer. Plus, there are the people (such as myself) who now have several of these remotes (after purchasing laptops, an iMac, and an Apple TV over the past few years) and who don’t need a new one with each new purchase.

So…make it an option for those who want it and save money (by not raising the price of the laptop) for those who don’t. Compared to the status quo (keeping the remote standard while not increasing the price), an optional remote can save Apple a significant amount of cash. Let’s suppose (and I am making a wild guess here) that a remote costs Apple $10. That’s $10,000,000 saving for every million laptops it sells.

On the assumption that most users won’t miss not having the remote, or won’t mind paying $19 to get one, that’s money well saved at little or no cost in customer satisfaction. Makes sense to me.

My email today made for some amusing…as well as mildly irritating…reading with my morning coffee.

Filling up my Inbox were a collection of messages all with the same subject: “Re: Confirm.” They were all from people on Apple’s Weekly-kbase-changes mailing list, to which I subscribe.

The end of each mailing from Apple states: “Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.” Apparently, someone ignored this request and did reply, possibly in response to some deliberate hacking email that solicited replies (I’m still not exactly sure how the entire cascade got started). In any case, this led to further replies, all of which were somehow sent out to everyone on the mailing list—which is how I started getting them.

Before it ended, I had received several dozen emails. Editing out redundancy, they went something like this:

“What is with all these confirm emails?” John

“I was wondering the same thing.” Robert

“I am curious as well.” Richard

“Beats me, Apple mail list got hacked I guess.” Kerry

“I echo the same question. I think it has something to do with KBase updates … or lack thereof.” Steve

“I have received two such messages, and am at a loss to know why.” Adair

“Hmm. I think that I didn’t realize this was a public list, that anyone could post to, and a couple of folks were trying to confirm subscriptions, perhaps. My bad? I guess so. Didn’t mean to set off a storm, haha.” John

“SPAM. All on this list - PLEASE DO NOT SEND ANY REPLIES TO THE GROUP.” Scott

“Gentlemen: I got a notice regarding the weekly kbase changes. I assume that I am being sent this email to see if I wish to continue. The answer is yes I enjoy the articles very much.” Jim

“Please make the changes to prevent this from happening!!!” Greg

“Be interesting to know how many thousands around the world are receiving these emails.” Tim

“Confirm what? Please advise.” Liu

“JUST STOP REPLYING!!!” David

“Sorry guys, I do not have a clue what is going on…it feels like a Microsoft-Gates thing.” Robert

“Will you please all stop replying. Let the situation get resolved and leave it alone. Thank you.” Shane, Mac Genius

Not a big deal. I just thought that you might want to know.

Ted

P.S. Please do not confirm.

In my previous blog entry, I described the three features I liked best in the new Apple TV “Take Two.” A couple of reader comments made reference to a new feature in Take Two that was not on my list. In fact, I had not realized the feature was even there at first: the ability to use AirTunes to play iTunes content on an audio system connected to an Apple TV.

This is indeed a great new feature. So much so, that I decided to cover it here as a follow-up to my previous entry. As to why I didn’t notice the new feature in the first place—after accepting responsibility for failing to look closely enough—I would add that Apple has hardly promoted this new feature. In fact, if you go to the Apple page that lists the new features of Apple TV Take Two, the word “AirTunes” is not even mentioned. I could similarly find only one Apple support document that acknowledges its existence.

Complicating matters further, for many users, it will not be immediately obvious what this new feature adds. Apple TV “Take One” owners are already familiar with streaming iTunes content from a secondary shared computer (not the one that is synced to the Apple TV). Take Two continues to do so. The Take One version of Apple TV could stream movies and TV shows from a Mac. That’s not new either.

So what is new with AirTunes support? It provides the ability to stream any audio content in your iTunes Library to your Apple TV, even if it is not in a playlist. Actually, with AirTunes, you can stream audio content from any computer on the same network as the Apple TV, even if it is not a Mac being shared or synced with your Apple TV! Not only can you play all your music from your Library via this method, but you can play Audible content or Internet radio stations as well!

To do all this, just enable the connection via the same method that is used to connect a Mac to the AirTunes feature of an AirPort Express: At the bottom of the iTunes window on your Mac, access the Computer pop-up menu and select the name of your Apple TV. Next, select an item to play. Done. There is no setting on the Apple TV itself that needs to be enabled or selected. [Well, that’s not 100% true. There is an Apple TV setting to enable AirTunes, located in Settings > Audio. However, it is on by default.]

You can use your Apple TV remote to pause/play or skip items. If your Apple TV doesn’t respond to your remote here, you need to enable the necessary preferences item in iTunes: Go to iTunes’ Preferences and select Advanced > General. From here, make sure the AirTunes option to “Allow iTunes control from remote speakers” is enabled.

The key thing to remember in setting all of this up is that, unlike other Apple TV connections, you do not make the connection or select the music to be played from the Apple TV itself. Instead, you do it from iTunes on your Mac (again, the same way as if you were connecting to an AirPort Express rather than an Apple TV).

Note: If iTunes is open on the Mac that is synced to your Apple TV, you automatically have access to most content in your iTunes Library, via streaming, even without using AirTunes. Just make sure that the option to “Show only the synced items on my Apple TV,” in the Apple TV Summary pane, is not enabled. There is no longer a separate listing for synced vs. streamed content, as in Take One. This is just one more of the many differences between Take One and Take Two in the areas of streaming, sharing and syncing—most of them still not documented well (if at all) by Apple. Apple has some work to do here!

The AirTunes feature is apparently still a bit rough around the edges, as I have seen several reports of problems with it getting it to work. I have had one of these problems myself. When playing audio via AirTunes, if you select Music > My Music > Now Playing on your Apple TV, you should see the name and artist of the currently playing song. I don’t. Instead, all I see is “untitled” and “unknown.” I haven’t yet figured out why some users have this problem and others do not—or how to fix it. But I am working on it (I did see one report that said a “factory restore” of my Apple TV would fix this; I haven’t tried this as yet and am reluctant to do so). It is almost certainly an issue with the Apple TV rather than the Mac, as I have the same symptom no matter what Mac I use.

{revised slightly on 2/17/08}

Apple TV “Take Two” is definitely worth the upgrade. It so transforms your old Apple TV, it is almost as if you sold the old model and purchased a new one. And it’s free. There’s virtually no downside here.

Among all the new features in Take Two, I already have three favorites:

Podcasts. This is my #1 favorite new feature. While there are many podcasts that I would enjoy listening to, I rarely do—because I rarely want to take the time to sit down and listen for an extended time. With Apple TV Take Two, however, I can easily listen to podcasts from my living room TV, allowing me to (for example) prepare and eat dinner while the podcast plays in the background.

True, I could play a podcast from my iTunes Library even with the old Apple TV. But the new version makes it so much more convenient. I don’t have to subscribe to a podcast or worry whether the one I want to listen to is on my Mac or not, or synced to my Apple TV or not. I just directly start browsing podcasts on the Apple TV and play the one I want. As a bonus, you can play it without having to download it. This means that, once you are done listening, you don’t even have to remember to delete it from the Apple TV (assuming you don’t care to save it, as will usually be the case). The process is as simple to do as it is to select a broadcast TV channel to watch.

Some users have complained that you cannot subscribe to a podcast from the Apple TV. Personally, I don’t see this as a negative. If I really want a subscription, I can still do it from my Mac.

.Mac and flickr photos. I had already been using Apple TV “Take One” to displays photos from my iPhoto Library. With Take Two, I can now play slide shows from .Mac Web Gallery and Flickr accounts. This doesn’t add much value for playing my own photos at home (it’s just as easy to use my iPhoto Library directly for that). But it’s a great way to view other people’s photos—or even to show your own photos when you are at someone else’s house (if that someone else has an Apple TV and is willing to put up with watching your vacation slideshow!).

HD content. You can rent HD movies directly from your Apple-TV connected television. Unless you already own a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD player, and prefer having physical discs, Apple TV is currently the best way to rent HD content for your television. With “Take Two,” you can even play theatrical movie trailers in HD. Very cool!

I do have one relatively minor complaint with “Take Two”: All the menus are organized around iTunes Store content. This means, for example, if you want to play music from the iTunes Library on your Mac, you first have to select “Music” from the main menu and then (from a submenu that lists Top Music, Music Videos, Genre, Search and My Music) select the last choice (My Music). This finally takes you to the menu for your iTunes Library; a menu that looks pretty much as it did in “Take One.” The net effect, however, is to make you feel as if your own music is semi-buried amid the iTunes Store options, as if Apple TV is now designed primarily as a device to sell iTunes content (and maybe it is).

On the other hand, as a music video fan, I welcome how easy it is now to browse through and purchase music videos directly from the Apple TV. If you purchase a music video (or any item, other than a rented movie), it is transferred to the iTunes Library on your Mac, automatically, the next time you sync your Apple TV.

One caution: I have my Apple TV connected via a 802.11n connection. I am not sure how much streaming and downloading would be negatively impacted by a slower 802.11g connection.