Apple looks to ignite living room with second gen. Apple TV

Like us on Facebook

Apple TV, which only offered movies for sale to date, will now only rent them out to keep prices down. The rental price of movies on the same day they're available on DVD will be $4.99 and will get cheaper as time goes by.

Owners of Apple TV will also be able to hook up to YouTube for videos, Netflix for movies, Flickr for photos and iTunes for podcasts.

And, as expected, Apple TV no longer will come with a hard drive. Everything will be streamed via the Internet as it's Wi-Fi enabled. It also has an HDMI connector to hook it up to a high-definition television. However, it has a maximum video output of 720p, which means it will not support HD (1080p) streams from Netflix or iTunes.

The console also has a USB port and Ethernet port with optical audio out. And, yes, it comes with a remote that looks strangely similar to the sixth generation iPod Nano.

"This tiny, silent box costing just $99 lets users watch thousands of HD movies and TV shows, and makes all of their music, photos, and videos effortlessly available on their home entertainment system," Jobs said.

The new black box (the previous Apple TV came in brushed silver color) will be available later this month.

Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster said the new Apple TV reveals Apple's strong desire to "be a bigger player in the living room."

According to industry tracker iSuppli Corp., Apple's unveiling of the second-generation Apple TV will give the company "an entry in the market for Internet-enabled living room devices, the fastest-growing major segment of Internet-connected products."

"Shipments of Internet-enabled living room devices - a range of products including Internet-enabled television sets, video game consoles and set-top boxes - are forecasted to amount to more than 430 million units in 2014, up from 99.3 million in 2009," iSuppli said.

In this regard, the "Apple TV appears to fit right into the new wave of Internet-enabled living room devices entering the market, it added.

However, Apple TV must "compete against newly available Internet-enabled TVs offered by a growing number of brands," iSuppli warned. "These sets allow consumers to access Internet content without the need for an intermediate device, like a set-top box or game console."

iSuppli estimates that sales of Internet-enabled TVs will climb to 27.7 million units globally this year, compared to 12.3 million in 2009.

Shares of the Cupertino, California-based company closed up 2.97 percent at $250.33 on Wednesday.