Apple has officially announced a refreshed version of its Apple TV set-top box with support for 1080p video streaming – with 1080p movies and TV shows downloads simultaneously debuting on iTunes. Apple also said that iTunes in the Cloud now supports movies, providing access to previously purchased content via iCloud, just like it was possible before with music and television shows.
The device sports the same minuscule form factor and black casing of its predecessor, as well as the same low price of $99. However, it also comes with an all new user interface that's more streamlined and takes advantage of the full 1080p video resolution. The new interface takes some design cues from iOS with icons, apps and Cover Flow for navigating through music, video, pictures and online content libraries.
Apple didn't talked about technical specifications but now that the product page has been updated we can confirm it is running on a single-core A5 SoC, not the A5X chip that Apple introduced today with the new iPad.
The new Apple TV will be available on March 16 but the company will start taking pre-orders today.