Steve Jobs Unveils Apple TV At MacworldSteve Jobs Unveils Apple TV At Macworld

Apple's Steve Jobs officially took the wraps off Apple TV this morning at his keynote address at the annual Macworld Expo.

"It's the way to enjoy media on your TV," Jobs told an engaged and vociferous crowd. "It's a really cool box that works with video, music, and photos. You can buy movies and TV shows on iTunes and put them on your iPod or hook up your Apple TV to your wide-screen television and wirelessly send movies to your TV."

Jobs says this device will change the way people watch digital media.

What has been known for the past several months as iTV has officially been dubbed Apple TV. The device, which measures 7.7 inches by 7.7 inches, has a 40-Gbyte hard drive for storing content locally, and it's designed to hold up to 50 hours of movies and TV shows, up to 9,000 songs, and 25,000 pictures. It also supports 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n Wi-Fi networking. The Apple TV also has an Intel processor.

It's designed to handle movies, TV shows, music, photos, and podcasts. The device will store media that is downloaded from the Internet, and will hook up to the television so the movies or shows can be watched on the TV.

Jobs says the Apple TV will work with both PCs and Macs.

"I look at Apple TV as the next generation of consumer electronics," says Bob LeVitus, who writes a techie column for the Houston Chronicle, and also is speaking at Macworld this week. "Apple TV is the missing link. Until now, there was no easy way to watch that downloaded video on your big screen TV. It lived on your computer or iPod. Sure, you could plug in your iPod to your TV, but that's kludgey. Your iPod can only hold so much material so it ends up being low-resolution video and you're stuck climbing behind your TV connecting cables."

This, he adds, will make it all much more simple. Actually, it will make watching downloaded movies and TV shows something LeVitus is really looking forward to doing now.

"Now I can watch TV shows or movies from iTunes without doing anything special," he says. "That, I think, is what I have been waiting for. I haven't bought movies from iTunes because it's been a hassle. But when I get an Apple TV in my living room, I'll be all over that."

Jobs also demonstrated that a friend, with a laptop in tow, could visit a home with an Apple TV and wirelessly stream movies from his laptop to the home owner's television -- all with a PIN authentication.

Apple is taking orders for the $299 product today. Shipping is slated to begin in February.