Some users on the Apple support forums are reporting that they have noticed increased responsiveness and even some fixes for crashes when using the 5GHz band with 802.11n transfers.

AppleTV owners can update their boxes by choosing Update Software from the Settings screen. The download time will depend on your connection speed and how many others are greedily pulling down the update. This is the second AppleTV update so far this year.

Matt Brinkhoff

One obvious feature that users have noticed is the addition of a “Genres” tab to the My Movies list. Some users at the Apple support forums have reported issues with wireless after upgrading to 2.0.1. It seems to primarily affect users that are running 802.11n on the 5GHz band. Switching to 802.11b/g compatibility mode seems to have taken care of the issue for some users but if you’re loving your n-wifi you may want to hold off on the update.

Matt Brinkhoff

One of the bigger stories surrounding AppleTV is the record time hack made on its operating system so it can now run a full version of OS X. The guys over at AppleTVHacks have posted a step by step on how-to on turning the media hub into a cheaper Mac mini, but with only 256MB of RAM you probably will only use the modified AppleTV as it was intended, only with a few more apps than before. The TV hacks don’t stop there, you can also boot from that USB “service port only” as well. Apple disabled the port in the software but that didn’t stop others from enabling it.

There have been some accusations that Apple has removed these new hacks through the internet connection to make sure your AppleTV is being used “correctly”. These accusations and rumors are just that, since hacks are not 100% fool proof anyway and who really thinks Apple (anti-DRM) would be big brother all of a sudden.

Some other questions regarding these hacks have been on different ends of the spectrum. For example, why should the consumer spend $300 for a machine that needs to be hacked to do anything useful? If you really wanted to run OS X applications with a keyboard and mouse in your home theater, wouldn’t it be more sensible to buy a Mac mini? Is Apple killing off high-end audio and home theater?

All of these are good questions but the last one I had to ponder on for a bit. The low resolutions available for download on iTunes and the audio quality are generally not what home theater enthusiasts are about. They prefer the 1080i/p and lossless sound options available with the latest advancement in HD technology, but is Apple going to eventually kill off the higher end market because of the way they market the iPod and now the AppleTV?

Maybe Apple is just getting started, it could be that they are going to expand on what they have created or let us do the “hacking” for them so we, the consumer, can decide what we want and how we want it. That could be why Apple has been so successful with the iPod, even though there are better technologies available it doesn’t mean the consumer is ready to buy into them just yet. I’m sure if we give it a few more years, we could be raving about the HD AppleTV next.

B.Greenway