Apple TV 3.0 is largely as rumored: Adding support for Internet radio, Genius Mixes, iTunes LP and iTunes Extras (bonus clips, interviews, etc.). But it boasts another new feature as well: A redesigned user interface.

Whether the debut of Apple TV 3.0 heralds a hardware refresh of the device itself is anyone’s guess. It is worth noting, though, that there’s been quite a bit of speculation recently that Cupertino is working on an overhauled device that will offer DVR capabilities and support iTunes TV show subscriptions.

As Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster wrote back in August: “Apple could leverage its deep library of content with many network and cable channel content owners to provide unlimited access to a sub-library of its TV shows for a standard monthly fee ($30 or $40 per month).”

According to Munster, “Such a product would effectively replace a consumer’s monthly cable bill (~$85/month) and offer access to current and older episodes of select shows on select channels. The selection would dictate the value, and several tiers could be offered, but we see this as one way for Apple to leverage its large iTunes content library as well as its unique Apple TV hardware in order to get digital video to the TV for a price significantly less than the average cable or satellite TV bill.”

Sounds sweet, right? And it would be sweeter still if it were to offer App Store support and allow users to control games and other apps via iPhone or iPod touch …

Below, the official Apple (AAPL) release:

Apple Introduces Apple TV 3.0 Software With Redesigned User Interface

Enjoy iTunes Extras, iTunes LP & Genius Mixes on Your HD TV

CUPERTINO, Calif., Oct. 29 — Apple® today introduced new Apple TV® 3.0 software featuring a redesigned main menu that makes navigating your favorite content simpler and faster, and makes enjoying the largest selection of on-demand HD movie rentals and purchases, HD TV shows, music and podcasts from the iTunes® Store even better on your TV. You can now enjoy iTunes Extras and iTunes LP in stunning fullscreen with your Apple TV, as well as listen to Genius Mixes and Internet radio through your home theater system. The new Apple TV software is available immediately free of charge to existing Apple TV owners, and Apple TV with 160GB capacity is available for just $229.

“The new software for Apple TV features a simpler and faster interface that gives you instant access to your favorite content,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services. “HD movies and HD TV shows from iTunes have been a huge hit with Apple TV customers, and with Apple TV 3.0 they get great new features including iTunes Extras, Genius Mixes and Internet radio.”

The redesigned main menu on Apple TV gives you instant access to your favorite content. Recently rented or purchased movies, as well as other content including TV shows, music, podcasts, photos and YouTube, are accessible directly from the new main menu. The new software also allows Apple TV users to enjoy stunning fullscreen iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, including great new movie titles such as “Star Trek” or classics like “The Wizard of Oz” and albums such as Taylor Swift’s “Fearless (Platinum Edition)” and Jack Johnson’s “En Concert.” iTunes Extras gives movie fans great additional content such as deleted scenes, interviews and interactive galleries. iTunes LP is the next evolution of the music album, delivering a rich, immersive experience for select albums on the iTunes Store by combining beautiful design with expanded visual features like live performance videos, lyrics, artwork, liner notes, interviews, photos, album credits and more.

Now Apple TV users can enjoy Genius Mixes through their home theater system and listen to up to 12 endless mixes of songs that go great together, automatically generated from their iTunes library. Customers can also enjoy Internet radio, allowing them to browse and listen to thousands of Internet radio stations, as well as tag favorite stations to listen to later. Apple TV’s support of HD photos is enhanced with iPhoto Events, which simplifies finding your favorite photos on Apple TV, as well as iPhoto® Faces, which gives access to photos organized by people identified in iPhoto.

Apple TV users have direct access to a catalog of over 8,000 Hollywood films on iTunes including over 2,000 in stunning HD video available for rent or purchase. Users can also choose from a selection of 11 million songs, 10,000 music videos and over 50,000 TV episodes to purchase directly from their Apple TV or browse and enjoy the iTunes Store podcast directory of over 175,000 free video and audio podcasts. Purchases downloaded to Apple TV are automatically synced back to iTunes on the user’s computer for enjoyment on their Mac® or PC or all current generation iPods or iPhones.* iPod touch® or iPhone® users can download the free Remote app from the App Store to control their Apple TV with a simple tap or flick of the finger.

More interestingly though, Rose says that Apple will uncrate iTunes 8, the first major overhaul of the software since iTunes 7 launched two years ago. Rose claims that iTunes 8 will boast some significant enhancements, among them HD-quality TV show downloads, a new “grid view” browsing feature and a playlist recommendation engine called Genius. “iTunes 8 includes Genius, which makes playlists from songs in your library that go great together,” Rose writes. “Genius also includes Genius sidebar, which recommends music from the iTunes Store that you don’t already have.”

Notably absent from Rose’s list of new features: iTunes Unlimited–the $129-a-year all-you-can-eat subscription service that Apple has been rumored to be considering for some time now.

Like all such reports, Rose’s should be taken with a grain of salt, if not an entire salt lick. Rose was, after all, the guy who erroneously claimed Apple’s first iPhone would feature a slide-out keyboard, dual batteries and CDMA, and GSM support.

This morning PluggedIn Media launched a new service for streaming HD-quality music videos. Backed by Overbrook Entertainment–Will “Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It” Smith’s production and management company–PluggedIn will offer some 10,000 videos from EMI (EMI.L), Vivendi (VIV.PA) and Sony BMG (SNE), along with the standard music-site fare–artist bios, users playlists and whatnot. That being the case, how does PluggedIn hope to differentiate itself from the competition? “We look at all the changes shaping online entertainment and see massive opportunity for lots of companies to appreciate and forge really viable consumer connections,” said CEO Jeff Somers. “We think what will separate us from what is out there today is an unbelievable high-quality viewing experience, matched with in-depth content and community tools.”

Perhaps. But it will also create dangerous rivalries with some powerful competitors. With its social-networking features, PluggedIn will soon find itself in direct competition with MySpace Music (NWS) as well as Hulu (GE).

In 2008, said Roberts, Comcast will begin upgrading its network to offer significantly faster download speeds. “Wideband takes four channels and bonds them together and will enable speeds to go up from 12 to 16 megabits a second to over 100 megabits a second,” he explained. The technology will be rolled out to “millions” by the end of this year, with more to come–”if it’s as popular as we expect,” he added.

And it undoubtedly will be. At speeds like that, Roberts noted, you could download an HD copy of “Batman Begins” in about four minutes. “Superfast movie downloads are only the beginning,” Roberts said. “This will open a whole new world of Web-based innovation.”

A few other points worth noting:

• Roberts also announced “Project Infinity,” an effort to exponentially expand its video-on-demand programming. “Comcast will put 1,000 HD choices in every Comcast HD home by the end of the year,” Roberts said. “What satellite says they’ll offer pales in comparison.”

• Comcast is now the country’s fourth largest residential phone provider.
• Finally, he pitched Fancast.com, a new online-entertainment portal that gathers film, TV and videos scattered across the Internet in one place. “It’s the content-hungry consumer’s dream,” Roberts said. “With user-generated content, there’s the possibility of millions of choices. You’ll never want to get off the couch.”

No longer. The salad days when you could rush dross like “Police Academy: Mission to Moscow” and “From Justin to Kelly” out of empty theaters, onto digital media and into the living rooms of those willing to actually sit through them are over. Total DVD sales are down 7% so far this year. Which is a far cry from the double-digit growth the industry enjoyed just two years ago. High-definition DVDs were supposed to offset this decline, but the silly format war between the HD DVD and Blu-ray supporters has curbed adoption of the next-generation format. Worse, according to analysts, the sparring between the two camps is likely to continue for another 18 months. Which means sales of high-definition discs likely won’t be substantial enough to improve studio revenue this year or next.

So what’s the movie industry to do? Put more emphasis on video on demand and explore digital downloads? Tough call. “While the music and television industries are likely to benefit from an increased array of opportunities in digital distribution, it is not clear to us how the movie industry benefits,” Pali Research analysts Richard Greenfield and Mark Smaldon wrote in a 2006 report. “We believe the inherent value of what a movie is implies that most consumers will want to view most movies in a high-quality experience … the more we think about the movie industry, we keep thinking, what is the benefit from digital? Cheaper distribution and no physical inventory? That sounds great at first, but if the product has to be sold at a discount (comparable to the lower cost to create/distribute) because it is inferior to physical DVDs (in picture quality and usage restrictions/DRM), how does it help the studio business?”

Hey, you guys are the analysts … Anyway, bottom line is this: Film industry screwed for time being. Said Greenfield and Smaldon: “Keep an eye on 2007 film industry profits. We suspect the risk to expectations is increasingly to the downside, with downside risk growing into 2008 unless there is a notable acceleration in next-gen DVD sales and/or a more attractive business model emerges for digital movie distribution.”

To keep you abreast of tech news while he’s away, we’re compiling a daily digest of 10 must-read tech stories. We’re calling it the Tech 10 and it appears below.

1. Although they made no jokes about their secret marriage, as did Apple’s Steve Jobs when he appeared with Microsoft’s Bill Gates at D5 in May, the CEO schmoozefest between Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and John Chambers of Cisco today in New York City yielded news of increased cooperation between the two tech giants, according to eWeek. Ballmer also deflected questions from moderator Charlie Rose about whether Microsoft was contemplating acquiring Yahoo, writes Elizabeth Montalbano of IDG News Service.
2. Adobe’s Media Player isn’t quite ready for show time: the eagerly awaited player won’t be fully released until next year. In an exclusive, Beet.TV’s Andy Plesser gets the word from an Adobe spokesman and posts a video interview with Adobe’s Chris Hock, head of its Flash media group.
3. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks have chosen HD DVD over competing technology Blu-Ray as a means of releasing their DVD movie titles, according to FT.com. The decision heats up the DVD format battle, as media companies consider which technology provides a better viewing experience.
4. With little fanfare, Hewlett-Packard has debuted Cloudprint, a free service enabling users to print documents on any printer from almost any location worldwide. According to the New York Times, the innovation came after H-P wondered earlier this year how it might piggyback on the release of Apple’s iPhone.
5. Speaking of the iPhone (left), recycling is already catching on. This week, Apple is bringing out refurbished iPhones at the online Apple store. Engadget notes that the company is discounting the reconditioned handsets by $100 for both models.
6. Skype, reports the Register, is blaming its outage woes last week on a flood of users downloading a routine security patch. The VOIP provider has also issued an apology for the “unprecedented” service interruption, which for some users lasted into the weekend.
7. Google is flexing its muscle in China. Reuters reports that the search colossus has bought a stake in a Chinese community Web site called Tianya.cn. The move in the second-largest Internet market in the world marks Google’s growing interest in social networking.
8. Tilera Corp., a start-up in Silicon Valley, has revealed details of its 64-processor chip. The Wall Street Journal says that the chip and its underlying design could be used in products that have upward of a thousand calculating engines.
9. A multistage attack has left job-search site Monster.com reeling from a potentially huge stolen-data headache. Computerworld disclosed that more than 1.6 million records belonging to several hundred thousand people have been compromised by a Trojan horse program that could plant malware on their computers.



10. Who’s behind those mysterious edits to the entries on Wikipedia? Why, the very corporations written about. According to Wired, Wikipedia Scanner, a data-mining service launched earlier this month, has shown that millions of entry changes can be tracked to corporate “editors.”

–posted by Associate Editor John Sullivan

Sony wants me to publish my films on HD DVD.”

–Joone, founder of adult-entertainment company Digital Playground

If history is any guide, the victor in the battle over the next-generation DVD optical-media standard won’t be determined by the Hollywood studios, but by performers with names like Flick Shagwell and Wendy Whoppers. The adult-entertainment industry, after all, is widely credited with tipping the balance of the videotape format war in favor of VHS, giving it the critical mass of support it needed to check the advance of Sony’s competing Betamax format and turn the battle into a rout.

It should come as little surprise, then, that Sony has reportedly begun offering a bit of technical support to the Japanese porn industry, which has apparently been having a bit of trouble mass-producing its products for Blu-ray Disc. “In Japan, there are some problems. Companies cannot press Blu-ray Discs because they cannot touch adult-related contracts,” Kiyotaka Konno, director of administration for Japanese DVD replication outfit Assist Corp., told Network World. “So we asked some makers in Taiwan to do the work, and then we import the discs back to Japan. The Taiwanese company was able to obtain a pressing machine from Sony and will start mass production in August.”

So it looks like we’ll see Blu-ray tentacle porn after all.

An interesting turnabout for Sony, though the company claims its longstanding policy against manufacturing DVDs or videocassettes with adult content remains unchanged. Lucky for Sony that policy doesn’t extend to other countries–especially when HD DVD has taken an early lead over Blu-ray Disc in the battle to become the next-generation DVD format.

The company said the decision was based on the rising popularity of Blu-ray DVD rentals, which outpaced those of HD DVD in its test markets. “The consumers are sending us a message,” Matthew Smith, senior vice president of merchandising at Blockbuster, told the Associated Press. “I can’t ignore what I’m seeing … we’re expanding our Blu-ray inventory to ensure our stores reflect the right level of products.”

Blockbuster’s decision is another high-profile disappointment for supporters of the HD DVD standard that, until this morning, seemed to have the upper hand in the next-generation DVD format war. A few months back, HD DVD players were outselling their Blu-ray counterparts by a large margin, accounting for 60% of all high-definition set-top players sold. But recently the limited catalog of Blu-ray titles seems to be giving consumers pause as they consider their choice of next-generation DVD players. All major studios but one are releasing films in Blu-ray, with several, including Disney, releasing exclusively in the format. Said Blockbuster’s Smith, “When you walk into a store and see all this product available in Blu-ray and there is less available on HD DVD, I think the consumer gets that.”