Earlier today Apple released a software update for the AppleTV. It’s mentioned in the release notes that it’s been given a “simpler and faster interface”. I’m not sure it’s that much quicker to be honest, the menu lag still pops up on occasions and the remote can be as unresponsive as ever. The front end menu has completely changed, something I’ve been hoping would happen for some time. I got a bit fed up of the bland old menu, this newer look brings more colour to the screen, and uses a menu system not too dissimilar to the PlayStation 3′s. Sorry for the quality of the picture, I took it straight off my TV with the iPhone.

After seeing the ‘Internet’ menu I was hoping we’d see BBC’s iPlayer magically appear, but it wasn’t to be this time. Instead the newest addition, next to YouTube, is Internet Radio. This is a welcome bonus for me as I regularly tune in to the Electronica stations. I tried a couple of stations and everything seemed to work flawlessly, you get a Growl style notification at the bottom left of the screen letting you know what you’re listening while you browse through other stations.

Another new feature added is Genius Mixes. This was introduced in iTunes 9.0 and expands on Apple’s Genius mode. When selected you are presented with a choice of Mixes split by Genre. Once chosen, iTunes (or the AppleTV in this case) will keep playing songs it thinks fit together, until it runs out of ideas music. Notice the notification in the bottom left, showing I’m still listening to a Radio Station.

One of the few new features I was hoping for the most was the ability to view your iTunes LP’s in full screen on your HDTV. Apple granted my wish and have supposedly included this in the update. Only trouble is, the two iTunes LP’s that I own do not show up on the AppleTV no matter what I do. I’ve tried manual sync, creating a dedicated playlist, even tried sharing it off my MacBook, nothing makes the LP’s show up.

UPDATE
After a quick tweet to my friend Sam over at Fruit Bytes, she found a document released by Apple with information about this new feature. It seems we must wait for an email telling us when AppleTV compatible versions of our existing iTunes LP’s are available!