New Apple TV… is it actually useful?

Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at Macworld yesterday announced that Apple TV (previously iTV) will be available for order now.

Thing is… I don’t see how useful it will be, especially in the UK because it looks like just a remote iTunes player for audio and video really. Notably:

1. There’s no DVD drive, so you can’t watch DVDs.
2. There’s no TV input (maybe it will come with USB) so you have no hard disk recording of TV/Satellite
3. There’s no mention of OS X or installing new software, so this makes adding something like EyeTV via USB to record normal TV quite unlikely
4. No SCART output. In fact there’s a list of “compatible TVs” which implies you can’t even use it with your normal TV.

So in the UK, unless you are willing to keep your clunky old DVD player, set top box, get an Apple TV and get a huge new TV, this thing is pretty useless.

Especially so in the UK where you still cannot buy films or TV shows from the iTunes music store.

What’s with buying anyway? iTMS should be offering RENTAL.