The important message was an email providing 4 steps to download & install an update. Thank the computer gods, this is what we’ve been waiting for people.

So it took Mark a day to get around to it, but he downloaded & installed it like the important message told us to do. Most notably, the update included an update to the interface. That was a HUGE step in the right direction. It’s much more intuitive and sleeker.

In terms of other aspects of the update–the email said the update “prevents content from temporarily disappearing until it is resynced.” We don’t sync our content with iTunes because we have too much music for that to make any sense (and take less than 5 days). But, we didn’t lose any content and it hasn’t been finicky at all since we installed the update.

Apple, please don’t wait another 3 years to have another AppleTV update. Those of us who have the AppleTV really need you to pay attention to this project and not just leave us hanging. I love Apple and I love non-finicky Apple products. Thanks much.

Well…I take it back.

Mark requested the DVD from Netflix that enables you to view your Instant Watch queue and watch Instant Watch movies on your PS3. He put in the request two weeks ago and last Wednesday it came in the mail. This past weekend I really got a chance to play around with it and check it out.

You just put in the Netflix DVD like any other DVD and it connects the Internet and brings up your Instant Watch queue. You can also browse the Instant Watch recently added DVDs and browse the Instant Watch movies by different genres. I’ve heard from many places (Mark, NPR, etc.) that Netflix is working on getting its ENTIRE collection available via Instant Watch. Very Smart.

But the Instant Watch on PS3 interface is super easy to navigate and understand. It’s not very fast to scroll through, but it’s about as fast as scrolling through the AppleTV. The playback doesn’t skip or cut out at all, and it will remember where you stopped the movie when you go back to play it again.

Apparently, Mark told me this, Netflix signed a contract with XBox360, but once that contract is up (sometime in the new year) then Netflix will provide an update and you won’t need the Netflix DVD for the PS3 anymore. It’ll just auto-connect when you turn on the PS3. Very, very awesome!

10 stars for the Netflix Instant Watch DVD & PS3!!!

Well…my husband I have an Apple TV. Mark really got quite interested in it and then he got me hooked on it. It was a way for us to watch HD movies on our (then) new HDTV. We didn’t have a PS3 at that point to play BluRay DVDs and the AppleTV allowed us to rent movies and watch TV shows. We’ve had it for over a year now and some days it makes me quite angry, but over the past few months I’ve just come to be at peace with its many quirks and funky moods.

The downsides….well, it freezes if you change the channel while watching anything. And we’ve had some problems sometimes where we’ve rented a movie and when we press play, the screen goes white. A lot of time the screen flickers green when it’s restarting. One time it got so angry we had to do a factory restore. We lost everything that we had bought on it because it was too angry to sync it to our iTunes before the factory restore — the only option we had to save the thing was factory restore. I know that there are more things that it has done because it’s really quite quirky – I just can’t think of them at this point.

But the virtues of AppleTV is that you can rent all the new movies (and lots of older movies) from your couch. No car ride to Blockbuster. No waiting for Netflix to come in the mail. And no skipping movies like Netflix Instant Watch feature. The movies don’t stream; they are actually downloaded. Also, you can have your pictures in iPhoto play on your TV as a screensaver. It’s handy. You can buy a season pass for a TV show and then have all of the episodes automatically download when they air. This may not sound appealing to some, but we don’t subscribe for Cable and we don’t get any basic channels – so it’s extremely appealing to us.

Others have suggestions for the AppleTV, like What’s Next for Apple’s Living Room Strategy? and What features should the new Apple TV have?, but to me it seems like they really need to work out the bugs first. As much as I have come to love and appreciate our AppleTV, the thing is a special needs electronic device. Literally. We have it on it’s own switch because we don’t want to feed it power on a constant basis. That makes it too angry.