Apple Updates Apple TV, Adds Purchase Support and More

It seems Apple has realized people may actually want to purchase content and watch it on their Apple TV devices instead of just stream content from a very limited set of suppliers. To facilitate this, the company issued an update to the Apple TV late yesterday that will allow users to stream purchased high-definition TV shows directly from iTunes.

Specifically, the update makes the following changes:

• iTunes TV Shows: Purchase your favorite TV shows directly from the iTunes Store and watch the shows you already own, commercial-free, in HD.

• Vimeo: Browse and play videos from Vimeo, access your video inbox, and mark videos you want to watch later.

You may recall that when the second generation Apple TV first launched it only allowed users to rent movies and shows and there was not an option to purchase titles for permanent ownership. Now, that’s changed — at least for TV programs.

For users in the U.S., Apple has also rolled out preliminary iCloud support with this update, allowing users to re-download some purchased television shows, though movie support is not yet available. We expect full iCloud support sometime in the next few months.