Apple of your eye.

The internet is a bountiful source of video, from dumbo YouTube clips to various TV companies and film studios starting to experiment with television programmes and full-length movies for download.

Our own TVNZ has bold plans in this area, for example, while in the US Paramount has struck a deal with Apple to offer its substantial TV and film libraries through iTunes. But for internet video to compete in the grown-up world, it can't all be about one person squinting in front of a laptop.

Enter Steve Jobs, with yet another brainwave: Apple TV, a widget for streaming video from your Mac or PC to your television, allowing you to watch your net clips in the big-screen comfort of your living room. Wireless technology does have a bit of a flakey reputation with video, but an Apple TV unit comes with its own 40GB hard drive. That's enough room to cache 100 hours or more of footage for instant access. Apple TV also supports HD (high definition) video, and HDMI cables (the whizziest form of connecting to an HD telly).

On the downside, Apple TV only supports a widescreen LCD or plasma television, so forget it if you've got a boxy 4:3 CRT boob tube. In the US, iTunes now offers hundreds of movies and hundreds of recently screened TV shows for download. www.apple.co.nz

by Chris Keall.