Apple has quietly updated the software for Apple TV to version 2.4.
Here’s what’s new in this version:
Refer the table below for Apple TV Software Update 2.4 features:

Remote app directional control - Control your Apple TV with simple finger gestures via the Remote app. This feature requires Remote 1.3 running on an iPhone or iPod touch [...]

Your living room television is the next new platform for developers.
And, while Apple is squandering its Apple TV lead by treating Internet television as a “hobby”, Boxee is opening the platform up to developers, offering an API and kicking off a developer challenge.
Boxee’s move is resulting in an explosion of content on the platform, including:

I [...]

Surroud sound recording company Holophone has introduced Holophone TV 5.1 (iTunes link), the world’s first full 5.1 video podcast series, according to the company.
Holophone TV 5.1’s podcasts present a variety of surround content - from music recordings to fireworks to motocross events. The Canadian company also has plans to showcase local Canadian [...]

Boxee has released an update that brings back Hulu support, but in limited way, and has added an app store, something we’ve been calling on Apple to do with it’s Apple TV for a long time.
Boxee is an open source “social media center”, designed to be a platform for Internet television.
Here are the details of [...]

Apple has set up an online survey to find out how recent buyers of Apple TV make use of their box and what they do and don’t like about it in an effort to improve the system.
The online survey asks for demographic information, then asks you about how frequently the use Apple TV for various [...]

Todd Mundt, longtime public radio guy (and a favorite former Iowan) who writes as The Mediavore, is featured today in a CNN Money article about Americans’ changing media consumption habits.
Mundt’s changing media consumption habits are reflective of similar changes taking place throughout many U.S. households. Many families are economizing on entertainment costs, as they eliminate [...]

Apple Insider says that investment bank Piper Jaffray expects Apple to introduce networked tv, along with an Apple TV set-top DVR box later this year.
Apple has consistently denied interest in such markets, however.
“We expect Apple to design a connected television over the next two years (launching in 2011) with DVR functionality built in,”Piper Jaffray analyst [...]

Google has announced YouTube For Televison - its initiative to bring Internet TV to your living room - is now available on Sony PS3 & Nintendo Wii game consoles:
Currently in beta, the TV Website offers a dynamic, lean-back, 10-foot television viewing experience through a streamlined interface that enables you to discover, watch and share YouTube [...]

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, networking hardware maker Netgear unveils two new Internet-connected set-top boxes.
Netgear’s product launch comes amid a flurry of announcements and launches of other Internet-ready televisions and digital video players and recorders: the Roku digital video player’s partnership with Amazon, Netflix-enabled televisions, among others.
The company says the pair of [...]

Alley Insider’s Dan Frommer reports that Netflix is working with manufacturers to get Netflix streaming built into your next TV:
Beginning this spring, Korean electronics giant LG will build Netflix streaming directly into some of its plasma and LCD HDTVs, the companies will announce today.
This means that Netflix subscribers will be able to stream more than [...]