Well the Apple TV box has finally outed the stable and has been available to peruse. But can the the iPod halo effect make its way into the living room?

The unit itself looks a lot like a Mac Mini to be honest, measuring 7.7" square and 1.1 inch tall, something to sit atop the rest of your hi-fi gear via an HDMI or component video cables (purchased separately); component and optical audio outputs send audio to the TV or stereo system.

The Apple TV device has a wireless adapter (802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n) that lets people stream music, movies and photos from their Macs or PCs into their entertainment systems. Of course, the Apple TV is the only device that lets you stream all those movies, TV programmes and tracks bought from iTunes through to your telly-box! It will output pictures to a TV at 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), 480p 60Hz, and even 480i, so it will work with standard definition televisions that have component connectors.

So far, the reviews have been ok-ish. People like the iPod like simplicity, user interface and styling. One of the knockbacks has been the paltry 40GB of storage, 33Gig you can use to store video, audio, and still images. The company said that the hard drive can hold as many as 50 hours of video, up to 9,000 audio tracks, or 25,000 pictures (JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, and PNG images, but not the Raw format).

Also, some reviewers said that there is limited file support (some iTunes files don't work - c'mon Apple sort it out!) and the price of downloading movies from iTunes!

Also, it seems that internet radio is a no-no! don't' bother trying to "tune in" - it won't work.

The Apple TV is available in all Apple shops for $300. Hopefully it will be available in Europe some time soon.