Apple Adds Genius in AppleTV Update: The Old Girl Ain’t Dead Yet

Not only did Apple update iTunes overnight, but it also updated Apple TV.

In addition to the usual security and bug fixes (including one that sounds pretty ominous: “maliciously crafted movie file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution”), there’s now a Genius playlist feature. Genius playlist generation was part of the new version of iTunes and appears in the new iPod and iPhone firmware.

In a way, Genius Apple’s way of heading off services like Slacker and Pandora. By creating a well-mixed and thematic playlist of out of your music collection you bring songs to the fore that you may not have listened to in years. While that’s not very impressive in an 8GB device like the Nano but fairly impressive in a 100GB collection on a desktop. The Genius Sidebar, connected to the iTunes Store, is also a “big, fat iTunes money tree” and is even more visible than the old iTunes Store bar that appeared at the bottom of iTunes. By suggesting thematically linked music choices every playback could turn into a sale.