A couple of news bits coming from the tech world yesterday.  First, Apple will be releasing an updated version of their newest product, the AppleTV.  When it was originally released in March, the box, which allows the user to view content from iTunes on their HDTV’s, came in only the 40GB model at $299.  The new version will be 160GB for the price of $399. 

Apple also announced yesterday that the AppleTV will soon be adding the ability to surf content from the popular social video site YouTube, bringing internet video directly to your living room.  From the press release:

Thousands of the most current and popular YouTube videos will be available on Apple TV at launch in mid-June, with YouTube adding thousands more each week until the full YouTube catalog is available this fall. With Apple TV’s stunning interface and simple Apple Remote, users can easily navigate through YouTube’s familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos.

Since this will still be controlled by the Apple remote, I’ll be interested to see how searching is done.  Michael at sister site Apple Gazette will be checking it out, and I’m sure that we’ll get an update from him on that when it goes live in June.