Thousands of Apple customers awoke this morning to a pleasant surprise in their email inbox.
Beginning late Sunday evening, those who preordered their new Apple TV began receiving notifications that their shipment is on the way, with the expected delivery date on target for Thursday, September 30th.
Prior to the notifications being received, there were rampant worries that Apple would miss its appointed September 30th product roll out. Last week, Apple began refunding expedited delivery charges and effectively drew ire from customers concerned that Apple TV would go the way of the white iPhone 4 and see one delay after the next.
All such apprehensions were effectively put to rest Monday morning.
Earlier this month, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed the new and improved Apple TV at Apple’s annual iPod event. The refreshed product alters and, some would say, greatly simplifies the digital media consumption process by eliminating the internal hard-drive of the previous model and shifting to streaming content from Apple or your computer.
As a result of the new demands of streaming media, Apple TV now boasts an A4 processor found in the popular iDevice line of gadgets (iPhones, iPods, iPads). Through the revamped Apple TV, live streaming from Netflix, Youtube, MobileMe and Flickr will be possible.
