Apple's Macworld star: It's not the MacBook Air, it's the AppleTV

Although Apple, Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL)'s Macworld keynote address by CEO Steve Jobs was followed by millions of eyeballs yesterday, the biggest "wow" product was the announcement of the MacBook Air, the world's thinnest and perhaps most advanced miniature laptop computer. While the MacBook Air stole the show, an announced enhancement to an existing Apple product should have been highlighted more.

Yes, I'm talking about the Apple TV. That product, which has aged nicely but has seen disappointing sales results, will now be able to download movies, music, television shows and other podcasts directly over the Internet -- no PC required. This is a paradigm shift from the Apple TV's recent presence, which limited the capability of such a promising product sharply. The good news: existing Apple TV products will be upgraded soon to allow for the new functionality for free. Also, the product's price has dropped from $300 to $230.

The Apple TV product, as it will be in a few weeks when the software update becomes available, will become arguably the best equipped product to pull entertainment content from the internet directly to a small box that's connected to the living room TV. All products thus far just haven't had the user interaction finesse or the entertainment catalog Apple harbors on its iTunes store, and the steps to get that content from the internet to the television involved too many steps.