My family wants to know what to get me for Christmas, and since there's nothing that stands out I want to give Apple TV a shot. I'm not sure if this would be a bad time since there hasn't been a hardware update since the device's introduction. Would you buy one now?
My two cents:
I was on the fence last summer. I decided to pick one up on ebay, and paid about $30 more than a 40GB refurb is going for from Apple now.
I couldn't be happier. It does exactly what I need it to do - that is: stream my movies and music from my 24" core duo imac to my 50" plasma via 5Ghz wireless N.
Since figuring out the reboot problem (set your aTV to 720p, it's rock solid after that) i'm all smiles when I use it. The 3.0 menu update looks great, and makes getting to content easier.
My family is now completely hooked on immediate access to our movies - especially kids movies.
As an added bonus - the airtunes functionality allowed me to repurpose an airport express I was using to feed music to the living room stereo system.
As for being future proof - what is? I've got more than one TV in my house...i'm sure that if a compelling upgrade came along i'd get it based on how happy I am with this one, then the 40GB would go to the basement or bedroom and continue to do what it's doing now.