AppleTV 2: No music or Podcasts

Wow... Although I see the reworking of AppleTV as a good thing for new users, for current users, it is a step waaaay down.

I use my AppleTV for the following, according to priority:

1 - Music -- I use the Remote App from my bed or around the house to select music on AppleTV to play.

2 - Podcasts -- These are the new world of television. Who needs most of the crappy tv shows that run on network tv and cable when great podcasts fill that niche?

3 - Movie Rentals -- I rarely every buy a movie because I long ago rationalized what Apple is now saying: you can rent a movie several times before it reaches the price of purchasing. I will watch a movie once or twice. If I watch it again, it'll be years later. Paying a small rental fee instead of having to manage store is ok with me.

4 - TV shows -- I didn't often buy TV shows because they were pricey and I'll watch a TV episode less repeated than I would a TV show. The 99¢ price point for TV shows is perhaps the real only improvement on AppleTV 2.

My top 2 priorities, music and podcasts are gone. And from the looks of it, TV shows in Canada are gone as well, omitting the only advantage the new AppleTV had over the first one.

I really hope that they don't remove the availability of TV show purchases on the first apple tv.

After looking more in depth, Podcasts are still there. They're just given less importance and are grouped under Internet. I guess it's appropriate.

As for music, I think it was left out but will make a reappearance once Apple figures out contracts with music studios for cloud streaming. These weren't in place for this launch and there's no local storage on the new AppleTV so they had to go.

^ I know AppleTV still streams music. Steve said it during his keynote. What has been taken away is the ability to use AppleTV as a standalone music player. If you only have MacBooks at home, you're going to have to leave them open, and have iTunes running to be able to play music. That's quite a step back.