Apple has rolled out a new feature for Apple TV users. Owners of the media streaming device will now find a new option called Genius under Movies and TV Shows. The Mac version of the iTunes Store has had Genius recommendations for quite some time, but the feature has been absent from Apple TV until now. The Genius feature recommends iTunes content to watch based on your purchase history.

Just about a month after the release of the Apple TV v4.4.3, Apple has released a new update that will bring it to v4.4.4 (Build 9A406a). The release notes from Apple state the update includes the basic improvements: software stability, a performance and a fix related to an error when attempting to play certain types of video content. The acts similarly like the previous build, featuring only the small bug fixes and nothing more.

Apple iTV, what it could do, and whether it’s going to become a reality has been on the minds of many after Steve Jobs’ biography came out. In it, Jobs revealed, “I’d like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use. It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it.”

Version 4.4.3 contains some bugs fixes, including a sound problem through the optical port when your television set is turned off, and also adds support for Netflix in Mexico. Users should also note Apple TV now supports iTunes Match; this service needs to be activated from your desktop computer running iTunes 10.5.1.

Apple released a major Apple TV update shortly after the release of iOS 5 last week, bringing features such as AirPlay Mirroring, Photo Stream, NHL content, Wall Street Journal Live, and Trailers to the device. Following that comes a minor bug fix and performance improvements release, dubbed iOS 4.4.1 build 9A335A, with no official changelog confirming that this build brings no significant new features.

Many of Apple’s iDevices saw an update to iOS 5 yesterday, and Apple TV has not been left out of the update frenzy. The device has been updated to version 4.4, adding several new features, improvements, and other tweaks. This new update for the Apple TV adds AirPlay Mirroring, Photo Stream support, Trailers, NHL content, and Wall Street Journal Live.

A reference to “AppleTV3,1″, an Apple TV model which does not yet publicly exist (the current generation Apple TV is known as 2,1), has been found within iOS 5′s file system. It’s likely we will see some major internal changes in this upcoming Apple TV release, with a good possibility of the iDevice gaining a dual-core A5 processor just like the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. Should this become reality, we can expect the next-generation Apple TV to support 1080p video playback.

Two weeks after developers saw the release of the fifth iOS 5 beta, Apple has started seeding iOS 5 beta 6 (build 9A5302b) today. As usual, alongside this came new seeds of iTunes 10.5 (now at beta 6 as well), Apple TV’s iOS 4.4 beta 5 and Xcode 4.2 Developer Preview 6.

The 2nd generation Apple TV contains a Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combination chip, but with disabled Bluetooth functionality. However, evidence has been found in iOS 5 that the newest firmware will activate the currently disabled Bluetooth in the Apple TV, adding the ability to pair the device with a keyboard and possibly other Bluetooth accessories as well. Once Apple activates the Bluetooth support in iOS 5, users will be able to toggle it through the regular settings menu, and will then find a pairing menu similar to those on other iDevices.

Apple has released iOS 4.2.2 (registered on Apple’s servers as build 8F305 of iOS 4.3) for the 2nd generation Apple TV. According to Apple’s documentation, the newest software update addresses an issue in which audio is not output when playing some video content, addresses an issue in which video is not displayed when playing some content, adds an audio output setting for switching to 16-bit audio for compatibility with some TVs and AV receivers, and more.