Apple TV is still on the fritz

Despite a hasty fix to repair the last update, reports of problems continue to pour in

Only hours after Apple (AAPL) released version 3.0 of the software that runs its Apple TV set-top box, complaints began appearing on its online discussion boards -- the company's own early warning system for detecting major bugs.

By Saturday, Nov. 7, when Apple advised owners by e-mail to immediately update to version 3.01, the discussion topic TV 3.0 -- Many Problems had drawn 134 posts and been read more than 10,000 times. A second topic, Apple TV lost all media, had 108 posts and more than 3,000 reads.

Unfortunately, update 3.01 addressed only the "lost all media" issue. The other problems -- periodic freezes, random restarts, overheating, sluggishness, disappearing networks, screens going "blocky red" etc. -- haven't gone away.

"3.0.1 has actually made things worse for me," wrote user "laozi" late Saturday evening. "Now iTunes won't see the AppleTV at all, and no combination of rebooting/resetting is helping. Totally stuck. Apple, please fix this."

Apple TV may be a "hobby" for Steve Jobs, but Apple's customers don't sound happy about being treated like hobbyists.

"I don't know about you," wrote a user who calls himself baron von benjamin, "but this is the most problem-prone upgrade to any hardware I've ever seen."

Below the fold: The e-mail Apple sent Apple TV owners Saturday afternoon.

[Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter @philiped]