Apple unveils Apple TV device, adds older Paramount movies to iTunes

I'm here at the Consumer Electronics Show through Wednesday evening, swimming in interviews, demos, and keynote presentations. (Here's a piece about simplicity I wrote in advance of the show for the San Jose Mercury News.)

But the most interesting news of the day comes from Macworld in San Francisco. Steve Jobs announced that Apple TV (formerly known as iTV) will be available in February for $299. Interestingly, the device has a 40-gigabyte hard drive built in, which stores up to 50 hours of shows. Jobs also said that Apple will sell more than 100 movies from Paramount, all from the catalog (not newer releases yet).

Here's News.com's blow-by-blow coverage of the keynote... AP coverage...Wall Street Journal on Paramount/Viacom movies. Apple's press release divulges that the company also has sold more than 1.3 million feature films (all Disney/Pixar) through iTunes thus far, and 50 million TV shows.

Apple also introduced its first cell phone, the iPhone.