Several bloggers have posted about their experiences tearing into Apple TV hardware:

• Make Magazine shows you how to open your Apple TV and warranty, but not how to upgrade it.
• Engadget has an article on upgrading the hard drive to 80GB
• Gizmodo has teaser info on a 120GB hard drive upgrade

The hard drive size is our biggest complaint with Apple TV. Rather than viewing Apple TV as something completely new, we see it as a new category of iPods. With this in mind, Apple’s decision to only offer a 40GB drive is disappointing, since it won’t hold as much content as Apple’s top of the line iPod.

We’ve had discussions with several digital media fans that are skipping Apple TV and using Mac minis, paired with terabytes of storage, as an alternative. Interest in upgrading the Apple TV, and other options, suggests that Apple is missing an opportunity by not offering Apple TV with a larger hard drive option.