Have Apple said they are going to start Annual updates? Thought they were on a 2-3 year cycle.
What gave you that impression? Not the iPhone or iPad or Mac. Maybe the watch but it hasn't even been 6 months yet. As for Apple TV, that was a hobby up until last week. I think they're all in now.
The same reason why Apple didn't support 3G at first or LTE in their phones. There's just not enough content or 4K watchers out there right now. There might be 1-2 years from now but. The only reason for Apple to support 4k is when their entire iTunes catalog goes over to 4k. Anything before that represents a very small number of users.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Man those tablets look cheaper than anything you'd find from some no name brand in China. Colors are ugly too.
This is why I don't understand people who say Chinese goods = cheap or poor quality. These Amazon tablets are probably the cheapest shittyest crap that has ever been designed.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
A high percentage of owned tvs in recent years aren't 4K.
Wow, I am impressed that Amazon was able to actually include HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 in this to support 4K at $99. Like others have mentioned they are probably selling this at a loss to bring people in and make money elsewhere (buying/renting games and videos).
It does appear to be limited to 2160p @ 30fps, so no HFR support, and I don't see anything about HDR support either.
I believe Apple is waiting a little bit to let HFR and HDR standards settle down and then they will realease a 4K version of the AppleTV.
I plan on buying the AppleTV 4 as soon as it is available and putting it on my main TVs, then the AppleTV 3s will go on secondary TVs like in the bedrooms. When I upgrade to 4K and Apple comes out with a 4K version of the Apple TV I will then move the ATV4 to the secondary TVs in bedrooms and have the new version on the new 4K TVs.
My point is I don't think phone games should be on TV boxes. They are just money making scam games with payable coins etc anyway.
That's what XBox and PS are for.
Maybe for you. I think you're full of crap. That's just the sort of thing those "in the know" said about games on the iPhone. Can't complete with PS and XBox. iPhone is a bad gaming platform. No good controllers, too small, too slow, etc. As long as we
're making pronouncements, I'll make one: XBox and PS are a stupid waste of money and time, nothing a grown person should get involved with.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Apple doesn't make content so they have no leverage here. If the studios have no 4k movies or TV shows, why should Apple support it? Because their competitors (Netflix and Amazon) have a few 4k shows? Once the iTunes catalog upgrades to 4k, Apple will have a reason to update Apple TV but they cannot until studios provide 4k master files to Apple.
Just ordered the Fire TV. Much better value than the Apple TV I think. It's a shame I can't stream from my iPhone or Mac. But small price to pay for a proper 4K box with Netflix etc.
it's less of a value to me -- can't do AirPlay (content or entire screen), can't play my iTunes content.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Still little content, and a lot of the 4k televisions sold to date will be deprecated as they don't have the newest buzz feature, HDR.
Frankly, HDR is more relevant than 4k resolution; YMMV.
The AppleTV's 10/100 ethernet port sure isn't fast enough.
If 100mb ethernet isn't fast enough, 100mb internet service obviously won't be either. Actually, my limited research indicates that 15mb is enough to stream 4k, so that ethernet port do it.
My initial reaction to the article: puff piece, thinly veiled press release rewritten as an article.
My reaction to the 4K Fire TV: we'll see about that. Amazon Prime HD video falls back to VHS-quality pixelated mess very frequently for me, yet I stream Netflix in HD all the time with barely any fallback to SD at all. In other words, YMMV. Same pipe, same device, and no Wifi is involved: my PS3 is plugged into an Ethernet cable and I have 100Mbs service. Netflix uses Amazon's cloud. That Amazon and Netflix's streaming experiences should be so different is a mystery to me.
A high percentage of owned tvs in recent years aren't 4K.
Apple was the first (!) out the gate with their Retina displays. Have you forgotten this? That bleeding edge display tech and philosophy needs to be consistent.
Comments
If Apple does decide to add 4K capabilities to AppleTV, will that require a hardware solution or could it be done with a software tweak?
Have Apple said they are going to start Annual updates? Thought they were on a 2-3 year cycle.
What gave you that impression? Not the iPhone or iPad or Mac. Maybe the watch but it hasn't even been 6 months yet. As for Apple TV, that was a hobby up until last week. I think they're all in now.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Man those tablets look cheaper than anything you'd find from some no name brand in China. Colors are ugly too.
This is why I don't understand people who say Chinese goods = cheap or poor quality. These Amazon tablets are probably the cheapest shittyest crap that has ever been designed.
The AppleTV's 10/100 ethernet port sure isn't fast enough.
A high percentage of owned tvs in recent years aren't 4K.
Wow, I am impressed that Amazon was able to actually include HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 in this to support 4K at $99. Like others have mentioned they are probably selling this at a loss to bring people in and make money elsewhere (buying/renting games and videos).
It does appear to be limited to 2160p @ 30fps, so no HFR support, and I don't see anything about HDR support either.
I believe Apple is waiting a little bit to let HFR and HDR standards settle down and then they will realease a 4K version of the AppleTV.
I plan on buying the AppleTV 4 as soon as it is available and putting it on my main TVs, then the AppleTV 3s will go on secondary TVs like in the bedrooms. When I upgrade to 4K and Apple comes out with a 4K version of the Apple TV I will then move the ATV4 to the secondary TVs in bedrooms and have the new version on the new 4K TVs.
My point is I don't think phone games should be on TV boxes. They are just money making scam games with payable coins etc anyway.
That's what XBox and PS are for.
Maybe for you. I think you're full of crap. That's just the sort of thing those "in the know" said about games on the iPhone. Can't complete with PS and XBox. iPhone is a bad gaming platform. No good controllers, too small, too slow, etc. As long as we
're making pronouncements, I'll make one: XBox and PS are a stupid waste of money and time, nothing a grown person should get involved with.
Easy: the cover is probably higher quality than a cheap-ass tablet.
There is very little content available at 4K resolution, so why would Apple support 4K when there is almost no movies or shows at 4K?
A 6-pack of 7 inch tablets for $250 is basically a stocking stuffer for kids that will do light gaming, reading/browsing, maybe watch some YouTube.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Apple doesn't make content so they have no leverage here. If the studios have no 4k movies or TV shows, why should Apple support it? Because their competitors (Netflix and Amazon) have a few 4k shows? Once the iTunes catalog upgrades to 4k, Apple will have a reason to update Apple TV but they cannot until studios provide 4k master files to Apple.
it's less of a value to me -- can't do AirPlay (content or entire screen), can't play my iTunes content.
A high percentage of TVs for sale at Costco are 4K and they aren't exactly a retailer of cutting edge consumer electronics. Apple should be leading, not following with Apple TV.
Still little content, and a lot of the 4k televisions sold to date will be deprecated as they don't have the newest buzz feature, HDR.
Frankly, HDR is more relevant than 4k resolution; YMMV.
The AppleTV's 10/100 ethernet port sure isn't fast enough.
If 100mb ethernet isn't fast enough, 100mb internet service obviously won't be either. Actually, my limited research indicates that 15mb is enough to stream 4k, so that ethernet port do it.
My reaction to the 4K Fire TV: we'll see about that. Amazon Prime HD video falls back to VHS-quality pixelated mess very frequently for me, yet I stream Netflix in HD all the time with barely any fallback to SD at all. In other words, YMMV. Same pipe, same device, and no Wifi is involved: my PS3 is plugged into an Ethernet cable and I have 100Mbs service. Netflix uses Amazon's cloud. That Amazon and Netflix's streaming experiences should be so different is a mystery to me.
Apple was the first (!) out the gate with their Retina displays. Have you forgotten this? That bleeding edge display tech and philosophy needs to be consistent.
both Youtube and Netflix so called 4k is worse quality than standard 1080p bluray.
Your home video's should look great though.
Just keep in mind next years AppleTV will probably be 4k.
The 4k stream I get on both youtube and Netflix blow out of water 1080p hands down. They look much better.