Is it worth the price upgrading from a Apple TV 3 to the 4K or going for the Google Chromecast?
Yes. The Chromecast, like anything from Google, is a security and privacy nightmare masquerading as a functional peripheral. Does it work, and it is cheaper? Yes. Will you be further profiled and advertised to/manipulated by literally any entity or individual that wants to target you? ALSO YES.
Upgrading to the new one from the 3 is a no-brainer IMO. In addition to regaining features and apps like YouTube that are disappearing from the 3, you get:
* Dolby Vision/HDR10 support if your TV supports it * The ability to control both the TV and the Apple TV box with a single remote (which finally has a mute button!!) * Dolby Atmos and Lossless Audio over AirPlay if you have HomePods (and coming this fall, HomePod minis) * A vastly better remote * eARC support for your other connected-to-the-TV devices (DVDs, consoles, etc) * Apple Arcade support * A three-month free trial of Apple TV+ if you don't already have it (So cheap! So good!) * Um, 4K ... and the superior Apple TV 4K interface, screen savers, and TV calibration * Little features I enjoy, ike "what did he/she say?", the TV app to let me know where something I want to watch is available, and the Apple Events app, which I am not sure is available on other stores/platforms.
The security and privacy aspects alone justify the higher price for me, but all these other features and that make the new Apple TV 4K a downright bargain in my eyes. The TV I own has a Roku interface (no longer connected to the internet) ... dear lord what a grossly inferior and spyware-like experience!
Those smaller stick units from Google and Amazon and Roku have their uses, I guess ... smaller to take with you when travelling, for sure ... but the trade-off is too much for me. My old Apple TV lasted many years, while my friends with cheaper sticks seem to replace them every 2-3 years for various reasons (mostly when one of the companies gets in a fight with one of the streaming app companies ... or they just "stop working one day.")
I always wondered about Google’s privacy overreach with their TV products. Which size to get though, the 32 or 64GB model? How much space does the TV app take up?
By the time you add a dozen different services, some not as sleek and compact as they should be, you end up doing a shuffle between install/uninstall just to make room for one more. The next Chromecast 4K version should have twice the storage.
LOL...what "strategy" do Amazon and Roku have for hardware? They're selling iterations of the same tech they've always sold.
Do you think a strategy of selling 4K stick for $40 pretty much justifies itself? Everyone knows about the Apple tax and many are willing to pay it, but Apple charges $179. The remote sounds great but it's hard to pass up $40 for the same basic functions.
I'm interested in the Apple TV to play Arcade games but Apple headlined the remote and mentions gaming as a bullet point, so wondering how much if a quality experience gaming is on a day to day level. I'm already wondering how my Xbox controller will take to being paired in the same room as the Xbox which will turn on every time I try to pair the controller with another device. And I've done some research and read the Apple controller doesn't have some features that using an Xbox controller does. So, is the gaming worth it.
Gurman is emphasizing engineering/hardware strategy. He dismisses the latest ATV 4K hardware update as minor beyond the remote, but what have Amazon/Roku done? I haven't heard of any big hardware breakthroughs on their end.
Per gaming on the latest ATV 4K, it will mostly depend on the Apple Arcade library versus your own gaming preferences in terms of the "worth it" (if you're only buying it to play games). There are lists online that have all the controller supported games that appear on Arcade, so if you're not seeing a sizable chunk of those that you're interested in then you might want to pass. The gaming experience itself will be good. Games all run smoothly in 4K on the A12.
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