OctoMonkey

bigcountry said:

I guess the only remaining question I have is: will it play 4K videos from my photo library at 4K? As it stands right now with the most recently available Apple TV 4K, it will only play my own videos back in 1080p resolution. This seems to be an artificial limitation, since it's obviously possible to play back 4K video from many different sources in various HDR formats at up to 30p on the current box. 

If the new model is required for 4K playback of personal videos, that would be petty, but would probably still convince me to upgrade. But if not? Between the new remotes working with the older models as well as the iPhone-aided calibration working with the older models, there's not much going for the new model from what I can tell.

You may want to look into running something like a Plex server.  All my personal videos are either 1080P or 4K and all play in their native format via my Plex server and the Plex application on my AppleTV 4K.

jony0 said:

OctoMonkey said:

If Apple wants to make a fundamental improvement, add a Thunderbolt/USB port for adding an external camera.

Just put a bloody USB port on it already ! This is on my wish list since Gen 2 ( I had a Gen 1). It would cost close to nothing to bring much more functionality.
A port for a camera is fine but all I would want it for is an external drive to play an entire library of digital movies. I live in the woods with slow internet so streaming is always sketchy. Things most of you with hi speed can take for granted are difficult here. Just playing a playlist coming from the cloud rather than locally is a silly concept and hit or miss with some lag, and then you can forget about photos from Photos. Steve Jobs said while introducing Gen 2 that the people don't want so sync anymore (from iTunes), but he wasn't thinking of us with slow speed.

I went from 1st generation to 4th and now 5th.  I do (essentially) zero streaming as, for a variety of reasons, I am not a fan of it.  Instead, I have a Plex server with a substantial amount of storage.  On it I have my music and video files.  My internet connection can go down and everything is still available to me.  You might want to consider something like this as well.

Based upon the abject stupidity of Apple's remote control, I am expecting the next one to be a cube with a glass touch sensor on each side.
Would it be practical?  No
Would it be usable?  No
Would it have clean aesthetics?  Yes.  Nuff said!

MplsP said:

crowley said:

That's cool that Apple was able to do this with a software update.

Agreed - I was reading in another (MagSafe duo?) thread about USB power profiles; the way I understand it is newer USB power supplies offer a different range of voltage and current combinations, so 18 watts with one supply is not the same as 18 watts in another. I wonder if the HomePod mini never really needed 20w, just the 20w power profile and the firmware update simply allows it to use the 18w profile.

Well...  Watts (or power) is simply volts * current.  18 amps at 1 volt or 1 amp at 18 volts both equal 18 watts.  My understanding of the USB spec is that +5V is available (at different current ratings depending on the USB variant).  18 Watts at 5 Volts would be 3.6 amps.  Perhaps they wanted 20 watts to account for cable losses at higher currents.

As for the power requirement of the HomePod mini...  somebody would need to actually measure the current draw in a worst case scenario (likely maximum volume - probably with a lot of bass).  That said, what it requires is probably not 18 watts continuous.  It might not sound like much, but 18 watts without good heat dissipation adds up quickly and electronics do not like heat.  Those little 5 watt night light bulbs get wicked hot, and they are in a free air environment.

InspiredCode said:

I agree with Apple on this. Tracking cookies have been abused for too long

Absolutely!  I have tried completely disabling cookies, but far too many web-sites break without cookies.  Very frustrating.

That said, if you are concerned about privacy, there are other insidious tracking methods:
https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/telecom/internet/new-online-fingerprinting-technique-works-across-browsers