“On June 8th at the Apple World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC), CEO Tim Cook will reportedly introduce a new and improved Apple TV,” Robert X. Cringely blogs.
“But this new Apple TV — the first Apple TV hardware update in three years — will not, we’re told, support 3840-by-2160 UHD (popularly called 4K) video and will be limited to plain old 1920-by-1080 HD. Can this be true? Well, yes and no. The new Apple TV will be 4K capable, but not 4K enabled,” Cringely writes. “This distinction is critical to understanding what’s really happening with Apple and television.”
“What I think will happen at the WWDC is Apple will announce a spectacular new Apple TV — the most powerful streaming box the world has ever seen — wow developers with its potential and beautiful user interface, but will for the moment limit the features to not much more than the old Apple TV could provide, though with the addition of true streaming,” Cringely writes. “Then, in 2016, will come a surprise software upgrade with the switch to H.265 and 4K. Apple has to beat to 4K the cable companies and broadcast networks if they have a hope of displacing those industries, which — along with day-and-date streaming of 4K movies — are Apple’s ultimate goals.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Any lack of 4K (or 5K, see full article) would go largely unnoticed with the Apple TV SDK and the Apple TV App Store announcements. And we’re writing that while sitting here in our palatial headquarters looking at a rather gorgeous Sony 4K TV.