“So the fourth-generation Apple TV arrived last fall with a fair amount of publicity from Apple,” Gene Steinberg writes for The Tech Night Owl. “With a touchscreen and Siri support, not to mention an App Store, it seemed to answer many of the complaints of the previous model.”
“But whether it will overhaul your TV watching experience is another question, and it’s hard to say. If all you want to do is watch iTunes content, Netflix and some other streaming services, probably not. If you want to play casual games, perhaps, although the Apple TV is no substitute for a true gaming console,” Steinberg writes. “If you want to try some other apps, such as some that enable online shopping, perhaps.”
“Curiously, Apple opted not to support the higher resolution 4K models with the new Apple Store, even though millions of those sets are now reaching customers, and the big push is expected by the holidays,” Steinberg writes. ” it may well be there’s a 2016 Apple TV in the works for this fall that will offer 4K and all the enhanced color features out of the box. I suppose it’s possible the fourth-generation Apple TV can be upgraded via firmware, but I doubt it.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Planned obsolescence, blatantly.
What Apple should have done is make an Apple TV that is 4K-capable, clearly stating that salient fact in the specs and marketing materials, with a simple “coming soon” regarding the content. They could have easily gotten away with offering a smattering of 4K content à la Netflix and Amazon Prime and they would today be able to sell boxes to those who look at the new Apple TV and its lack of 4K future-proofing and immediately think “this smacks of planned obsolescence, so we’ll wait until next year, thanks.” — MacDailyNews Take, November 20, 2015
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Apple should have future-proofed the Apple TV with 4K capability and no amount of apologists will be able to change the fact that, to the general public, Apple looks to be greedily setting up planned obsolescence with the current Apple TV by omitting 4K capability.
After all, if Ultra HD doesn’t matter, why do iPhones shoot in 4K and why have iMacs been upgraded to 4K and even 5K models?
All that said, the Apple TV is a relatively low-priced device and offers much, much more than just simply replaying video. 1080p is perfectly acceptable, will keep bandwidth demands lower for any Apple streaming service that may someday actually appear, and upgrading to 4K Apple TV units next year shouldn’t be all that expensive (especially if you simply sell your current Apple TV unit(s) and apply the proceeds). For the App Store, the Siri Remote and all it can do, and everything else the Apple TV currently offers, we highly recommend the device. It’s awesome, even in its spotty and unfinished state! We’ll just get our 4K content from the Netflix app built right into our Sony 4K TVs instead.
Now, cue the inevitable “4K doesn’t matter” comments from those who don’t yet own 4K Ultra HD TVs. We remember hearing the same exact type of comments when HD TVs first hit the market. — MacDailyNews Take, November 12, 2015