“There could be a surprise to the wireless capabilities of the upcoming iPhone, dubbed the ‘iPhone 7’ by analysts, based on comments made Thursday by the head of one of Apple’s top chip suppliers,” Aaron Pressman reports for Fortune.
“The surprise improvement could be the inclusion of a new, much faster version of Wi-Fi known as WiGig, or 802.11ad, which would allow for wireless video streaming at 4K ultra-high definition resolution, quicker gaming connections between devices, and other cool features, according to one analyst,” Pressman reports. “Apple added the ability for iPhones to record 4K video last year.”
“‘I estimate the iPhone 7 could feature that,’ Neil Shah, research director at Counterpoint Technology Market Research, said after hearing comments from Hock Tan, CEO of wireless chip maker Broadcom,” Pressman reports. “The notion of upgraded Wi-Fi features also matches with recent reports that Apple was briefly out of stock of some of its Wi-Fi routers that rely on the older 802.11ac standard, which was added in the last router update three years ago. Apple would likely also upgrade its Apple TV set-top box, which doesn’t currently have WiGig or 4K video capability of any kind, Shah said.”
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MacDailyNews Take: There’s nothing like pristine 4K content on our 65-inch 4K Sony Ultra HD TVs.
Obviously, Apple has the capability to offer and deliver 4K video. Certainly, they have their reason(s) not to offer 4K support immediately. Perhaps they will flick the 4K switch in software after they have signed deals with the content providers? If Amazon’s hardware is capable of 4K, the new A8-powered Apple TV hardware certainly is, too. And that would be just like Apple has always been with Apple TV: Under-promise and over-deliver. For the life of the product, Apple has constantly improved existing Apple TVs via software at no extra cost to users. If not, there’s always next year, but the new Apple TV offers much more than simply streaming video and 1080p is perfectly acceptable even on 4K Ultra HDs.— MacDailyNews Take, September 17, 2015