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$149 Apple TV 4K 128GB Model Includes Ethernet and Thread Support, 64GB Version Does Not
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Nice, ordered the 128GB version for our home, our present 4K ATV will relocate to our 2nd house on a Greek island where the slow poor interface Mi Box S will go on permanent retirement.
I just preordered the Fire TV Cube 2022 (3rd gen) to upgrade my older Cube. It was a nice upgrade. This new ATV 4K 2022 just seems like a lot of nothing, especially since tvOS 16 has messed up so many apps that used to stream correctly. Plus it seems rather chicken-sh*t to keep the ethernet port and threads out of the lesser model. $150 is just too darn much for another lackluster upgrade which likely still won't handle Youtube HDR correctly and will likely come with a ship load of Apple gotchas like all the models have. Meh....
Sounds like they got tired of people only buying the smaller version. I've heard sales people having a hard time trying to upsell people to the larger version. The only reason I bought one was because the smaller one wasn't in stock at the time. It kind of makes the new smaller one rather useless. More like a FireStick, without the stick?
Probably two different teams that don't / aren't allowed to talk to each other...
At their quantities, probably more like $0.005.
Didn't they release a product years ago with a chip that supplied ethernet, and didn't put on a port?
You said all the time, so I assumed you tracked it. Thanks for your anecdotal price updates you can't verify. Good post.
You're not the real product? I take a very dim view of 'cheap technology'. Cheap cartridges, cheap tvs, cheap players, etc. They are getting you somehow. Either the cartridges are half filled, the TV reports what you watch and what it hears, the player reports what you consume and where, etc...
Yes, Apple was selling old stock for the impeding release of this new model. I'm honestly shocked they did that, like they always do before a new model hits... Its like wondering why Apple Watches go on sale in July/August at deep discounts.
Messy upgrade. Apple used to have a "One choice for all" approach, but now you have to sift through a million configurations to find the one you want.
I normally defend Apple's choices, but this one is stupid. No Thread support? Why? Is there a licensing fee that they need to pay?
I normally defend Apple's choices, but this one is stupid. No Thread support? Why? Is there a licensing fee that they need to pay?
...until you microwave some popcorn.
WiFi is brilliant in situations where you can't run a cable or want portability - but cable is more reliable, more secure, avoids faffing around with WiFi passwords and, in a large-screen TV/Home Cinema installation where you're running cables for speakers, antenna, power etc. anyway it's well worth running an ethernet cable if you can.
There are $40 hobbyist boards with Ethernet connectors - leaving one off a is penny-pinching. If Apple were making a cheaper, plug-in "Apple TV Stick" (like the Fire TV stick) then, maybe.
Wifi on newer devices, and newer access points/routers seem to be more robust and use the higher speed bandwidth. But I'm sure there will be people that still experience that. And I'm sure there are wifi networks out there swamped with streaming already, and adding an ATV that requires it will be fun...
How do you know adaptive sync is not supported?
That could also be added with a future update. At least I hope so. (However, only if the SoC supports it.)
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That's Tim's style; he wants to squeeze every nickel out of you. I'm surprised he's not going to try to sell an Apple TV
ethernet dongle at this point.
And nice if that could be sold as a peripheral that would work with the last model. If only theyd have actually made one…
Just ordered two 128gb for the Thread support.
I would've got the 64gb had it had Thread, haven't used an ethernet port in years.
$20 extra is like, what, $0.05 with inflation haha!!
I would've got the 64gb had it had Thread, haven't used an ethernet port in years.
$20 extra is like, what, $0.05 with inflation haha!!
You're likely right about the low usage of Ethernet. I use Starlink as my primary internet (rural living comes with a price) and have the original round dish variant. They removed ETHERNET from their router on the square dish variants and have an optional Ethernet Adapter. While some would gnash that this is a weird $24 USD cash grab, it is far more likely that the original router's phone home data clued them in that the users just aren't using Ethernet.
Hell, my existing 4K is so light that my HDMI and Ethernet cables already threaten to pull it down or at the very least can't it backward.
Glad there's a lower starting price-point now. Most people do not need ethernet on these - you'd have to have multiple Apple TV 4Ks in your home simultaneously running local uncompressed 4K streams (say a Plex server) before wifi starts to become an issue for you - unless your wifi was deficient to begin with. You'd probably bottleneck your local media storage before you bottleneck your wifi.
I hope it does not let you load it full with games without any indication and then gets laggy like the old 4k model.
Apart from that: Only 20€ more for double the space + one port more? That's very un-applely, this must have slipped through Tims beancounter fingers (in truth, it's probably the cheaper competition)
Apart from that: Only 20€ more for double the space + one port more? That's very un-applely, this must have slipped through Tims beancounter fingers (in truth, it's probably the cheaper competition)
I have a 4 year old Mesh router and stream 4k stuff to my WiFi ATV all day with no issues. I have zero reason to connect to Ethernet for any reason. It's useless.