Apple Could Be Planning to Release Updated Apple TV Box Next Month

[TXCherokee]

What sort of games do you expect to be playable on an Apple TV?

I'm not expecting a XBox/PS replacement, if that is what you are getting at. I would expect games very similair to what is on iOS now. There are a lot of games that are more than 'casual' and would benefit from a larger screen/dedicated controller environement.

Even if Apple charged more, say $199 and called it the AppleTV(G) to put in the latest iOS chipset and 64GB of storage, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

But I'm only one guy....

 

[Battlefield Fan]

I do love my Apple TV!

 

[Abobrek]

I think the new Apple TV will focus on gaming, and here's why...

Have we all forgot about Apple announcing first party/third party controller support at WWDC? Since Apple didn't mention it at the iPhone event, I am almost sure Apple has something up their sleeve...

 

[scott911]

I'm far more excited to be following some new apple TV news than rumors on colors of phones... keep it coming MacRumors.

 

[Lance-AR]

I would really like a faster CPU and more RAM to allow other display options when browsing a library. Scrolling down through hundreds of movies one at a time is a bit antiquated. I would also like to see it increase available cache storage so it can cache more META data. Currently, the ATV3 is unable to cache our library so scrolling through, everything you stop on, you have to wait for it to load the image and description.

Bring on the revolution, please.

 

[showme67]

new apple tv box

It's been said many times, but opening this box up to game development would be a great move.

Could the M7 motion chip in the 5s be the missing link for bringing major gaming to apple tv? Opening up the app store to apple tv and using your 5s as the controller could be huge. You just gotta believe that apple will make apple tv a total entertainment hub for your home in the next release. Gaming, streaming, and DVR.

 

[AaronTheYoung]

Could the M7 motion chip in the 5s be the missing link for bringing major gaming to apple tv? Opening up the app store to apple tv and using your 5s as the controller could be huge. You just gotta believe that apple will make apple tv a total entertainment hub for your home in the next release. Gaming, streaming, and DVR.

I'm hoping they do something like this. I'm hoping they TAKE THEIR TIME and really get it right. I'm in no rush and I'll wait for something that takes the living room to the next level.

Things I would want on Apple TV

1. Obviously, more channels
2. Apps
3. iWork and Safari specifically.
4. FaceTime
5. Siri

Give me that Apple and I will die happy.

 

[spicynujac]

The ATV needs more hardware ports, like the first model has. Not everyone is hooking this up to a 74" HDTV with HDMI cables. I bought one for whole house Airplay audio use. And then had to buy third party accessories because there is no analog audio jack on the current model. No 1/8 headphone jack like the ipod/iphone/ipad has. No RCA jacks. Silly.

Fix this and give us the ability to watch HBO content and I'm sold. I will pay any reasonable price for HBO, considering it costs around $80 / month to get via cable (I don't own a TV and have no interest in cable tv, but am required to purchase basic cable, digital cable, and all these other options just to get access to HBO)

Also would love to see an App Store for ATV.

 

[l3it3r]

Add the 64 bit A7 and tack on a few $$ I'll buy one day one.. the 2nd gens I have are getting a little 'old'.. Plus I wouldn't mind selling them on ebay.. they're worth a pretty penny jailbroken

 

[curmudgeon32]

I'm praying for a spec bump, Amazon Prime, Vudu (not necessary), and DEFINITELY a USB port so we can plug in an external drive with movies/pictures.

PLEASE!!!!!

You're definitely not getting Amazon Prime (a huge competitor), and as far as USB, I would be shocked if they took that step backwards since Airplay exists and works quite well. Sounds like your needs would be met a lot better by one of the Roku boxes.

 

[TXCherokee]

Could the M7 motion chip in the 5s be the missing link for bringing major gaming to apple tv? Opening up the app store to apple tv and using your 5s as the controller could be huge. You just gotta believe that apple will make apple tv a total entertainment hub for your home in the next release. Gaming, streaming, and DVR.

I'm hoping so and completely agree. The only TV in my house not connected to an Apple TV has an XBox attached to it, and almost every game on it, as I'm more of a casual gamer, has a respectable iOS version that would look and play even better with a dedicated controller on a big screen.

 

[tshrimp]

The Apple TV has WAY more than 20 channels. Actually it has even more than the Roku. The only difference is that Apple separates out the premium ones and put them on the home screen. The rest of the "channels", Apple calls them "Podcasts". Few people realize that there are a TON of free channels on the Apple TV listed under "Podcasts". Many of the very same ones that the Roku refers to as "channels". Now it's true that the Roku offers some channels that you can't get on the Apple TV like Amazon Prime but it's also true that the Apple TV offers some that you can't get on the Roku like Youtube.

But to claim that the Apple TV has only about 20ish and the Roku has 750 or so means you have fallen prey to their marketing because Apple offers hundreds of channels too if you want to count the non premium ones. They're all available under Podcasts on the Apple TV and there are hundreds of those channels available free of charge.

I have fallen prey to no marketing (and never seen a Roku ad). I own both, and I am correct on the 20ish channels. I just looked and it is 21 to be exact (from Apple). Counting podcasts.....really? http://www.apple.com/appletv/whats-on/

If I had falling prey I would have put what Roku said AppleTV had which they state is 13, and that is not correct. Even Airplay is starting to give messages when I try to use things from iPad that state not supported.

I think the only channels Apple TV has is better ESPN and Youtube over ATV. For Roku there are too many to list as I would get carpel tunnel. And as I stated before ATV is great for Airplay.

 

[psac]

Maybe it will come with a smaller, even easier to lose remote.

 

[dgalvan123]

Skeptical that this is going to happen. But if it did, the only potential hardware improvements i could imagine would be:

-Gigabit ethernet port. (For streaming uncompressed HD home video from my home computer. From iMovie, for example.)
-802.11ac wifi (for same reason as above).

 

[munakib]

Skeptical that this is going to happen. But if it did, the only potential hardware improvements i could imagine would be:

-Gigabit ethernet port. (For streaming uncompressed HD home video from my home computer. From iMovie, for example.)
-802.11ac wifi (for same reason as above).

No way, Apple is going 64bit, 64bit makes everything tremendously fast, I am sure the new AppleTv will have the 64bit chip inside.

/s

 

[mdelvecchio]

I'm praying for a spec bump,

what would this do for you?

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Safari please.

web tv sucks. wont happen. apple's solution is to use an iOS device.

 

[Steve J0bs]

On's tough but off is easy:

1) turn off Apple TV screen saver

2) set Apple TV to sleep after 15 minutes (general)

3) set TV to 'no signal power off' after 15 minutes

Both are auto off after 30 minutes following a viewing

Thanks! Unfortunately my older LED HDTV doesn't have this option. Might need to upgrade the firmware.

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Maybe it will come with a smaller, even easier to lose remote.

I lose that darn thing all the time!

 

[Eduardo1971]

...give us the ability to watch HBO content and I'm sold. I will pay any reasonable price for HBO, considering it costs around $80 / month to get via cable (I don't own a TV and have no interest in cable tv, but am required to purchase basic cable, digital cable, and all these other options just to get access to HBO)...

You do realize that there is an HBOGo application for the Apple TV?

 

[ImAlwaysRight]

New Apple TV's for sure...

I just bought two Gen3 models from the online Apple Store yesterday.

 

[PN4]

If Apple TV gets more APPS, more purchasing power, more "channels" and Pay Per View type things I can see them updating the remote with a fingerprint scanner. They own that technology right now, and it would be another first.

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I also wish they'd make the Remote app a stock app, and/or allow you to put an icon for it in Control Center where the Timer or Calculator links sit now. Love the Camera and LOVE LOVE LOVE the Flashlight, but I've thought for awhile that as ATV grows, it'd be great to have a quick launch to the remote app either on the lock screen like the Camera has been, but now that we have Control Center, it'd make more sense to put it there. It could even be intelligently rigged to only show up when on a network with Apple TVs it can control, which wouldn't be hard to code given that AirPlay knows right away what it can do when it hits a network with ATVs.

Just read this. This is cool. Could also integrate my thought of a fingerprint scanner to help aid purchases instead of trying to type a password/passcode with the damn remote.

 

[AZEric]

M7?

Motion related, with a new remote/controller with a M7 inside? That shared component with the iPhone will help with economies of massive scale!

 

[AgentElliot007]

For those concerned about app storage in only 8GB on board, keep in mind that an TV is fundamentally different from other iOS devices. It is married to a computer somewhere else in the house and it is really about running one "app" at a time. As such, it could store 100 favorite apps on the big hard drive attached to that computer somewhere else in the house and stream whatever app someone wants on the TV screen on demand.

Conceptually, this would be like pulling most of the flash out of an iPad and having it in a separate box attached by a cable. That doesn't make much sense for other iDevices because they are mobile devices. But TV is generally stationary so it's app storage space wouldn't have to be built in.

Or think about it like a fat HD movie library as if they were all individual apps. You don't need all of those movies in that 8GB of space- just one movie streamed over when you want to view it. HD movies and apps are just blocks of data. If one could have dozens or hundreds of GB of data for an on-demand movie library, one could have dozens or hundreds of GB of data as a big collection of apps.

So, unless an app needed more than 8GB at one time (unlikely with any app), it could easily stream it's data from big storage elsewhere in the house. Even a big app such as a very detailed racing game could load tracks between levels by streaming them (much like streaming a HD movie).

I mentioned this earlier, but the reality is that it's not an elegant solution and it'd be quite slow in many cases. Bear in mind, the ATV2 has an A4 chip and the ATV3 has a single-core A5. Think about the more advanced games out now. I have an iPhone 5 and a 4th generation iPad. Some games take a few minutes to install and that's AFTER they're downloaded. Even if we assume that one has a fast home network that can get the app from the computer to the Apple TV efficiently, all that data still needs to be processed. And again, in this case, by an older, weaker, crippled processor or an even weaker, older processor. There's a big difference between streaming a media file that just plays and loading and installing an app that you have to then also run.

Is it possible? Sure, absolutely. But is it elegant? Absolutely not. Do you really think Apple's going to release something that convoluted? Absolutely not. The only way I see apps coming to current Apple TVs is if they release some sort of add on dongle that bumps up storage, but again, given current price points and the fact that this is Apple, I don't see it happening. Plus, there's the control issue.

When we see apps, I expect we'll see a whole new box and a whole new system. The current Apple TV might and probably should live on for those who just want streaming at $99, but for a more comprehensive app solution, they're going to have to really add a lot to the little ATVs we have today. I'm sure they will someday, but in the meantime, I'd put my money on any update providing 802.11ac, slightly improved internals for the hey of it, and perhaps more options to use it like an AirPort Express, such as allowing it to act as a WiFi extender as well as use WiFi-Direct to allow for AirPlay sans a network connection and/or faster AirPlay.

 

[Psychopulse]

Seriously Apple? Looks like the second half of this year is gonna seriously suck.





For my wallet…

 

[spicynujac]

You do realize that there is an HBOGo application for the Apple TV?

As I understand it HBOGo (on any platform, not just iOS/AppleTV) requires a cable subscription, hence the $80+ / month. I want HBO for $15 or so per month without paying anything to Comcast/Time Warner. Steve Jobs could make this happen.

 

[satcomer]

-802.11ac wifi (for same reason as above).

Well they didn't put AC in the new iPhones, you can check yourself. I am getting to think AC is not fully baked yet.