However, I keep reading that it caches video and the 64GB is great for that. Is that really true though? Has anyone noticed it's caching a lot of video?
It's confusing I know. A lot of people in this thread are describing the Apple TV 4 as if it uses space like a computer. It
doesn’t. Apparently they’re not familiar with Apples technology called "
App Thinning". Apple addresses this clearly in its developer documentation. It's in
a section called Resource Limitations. In a nutshell here's how it works;
Apps downloaded from the App Store have an
initial 200 MB size limit.
However, once the initial app has been downloaded (
200 MB) something called "
prefetched tags" kick in, where up to
2 GB of resources (
per app) can be downloaded automatically in the background. If the app requests it, up to 20GB of on-demand iCloud resources can be requested. If you're running out of internal storage for any reason tvOS reserves the right to
delete your data. You cannot override this. Developers can even set priority for the apps assets, telling tvOS that some assets should be purged before others if another app requests the space.
Every developer that understands how App Thinning works has told me that they have decided to buy the 64GB version. When MacRumors looked into how space was used in the new Apple TV they said "
Apple TV users who plan to play a lot of games or use a lot of resource-heavy apps could potentially find themselves using a large amount of storage, so the 64GB upgrade could be worthwhile." I think that a year from now once people learn more about how App Thinning works, that a lot of them will be buying the 64GB version. I actually think that Apple is keeping people in the dark about this subject, so that they can increase the sales of the ATV later on. They know that people will initially buy the cheaper 32GB version, but then in around a year they will realize it was a mistake, and run out and upgrade to the 64GB version. Apple has now just sold that same person two Apple TV's, and Apple can now honestly say that sales have remained strong.
Because of the app store and a very good developer community, I anticipate that there will be a lot of incredible apps coming to the Apple TV. I know of one developer who is working on a PVR. Imagine all of the cool apps now headed for the new ATV. Because of how App thinning works, and all the new apps headed for the ATV IMO it makes more sense to
play it safe and buy the 64GB version now, instead of paying 150.00 now + 200.00 later on. Either way I'm sure the new Apple TV will become a big hit by the time we all look back a year from now.
