Yeah a Harmony with a keyboard was always on my wishlist but it never happened.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
New Apple TV model
- Thread starter gadget123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
dwrufus53
macrumors 6502a
No issues here with the silver Siri remote with the directional ring. It's actually my favorite remote of all of the Apple TV remotes.
I've simplified my TV setup, and have no need for a Harmony remote any more. Just a Samsung 83" television, an Apple TV 4K and a pair of HomePod minis. The Apple TV remote is perfect for that setup.
I’ll continue to use the model I have. Works fine. Will buy new ones whenever they are released.
Precision finding feature for the remote would be nice. The existing finding feature is just a bit too "You're getting warmer..."
its such a backwards step and attitude to advise people to buy a nearly 4 year old product that wont be as capable as its eventual successor which is highly likely to be a huge leap forward in every way.
i just think the comment is short-sighted and whilst i think the current model is best in class now i think that when the new refreshed upgrade is here with features that the current model cant do it will be a clear choice.
The only hold up has been getting these Siri/Gemini AI features to be tested on TV OS, 26.4 or 26.5 (hopefully not 27) & fully working to avoid a major trust loss....AGAIN.
on the remote i hate the lack of number pad,
which is never going to come,
but in a room with people outside ur household and putting ur pin in to any streaming service (Disney+) its so so obvious and so the lack of the numbers coming up is very redundant
which is never going to come,
but in a room with people outside ur household and putting ur pin in to any streaming service (Disney+) its so so obvious and so the lack of the numbers coming up is very redundant
BMox81
macrumors 65816
Of course it will be the best choice. No-one is suggesting otherwise.
But it doesn’t exist yet. And as such the current model is the best in market and therefore if anyone is wanting to buy an ATV then that is what they should buy.
Premal212
macrumors 6502
Granted it's the only option right now, it's certainly not the most optimal choice.
Four year old technology for ~£150 is not the best choice.
BMox81
macrumors 65816
Four year old technology that bar the Shield Pro (which is even older) runs rings round the rest of the competition. It's still the best choice.
It has a (non-precise) Find My feature? How does one use it? I don't see my remote listed in the Find My app.
I think precision Find My might be overkill unless one is hard of hearing. A tiny speaker that beeps loudly (activated via Siri) should be enough to find it quickly. It's not like the remote ever leaves the home, and usually not even the room.
Yeah I think there would be a full keyboard way before just a number pad (full keyboard is also unlikely), because text is used often for search; a pin is not often needed, or at least shouldn't be. And there is no entering in channel numbers anymore.
It's not in Find My. It's via the remote app on iOS. https://support.apple.com/108371
Sound could work but that might be getting a little complex for the limited space in a remote.
Premal212
macrumors 6502
This is the thing. I wanna buy one as my fire stick is just loaded with ads and so slow.
But 4 year told tech for the same price doesn’t sit right for me.
So I’m just waiting, was hoping for a drop today. But alas nothing.
Huge leap in what way? It's a device for content consumption and the content likely won't be changing much from what's available on the past few models. I think expecting something significant may be setting up for disappointment particularly with how long the wait has dragged out.
But mostly I'm really just having trouble figuring out how AI can really add to the viewing experience.
fire stick?? 🤮 you pour soul.
youre wise to not buy a brand new one at msrp, just buy a 1st gen 4k model cheap on ebay. I've seen them sub $50. fully supported by TVOS 26 (if you consider that a feature).
i have all three generations (4, if you include the HD model) of recent ATVs in use and they all function exactly the same. when the new model drops you can use this one on a secondary TV or use it for travel.
the newest ones have some whistles like Thread support but I use another system for that anyway.
Oh cool thanks, I didn't know that. Or maybe I forgot🤔
A speaker would be pretty tiny and just need a tiny air hole, not too complex and not too big. I don't think it would make any significant difference to the form factor. Neither would a UWB chip, but adding a UWB chip would likely require more technical engineering and cost than a speaker. The other advantage of a speaker over UWB is you don't necessarily need to go grab another device and open an app to track down the remote. Your iDevice could just be within earshot (or more ideally a HomePod is in the room eg. a stereo pair for ATV), and you could just tell Siri to sound the speaker, which is easier and faster.
That's the other thing, unless it's announced you never know what's coming when or if anything is coming at all. You can only truly go with what is available now. But if you think chances are decent that something is coming soon, and it's not urgent, then you can wait it out. Or as someone suggested you can split the difference and compromise with something not the best available or not new but cheaper as a stop gap, with the intention of repurposing or selling when something better comes out. If it were me, and I couldn't wait, I'd probably buy the best available and repurpose or sell it later. But yes, decisions decisions...
no affiliation, but for like $35 for HD version:
or a little more for 4k:
kind of a no brainer. would need to use your phone as remote or source a cheap third party IR remote(~$5), but should hold you over just fine and aave the torture of using a fire stick or onn box or whatever crazy people are still doing in 2026
Apple TV A1625 4th Generation 32GB HD Streamer 4K No Remote 0212-02 | eBay
Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Apple TV A1625 4th Generation 32GB HD Streamer 4K No Remote 0212-02 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!
www.ebay.com
or a little more for 4k:
kind of a no brainer. would need to use your phone as remote or source a cheap third party IR remote(~$5), but should hold you over just fine and aave the torture of using a fire stick or onn box or whatever crazy people are still doing in 2026
Premal212
macrumors 6502
Yeah fire stick is properly grim.
I’ve got the infuse app and all and the UI is soooo slick. Just need the tv now to finalise it all.
Maybe I have to bite the bullet
Based on the long support cycles, I figure the existing model will be supported until 2033 or later and a new model will get OS updates until 2036 or later. The 2015 HD was sold until 2022 and was updated to tvOS 26.
I can wait a few months longer. I need a matter border router soon but my existing Nvidia Shield still works. I don’t plan to replace it for at least five years, hopefully longer.
It's possible that Apple is planning to expand the scope of the next generation Apple TV. From there rumours that we've seen there is quite a lot that suggests that Apple might be about to expand its offerings in the smart home market with rumours of a new HomePod with a display, a security camera, a FaceID doorbell and an updated HomePod mini that some commentators speculate might be getting held back until there is at least something to show from the Google Gemini work. We've also already seen the name change from Apple Homekit to Apple Home that might also be part of an Apple plan to get more market share in the smart home market by making Apple offerings sound more accessible and less technical/geeky.
If Apple is looking to make a bigger push into the smart home market then Apple TV could play a very interesting role as an optional component in a smart home setup. If an ATV isn't there then any Siri requests that can't be processed locally by a HomePod's S-Series processor get passed up to Apple's servers for processing (much like on the more recent S-9 and above Apple Watches today) but if there is an Apple TV is on a user's local network with an AI-capable A-Series SoC in it then that could be running a local LLM so that more requests can be processed locally before needing to hand off to Apple servers. It's obviously not going to be anything like a frontier model but it could disambiguate mangled and/or oblique device names or other entity and/or action references, do some local processing on video feeds etc. That could improve responsiveness for users, give more resilience to network failures, give some people more reassurance about security, and have a benefit for Apple by reducing computational load on its servers.
Maybe I'm in a niche group because I love the concept of smart speakers and use voice for a lot of stuff but I know that others consider then spying devices that are the work of the devil and wouldn't dream of having any in there home. For me at least I would love such a setup - assuming of course that Apple can get the new Siri to perform well - and as time goes on I become more and more worried that we might even be waiting beyond 2026 for that.
The problem is it’s only taken them 10+ years to -not- get the old Siri functional and stable.
With the advent of the HomePods they should have forced every employee to eat the Homekit/Siri dogfood and incentivized getting it right. It’s SO bad, it would be laughable but it’s even not funny at this point. I question if they have the right people and enough focus on it. I guess we’ll see.
Perhaps if the minions at the crashed space ship in Copertino spent more energy chasing results instead of free ice cream and skateboarding to the on site spa/gym/gameroom etc we might see real AI and home automation. Apple has lost a lot of the edge that made it so successful and seem to spend a LOT of energy on USELESS glitter and glitz like the idiotic " Magic Glass " . I still scratch my ( thinning and gray ) head over that hype . Does anybody really care about magic glass ? Might be time for Apple corporate to regroup and examine a lot of its so-called culture and re-emphasize work .