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2025 Apple TV 4K: All the Rumors So Far
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Why would Apple make a stick.. when they can sell you an ipad with a 100 dollar AV adapter 😉
A new Apple TV with support for a new CenterStage/FaceTime camera to plug into it might be cool.
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HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Get yourself a good Receiver and some great "dumb" speakers for a surround sound setup that pleases you. Maybe repurpose existing HPs to other rooms for nice music in those rooms.
Plug HDMI from AppleTV into Receiver along with any other sources of audio or video and it all can use the same great speakers you've attached to it.
Modern Receivers will have Airplay too, so you can throw audio right to them vs. going through AppleTV when you might want to listen to anything with TV off.
I don't think Apple aspires to go beyond stereo with HPs. There's never been ONE rumor about it. However, there is abundant surround sound speakers and systems available that can deliver any quality of sound and any volume you could want.
You already have the same "smarts" & "Siri" in iPhone, AppleTV, iPad and/or Mac. Such configs can be setup in HomeKit so you can order Siri to play music in any or all rooms- just like HPs- and it works just as well. I do this all the time myself.
This will let you get what you want NOW vs. waiting & hoping for something that may never come.
A17 Pro might be feasible once Apple are on top of any production issues they might have which are causing iPhone shortages right now.
The hardware AV1 decoding and ray tracing would make for a more important platform for software development and let's not forget this will be in the standard iPhone 16 next year - the AppleTV probably sells in sufficiently low quantities to make it a target for a March launch once the supply chain issues with the 15 Pro models are sorted. There have been a few news lines about initial yield being relatively low for the A17 Pro CPU but with luck that will be fixed later in the cycle and certainly by the time iPhone 16 is launched.
Any cooling issues should be negated by the fact that there's a fan in the AppleTV so games and other apps can run at full speed without having to worry about throttling due to heat.
The perennial issue that Apple will face is lack of software - this thread is coming in the shadow of news that the Microsoft acquisition of Activision Blizzard will now go ahead after the UK Competition Watchdog allowed it. Back in the day Microsoft knew full well that buying Bungie to make Halo the literal Halo product for Xbox would drive sales. They're doing it again to gain control of IP such as Call of Duty.
The thing is, just imagine the price of an AppleTV if Apple offered 512Gb or 1Tb SSD with it - to match the forthcoming PS5 Slim. That's going to be expensive - and without a must-have app or game they won't offer it. Instead they will offer 128Gb or 256Gb amounts of storage, not exactly big enough for AAA gaming.
So instead of going head to head with the gaming giants at Microsoft and Sony maybe Apple are aiming at the casual Nintendo Switch audience? Go big on the multiplayer experience?
From earlier in this thread we can say that the current hardware is already better than the ageing Switch, but there's still no IP like Legend of Zelda or MarioKart. I would say that Apple's Arcade offering at least probably needs to have some decent games to draw people in.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Only if Apple does what Apple usually does NOT do when they get on this "now we're serious about gaming" train: show the developers sizable (at least competitive) subsidy money... like Sony & Microsoft and/or BUYS some established gaming studios for exclusives also like Sony & Microsoft. In short: put sizable money where their mouth is (just like they are doing for movie & tv show exclusive for AppleTV+: big budget + dedicated human talent focused on subsidizing big games and buying and managing gaming studios).
The lack of AAA games on Apple hardware is never about the hardware. It's about the money. It's much more lucrative to develop the big games on the other platforms. Apple doesn't offer any subsidy money and Apple consumers don't want big games to cost more than a dollar or two... nor have in app advertising or add-on purchases... nor any kind of subscriptions.
Where's the attractive revenue to motivate developers to develop for Apple hardware? Resolve this and they will come. Else, the outcome will be the same as it's been the other 4 or 5 times Apple has spun "we're serious this time" in the last couple of decades.
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Feels like the A17 has drawn a bit of a line in the sand in regards to gaming capabilities, with it getting some releases exclusive to the 15Pro models and M1 Mac’s. For that reason I think Apple has to get an Apple TV out with that chip, although I could see them using the split tier approach they’ve done in the past where they had a high and low end model. They have that somewhat already with storage/ethernet/thread differentiating the upper tier to the lower one.
Maybe there’s room to keep the 2023 model on the market as a low cost unit (maybe with a small price drop) and introduce a model with the A17. They could always put the Ethernet and extra storage only on the newer one too (thus keeping the current lower end 2023 Apple TV).
Honestly, without an A17 chip for gaming I’m not sure what a revision needs. The chips in the Apple TVs are also way more than enough for TV apps. Hell my 2015 Apple TV was working perfectly fine with it’s getting on 10 year old processor until I upgraded this year.
Outside of gaming maybe they’d chase 8k, otherwise the box probably is doing everything most people want it to.
Maybe there’s room to keep the 2023 model on the market as a low cost unit (maybe with a small price drop) and introduce a model with the A17. They could always put the Ethernet and extra storage only on the newer one too (thus keeping the current lower end 2023 Apple TV).
Honestly, without an A17 chip for gaming I’m not sure what a revision needs. The chips in the Apple TVs are also way more than enough for TV apps. Hell my 2015 Apple TV was working perfectly fine with it’s getting on 10 year old processor until I upgraded this year.
Outside of gaming maybe they’d chase 8k, otherwise the box probably is doing everything most people want it to.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
This is important.
Only the A17 can decode AV1 in hardware.
It would be a bad joke if a new AppleTV would appear that cannot decode AV1 (in hardware).
It’s called the don’t ”doesn’t bog down my WiFi network with 4k streaming content, gets highest priority, minimum lag” port.seems to me thesetv do not need the
the…
that port we used to reach the internets in the late 90s?
ummm
whats that thin yello or grey rope with plastic cat rg7 plug called again?
It would be easier for developers if Apple settled on only one SoC in multiple versions of a new Apple TV — be it the A16 Bionic or the A17 Pro. Their software would always run on the same SoC no matter which new Apple TV version people owned.
But, if Apple skipped the A16 Bionic and used the A17 Pro, it would be a game changer (no pun intended).
Its implications for the gaming market would be HUGE!
It would certainly turn a lot of heads in the major game developer industry.
It would make Apple TV a gaming platform and marketplace that would be impossible to ignore.
Apple wouldn’t have to provide money, the Money from Sony and Microsoft is basically a promise that it’ll be worth the time to make a game. And Microsoft and Sony sell their consoles at a loss at first just to “get it into customers hands”. Apple could release a “Console” that would support ray tracing and great graphics, and tell developers, once you create the game, you will also be able to recompile it without any extra work to iPhone,iPad, and Mac (at lesser setting) and your game will be in billions of hands on release. Now give us 30%, and developer will be happy.
I think they should make the wifi only model a stick, for one. And definitely keep an Ethernet model around, though I wish it was standard.
Other than that I agree. As is the usual refrain for Apple these days, the hardware is pretty much fine, good even. Work on the software!
M2 or bust. But also... I don't see ANY devs bringing anything to Apple TV... even the side-scrollers/platformers that are awful on an iPhone or iPad touchscreen aren't being ported to tvOS where people would be playing with a controller.
The last quality game that has been released for AppleTV was Wreckfest. And when I look at the games section in the App Store, I see the same games that I saw 5-6 years ago.
The last quality game that has been released for AppleTV was Wreckfest. And when I look at the games section in the App Store, I see the same games that I saw 5-6 years ago.
All I want is Airplay 2 and optical out. It’s the perfect apple music streamer. Also full quality loss less on apple tv. Come on apple. Wake up.
Maybe, but that would be very self defeating.
the vision pro will be about AUD$5000 (straight conversion from USD plus GST) while an ATV can be bought for AUD$200.
Future Vision Pro will go down in price. The 1st ones will likely go to software devs and persons with the disposable incle who want to be 1st.
Well, they haven’t meaningfully updated tvOS in… I want to say ever, but that’s probably too harsh. The latest update made icons smaller and removed the ability to easily turn your tv off for older remotes. I was very impressed with their accomplishment.