New Apple TV To Finally Ship Next Week: Watch Out, Amazon Fire TV And Google Chromecast


The new Apple TV was announced in early September, but it looks like we finally have a release date. MacRumors has the news.

“While speaking at tonight’s WSJDLive conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the new Apple TV will begin shipping next week. Apple will begin taking orders for the new set-top box on Monday, October 26 with shipments beginning at the end of the week.”

As MacRumors notes, the new Apple TV features an A8 processor and either 32 or 64GB of storage. In addition, it has support for a complete App Store. Perhaps the most exciting feature is the brand new Siri Remote, which allows users to find all their favorite television shows just by talking into the remote.

Apple TV
The new Apple TV will start appearing in Apple Store retail locations next week. [Photo by Ken Ishi / Getty Images News]

Apple Insider was very impressed with their hands-on time with the new Apple TV.

“From our initial interactions with Apple TV, it appears that the company has finally delivered on the initial premise of upgrading HDTV into the iOS era, with a smooth, attractive interface that’s effortless to navigate.”

The article praises how Apple TV has now become a gaming device. It also talks about the new remote.

“The existing Apple TV’s remote with 4-way directional buttons, Select and Menu is being replaced with an entirely new remote featuring a touchpad area, a button to invoke Siri voice commands, a new Home button, Menu button, and volume buttons to directly control the TV (eliminating the need to go back and forth between the TV remote and the Apple TV remote),” says critic Daniel Eran Dilger.

iPhone 6s
The new Apple TV arrives on the heels of the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, both which have caused software problems for users. [Photo by Daryl Deino]

Apple TV may have a lot of hype and marketing behind it, but it still has competition from devices such as Google’s Chromecast and, especially, Amazon’s updated Fire TV, which now has 4K capabilities. The popular tech site Tom’s Guide liked Amazon’s new device for the most part.

“Overall, the $100 Fire TV is a pretty good value. It delivers 4K content and offers improved voice search, along with the Alexa assistant. The Fire TV also benefits from better parental controls than other set-top boxes. However, the lack of HDR support for video is a bummer, and we wish the universal search function worked with more services.”

The article points out that the Amazon’s Fire TV works the best if you have a 4K television set and an Amazon Prime account. The definite advantage that Amazon’s Fire TV has over Apple TV is that it supports 4K television shows and movies, which are becoming a lot more mainstream due to prices of 4K television sets coming down in price.

There are some who compare Google’s new Chromecast to Apple TV. However, they are really two different devices.

“Though they both allow you to watch content on your TV, their way of doing so couldn’t be more different. The Chromecast is meant to be an inexpensive dongle that links your mobile device with your TV–and it does that exceptionally well. The Apple TV on the other hand is meant to be the new hub of your living room–the iPhone of your TV, if you will–that acts as a device unto itself,” writes Michael Grothaus of Know Your Mobile.

The latest Apple TV is hyped up and comes with a lot of expectations, as Apple products usually do. Let’s hope the software doesn’t cause as many user problems as the latest iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus have. Overall, it looks like Apple is on to another winner.

[Feature photo by Stephan Lam / Getty Images News]

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