Apple sees movies and shows as a new avenue of
growth – the company is already producing shows and is even rumored to be
bidding on the James Bond movie rights. But to make that work, it will need to
update the Apple TV, which hasn’t seen a refersh since 2015.
So feast your eyes on the Apple TV 4K – the main
upgrade should be obvious, but HDR is also a part of it. Specifically, HDR10
and Dolby Vision, which are the two predominant HDR formats right now and are
seeing support from major streaming sites like Netflix and Amazon.
Cupertino has also partnered with big movie studios
to provide more content. But it won't charge more - the 4K movies will cost as
much as HD video. And if you've already bought a movie in HD, it will be
automatically updated to 4K resolution for free!
The Apple TV 4K also allows you to consume live
media - from live sports to live news. To make sure you can really ditch your
TV, Apple will provide local content.
The Apple TV app is expanding - Australia and Canada
will be added later this month, 5 more countries later this year. The app will
also run on iPhones and iPads but their collaboration runs deeper - you can
control the HomePod from the Apple TV!
The TV 4K will go on pre-order on September 15 and
will go on sale on the 22nd. The 32GB model will cost US$ 180, the 64GB is US$ 200.
The older model is still available for US$ 150 (with 32GB storage). For the geeks,
here's news on the new hardware - it uses the Apple A10X Fusion chipset from
the outgoing iPad Pros. It has double the CPU performance and four times the
GPU performance.
