Apple TV releases revolutionary redesign

By: Jason Rathjen

Apple is world renowned for its innovation in the phone, tablet and computer world, and is now poised to tackle television by offering a significant upgrade in its streaming box called Apple TV, a device that can instantly open up ordinary television to a world of apps and movies.

The newest version of Apple TV has a redesigned operating system, tvOS, that is much more user friendly and interactive than its predecessor. The new streaming box also offers the ability to download apps onto the box. This opens up the opportunity for developers in the Apple Developer program to make your TV even more like a phone or tablet.

Siri also was integrated into the newest edition, which makes the movie search process virtually effortless. Users can also ask Siri what someone said in a movie or show, and she will rewind the show and slap on subtitles so that you can see exactly what was said.

The only drawback that I found was that the Apple TV is not able to stream with 4K resolution, which I feel is not that important considering a fraction of the market even has the ability to project 4K pictures. Apple’s competitors, Roku and Amazon, also offer streaming boxes that do offer the ability to stream in 4K.

Roku recently released the Roku 4 ($129), which I found to be very similar to the Roku 3. The only difference being the 4K streaming ability. Amazon offers the Amazon Fire TV ($99), which has not cracked into the market like Apple and Roku have. The newest version has a voice system similar to Siri and access to select TV channels without a subscription to any TV provider.

Overall, Apple TV takes the cake and the other two’s lunch money. Even without the ability to stream in 4K, the opportunity that Apple TV has with being open to the Apple developer community is huge. Roku is a good streaming box, but from my experience with the Roku 2, the interface can be a little confusing and inefficient. I do not have any experience with Amazon Fire TV, but I don’t see anything that would put it in front of Apple’s revolutionary release.

Apple TV is offered with two storage sizes, 32GB ($149) and 64GB ($199).