After years of speculation and waiting, the new Apple TV will be here in October. Now the questions are what is new and what is missing?
What Is New?
Touchpad Remote
This was one rumor that everyone got right: there is a touchpad on the Apple TV remote. Through a collection of gestures you can control your new Apple TV similar to a dpad.
Gaming
Gaming is a big part of the new Apple TV, bringing both games from your phone to your TV and big name games to the Apple TV.
While this is a new feature for the Apple TV, it still lags behind the Fire TV and Nvidia Shield in number of games. Yet adding gaming to the Apple TV is a huge addition. No longer will you need an Apple TV and a game system if you want to watch iTunes content and play casual games in the living room.
Third-Party Apps
Apple has finally released third-party apps for the Apple TV. Very few new apps were shown, but Apple has released a developer kit so we expect to see a lot of new Apples for the Apple TV over the next few months.
The real benefit to the Apple TV is the fact that if you buy an app for your iPhone and there is an Apple TV version you will get it for free.
Siri and Universal Search
Apple showed off the universal search feature and voice search powered by Siri. Similar to Fire TV, which led the way in voice search for the set-top box market and now Roku, you can find movies and TV shows just by asking for them.
The voice search is currently the most in-depth voice search on the market, allowing you to ask for what episode of a show an actor guest stared in. Currently though only four apps work with the universal search and only iTunes shows up as a place to buy content when you search.
What Is Missing from the New Apple TV?
4K
The Apple TV does not have 4K support. This could be a major drawback over the next year as more and more TVs are 4K. Because we do not expect a new Apple TV every year, it will be at least two or three years before we get an Apple TV with 4K.
With the Roku TV already having 4K and Amazon having filed a patent so they can release a new Fire TV with 4K, this will be a major drawback when you compare the different set-top streaming boxes.
Content
No new video content or video apps were announced at the event. Whereas Apple has a little over a month to bring out more streaming content, it is disappointing to not see any new video content or entertainment apps on the Apple TV at the announcement.
Streaming Service
One of the biggest rumored services was a streaming service similar to Sling TV. A service that would bring you live content in what some said would be an à la carte cable TV replacement. Yet no announcement came and no hints were given about a new streaming service.
While they may still come out with a streaming service, every month they wait is a month more for Sling TV, HBO Now, Showtime Anytime, and others to keep growing and pulling away.
