In a talk last night at the Wall Street Journal‘s WSJD Live conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the company’s new Apple TV would begin shipping next week, hitting the promised October deadline.
The new Apple TV brings much faster internals to the box (no 4K output, sadly), but its biggest addition is a full-fledged app store for video streaming apps and games, among other things. A model with 32GB of storage costs $149, and 64GB of storage will run you $199. Apple will continue to sell the third-generation Apple TV for its current price of $69, even though it doesn’t appear to be getting new software updates going forward.
The new Siri Remote is another big improvement. It replaces the simple aluminum remote from years past with a slick black model with a small trackpad at the top that lets users swipe through content. A microphone button lets users pull up Siri and use the personal assistant to bring up content or look up information about what you’re watching. The remote pairs via Bluetooth and its internal li-ion battery charges via a Lightning port on the bottom, and it’s just as important to the revamped Apple TV and tvOS as the box itself.
