Apple made a surprise announcement this morning with the reveal of a pair of new 2022 Apple TV 4K models. The new Apple TV gains more power, more storage, more video capabilities, and, most surprisingly of all, a huge price drop from $179 to $129. That, for the first time, makes Apple’s streaming device less expensive than Amazon’s flagship streaming device, the Fire TV Cube. Read more ›
Just a quick heads up that Apple has made the first season of its original series For All Mankind available for free for a limited time. The series is well-reviewed with a 91% fresh score on Rotten Tomato and a 7.9 star rating on IMDb. The series depicts the events of an alternative version of 1969 where the Soviet Union beat the United States to the Moon and the space race continued on for decades. You don’t need to sign up for a trial to watch the series, but you do need to log into the Apple TV app with a free Apple account before watching. The entire 10-episode first season is free to watch and the series just debuted its third season this week.
Amazon has announced that its line of Fire TV Smart TVs, the Omni Series and 4-Series, will be gaining several new features “over the coming weeks.” One of those features is Apple AirPlay 2 support, which allows iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac owners to easily mirror and cast their screen to the TV. Along with AirPlay 2 will come support for Apple Homekit, which allows for basic control of the TV through Apple’s voice assistant Siri. Amazon also says its TVs will also gain support for Alexa Home Theater groups, which allows you to use Echo devices as wireless speakers. The list of compatible Echos is, unfortunately, smaller with these TVs than with other Fire TV models, and includes only the Echo Studio, Echo (3rd & 4th Gen), Echo Dot (4th Gen), and Echo Plus (2nd Gen). Lastly, only the Fire TV Omni is also getting access to Zoom video calls soon, when you connect a USB webcam. These features are expected to be available later this month.
A recent update has brought support for Dolby Atmos surround sound audio to the Apple TV app on Fire TV devices. Reddit user TFLK reports the discovery and notes that the Japanese listing for the Fire TV Stick 4K Max now mentions Dolby Atmos supported on the Apple TV app. When the Apple TV app first launched on Fire TV devices in 2019, it did so without support for Dolby Atmos or Dolby Vision. Support for Dolby Vision was added about a year ago and now it’s finally being rounded out with support for Dolby Atmos. I don’t currently have an Apple TV account to verify the claim, so please help others by commenting below if Atmos works in the Apple TV app and on which Fire TV model.
Amazon has announced that Fire TV Smart TVs from Toshiba and Insignia are gaining support for Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. AirPlay will allow iPhone, iPad, iPod, and Mac owners to cast content from their Apple devices directly onto the TVs. HomeKit support will allow Fire TV Smart TVs to be controlled by Siri. Support is rolling out to 2020 models now and will come to other Fire TV Smart TV models in the future. Read more ›
One of the most interesting new features added recently to the new Apple TV 4K and the previous generation is the ability to calibrate the screen using the front sensors on an iPhone. Professional television calibrator Vincent Teoh, who runs the great YouTube channel HDTVTest has put the new Apple TV calibration feature through its paces in his latest video. He found that in several cases the Apple TV calibration feature made color accuracy worse, even going as far as to shift the color output of a $40K mastering monitor used by the film and broadcast industry as a reference. In some cases where the calibration feature did improve color accuracy, it degraded the image quality in other ways. Read more ›
Apple has announced an update to the aging Apple TV 4K, which debuted back in 2017. The new Apple TV 4K finally ditches the much-hated touchpad remote for an all-new remote with a traditional circular directional button pad. The Apple TV for 2021 is now powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic process which allows it to support 60 FPS Dolby Vision video playback. Read more ›
Roku is starting to roll out Roku OS version 9.4 and the big new feature is the addition of Apple Airplay 2 and HomeKit support. AirPlay allows users to cast video from an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to a supported Roku device, providing a decent alternative to Apple’s own Apple TV hardware and a new way to watch HBO Max on Rokus, since the app is still not available on the platform. HomeKit support allows for control of compatible Roku devices through Siri voice commands and Apple’s Home app. Read more ›
Netflix has confirmed to The Verge that they’ve dropped support for Apple AirPlay entirely. This means that iPhone and iPad users can no longer use their mobile device to cast Netflix content to Apple TVs, as well as smart TVs that will support the upcoming AirPlay 2 expansion that includes Samsung, LG, Vizio, and Sony TVs. This does not affect Fire TVs, so it’s still possible to use an iOS or Android device to start playing Netflix content on any Fire TV that has the Netflix app installed. Read more ›
At an event that focused mostly on TV, Apple announced a new TV app that is coming to 3rd-party devices, like the Amazon Fire TV, as well as several new streaming services with both new and existing content. In a sense, Apple has packed their new Apple TV interface into an upcoming app that will make it possible to access Apple’s television offerings without buying their hardware. While most of what Apple announced isn’t new to the streaming industry a whole, it does give Fire TV owners a new way to access content, so it’s worth understanding. Here’s a breakdown of what we know about the upcoming Apple TV app. Read more ›
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