It’s not game over for Apple TV — yet – AppleTV 4 Jailbreak (appletv4jailbreak.com)
Every day. That’s how often I use an Apple TV. I have three at home, and one of them always comes with me on vacations. As I type this, my TV is displaying one of those amazing Aerial screen savers (of the Great Wall of China, by the way). I use Apple TV all of the time; that’s how I know it needs to get better.
Apple TV is an interesting product in Apple’s line-up. For much of its lifespan, it was considered a “hobby.” That’s Apple CEO Tim’s Cook’s word. Though Apple execs never marketed the device as strongly as they do iPhones and Macs, personally, I was sold the moment iOS supported AirPlay for Apple TV.
Sure, every major platform ecosystem now has the capability to stream images and video to another device hooked up to a TV, but the ability to do so on the Apple TV debuted almost seven years ago. For me, AirPlay has always the best way to easily display movies and photos on an HDTV, and it was the only way to get iTunes content onto a TV.
The integration with other Apple products through AirPlay has been an important feature check for those in the Apple ecosystem. Whenever I considered the alternatives, — everything from Google Chromecast to Roku and the Amazon Fire Stick — the fact that I stored my content in iTunes and the convenience of AirPlay gave Apple TV the edge.
Software updates, yes. But…
As of now, the Apple TV hardware hasn’t been updated in 520-plus days and counting. The current model arrived in October 2015. Usually, I’m not concerned about the length of time between updates. Apple has a solid history of supporting its hardware lines with consistent software updates. Case in point: An update for Apple TV arrived on Monday, eliminating the “scrolling through long lists” issue I would have complained about.
So it’s not as if Apple has abandoned its hobby, like so many Android devices that won’t see any updates long before their usefulness is over. Despite a dearth of hardware updates, new features, security updates, and bug fixes continue to trickle in for Apple TV.
But there are some things software can’t fix, and Apple under Cook seems to have but one priority when it comes to regular hardware updates — the lucrative iPhone line. Given the revenue the iPhone brings in, this makes sense.
But when you consider other products like the Mac Pro — which hasn’t been updated now in three years — and the Mac mini, the question becomes: What’s going on here?
To be blunt, I’m concerned that Apple TV is a core product that is being ignored in an era of increased competition from smaller and cheaper alternatives.
The iPhone — the “corest” of Apple products — is safe from being outgunned by competition because every resource at Apple is dedicated to it. The Mac notebook and iMac lines are beholden to Intel’s processor launch schedules, but remain more or less competitive…
https://www.computerworld.com/article/3186849/it-s-not-game-over-for-apple-tv-yet.html
AppleTV 4 Jailbreak (appletv4jailbreak.com)
