Good news Apple TV fans. After teasing the fourth-generation Apple TV at this year’s September 9th iPhone-centric event, Apple CEO Tim Cook has officially revealed an availability date on the set-top box. Consumers from all over the world have been waiting for something a little more concrete than an “October” launch from Apple, and it seems to have come courtesy of Cook’s interview at this year’s WSJDLive Conference, who confirmed that orders for the new Apple TV will begin starting next week, on October 26.
Apple initially released details about the new Apple TV unit during the same event that witnessed the introduction of the record-breaking iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s handsets, as well as the November-bound iPad Pro aimed at the professional and educational markets. The fact that the new Apple TV will be a more gaming-centric device, and that it comes with an improved Siri remote and refreshed hardware under the hood, was enough to thrust the new set-top-box onto the shopping list of tech fans.
In addition to announcing that orders for the hardware will start to be taken on October 26, Tim Cook also mentioned that any initial orders placed for the Apple TV will start to ship later the same week as part of an attempt to get the unit into as many living rooms as possible and as quickly as possible. Those looking to purchase the Apple TV 4 can expect a revamped device that will ship with an integrated Apple A8 chipset. There’s also the inclusion of the aforementioned Siri remote that will afford users with the luxury of searching for content on a variety of services by giving voice commands that work through Siri.
As part of the roadmap, Apple has been providing select developers with an Apple TV Developer Kit designed to assist in the production of innovative and unique apps for the device by the time it is launched. The underlying tvOS that powers the Apple TV 4 will come with its own dedicated App Store that should hopefully have a fairly decent range of available apps by the time the product starts landing on doormats in the next ten days.
Apple’s latest iteration of the Apple TV will be priced from $149 for the 32GB version. Those wanting double the storage can expect to part with $199.
(Source: WSJDLive)
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