Ross Rubin
| November 24, 2021
| Topic: Processors
Apple TV 4K (2021) review: Great, but don’t rush to upgrade
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Almost 50 years ago, buyers of the Magnavox Odyssey connected the first home video game system to their televisions and ushered in an era that promised to expand the television into a screen for virtually any kind of information, communication, or entertainment. Such services would indeed permeate screens in the home, but they would come through the PC and then the smartphone. Meanwhile, while a whole host of devices have connected to TVs over the years such as cable boxes, TiVos, DVD players, PlayStations, Rokus, and Apple TVs, the content has stayed tied to video and video games. Products that have focused beyond that, most notably WebTV, failed.
But the fight has not been abandoned. A simple Google Chromecast+ can summon the Google Play library to your living room. But the breakout niches have naturally been more visual. These have included checking security cameras tied into various smart home ecosystems (usually not must-see TV) and the digital art collections offered on Samsung’s The Frame TV. Beyond that, short-form video apps have started their breakthrough. Samsung created its portrait-orientation Sero TV, for example, with apps such as Instagram and TikTok in mind. Samsung also took the lead in making the TV a hub for its wellness service as opposed to Apple, which has centered it on the Apple Watch, and Meta, which has done so on its VR headset.
Hardware
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Intel
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ARM
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Artificial Intelligence
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Innovation