Apple TV 4K 2026
Apple (video, Hacker News, MacRumors, Six Colors):
Apple today announced the next generation of Apple TV 4K, delivering its most immersive home theater experience yet. The new Apple TV 4K features Siri AI, an entirely new version of Siri powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence, transforming how users search for, discover, and enjoy their favorite movies and TV shows through a full-screen Siri AI experience. With built-in far-field microphones, Apple TV 4K also lets users talk to Siri completely hands-free.
[…]
The A19 chip in the new Apple TV 4K delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous generation, for greater responsiveness, faster navigation, and smoother animations. The A19 chip also includes a new, dedicated AV1 decoder, enabling more efficient, high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth.
The new Siri Remote keeps its familiar design while adding Find My support with Precision Finding and an option to play a sound on the remote — making it far easier to locate.
The price is now $299. Apple TV doesn’t get updated very often, so if you need one I guess now is the time to buy.
But I’ve really soured on this product. The software design is worse than when I bought it. I just want a basic interface like the iTunes column browser. Instead, we get all this extra stuff so that the text I care about is secondary, truncated, and obscured. It seems designed to hide the content I want to see, and which I am in the middle of watching, while constantly promoting what Apple wants me to watch. The search has always been bad and is still bad. The main thing it’s supposed to do is play video, and lately that’s been failing, too. It either won’t play at all or it’ll play for a while, and then after a commercial break it will switch to a different episode.
I’m considering just getting a $40 Fire TV Stick to see whether things are any better over there. Maybe the privacy is worse, but I have to weigh that against the product actually working. We watch TV to relax in the evening, and instead I keep getting agitated that either it didn’t work at all or we had to go through hassles like logging in again or rebooting. I would miss the screensaver, though.
Previously:
HomeView
HomePod mini 2
Siri AI Ships (But Still Beta)
Ads When You Start Your Fire TV
Apple TV 4K 2022
An Unsolicited Streaming App Spec
Apple TV App for Amazon Fire TV
Update (2026-10-14): Joe Rossignol:
Here are 11 changes coming with the new Apple TV[…]
Scott:
Oh, yeah, one more thing: does the $300 Apple TV have a USB C port for UVC cams, for FaceTime/vidconf apps.
If not, why not? Really fucking stupid if it doesn’t, especially at that price. The chipset and OS HAVE the capability.
It does not.
Maynard Handley:
1. There is nothing compelling here for existing owners.
2. The price is so high compared to Roku or Fire that it’s hard to justify telling friends to upgrade for the better experience.
Apple should probably, at the very least, have kept the existing 64GB box at a lower price point, and bundled in a year of Apple TV+, to work with market.
[…]
It’s about “WTF is Apple thinking? Who is this targeted at?”
We have three products released today all of which look like flailing.
[…]
I’ve been on team Apple (customer and employee) since 1990. This is the first time (even including the Wired Pray cover days) that I feel genuinely worried that Apple is fumbling the future.
Joe Rosensteel:
I don’t understand the direction the team working on the Apple TV has been given. I know people are excited by it, because they’ve been waiting to buy the best one, and cycle the old ones down to lesser TVs in their homes, but this update is going to be around next year and the year after so it’s worth thinking about it from that point of view. What will you get out of this when it isn’t just “new”? A microphone array? Chip bumps?
Asleep at the jog wheel.
https://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/10/13/apple-tv-4k-2026/
Michael Tsai (Unofficial)
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2026-10-16 08:10:50 UTC
Author Public Key
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wss://relay.primal.netPublished at
2026-10-16 08:10:50 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "Apple TV 4K 2026\n\nApple (video, Hacker News, MacRumors, Six Colors):\nApple today announced the next generation of Apple TV 4K, delivering its most immersive home theater experience yet. The new Apple TV 4K features Siri AI, an entirely new version of Siri powered by the next generation of Apple Intelligence, transforming how users search for, discover, and enjoy their favorite movies and TV shows through a full-screen Siri AI experience. With built-in far-field microphones, Apple TV 4K also lets users talk to Siri completely hands-free.\n[…]\nThe A19 chip in the new Apple TV 4K delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance and up to 2x faster GPU performance than the previous generation, for greater responsiveness, faster navigation, and smoother animations. The A19 chip also includes a new, dedicated AV1 decoder, enabling more efficient, high-quality streaming while using less bandwidth.\nThe new Siri Remote keeps its familiar design while adding Find My support with Precision Finding and an option to play a sound on the remote — making it far easier to locate.\nThe price is now $299. Apple TV doesn’t get updated very often, so if you need one I guess now is the time to buy.\nBut I’ve really soured on this product. The software design is worse than when I bought it. I just want a basic interface like the iTunes column browser. Instead, we get all this extra stuff so that the text I care about is secondary, truncated, and obscured. It seems designed to hide the content I want to see, and which I am in the middle of watching, while constantly promoting what Apple wants me to watch. The search has always been bad and is still bad. The main thing it’s supposed to do is play video, and lately that’s been failing, too. It either won’t play at all or it’ll play for a while, and then after a commercial break it will switch to a different episode.\nI’m considering just getting a $40 Fire TV Stick to see whether things are any better over there. Maybe the privacy is worse, but I have to weigh that against the product actually working. We watch TV to relax in the evening, and instead I keep getting agitated that either it didn’t work at all or we had to go through hassles like logging in again or rebooting. I would miss the screensaver, though.\nPreviously:\nHomeView\nHomePod mini 2\nSiri AI Ships (But Still Beta)\nAds When You Start Your Fire TV\nApple TV 4K 2022\nAn Unsolicited Streaming App Spec\nApple TV App for Amazon Fire TV\nUpdate (2026-10-14): Joe Rossignol:\nHere are 11 changes coming with the new Apple TV[…]\nScott:\nOh, yeah, one more thing: does the $300 Apple TV have a USB C port for UVC cams, for FaceTime/vidconf apps.\nIf not, why not? Really fucking stupid if it doesn’t, especially at that price. The chipset and OS HAVE the capability.\nIt does not.\nMaynard Handley:\n1. There is nothing compelling here for existing owners.\n2. The price is so high compared to Roku or Fire that it’s hard to justify telling friends to upgrade for the better experience.\nApple should probably, at the very least, have kept the existing 64GB box at a lower price point, and bundled in a year of Apple TV+, to work with market.\n[…]\nIt’s about “WTF is Apple thinking? Who is this targeted at?”\nWe have three products released today all of which look like flailing.\n[…]\nI’ve been on team Apple (customer and employee) since 1990. This is the first time (even including the Wired Pray cover days) that I feel genuinely worried that Apple is fumbling the future.\nJoe Rosensteel:\nI don’t understand the direction the team working on the Apple TV has been given. I know people are excited by it, because they’ve been waiting to buy the best one, and cycle the old ones down to lesser TVs in their homes, but this update is going to be around next year and the year after so it’s worth thinking about it from that point of view. What will you get out of this when it isn’t just “new”? A microphone array? Chip bumps?\nAsleep at the jog wheel.\n\nhttps://mjtsai.com/blog/2026/10/13/apple-tv-4k-2026/",
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