Apple has finally taken the Apple TV out of ‘hobby’ status and loaded it up with features that will appeal to a wider audience.
2nd Generation AppleTV
The new AppleTV model shrinks from 7″ square, for the previous model, to just 3.9″ square and slightly less than 1″ tall. In sharp contrast to the older model, which was essentially a Mac running special software, the new AppleTV is an iOS device running on Apple’s own A4 ARM processor.
The move to an ARM processor means the new AppleTV is much cooler and more power efficient than the older model. Note that the new AppleTV does not have an App Store at this time, though it is nearly certain that it will be jailbroken at some point. Read more
Apple’s A5 will continue to power iDevices into 2012-2013, exist alongside A6
Apple’s next generation of mobile iDevices will be powered principally by A5-class System-on-a-Chip (SoC) hardware, according to Rumors’ sources. The A6 will indeed be introduced next year, as has been long rumored, but may be exclusive to the family of next-generation AppleTV devices at first.
According to sources, the iPhone 5, iPod Touch 5 and iPad 3 will all be powered by a series of chips that, regardless of how they will be marketed by Apple, will be essentially unchanged from the A5 except for clock speed differences and a possible switch of suppliers (thusly, also possibly a switch in manufacturing processes but with little functional effect). Unless the iPad is split into two or more tiers as has been considered for the entire iOS device family more than once in the past and is expected to happen with the AppleTV’s next generation, the A6 is expected to be exclusive in its initial production run to the new AppleTV family. Read more