Apple has had a handful of flashy new products get unveiled over the past couple of months. In September, we first got to lay our eyes on Apple’s first ever foldable iPhone with the iPhone Duo. This month, we got to see the all-new Apple HomeView—Apple’s own smart home hub and answer to the Amazon Echo Show. That’s not all that has been announced, though. We’re getting lots of refreshes and incremental upgrades to already great products. For instance, the fourth generation Apple TV 4K is now available for pre-order.
The Apple TV 4K can be hooked up to any TV to grant it smart features and better integration with your other Apple devices. It’s been priced at $299 and is set to release next month on November 13. That’s not all, however. If you decide to pre-order, you’ll also become eligible to enjoy three months of Apple TV, on the house. A standalone Apple TV subscription normally costs $15 per month in the United States, so this promotion kind of works out to being a $45 discount.
Apple TV vs. Your Smart TV
Nowadays, you’d be pretty strapped to find a new TV for sale from a major retailer that doesn’t have its own smart features. Fire TV Sticks, Roku TV, and Apple TV streaming media players really saw their value in the era when smart TVs were just starting to show up, but not everyone had them. These products served as a quick, easy, and cheap way to upgrade your old “dumb” TV. But in the modern era where every TV is already smart, what is the case for using something like the Apple TV instead.
I’ll tell you. It’s because your smart TV is crap. Now, I don’t know what smart TV you are using, but most manufacturers don’t have the most reliable interfaces. Today’s smart TVs have worse memory and worse processors than what you would find in the new Apple TV 4K. If you’re used to apps crashing on you, libraries of content failing to load, and just an overall sluggish experience when trying to navigate, then you know what I mean. You can instead enjoy an easy breezy time with you TV and the content you watch (in up to 4K mind you) if you use a dedicated Apple TV 4K.
You also get seamless integration between your Apple devices. Easily cast something you’ve brought up on your phone to your TV with AirPlay, use Siri to search for content, and even FaceTime right on your TV.