Apple is reportedly planning to launch an upgraded Apple TV box with the A14 chip this year and an upgraded full-sized HomePod speaker based on the S8 chip next year.
In May, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo told us to expect new Apple TV hardware later this year and last week references to a new Siri Remote were discovered.
Apple TV with A14
This weekend, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reported that a new Apple TV with an A14 chip and 4GB of RAM (up from 3GB today) could launch later this year, possibly to coincide with the release of tvOS 16 in the fall.
- "The new Apple TV, code-named J255, is in development with an A14 chip and an additional gigabyte of RAM. That compares with the A12 chip announced as part of the 2021 Apple TV last year and could be useful for additional gaming capabilities rolling out in tvOS 16," wrote Mark Gurman, Bloomberg reporter.
A14 is not quite M1, but M1 is in fact based on the A14 architecture so they share many similarities. It would make Apple TV a more capable box for gaming but it will still lag significantly behind the latest game consoles in GPU raw power.
It is unclear if A14 would allow 120Hz output from Apple TV.
HomePod with S8 chip
Bloomberg's report also detailed a new HomePod, which will apparently run the same S8 chip coming to the new Apple Watch models this year. It will be a full-sized HomePod rather than a new mini model.
The original HomePod can stand alone or be paired to Apple TV as default TV speakers with support for up to Dolby Atmos, wireless game audio, and HDMI eARC (via Apple TV 4K 2021) to can extract audio from the TV's HDMI sources including PS5 and Xbox.
- "The HomePod, code-named B620, will run the same S8 chip coming to the watches and will be closer to the original HomePod in terms of size and audio performance rather than a new HomePod mini. The new HomePod will have an updated display on top and there’s even been some talk of multi-touch functionality."
The report said that the "new HomePod is unlikely to arrive until next year."
Bloomberg has previously reported that Apple is working on combining the Apple TV box with a HomePod speaker, but this product is still in development.
- Source: Bloomberg