iFixit has posted a hardware teardown of the new fourth-generation Apple TV, providing a closer look at the set-top box's A8 chip, flash storage, redesigned power supply with a larger heat sink and other logic board components. The website also provided a teardown of the accompanying Siri Remote.
Under the hood, the new Apple TV features a dual-core, 64-bit Apple A8 chip with 2GB of SK Hynix LPDDR3 SDRAM, custom Apple memory controller, SK Hynix NAND flash storage, Universal Scientific Industrial Wi-Fi module and SMSC USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet controller.
SMSC LAN9730 USB 2.0 to 10/100 Ethernet controller
Apple 338S00057 custom memory controller
Texas Instruments PA61
Fairchild Semiconductor DF25AU 010D 030D
DP2700A1
SK Hynix H2JTEG8VD1BMR 32 GB NAND Flash
NXP 1112 0206 5271B4K
V301 F 57K C6XF G4
The new Apple TV also has a larger heat sink, which is likely a contributing factor to the set-top box's taller form factor. The redesigned power supply is rated at 12V at 0.917A, compared to the third-generation Apple TV's rating of 3.4V at 1.75A. The heat sink is situated above the heat-sensitive logic board.
The teardown of the Siri Remote reveals a ST Microelectronics low-power ARM Cortex-M3 MCU, Qualcomm CSR1010 Bluetooth radio, Texas Instruments low-power digital signal processor, the same Broadcom touch screen controller used in the iPhone 5s/5c and iPad Air, 410 mAh battery and a few other chips.
iFixit gave the new Apple TV a strong repairability score of 8 out of 10, with ten being the easiest to repair, because it has only a few major components, a replaceable power supply and standard Torx screws. It also found the Siri Remote has a wide gap, making it easy to pry apart for repairs.
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"We noticed a distinct lack of cables connecting the power supply to the logic board. We're theorizing the power is either transmitted by magic, or through the heat sink screw posts."
The one quote I remember is during a keynote when he said the back of the computer (The Bondi Blue iMac) looked better than the front of everyone else's computers. Classic Steve :D
Not knowing much about the whole regionalisation of TV, how much of a disadvantage do people in Europe have regarding access to services and shows compared to our American cousins?
Fingers crossed the App Store means we'll finally get BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All4, UKTV Play, etc finally on Apple TV.
What was the reason Apple omitted optical audio out?
Yeah, it's a bit disappointing to me, as well, but then maybe I'm a marginalised case user.
Like the other person replied, a lot of TVs have their own optical out, but I my favourite use of the TV was to airplay music from iTunes on my computer to my home theatre sound system from 2003 which had multiple optical in ports but no HDMI inputs. Basically I had it set up so that I could not have my TV turned on (i.e. not waste electricity) and still have music play.
TL;DR — A lot of my sh*t is outdated and probably needs replaced.
