Yesterday Apple held their event where they announced a few new products like the iPad Pro tablet, which is big and expensive, as well as Apple TV. Well hot off the heels of Apple debuting their new TV platform, Amazon apparently has a 4K version of Amazon Fire TV that looks to be arriving any day now. Let the set-top box wars begins!
One thing that was pretty interesting yesterday was Apple failing to mention anything related to 4K support with Apple TV. If this is any indication that there won’t be 4K support when it hits store shelves, that isn’t the best start for Apple TV. All the other hardware specs are pretty much on par with what’s already available.
Amazon has apparently been busy themselves, making a 4K version of Amazon Fire TV. This new box will have 4K output support right from the get go as well as Amazon Prime Instant Video access to help sweeten the deal a bit more. The new Amazon Fire TV version was spotted over on the FCC’s website getting approval. Also of note is the fact that the previous version of Fire TV is no longer in stock here in the US, suggesting even further that this new 4K version will be launching soon.
The FCC report also showed some other interesting tidbits of information, such as 4K video streaming support and a microSD card slot to expand storage. On the downside of things, the report has the new Amazon Fire TV listed as 2.4GHz only, instead of dual-band for its Wi-Fi. This is especially strange since the original Fire TV was dual-band.
All of this is based off of the latest FCC report so that doesn’t mean there won’t be some additions before the launch of Amazon’s 4K Fire TV. As for Apple TV and the lack of 4K support mentioned, that will most likely come in the near future, probably after the initial launch. It might be a bit late for that though.
Source: FCC | Pocket-Lint
