The New AppleTV

Not sure about the rest of you, but the biggest thing announced yesterday in my view was the new AppleTV, which includes a ton of sorely needed updates. I'm particularly excited about the new AppStore and Siri capabilities. It was a long presentation that I was only half-watching, but did anyone catch whether they intended to extend the TV AppStore to older devices? I have two 3rd generation units currently (one in my son's room and one on the family TV). I will probably buy the new one for the family room and hopefully relegate that old one to the master bedroom.

As a side note, I'm hopeful that Amazon will rollout a Prime Instant Video app. I'd also love to see some kind of app for browsing the local network and streaming video from my NAS. Those two things would allow me to consolidate onto AppleTV entirely and get rid of my other crappy STBs.

My guess that the AppStore is not backward compatible with the older Apple TV's since they announced a new TVoS that is powering the new Apple TV's..

With the API now, I imagine a lot of apps that are present on iOS/OS X will end up on Apple TV as well. The only thing holding me back from getting the Apple TV has been the ability to stream stuff from my NAS.

Well, as I understand it, they're going to continue to sell the older 3rd gen AppleTV at $69. I'd be surprised if they didn't standardize on 'tvOS' across the board if they're still selling the older spec as new product.

Like you, I had initially sworn off AppleTV as I wanted a "do-it-all" STB and I didn't see the need for AppleTV. But I got one with credit card rewards and it really is a nice device - especially once they added AirPlay.

I've had one since the first version with the 100+GB internal disk drive. I like them and I'm glad they are getting attention. The biggest news to me is the improved remote. The old one worked, but it was kind of monotonous to use for some tasks. I'd love NAS and Amazon features. Siri I could care less about personally, but that's just me - others love that stuff. The apps are interesting assuming they end up being stuff I want to use. I'm not a gamer and I don't do twittypages or whatever so hopefully something useful to me comes up - maybe iCal or Mail synced to iCloud with alerts, or on screen caller ID, or an app to view my home CCTV cameras in PIP or something.

I take it you have now been using the new generation ATV.

Will Siri search for anything not subscribed to through iTunes or Apple? i.e.: Netflix (My List), Showtime Anytime (subscribed through DISH) HBO GO (subscribed through DISH). I am thinking she may only do so if both the latter services were subscribed through Apple, and not sure of Netflix at all.

Thanks

I have a 3rd gen Apple TV. I am wondering if it makes sense to upgrade to 4. I have a lot of movies and tv shows purchased from Itunes that I watch and I have Hulu, Amazon Prime, Netflix, CBS and HBO. I'm not a gamer and I can take or leave Siri. Anyone got any good reason for me to upgrade? Speed? Improvements?