This session starts out by reviewing the third-party smart home devices for HomeView, their pricing, capabilities, and how they compare with more established options. TextExpander’s new free tier sparks a discussion of its limitations, business strategy, and competition from TextBlaze, Typinator, and Apple’s built-in text replacement. snippet restrictions, practical applications, and whether the free offering is worthwhile are examined by the panel. They also explore Apple’s HomeView ecosystem, Matter and Thread compatibility, third-party smart home devices, and the importance of privacy.
Apple’s new HomeView takes center stage (no pun intended) as the panel examines its design, features, pricing, and potential role in the smart home. From tabletop and wall-mounted models to HomeKit integration, FaceTime, calendars, and home automation, the discussion explores practical uses and limitations. Panelists who have already ordered HomeView share their buying decisions, while […]
A Apple lançou na semana passada, após anos de espera, uma nova Apple TV 4K — mais precisamente, a quarta geração do produto.
Abaixo, vamos conferir como a nova Apple TV 4K se compara ao modelo anterior, de terceira geração, lançado em 2022.
Design
De relance, ambos os modelos têm virtualmente o mesmo visual, formato e cor. Para não dizer que absolutamente nada mudou, a luz indicadora de status branca está agora centralizada na parte frontal da nova Apple TV 4K.
Divulgação/Apple
Na ponta do lápis, o modelo mais recente tem algumas ligeiras mudanças nas dimensões.
Já o Siri Remote que acompanha ambos os modelos tem as mesmas dimensões (136mm de altura, 35mm de largura e 9,25mm de espessura), com exceção do peso: 69,6g na versão mais recente e 66g na anterior.
Especificações
Uma das principais mudanças é, naturalmente, um novo chip. A nova Apple TV 4K conta com o A19, o mesmo que estreou nos iPhones 17 no ano passado. A Apple TV 4K de terceira geração, por sua vez, trazia o chip A15 Bionic, lançado em 2021.
A Apple afirma que o novo chip “oferece desempenho de CPU 1Central processing unit, ou unidade central de processamento. até 50% mais rápido e de GPU 2Graphics processing unit, ou unidade de processamento gráfico. até 2x mais rápido”, o que resulta em “maior responsividade, navegação mais ágil e animações mais fluidas”. O A19 também inclui um novo decodificador AV1 dedicado, que possibilita “streaming de alta qualidade e maior eficiência, consumindo menos largura de banda”.
Divulgação/Apple
Em matéria de armazenamento, enquanto a Apple TV antiga possuía opções de 64GB (modelo Wi-Fi) e 128GB (modelo Wi-Fi + Ethernet), a nova Apple TV 4K vem apenas com 128GB — a versão de 64GB, portanto, saiu de cena.
Ademais, com relação à memória, a nova Apple TV 4K tem 8GB, ante os 4GB no modelo anterior.
Recursos
Entre os recursos, o destaque vai para a Siri AI, que permitirá funções como “compreensão de contexto pessoal, amplo conhecimento geral e a capacidade de realizar ainda mais ações em aplicativos em todo o sistema”.
Embora a Siri AI estreie na nova Apple TV 4K, ela também chegará aos modelos de segunda e terceira gerações. Ainda assim, é de se esperar que a assistente tenha uma resposta mais rápida no hardware mais recente com o chip A19.
Divulgação/Apple
Uma melhoria exclusiva da Apple TV 4K de quarta geração é a inclusão de um conjunto de três microfones com isolamento de voz integrado ao próprio aparelho, o que permite interações sem o uso das mãos, como chamar a assistente dizendo “Siri” ou “E aí, Siri”, sem a necessidade de ter o controle remoto por perto.
Além disso, se você tem vários HomePods em casa ou planeja investir bastante no ecossistema de casa inteligente da Apple, a Apple TV 4K de quarta geração traz um novo recurso de som surround.
Divulgação/Apple
Com o HomePod mini 2 ou o HomePod de segunda geração, a Apple TV 4K permitirá uma experiência de som surround com quatro alto-falantes. Segundo a Apple, “os quatro alto-falantes trabalham em conjunto com a Apple TV 4K para reconhecer de forma inteligente suas posições no ambiente, permitindo que o timing e os níveis de áudio sejam calibrados automaticamente para o espaço”.
Siri Remote
Embora o Siri Remote não tenha sofrido mudanças externas, como vimos acima, ele foi atualizado para funcionar com o recurso Buscar (Find My) com a Busca Precisa (Precision Finding).
Com isso, ao perder o Siri Remote, você poderá receber orientações passo a passo para chegar até ele. Ademais, graças a um novo alto-falante integrado, você pode até reproduzir um som no controle para ajudar a encontrá-lo.
Divulgação/Apple
Ainda que venha com a Apple TV 4K de quarta geração, o novo Siri Remote é compatível com modelos mais antigos da set-top box.
Conectividade
No que diz respeito à conectividade sem fio, a Apple TV 4K de quarta geração tem suporte a Wi-Fi 7 (uma evolução em relação ao Wi-Fi 6 do modelo anterior), Bluetooth 6 (ante o Bluetooth 5.0) e Thread (anteriormente limitado ao modelo de 128GB).
Acredita-se que essas atualizações decorram da inclusão do chip sem fio N1, da Apple, embora isso não tenha sido confirmado oficialmente.
Além disso, a porta Gigabit Ethernet agora vem de fábrica na Apple TV 4K de quarta geração. Anteriormente, a porta não estava presente no modelo básico de 64GB.
Preço
Talvez uma das diferenças mais pertinentes entre o novo modelo e seu antecessor seja o preço: no Brasil, a nova Apple TV 4K custa R$3.600 (US$300 nos Estados Unidos e 350€ em Portugal).
Trata-se de um aumento considerável ao levar em conta que o modelo anterior partia de R$2.500 no Brasil (US$200 nos EUA e 170€ em Portugal).
Já disponível em pré-venda (exceto no Brasil, pois ainda precisa ser homologada pela Anatel), a Apple TV 4K chegará às lojas em 13 de novembro.
Apple TV 4K (3ª geração)
Armazenamento: 64GB ou 128GB Conectividade: Wi-Fi ou Wi-Fi + Ethernet
NOTA DE TRANSPARÊNCIA: O MacMagazine recebe uma pequena comissão sobre vendas concluídas por meio de links deste post, mas você, como consumidor, não paga nada a mais pelos produtos/serviços ao usar os nossos links de afiliado.
Notas de rodapé
1
Central processing unit, ou unidade central de processamento.
2
Graphics processing unit, ou unidade de processamento gráfico.
I had a simple task that involved Apple Home. If you use Apple Home, you know what happened next. Tears, frustration, the arrival of batteries, paperclips pushed into hard-to-reach holes, many online searches, and—if you are lucky, as I was—success.
Siri, am I lazy?
My goal was straightforward: can I know if the garage door is open without going to look? Early in the pandemic, we occasionally forgot to close it. While there was a locked door between the garage and the house, it still felt like we were playing with fire, as someone could steal a bike or other lesser goodies from the garage.1 The garage is on our basement floor (ground level on one half of the house), and the last thing I enjoy doing at night is walking downstairs before bed to check the door.2
I purchased an Eve Door & Window Contact Sensor to have this capability reported by Apple Home, joining a growing set of HomeKit devices, including our front-door deadbolt. Because of our old-style single-piece swing-up garage door, I had a heck of a time finding the right place and right adhesive to stick the sensor where it was close enough for the two components to register.
The red-on-pink Characteristic is Shortcuts tells me it couldn’t read anything back from the sensor.
I spent enough time on the vagaries of physics and materials that I was probably more frustrated than I needed to be when I tried to make a workflow with the danged thing. An Automation wouldn’t work because I wanted an alert, not for the sensor to trigger other Home devices. A Shortcut should have worked, but after many hours of trying over weeks, I was unable to get anything reliable to happen. The Automation was quite simple: at 9 p.m., check the state of the sensor, and send me a message if the sensor shows Open rather than Closed. I left it in place and walked away for literally years.
After recently installing a back-driveway camera, I was determined to get this sensor online.3 First, I replaced the battery, which had died during my period of disinterest. The Eve sensor uses a weird, tiny battery: a 3.6V 1/2 AA (ER14250). After that arrived, using some better adhesive—thin-film 3M 468MP—I positioned the sensor pieces in a better location and more securely.
Now it should work! Except that after adding it, I saw Characteristic in red text on a pink background in Shortcuts. Some online research led me to reset the sensor by inserting a paperclip into a hole I hadn’t noticed. After re-pairing the sensor, I was in business! Or was I?! The sensor wasn’t responding, despite recent status updates.
Threading the sensor through the house needle
The working Shortcut tests for the garage door sensor‘s state being Open or Closed, and acts accordingly.
This led me to the next culprit: the garage is too far away (one floor and the other end of the house) from my Apple TV, which acts as a Matter controller, while the Eve sensor relies on Thread as its communication protocol. What’s a Matter controller?4 And what’s Thread?
Matter is an overarching standard, painstakingly developed even as low-power sensing devices and other equipment proliferated in silos. Matter enables Amazon Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, and Samsung SmartThings devices to communicate across a network, regardless of the network transport medium (Ethernet, Thread, or Wi-Fi). This prevents you from needing ecosystem-specific hubs and lets manufacturers build to a common standard.
Thread fits into this mix as a low-power, wireless networking standard for sensors, allowing them to communicate their status without rapidly draining their batteries, as would happen with Wi-Fi.5 Apple initially supported Thread with a proprietary standard, HomeKit-over-Thread, and later added direct Matter support. The Eve sensor was just old enough that it was running on the older standard, but the Eve app allowed me to apply a firmware upgrade. I could then migrate the sensor to Matter, which seems to be more reliable.
Apple made things a little confusing here, too. The 1st-generation Apple TV 4K supports Matter, but lacks a Thread radio, so it can’t work with Thread-based devices. The 2nd generation added that radio, so you can do Matter over Thread. But then, with the 3rd generation, Apple bifurcated Thread hardware support: the 64 GB Wi-Fi only model lacks a Thread radio; you have to spend the now-whopping $249 for a 128 GB Wi-Fi + Ethernet version if you want to use Thread.
Failing an Apple TV 4K with Thread, you can use a Thread border router (TBR), which sometimes comes with sensor kits. This plugs into your network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet and bridges to the Thread network, allowing the Apple TV’s Matter controller to work with the Home app on your devices for automations, notifications, and so forth.
It’s that easy, folks. Sigh.
I do own a 3rd-generation Apple TV 4K with Wi-Fi + Ethernet, because I am a fancy man and a big spender, but I really wanted the reliability of plugging it into my Ethernet network. Yet, I couldn’t get the Eve sensor’s Thread radio to reach across my house to talk to the Apple TV. I bought a TBR, thinking it would solve the problem.
By the time the TBR was delivered, however, the garage door sensor magically connected via Thread to the Apple TV and has been rock solid. The TBR that arrived, on the other hand, I was unable to pair and get working, so back it goes for a refund.
Now my nightly Shortcut works! The only fly in that ointment is that the sensor status reports as Closed or Open in iOS and iPadOS, but as 0 (closed) or 1 (open) in the macOS Home app, in both macOS 26 and the beta of 27. I can live with running the Shortcut from my phone.
Shortcuts in macOS can’t seem to read the Home sensor’s text labels of Open and Closed, seeing 1 and 0 instead.
[Got a question for the column? You can email glenn@sixcolors.com or use/glennin our subscriber-only Discord community.]
Bikes were in short supply and sold at outrageous prices in the early pandemic, partly because supply chains to import new ones were halted. Then, there was a glut when life allegedly returned to normal. ↩
I mean, I don’t enjoy doing it as the final thing of the evening. English is complicated. The last thing I enjoy doing before bed is some crossword puzzles while listening to a podcast. ↩
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