Jordan O'BrienApple has yet to make the new Apple TV available to consumers, but 9to5Mac has managed to get its hands on the box ahead of release; revealing a few previously unknown tidbits.
One key feature that will be important to installers is support for wireless headphones and wireless speakers; which is already supported on some other set-top boxes, including the Amazon Fire TV.
While it may not seem like a massive thing to support, Apple’s previous generation TV set-top boxes have excluded support for Bluetooth audio streaming.
Of course that was a major omission, but with this version Apple has omitted the optical audio input, so it needed another way to allow for the transmission of audio.
Users will be able to benefit from Bluetooth audio in numerous ways – whether it’s an entire surround sound speaker set up or maybe they want to push audio through a multi-room system when playing music on their Apple TV.
Wireless headphone support is also significant as it means users will be able to watch TV while their significant other is asleep, without disturbing them.
If the user would prefer not to use wireless headphones, but still needs to make as little noise as possible, then Apple has another option – Night Mode.
Night Mode works by reducing the volume on everything but the speech, meaning users will still be able to clearly hear everything that is being said, while avoiding loud explosions which may wake up the rest of the house.
There isn’t a whole lot of additional information regarding the Apple TV gleamed from 9to5Mac’s short walkthrough of the device.
Of course this is a completely new experience for Apple TV installers, so it may be worthwhile getting familiar with the product before customers start requesting it.