Apple TV with A14 & new HomePod with Apple Watch S8 chip rumored for 2023

Apple's next model of Apple TV will use the A14 chip and be more gaming-capable, according to a report, while a new third HomePod could use the same chip as the Apple Watch Series 8.

Apple stayed relatively quiet about the Apple TV during WWDC, but it is still planning updates to the streaming set-top box as part of its home entertainment updates. For the next model, Apple may be planning to offer more performance in the device.

According to Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, Apple's next Apple TV is codenamed J255, and is currently being developed with the A14 chip. Not only is it an upgrade from the A12 used in the 2021 model, but it also includes an extra gigabyte of memory.

Gurman reasons the new model should be useful for "additional gaming capabilities" arriving in tvOS 16.

Along with the Apple TV, Gurman also says that a third model of HomePod will be on the way. The update to the smart speaker, codenamed B620, will apparently run on the S8 chip, which will supposedly be used in the Apple Watch Series 8.

The model will apparently be closer to the original HomePod in terms of size and performance, and will feature an updated display on the top with "multi-touch functionality."

Gurman doesn't offer an update time for the Apple TV, but offers that the HomePod is "unlikely to arrive until next year."

16 Comments

don. 5 comments · 13 Years

About 2 years ago

I've been waiting to hear about this since the Live Captions feature was announced. It requires an iPhone 11 with it's A13 Bionic or an A12 iPad. No mention was made of the feature on an AppleTV so my suspicion has been that it's not coming to the 2nd gen 4K with it's borderline A12.

eightzero 3141 comments · 14 Years

designr said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why Apple has not chosen to go the TV soundbar route combining AppleTV and HomePod (HomePod TV?)

This seems like it could be an obvious win.

Maybe there's even a HomePod TV Max (Pro?) that adds a camera to enable living room experience video calls.

I'm sure it's possible that Apple sees the future unfolding differently. Or that they've looked and can't find a way to keep their margins with such a product. But I'm guessing that more than half the homes in America have a soundbar attached to their TV. Possibly multiple soundbars in the same house if they have multiple TVs.

I too would be very interested in such a product. It is widely known that the "speakers" on most production TVs suck, and need help. I think it possible another problem Apple faces in solving this is how to get the signal out of the TV and into an aux device like a soundbar or homepod. The most reliable and common way is a wire, and while that's what the Apple TV currently uses, it might be that Apple doesn't wish to propogate this in a new product. Homepod of course intentionally eschewed data ports of any kind. Solving that means some work on latency issues.

About all I can come up with is a HDMI wireless dongle that goes into a TV, but I don't think the HDMI port there has any actual power on it, so there would need to be some source of power...more wires, batteries, ugh. No one wants to have to reach behind their TV to charge/ replace batteries periodically; and that leaves the USB power source (like FireTV) as about the only option - and that's not something Apple would think of as elegant.

designr said:

eightzero said:

designr said:

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't understand why Apple has not chosen to go the TV soundbar route combining AppleTV and HomePod (HomePod TV?)

This seems like it could be an obvious win.

Maybe there's even a HomePod TV Max (Pro?) that adds a camera to enable living room experience video calls.

I'm sure it's possible that Apple sees the future unfolding differently. Or that they've looked and can't find a way to keep their margins with such a product. But I'm guessing that more than half the homes in America have a soundbar attached to their TV. Possibly multiple soundbars in the same house if they have multiple TVs.

I too would be very interested in such a product. It is widely known that the "speakers" on most production TVs suck, and need help. I think it possible another problem Apple faces in solving this is how to get the signal out of the TV and into an aux device like a soundbar or homepod. The most reliable and common way is a wire, and while that's what the Apple TV currently uses, it might be that Apple doesn't wish to propogate this in a new product. Homepod of course intentionally eschewed data ports of any kind. Solving that means some work on latency issues.

About all I can come up with is a HDMI wireless dongle that goes into a TV, but I don't think the HDMI port there has any actual power on it, so there would need to be some source of power...more wires, batteries, ugh. No one wants to have to reach behind their TV to charge/ replace batteries periodically; and that leaves the USB power source (like FireTV) as about the only option - and that's not something Apple would think of as elegant.

Why not just an HDMI cable? That's what my current soundbar does. It also has wired power (which HomePod and HomePod mini do also). Wireless is all well and fine...and useful in many situations. But my soundbar isn't really moving so having it tethered in that way seems perfectly fine.

Unless I am totally misunderstanding the problem you're pointing to. If so, apologies.

P.S. It occurred to me that you might be considering how to connect a TV to the current (or expected) HomePod product whereas I'm thinking of a completely new and different product. Something with a standard soundbar form factor like this: https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-HW-R450-Subwoofer-Bluetooth-Compatible/dp/B07PDNX4G1?th=1 (but with the requisite Apple design panache of course).

It is just that the current ATV with an HDMI cable (and optical audio) inputs is somewhat of a dated design. As you point out, it does indeed work well, it is just that it is pretty clear Appl ereally wants to get rid of wires - see eg the removal of the 3.5" audio jack on the iPhone; and recent rumors are they want a future iPhone to have no actual ports at all.

foregoneconclusion 2823 comments · 12 Years

An M1 ATV would be ideal in combination with Metal 3.

JWKenny 1 comment · 4 Years

A new chip and an extra gig of memory will be welcome in an upgraded Apple TV - as would a large increase on the meagre (almost not fit for purpose) 64GB of storage that the 2021 model has.