Potential. That's a word that you're going to hear tossed around a lot when it comes to the newly released Apple TV. It has the potential to be a great streaming device. It has the potential to be a wonderful music playing machine. It has the potential to be an awesome gaming console. It has the potential to really become your living room's nucleus for entertainment.
Is it doing any one of those things in a mind-blowing fashion currently? Not exactly. Fortunately, the Apple TV has plenty of room for growth, because it's powered by a more significant operating system called tvOS, and Apple has opened the platform up so that developers can create apps. Just like an iPhone 4s at its beginning, which shipped with iOS 5, looks nothing like an iPhone 4s running iOS 9, the Apple TV experience is bound to evolve, grow, and improve.
If you purchase an Apple TV now, you're buying into that potential. Already, the Apple TV can do more than the 3rd-generation version that it supplants. The older hardware couldn't download apps, and wasn't capable of playing games natively on device. With the new Apple TV, you have all of that, along with much-improved hardware, a better remote that doesn't require line of sight, and limited Siri access.
At this early stage in the game, you shouldn't expect a perfect experience, but even out of the gate, it's obvious that the new Apple TV is a much better device than prior versions. Right now, it's just good, but with the proper direction, it has the potential to be the best set top box that we've seen thus far.
