Last month, Bloomberg reported that Apple is finally getting ready to release a new Apple TV device capable of streaming 4K content, with support for “more vivid colours”. Today, the very first evidence of this fifth-generation Apple TV has been spotted in developer logs as “AppleTV6,2”, MacRumors is reporting. The device running “tvOS 11.0” connected to Firi Games’ Phoenix HD for Apple TV from the United States.
The IP address of the spotted device is said to fall within a range linked to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino. Previous reports have referred to the device as codenamed “J105” but this is the first time a new Apple TV model identifier has been revealed. The current Apple TV has a model identifier of AppleTV5,3, and Apple TV6,2 does not correspond with any released model.
While the details could be faked, similar evidence of an iPhone 5s running iOS 7 showed up in January 2013, around nine months before the device was announced, and the timeline is appropriate if Apple is indeed testing a new Apple TV. The current Apple TV, the first to run tvOS, launched in October 2015. No other details surrounding a fifth-generation Apple TV are known at this point.
Apple is expected to release the new 4K capable Apple TV later this year.
