Apple announced the New Apple TV yesterday, showcasing Siri, the App Store, and a new remote. All of this was overdue, necessary, rumored, even expected. But the real story is in what comes next.

The initial focus of the Apple TV, and the accompanying editorials and reviews, seem to be focused on the device as a target for the “casual gamer,” but this is a very short-sighted view. It’s no coincidence that Apple described their new iPad Pro as containing a “console-class” GPU.

Benchmarking Apple’s recent offerings to the current console offerings shows a significant gap between them. From a CPU perspective, the iPad Air 2 Geekbench score has only 57% the performance of a PS4, and its GFXBench score on the Manhattan test is less than 50% of the current console offerings.

But put that in perspective – the iPad Air 2, a year-old device running on a battery, provides approximately half the performance of the latest generation of console gaming devices, and at a similar price point. What happens when you remove the power and cooling limitations present in a tablet?

The new Apple TV is also using last year’s CPU/GPU from Apple – the A8. This is likely a compromise Apple made to focus CPU foundry capacity on the iPhone 6s. As the latest generation components are often supply-constrained, Apple would dedicate their supply on meeting sales goals for the new handset, and as production yields improve, move that component down the product line. So what would that mean for next year?

If the next generation of Apple TV includes the A9 CPU and GPU, it would likely be on-par with the current generation gaming consoles. And with an annual Apple upgrade cycle, how long before it eclipses their capabilities? With consoles having a 4-7 year release cycle, it is without question that Apple TV has the ability to surpass the current generation’s capabilities before their next refresh.

The next concern is storage required for today’s immense games. With Batman: Arkham Knight weighing in at 45GB on the current consoles, how can the Apple TV with its meager 32GB base offering hope to compete? Further, Apple is limiting Apple TV apps to a ridiculous 200MB, this excluding any “real” games form ever making it to that platform. What is Apple doing here?

What they are actually doing is fixing much of what is wrong with console gaming today. By looking at what Sony and Microsoft did wrong with their recent console launches, Apple has developed an entire set of APIs to greatly improve customer experience even for huge, content-rich games like those available today. The core application and associated assets (images, maps, music) is limited to 200MB. Then, the application can request additional assets, called on-demand resources, to be downloaded as needed. These assets are temporarily stored on the device, and can be deleted if the system needs more room. This allows that 32GB of space to be used very efficiently for games that are currently being played, and allows the game to download quickly so users don’t have to wait hours and hours for installation.

Consider again Batman: Arkham Knight. Of that 45GB of total space required, how much of it is needed at any time? The game takes approximately 15 hours to complete, and if you go through the extra levels, it takes 25 hours. If you never play the extra levels and additional content, there is no need to ever download them. While you are playing the first levels, the operating system is downloading the next levels in the background so they are ready when you are. When you move to level 3, level 2 can be safely deleted, ready to download again if your little brother decides to play. When bugs are found, the patches will be smaller. When new levels are added to the game, they are available when the player needs them. The entire experience is streamlined to make use of the local device storage and the cloud, seamlessly.

Apple has completely changed the music and video retail industries. They have completely changed the handheld gaming market, and the cell phone market. They are positioning themselves to change the TV market, and if I were Sony and Microsoft, I’d be worried they are going after the console market as well.

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This universal controller box comes packed with the Harmony Smart Keyboard itself, the Harmony hub, two USB receivers, an IR blaster and a USB extender. The free Harmony app for iOS or Android is also available.

Using the app and the keyboard, you can setup each of your devices including PC, Mac, Apple TV, Roku, Xbox or PS3 separately and even assign custom buttons for favourites. Easily navigate with the arrow keys or the touchpad, search using the keyboard and assign device-specific one-touch actions as shortcuts. You can keep the hub within a cabinet and use the included mini sensor outside, to control IR activities while other actions dependent on WiFi and Bluetooth aren’t affected by any obstructions.

However, the lack of backlight has been widely discussed as a major drawback of the device and from the video above, it is evident that the intital setup is a major pain. Also despite support of innumerable devices, we cannot pair more than 8 devices to it at a time. That sounds kind of funny but most home users fortunately won’t exceed that. Check the compatibilty of your device at this link.

The Logitech Harmony Smart Keyboard can be pre-ordered now on the official website for $150, to be delivered later this month. Before ordering, you might want to checkout CNET’s in-depth review of the same.

From first looks, it does seem to be a compelling buy for multiple console owners as it’s destined to put an end to juggling countless remotes and the text entry on virtual on-screen keyboards.

Not convinced by this one? Check out our list of the best Bluetooth keyboards for the Apple TV.

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Waiting for Apple to bring the App Store and iOS games to the Apple TV? Well, it looks that BlueStacks will be first to make this move and bring iPhone and iPad games to your TV screen. The company has added virtualization technology to its upcoming GamePop console, making it possible to run iOS apps on it. Initially, the device was going to run only Android games but there has been a new development and games written for iPhone and iPad will also run on console through a virtualization process called LookingGlass.

This is how the LookingGlass technology works: the platforms are virtualized by BlueStacks on the apps programming interface level. Whenever an app makes a call to an item on the Apple platform menu, it goes to an iOS library so as to draw the menu. In this case, though, BlueStacks intercepts these calls and becomes the one to draw the menu. The virtualization process modifies the Apple games to run on the Android-based console.

This move makes BlueStacks’ console the first non-Apple device to accomplish such a feat.

The technology is independent of Apple, so the company can approach iOS developers directly and ask them to modify their games a little to run in the GamePop service. According to BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma, “developers really like this because it gives them another way to monetize.”

Subatomic, the Fieldrunners tower defense games designer, is one of the gamemakers who are set to try out GamePop.

“The capability to bring iOS games to TV is unprecedented,” said Subatomic CEO Jamie Gotch. “At the same time, this is a natural evolution. Mobile games are providing richer graphics and gameplay and heading towards the living room fast.”

Sharma said BlueStacks was also careful not to use any Apple code on LookingGlass. Powered by its Android engine, BlueStacks uses its emulation software to run the developer’s apps, and this software is in turn run using Google’s open source code.

GamePop will be competing with Xbox One, PS4, Ouya, and other Android solutions tailored for mobile-based TV games. The console can be connected to a TV via a wired HDMI cable, and the games displayed include those with HD resolution. The emulation specialist did not integrate straight emulation with the LookingGlass technology, so the gameplay should be speedy.

When the GamePop service arrives sometime in the fall, there is expected to be a disruption of the console market as it merges with the mobile game market. The service will be availed on the Android game console and it will facilitate a market test to see which option consumers prefer: playing free or 99 percent free games on their TVs or parting with about $400 for a game console and an additional $60 for each game.

The GamePop service will not be restricted to the GamePop console; BlueStacks is in talks with TV manufacturers, carriers and cable companies to avail it through other devices as well.

The service will be available at a $6.99 monthly subscription fee and will grant players access to over 500 leading mobile games. Anyone who pre-orders the GamePop console by June will receive one controller for free. BlueStacks also plans on freely offering games worth about $200.

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