A new rumor claims that tvOS 15 is going to be a major update, unlike the tvOS 14 update which was a relatively minor one. The report also spills the bean on the upcoming Apple TV refresh as well which will pack a major hardware refresh.

The tvOS 14 update last year and the tvOS 13 update in 2019 were both relatively minor ones and did not bring much to the table. However, for tvOS 15 this year, Apple is working on a major design overhaul. Apart from the new design, tvOS 15 is also expected to bring full parental controls along with Screen Time management and a “children” mode.

The tvOS App Store will also undergo a major refresh with an updated layout that will help with app discoverability. Some of these features were supposed to be a part of tvOS 14 last year itself but Apple had to delay their release due to the product lineup.

As for the 6th gen Apple TV refresh, Apple is testing a number of prototypes with different storage capacities ranging from 64GB, 128GB, to as much as 256GB and 512GB. The internal hardware is also getting an upgrade and will feature an A12 Bionic CPU and more RAM that will allow it to run heavy games easily. Reportedly, Apple will first launch the 6th gen. Apple TV with 128GB of storage and then unveil a model with more storage capacity down the line. The company is also working on a number of game controllers for Apple TV, though it is unclear if it plans to launch one.

Our Take

Apple has not launched a major Apple TV refresh in over a couple of years now. Plus, the last few tvOS updates have also been pretty minor. Thus, the company releasing a major Apple TV refresh along with a major new tvOS 15 update dropping in the same year makes a lot of sense.