Apple TV 4K unveiled with a remote control that you can't lose, hands-free voice controls, and £299 price tag

The new Apple TV 4K box brings the rebooted Siri assistant to your television for the first time, alongside some clever new features to make losing your remote control impossible, and a price hike. The fourth-generation set-top box was announced during a keynote presentation in New York City alongside its all-new HomeView. Priced at £299, this is the most expensive set-top box that Apple has ever released. It's also the only model available on shelves. Apple previously sold two variants of its Apple TV 4K, starting at £199 for 64GB of built-in storage and rising to £249 for the maxed-out 128GB. The new box ships with 128GB as standard, but costs an extra £50. From smartphones to computers, a global shortage of essential components has resulted in a price hike on almost everything with a power button. Amazon recently refreshed its rival Fire TV Stick models with faster performance, a slimline new design, and a similarly skyward price rise. Apple has fitted its latest Apple TV 4K box with its custom-designed A19 chipset. That's the same superpowered brains you'll find inside the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air released last autumn. That means this Apple TV 4K box is more powerful than the most affordable MacBook Neo. That extra processing power enables Siri AI, the reimagined Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant capable of answering open-ended and complex queries. Siri AI combines broad-world knowledge with the ability to scour thousands of your text messages, email, notes, reminders, calendar appointments, and anything else stored on your device. This enables the talkactive AI to become a truly personal assistant. It's so good, it's changed how we use our iPhone. And now, Apple hopes it'll change how you find your next boxset to binge-watch or blockbuster movie to watch. For example, you could ask “what Apple TV shows won at the Emmy Awards this year?” to summon an up-to-date list of the latest award-winners. You can ask follow-up questions without reiterating details. For example, say "more award-winning comedies”, and Siri will keep looking for more titles that've been recognised at the awards. Instead of pulling out your phone to check a detail about what you're watching, Siri AI can handle all of those requests without interrupting what you're watching. You could ask "where was Widows' Bay filmed?" or "why is Harrison Ford wearing a hat in this scene?" and a small pop-up in the top right-hand corner will provide an answer. Apple isn't the only company that hopes advanced AI models can cut down the time spent endlessly scrolling through streaming services to find the next must-watch show. Amazon is rolling out a major update to its Fire TV devices that will let Alexa+ similarly pull in information about awards and critical reception to help narrow down your choices. And it's not just the US technology firms, with British broadcaster Sky TV building its own AI assistant to make suggestions based on your viewing history, Wikipedia entries, and more. Even the BBC has floated the idea of a chatty AI called Iggy that will steer you towards a new series. LATEST DEVELOPMENTS Apple HomeView is a one-stop shop for your smart home, and it's available today Sky TV will resurrect 'Record' button – five years after ditching feature pioneered by Sky+ box BBC wants to add an AI assistant called 'Iggy' to iPlayer to help you find something to watch Amazon redesigns its Kindle lineup to be lighter, faster, and much more colourful If you have a recent iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence features, Siri AI on the new Apple TV 4K can search through information stored on your device too. For example, you could ask "play the television show that Linda recommended", and it'll scour your email and text messages to find the corresponding show and summon the listing. Press and hold the Siri button on the side of the remote control to issue any of these voice commands. Apple has also added a far-field microphone array, so you can summon Siri AI with the wake phrase "Hey Siri" too. Apple says it's using "advanced echo cancellation" to intelligently isolate your voice from any disruptive background sounds, so Siri will be able to hear you even if audio is playing. This hands-free experience is something that's never been possible with an Apple TV 4K before, and should be a welcome addition for anyone who regularly misplaces their remote. Not that you'll be able to do that with this new set-top box. Apple's new Siri Remote — available as a separate £59 purchase to upgrade older Apple TV 4K boxes — doubles up as an AirTag, the small coin-shaped item trackers that let you pinpoint the exact location of a misplaced set of keys, backpack, or handbag. Siri AI is able to play a sound from the Siri Remote to help you find it between the cushions. It also supports Precision Finding, which shows a radar-like screen on your iPhone or Apple Watch, counting down the exact distance as you get closer to the lost device. If you've ever tried to track down your AirPods or AirTag inside your house, it's the same experience. Finally, if you have the new Apple TV 4K nestled under your television and a few of its HomePod speakers, you can pair everything together to create a four-speaker surround sound for the first time. The four speakers work together to intelligently recognise their position within the space, so timing and volume levels are automatically calibrated. You can use either the HomePod mini 2 or full-sized HomePod (2nd generation) for this surround sound setup, as long as the front and rear speaker pairs match. The new Apple TV 4K is available to preorder today, with availability beginning November 13. Apple Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Bob Borchers, said: "The new Apple TV 4K is our most immersive home theatre experience yet. With Siri AI, finding something to watch becomes a full-screen, conversational experience, and with built-in far-field microphones, it’s completely hands-free. "Pair it with HomePod for the best surround sound setup we’ve ever offered, and it makes managing your Apple Home accessories easier than ever. Now, alongside HomeView, HomePod mini 2, and Apple Home Collection, it’s part of the most connected Apple Home we’ve ever built." Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter