Amazon’s new Fire TV could beat the new Apple TV in a key area

To call the next-generation Apple TV a disappointment wouldn’t be fair, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t a few things missing when Apple unveiled the device earlier this week. The most notable of these omissions is the lack of 4K support, which may not mean much at the moment, but considering how 4K is going to become the new HD in the near future, it’s hard for some of us to justify getting a device that doesn’t support it, and therefore will be outdated in a couple of years. Naturally, it looks like Amazon wants to capitalize on this weakness by releasing its own 4K-capable streaming box, as evidenced by a recent FCC filing for a new version of the company’s Fire TV. 

As rumours about the new Apple TV circled earlier this year, one note in particular disappointed some A/V die-hards: the new set-top box wasn’t likely to have 4K support. And that’s exactly what panned out, as we saw this week. But while Apple may be content to ship another 1080p box, Amazon might go ahead and push forward with a 4K streamer in the very near future. That’s according to a new report that suggests a 4K-compatible Fire TV refresh is on the horizon. The biggest clue is a U.S. Federal Communications Commission filing for an “HDMI Digital Media Receiver,” the details of which mention playback of a 4K MPEG4 video file. The filing is listed under Quill Royal LLC from Boise, Idaho in the States – but it appears to be a shell company of Amazon. The company uses the tactic regularly to try and hide its hardware submissions from prying eyes. Furthermore, Amazon has been sold out of its own Fire TV for nearly a month now, which is on one hand baffling – but on the other a sure sign that a new model is in the pipeline and ready to release. Now, we’ll just have to see if Amazon trumps the new Apple TV by shipping a 4K set-top box in the coming weeks.