Apple TV 2G teardown reveals 8GB of storage

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Apple TV 2G teardown reveals 8GB of storage

iFixit has completed its teardown of the second-generation Apple TV, and has already revealed several previously unknown details of the device. Notably, the second-generation Apple TV sports 8GB of internal flash storage, equivalent to the $99 iPhone 3GS, and also features 256MB of RAM, the same as the fourth-generation iPod touch and the iPad. Its Apple A4 chip bears the same marking as the one found in the fourth-generation iPod touch and iPad, but different from the iPhone 4; the Broadcom BCM4329XKUBG 802.11n Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM chip is also the same as the one found in the iPad. Overall, iFixit gave the second-generation Apple TV an eight out of ten for repairability thanks to its easy-to-open case, separate power supply board, and common fasteners.

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Comments

1

And what about new iPod touch 8GB?

Posted by alfagta on September 29, 2010 at 11:52 AM (PST)

2

That’s great news! I figured it should have around 4GB to store a local cache of your rented movies, so 8GB is great… I’ll get one if it ever comes to Mexico (and since iTunes 10 added the Mexican rating system, it might actually happen).

Posted by Korpil on September 29, 2010 at 11:54 AM (PST)

3

“Notably, the second-generation Apple TV sports 8GB of internal flash storage, less than any other currently available iOS device save for the $99 iPhone 3GS”
Wow, then my brand new iPod touch 4th gen with 8GB flash storage must be from some weird alternate reality…

Posted by Mike11 on September 29, 2010 at 12:28 PM (PST)

4

8GB of storage means one thing; an App Store for the Apple TV is very possible, indeed.

Posted by Luis on September 29, 2010 at 1:04 PM (PST)

5

Uhhhh, is it just me, or does 8GB seem very small? I mean a movie on iTunes for rental is 1.5 GB alone for SD, and even more for HD. I would assume that Apple TV will use video that will be similar in size/compression.

I just would have expected a lot larger. Am I misunderstanding how this is to work, maybe?

Posted by Kevin on September 29, 2010 at 1:15 PM (PST)

6

The second-generation Apple TV isn’t designed to store anything. Content is supposed to be either streamed over the Internet (in the case of rented content) or streamed from iTunes.

That said, the 8GB of memory may be intended for use as a “cache” for rented content. It would make sense to be able to download and store a movie while you’re watching it, particularly for slower connections. I doubt that it’s intended to download everything you may rent, since even a single HD movie runs around 4GB.

Of course, it’s equally possible that Apple just needed to put some capacity of Flash memory in to store the OS and went with 8GB chips because they were cheap and readily available.

Posted by Jesse Hollington in Toronto on September 29, 2010 at 1:52 PM (PST)

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