“iFixIt” has torn down the third generation Apple TV, Apple’s streaming home theater device. During the teardown, the gang — which disassemblies and examines the latest tech so you don’t have to — discovered that where there was one antenna, now there are two.
“We expect that Apple added the new antenna to address complaints about range and signal strength in the previous generation, and to help improve wireless speed — we also found a Broadcom 4330 chip inside that supports dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n connectivity,” says “iFixIt.”
There’s also a brand-new A5 processor. This is Apple’s first product with a single core A5 — with half the processing power they ship in the dual core iPhone 4S –which leads “iFixIt” gang to suspect this means that Apple doesn’t have plans for this device to ever run apps from the App Store. The single-core A5 processor is also less expensive than a beefier dual-core would have been, helping Apple keep the Apple TV at $99.
The third gen Apple TV has received an outstanding 8 out of 10 repairability score, thanks to its easy-to-disassemble case, separate power supply, and standard screws. You can find the teardown at http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple-TV-3rd-Generation-Teardown/8293/1 .