There's no shortage of excellent streaming boxes on the market today, but the Apple TV has two key advantages that put it ahead of the competition: performance and software. Apple uses the same A-series processors you'll find in its smartphones and tablets inside Apple TV boxes, and it shows. On the software side, tvOS feels familiar to iOS, iPadOS, and macOS users. But more importantly, it's lighter on bloat and advertisements than, say, Google's Android TV or Samsung's Tizen OS. These two perks are exactly why I've been a loyal Apple TV user for years — until everything changed with one update.