Bad headline. First, although the Apple TV 4K is part of the current generation of streaming boxes, smart TVs, etc. that have made the HTPC obsolete, the article itself never mentions the ATV 4K at all; the only Apple product mentioned is the Mac Mini the writer was using to build an HTPC before realizing it was now pointless.
Second, though the author DOES own a Chromecast, the headline writer's gratuitous addition of the ATV 4K completely missed the one box MOST responsible for making the HTPC obsolete, in part because the headline writer missed the part of the story that made that box important -- the author's rip collection.
I'm an ATV 4K fan myself, but the one thing it does NOT do well is bitstream lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master Audio, and especially the related variants of Dolby Atmos & DTS:X where it's a necessity for full immersive audio) from rips; the ATV 4K tries to decode everything but it doesn't have lossless decoders, the open-source software decoders out there for TrueHD & DTS-HD MA don't support immersive audio, and support for PCM 5.1 / 7.1 over HDMI needed for full uncompressed, non-bitstream playback from external decoders (hardware OR software, HTPCs as well as the ATV 4K) is becoming spotty. Doesn't matter to me as I don't do rips (and the ATV 4K runs rings around most other streaming devices on everything else), but it matters a great deal to the author who has drives full of rips.
The only device other than an HTPC that DOES bitstream ALL rip audio is the Nvidia Shield TV. Guess what streaming box the author has besides Chromecast & Fire TV? Yep, the Shield. It's the Shield, not the ATV 4K, that is MOST responsible for sending the author's HTPC hobby to the dustbin of history.
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