[noggin]

Hopefully that means they are going to release a newer model soon.

No, it doesn't mean that there is going to be a newer model. This is only the Pro, the 16 GB model is still being produced and sold.

Wonder if they are thinking of a TX2 model - or if they are going to retire it as a concept.  It's a great box with just a few rough edges.  If we could merge the feature set of the Shield TV and the Apple TV 4K we'd be in a very good place... 

  
No, the TX2 is not a thing, at least not for Android as it's only been designed for AI, you will probably never see a TX2 streamer/media player. As for merging the features, as far as I have been told that is something that they will now be working on, adding more features.   

 Thinking about it the Pro was effectively still a first gen box wasn't it ? Only the 16GB model was re-engineered to make it smaller (and losing the uSD slot in the bargain)? I guess retiring the Pro means stopping first gen production?

Thanks for clarifying about the TX2.  It's always annoyed me that there wasn't support for decent video and video decode driver support under Linux for the TX1 other than gstreamer.  The TX1 dev board would have made a nice high-end Kodi box in a suitable case.