The reason is obvious,why soft keyboards, BT keyboards and other non-Apple approved input devices are not supported on the 4th gen Apple TV:
Apple does NOT want us to cannibalize their other products.
For the exact same reasons, you will not find e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox - or apps like Office 365 - in the appstore for Apple TV.
Apple is simply not allowing us to run the same apps on the Apple TV as we can on our iPad or iPhone, as some of us then would buy and use the Apple TV rather than upgrading to a new iPad or iMac.
Apple nowadays have too many productlines, competing against eachother. The lack of input devices and the lack of apps for producing data rather than consuming data is intentionalky, NOT a mistake.
Apple should listen to us, their customers, we want to decide ourselves what to do with our Apple products.
This is hugely disappointing. I ordered my 64GB today for store pickup tomorrow. But I will not be picking it up tomorrow. I'll wait until this issue is fixed (it looks like the @TV is available within an hour of ordering in your nearby Apple Store).
It had better be.
You ordered one and now you won't pick it up because it doesn't have a feature they never claimed it had? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. I'm betting you never ordered one and are here to pile on. "Merry X-mas!"
I realize that this topic hasn’t been discussed in some time now, but I have a few things to add... or question. Does anybody have any insight as to why the remote app will work as a full fledged interactive media remote on everything from a computer’s iTunes library, to even the media on somebody else’s iPhone. However when connecting to the new Apple TV 4, it only acts as a glorified touch pad? It even worked interactively on the old Apple TV.... you could leave you TV off in another room and use the remote app to navigate through your music library, choose songs, and which speakers to output to. Now you have to have the tv screen on just to navigate anything.
I have a centralized Mac Mini for my media server. Which the remote works flawlessly on. However, it’s only one media source... and if I want to play different things in different rooms, I’m not going to run multiple Mac mini’s just to have multiple iTunes open. I have a couple of Apple tv’s, one in the living room, and one in the garage. Both hooked up to stereo systems. If I manually walk out to the garage, and turn everything on, I can visually go through my entire library associates my my account. I also have Apple Music, and my playlists are shared across my account as well. It’s a fantastic system, but gone are the days of being able to pull open my iPhone, and using the remote app to control it all, I “have” to have a screen hooked up and on just to pick a playlist.
Now most oat people will say, just use your iPhone and play content off of there, and airplay it out to the Apple TV in the garage... great idea, except it’s not what I want to do. What happens when I have to run out for for whatever reason and I’ve got somebody helping me in the garage. “Hey, the music will shit off for a bit, but I’ll turn it back on when I get home...” for whatever my reasoning, I don’t always want to stream from my phone.
Also, I have multiple sets of speakers hooked up to the garage stereo system. Some outside on the patio. If a song comes on that I don’t like, or I just want a specific song, I have to get up, go to the garage, turn on the tv, find the song and pick it from there, and then go back to my guests on the patio. Hardly something g Apple should be proud of in my opinion.
Should I have invested in Sonos? I didn’t want to go that route, especially considering the price tag attached. Does Apple think that if they give full functionality to their $200 Apple TV that nobody will buy their more expensive equipment? Or is the new equipment just incapable of working as well as the old for interactive media integration? Should I go back to a third Gen Apple TV? Na, I like the apps on the 4th Gen. it’s frustrating as hell. Hey Apple... I own 3 iPhones, one iPod, one third Gen Apple Watch, one Mac mini, one MacBook Pro, two 4th Gen Apple tv’s, and you won’t give me control with my Apple remote because you don’t think I spend enough? Hardly the case....
Comments
Apple does NOT want us to cannibalize their other products.
For the exact same reasons, you will not find e.g. Safari, Chrome, Firefox - or apps like Office 365 - in the appstore for Apple TV.
Apple is simply not allowing us to run the same apps on the Apple TV as we can on our iPad or iPhone, as some of us then would buy and use the Apple TV rather than upgrading to a new iPad or iMac.
Apple nowadays have too many productlines, competing against eachother.
The lack of input devices and the lack of apps for producing data rather than consuming data is intentionalky, NOT a mistake.
Apple should listen to us, their customers, we want to decide ourselves what to do with our Apple products.
I have a centralized Mac Mini for my media server. Which the remote works flawlessly on. However, it’s only one media source... and if I want to play different things in different rooms, I’m not going to run multiple Mac mini’s just to have multiple iTunes open. I have a couple of Apple tv’s, one in the living room, and one in the garage. Both hooked up to stereo systems. If I manually walk out to the garage, and turn everything on, I can visually go through my entire library associates my my account. I also have Apple Music, and my playlists are shared across my account as well. It’s a fantastic system, but gone are the days of being able to pull open my iPhone, and using the remote app to control it all, I “have” to have a screen hooked up and on just to pick a playlist.
Now most oat people will say, just use your iPhone and play content off of there, and airplay it out to the Apple TV in the garage... great idea, except it’s not what I want to do. What happens when I have to run out for for whatever reason and I’ve got somebody helping me in the garage. “Hey, the music will shit off for a bit, but I’ll turn it back on when I get home...” for whatever my reasoning, I don’t always want to stream from my phone.
Also, I have multiple sets of speakers hooked up to the garage stereo system. Some outside on the patio. If a song comes on that I don’t like, or I just want a specific song, I have to get up, go to the garage, turn on the tv, find the song and pick it from there, and then go back to my guests on the patio. Hardly something g Apple should be proud of in my opinion.
Should I have invested in Sonos? I didn’t want to go that route, especially considering the price tag attached. Does Apple think that if they give full functionality to their $200 Apple TV that nobody will buy their more expensive equipment? Or is the new equipment just incapable of working as well as the old for interactive media integration? Should I go back to a third Gen Apple TV? Na, I like the apps on the 4th Gen. it’s frustrating as hell.
Hey Apple... I own 3 iPhones, one iPod, one third Gen Apple Watch, one Mac mini, one MacBook Pro, two 4th Gen Apple tv’s, and you won’t give me control with my Apple remote because you don’t think I spend enough? Hardly the case....
am am I the only one in this boat?