Why not add a USB port and a Time Machine function to it or add a Time Machine function to HomePod? Seriously, Time Machine sucks on anything other than an Airport or TimeCapsule. Why not both home devices? It would be trivial to add.
Sure. There's lots of things ATV "could be." I've pined for an ATV with a couple of OTA tuners and a coax plug. But there is *no way* Apple would do that since there is no way to monetize it (other than with the collection of user data for sale, and AAPL does not do that.) First and foremost this box will always be about selling subscriptions. It will be designed, built, marketed, and supported only to do only that.
The Silicon Dust products work very well for that. Get the Channels app from Fancy Bits in the App store and you have a complete over the air solution with optional DVR. I don’t watch much over the air TV but for local live football games and a TV show or two, it works nearly perfectly if you have a decent location for an antenna.
Or I can just watch TV on my TV. Apple wants me to use their box to buy their offered subscriptions, and I've actually no incentive or desire to do so. Switching back and forth, especially with that crappy remote, is a horrible user experience (for me.) Like anything else, choice of tech is very personal, and driven only by what you need it for. I don't need an ATV - there's nothing on it I find valuable or desirable. Changing that is not something Apple is going to do. I'm not their target audience.
Yes & No. tvOS shows great examples of inter-device integration but getting text input from a notification on your phone is clunky if it’s an AppleID password - why not just ask for Face/TouchID directly? I prefer the way Ask to buy for my daughter’s account handles this.
Apple misses out on a lot of the benefits of that integration by poor or lazy execution. Our Apple TV only works with Apple programming, not with Netflix or Amazon. Airplay also no longer works. I'm sure I could fix it if I spent the time, but the remote annoys me enough that I just use either TIVO or Amazon's Fire box unless I want to watch something that I can only get on Apple's.
I'll probably buy a new Apple TV if they have a decent remote, but improving the software should also be a priority for them. In particular, I'd like to see the ability to have multiple TV Apps in memory at once, so switching between the various apps is cumbersome. I think Apple thought the unified interface would be enough, but that's not working out.
How is it lazy? Apple TV provides all the services for seamless integration of 3rd party content, from Apps, Top Shelf previews, profile integration, direct content access via Channels but Amazon & Netflix want to lock you in. They don’t want you watching a show from the provider you want. If Apple is guilty it’s in approving apps which don’t conform to its standards and so provide a poor customer experience. In fact they probably should’ve never opened TV or movie content to Apps, Cook got that wrong.
The Siri Remote is controversial, part for its fragility, part for its non-traditional interface. Those not willing to change the user interface paradigm on a television remote have many other ways to control Apple TV, including several Siri Remote alternatives.
This tone-deaf wording makes it sound as though those who seek an alternative are luddites who are simply too backwards to adopt the new. The fact is, the reason people look for alternatives is because they find it hard to use. I, for example, have repetitive strain injury problems on my dominant hand, in particular the thumb, the digit needed to operate the Siri remote. And my other hand’s thumb simply does not have the dexterity needed to operate the trackpad, which I find fidgety in the best of times. I’m not unwilling to use the Siri remote. I am physically incapable — and I’m not even close to the most physically impaired person out there! I cannot imagine how, for example, a Parkinson’s sufferer would operate it.
That the alternative remotes do not offer full functionality (e.g. in many apps, there’s no way to scrub the playhead without the trackpad, or that there’s no way to summon the application switcher or sidebar, since the IR protocol doesn’t have a code for the Home button) adds insult to injury. (In my case, to literal injury!)
The Siri Remote is controversial, part for its fragility, part for its non-traditional interface. Those not willing to change the user interface paradigm on a television remote have many other ways to control Apple TV, including several Siri Remote alternatives.
This tone-deaf wording makes it sound as though those who seek an alternative are luddites who are simply too backwards to adopt the new. The fact is, the reason people look for alternatives is because they find it hard to use. I, for example, have repetitive strain injury problems on my dominant hand, in particular the thumb, the digit needed to operate the Siri remote. And my other hand’s thumb simply does not have the dexterity needed to operate the trackpad, which I find fidgety in the best of times. I’m not unwilling to use the Siri remote. I am physically incapable — and I’m not even close to the most physically impaired person out there! I cannot imagine how, for example, a Parkinson’s sufferer would operate it.
That the alternative remotes do not offer full functionality (e.g. in many apps, there’s no way to scrub the playhead without the trackpad, or that there’s no way to summon the application switcher or sidebar, since the IR protocol doesn’t have a code for the Home button) adds insult to injury. (In my case, to literal injury!)
That isn't what it says at all, and I have no idea how you got from A to B on that.
The biggest problem with the Apple TV is the craptastic remote. It's a shitshow to navigate with.
I won't be buying another Apple TV until they change it. And with the regressions in stability with airplay I've been experiencing, I won't be missing anything significant either
The glass remote is crappy at best. Almost unusable for the three of us. Sold ours (overpriced) ATV HD after three months of use and looking for alternatives. The old Atv still doing its job pretty well in the end.
If Roku adds AirPlay 2 support as is rumored I won't be buying another Apple TV unless they dramatically update the whole fiddly assed remote/UI navigation issues. Have a Roku and nVidia Shield and the remote/UI interaction it it is predictable and solid, whereas it feels like I'm wrestling a greased pig with the ATV remote.
Yeah, the app on the phone/iPad is better - but if that's someones go to defense then it isn't much of a defense against the hideous remote.
"Fiddly piece of crap" and "Apple" are not two things I expect to associate.
I have no problem with the functionality of the ATV remote. My only complaint is the size, texture, and non-obvious orientation of the thing. It's way too small for non-baby hands, too slippery, and when in a darkened room especially, it's too easy to grab it upside down. Heck, I was using my ATV two nights ago and every time I'd place it on my leg it would immediately slip off and find its way between the sofa cushion as if magnetically attracted to the gap. I don't know what kind of strange material the ATV remote is made from, but when you get it near sofa cushions, it's like a prairie dog that just spotted a coyote, zipping right down into its burrow. Maybe Apple makes these things from recycled prairie dogs, meerkats, or some other sort of burrowing rodent. I'll have to read the microscopic text on the back of the box and see what it says. That may explain a lot of things.
As for the orientation/slipperiness, a rubber band or rubber ring around the bottom half of the remote solves both - and with a recent tvOS update they did improve the ability for the remote to reject spurious inputs from accidentally touching the wrong end. I forgot where I got the rubber ring that's on mine - was shipping material for something else but it's a little more stylish than a simple rubber band. A bit thicker without being wide too.
I didn't know the Apple TV controls come on the Siri Watch Face! That's pretty cool!
What would really be useful is to have the damn remote emit a ping triggered from my watch just like I can with my iPhone when I need to find where I left it in the house.
Comments
If Apple is guilty it’s in approving apps which don’t conform to its standards and so provide a poor customer experience. In fact they probably should’ve never opened TV or movie content to Apps, Cook got that wrong.
If that's what we meant, we'd have said that.
I won't be buying another Apple TV until they change it. And with the regressions in stability with airplay I've been experiencing, I won't be missing anything significant either
If Roku adds AirPlay 2 support as is rumored I won't be buying another Apple TV unless they dramatically update the whole fiddly assed remote/UI navigation issues. Have a Roku and nVidia Shield and the remote/UI interaction it it is predictable and solid, whereas it feels like I'm wrestling a greased pig with the ATV remote.
Yeah, the app on the phone/iPad is better - but if that's someones go to defense then it isn't much of a defense against the hideous remote.
"Fiddly piece of crap" and "Apple" are not two things I expect to associate.
As for the orientation/slipperiness, a rubber band or rubber ring around the bottom half of the remote solves both - and with a recent tvOS update they did improve the ability for the remote to reject spurious inputs from accidentally touching the wrong end. I forgot where I got the rubber ring that's on mine - was shipping material for something else but it's a little more stylish than a simple rubber band. A bit thicker without being wide too.