Apple releases new software for existing iOS-based Apple TV users
Apple has released a free software update for second generation Apple TV users, bringing the revised new interface demonstrated for the new, third generation Apple TV.
The new update replaces the main horizontal menu with five app-like buttons: Movies and TV Shows (for buying and renting content), Music (for accessing content from iTunes Match), Computers (for connecting to local iTunes libraries via Home Sharing) and Settings (which brings up the standard configuration menus from before).
The new interface also brings app-like features formerly hidden in menus to a Home screen page familiar to iOS users, listing Netflix, MLB, NBA, NHL, Apple's movie Trailers app, Wall Street Journal Live, YouTube, Vimeo, Podcasts, Internet Radio, iCloud Photo Stream, the MobileMe Gallery viewer, and Flickr.
The new layout more strongly suggests the potential for a third party App Store for Apple TV, something other "smart TV" vendors have already launched (although there aren't very many killer apps for TVs that have yet appeared, outside of those Apple already bundles.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
I still think they should go with mine.
There's some comments on other forums that the content is all either SD or 1080p already. I find this hard to believe, but I'd still like confirmation.
I like the New 1080p Netflix also.
For both the Apple TV and iPad2, Apple seems to have run out of connections to their servers for the iOS 5.1 update. I keep getting "cannot connect" messages
http://ios.e-lite.org
You'll have to do a restore with those images though.
I am also frustrated by the top level UI... same problems as the last one IMO. The top bar is obnoxiously large and not very useful.
Also, for someone like me who primarily uses the ATV as a player for my main iTunes library, the top level titles of "Movies" and "Music" are misleading. I propose that the "Computers/Home Sharing" option be removed, and instead, movies and music from your home shared iTunes library show up under the "Movies" and "Music" menus, and from there you chose "iTunes Match/iCloud" or "Home Library" as the source for music.
I still don't buy into this "all my stuff in the cloud" crap. I don't think the broadband infrastructure, in the US at least, is capable, dependable, or even available enough to support that method for the majority of users. Seems extremely inefficient to chomp up bandwidth to re-download or stream content that's already sitting on my computer on my home network, especially now that 1080p is in the picture.
Maybe I'm in the minority, IDK. Oh well.
Apple has released a free software update for second generation Apple TV users, bringing the revised new interface demonstrated for the new, third generation Apple TV. ...
I know I will get pilloried for even mentioning it, but that has to be the *least* attractive UI I've ever seen from Apple.
Buttons that are rectangular for no apparent reason?
Day glow colours with complementaries like purple and orange side by side?
The old one was a horror to navigate but at least it was tasteful and attractive.
I hope we can at least move those buttons around. In Canada, you can't buy anything from AppleTV so the entire top row (the only row available), is virtually useless to me. I don't like the idea of having to scroll down to get to even the basic functions I use (like Netflix).
Edit: The more I think about it, it's a compete disaster. What kind of crappy UI only gives you access to five buttons on the main screen when we are talking about screen real estate like most giant TV's have today? Why did they make the posters bigger at the top at the expense of even one more row of buttons? Why make the buttons rectangular when if they were square you could fit 8 or even 10 of them in the first row?
From a UI standpoint - it's not a scalable design. More widgets? Really?
And what if you want more content?
You'll be scrolling down screens and more screens to see content.
[ see the last screenshot ].
This is an OK experience for tablets and phones where you can touch the screen.
Honestly - I think Microsoft has a better solution with their XBOX Metro design - allowing you to voice or gesture search or move things around.
Anyone know if they added an iTunes-style visualizer as a screensaver option for when you're listening to music through the ATV? Still seems like a no-brainier.
I am also frustrated by the top level UI... same problems as the last one IMO. The top bar is obnoxiously large and not very useful.
Also, for someone like me who primarily uses the ATV as a player for my main iTunes library, the top level titles of "Movies" and "Music" are misleading. I propose that the "Computers/Home Sharing" option be removed, and instead, movies and music from your home shared iTunes library show up under the "Movies" and "Music" menus, and from there you chose "iTunes Match/iCloud" or "Home Library" as the source for music.
I still don't buy into this "all my stuff in the cloud" crap. I don't think the broadband infrastructure, in the US at least, is capable, dependable, or even available enough to support that method for the majority of users. Seems extremely inefficient to chomp up bandwidth to re-download or stream content that's already sitting on my computer on my home network, especially now that 1080p is in the picture.
Maybe I'm in the minority, IDK. Oh well.
well, heck, you don't HAVE to use the cloud. keep using your LAN + iTunes library routinely if you wish. the cloud - iTunes Match - adds a new resource for you to use when that is convenient. it didn't take away what you already got local. it's really most useful managing media on portable devices.
[ flame suit on ]
From a UI standpoint - it's not a scalable design. More widgets? Really?
And what if you want more content?
You'll be scrolling down screens and more screens to see content.
[ see the last screenshot ].
This is an OK experience for tablets and phones where you can touch the screen.
Honestly - I think Microsoft has a better solution with their XBOX Metro design - allowing you to voice or gesture search or move things around.
Hope you don't get flamed for saying Microsoft.
I sense an update to the iOS remote app that looks just like the on-screen version shown here. Installing the update now and will post impressions on feel.
There's no way Apple's gonna let old models have it. I hope to be wrong, but I'll bet I'm not.
*ahem*
Jeez, you are angsty today.
I am also frustrated by the top level UI... same problems as the last one IMO. The top bar is obnoxiously large and not very useful.
New stuff appears there... I use it all the time rather than drill down through menus. Download a new episode of Fringe, it's right there at the top. Simple.
I still don't buy into this "all my stuff in the cloud" crap. I don't think the broadband infrastructure, in the US at least, is capable, dependable, or even available enough to support that method for the majority of users. Seems extremely inefficient to chomp up bandwidth to re-download or stream content that's already sitting on my computer on my home network, especially now that 1080p is in the picture.
Then don't buy it. No one says you have to. iTunes in the Cloud is for grabbing stuff that you don't have immediate access to. If you're on your AppleTV and your content is on your computer in the other room, just stream it from there. The "cloud" stuff is more of a backup or secondary location, so you don't have to fill up your iDevice.
I am also frustrated by the top level UI... same problems as the last one IMO. The top bar is obnoxiously large and not very useful.
Also, for someone like me who primarily uses the ATV as a player for my main iTunes library, the top level titles of "Movies" and "Music" are misleading. I propose that the "Computers/Home Sharing" option be removed, and instead, movies and music from your home shared iTunes library show up under the "Movies" and "Music" menus, and from there you chose "iTunes Match/iCloud" or "Home Library" as the source for music.
Yes yes yes. The average person isn't sitting there thinking "should I watch an iTunes movie, or a Netflix movie", or "should I listen to my iTunes music, or the internet radio"; they're just thinking "I wanna watch a movie" or "I wanna listen to music". The interface should concatenate by types of entertainment (maybe throwing in "sports" and "news" as additional options with "movies" and "tv shows" and "music"), and then from there you can choose what you want and it doesn't matter if its streaming from Netflix or from your iCloud account or from iTunes, etc.
And with the old interface, I could at least go to "movies" or "tv shows" and then scroll down to, say, "search" or "top movies [tv shows]" without leaving the main menu -- i.e., I could be down in the "movies" menu, and then just right-click the wheel and move to the next menu. Don't see how that's going to work with the app-like icons; seems like one will have to go back up to the home screen each time before shunting over to another "app".
I know I will get pilloried for even mentioning it, but that has to be the *least* attractive UI I've ever seen from Apple.
Buttons that are rectangular for no apparent reason?
Day glow colours with complementaries like purple and orange side by side?
The old one was a horror to navigate but at least it was tasteful and attractive.
I hope we can at least move those buttons around. In Canada, you can't buy anything from AppleTV so the entire top row (the only row available), is virtually useless to me. I don't like the idea of having to scroll down to get to even the basic functions I use (like Netflix).
Edit: The more I think about it, it's a compete disaster. What kind of crappy UI only gives you access to five buttons on the main screen when we are talking about screen real estate like most giant TV's have today? Why did they make the posters bigger at the top at the expense of even one more row of buttons? Why make the buttons rectangular when if they were square you could fit 8 or even 10 of them in the first row?
+1, full agreement. This is a less attractive, and less useful, interface. Very surprised at this move by Apple - hope this isn't indicative of the post-Jobs era.