Interestingly this is the first Apple product I have purchased for the same reason people used to buy Windows machines: it will have, by far, the most developers creating high quality apps for it because Apple is the dominant player in the mobile space that the ATV is a cousin to. I did not buy it because it offers much of a great leap forward technologically compared to its predecessor or competitors.
Although the review is ok, it seems to miss the lack of local photos support. The only support for slideshows or photos is through iCloud or photo stream. The link to computers doesn't support the photos as in previous devices/software versions. Hopefully that will be fixed with a software update, especially for some of us with large picture libraries.
How stupid is that?! Come on, Apple. Don't remove features!!! If the aTV3 did it, the aTV4 had better do it - and better. How hard a concept is that? Add this to the removal of support for Bluetooth keyboards as a dumb move.
My internal aTV rating is about two stars now.
FWIW, my family and I recently spent a week at Disney World. We got the photo package where you get all the photos their photographers take. We ended up with just over 500 hi-res pictures and some videos. No way in the world I'm pushing all those to iCloud just to view on the aTV.
Interestingly this is the first Apple product I have purchased for the same reason people used to buy Windows machines: it will have, by far, the most developers creating high quality apps for it because Apple is the dominant player in the mobile space that the ATV is a cousin to. I did not buy it because it offers much of a great leap forward technologically compared to its predecessor or competitors.
I don't know what that means, but it feels weird.
Agreed. I used to be a gamer. Then I got married to a non-gamer and had a daughter. My time & money to shell out for the latest XBox or/and PS is not there. However, I have a collection of games on my iPhone & my daughter plays a bunch of iOS games, too. The aTV looks like a good casual gaming machine. Many free-to-play games from iOS will be ported, many $1-$10 games will be available. Disney is releasing their popular Infinity 3.0 for it with a Bluetooth base station and I expect we will see more big companies releasing games for the platform.
So the aTV feels like a reasonable alternative to a "real" gaming system in part because many games will be coming to it because of Apple's popularity.
1. My ATV3 has a "Podcasts" app. The ATV4 doesn't. This forced me to watch Podcasts elsewhere or AirPlay them, which is less convenient.
2. I can control my ATV3 with my iPhone, but not the ATV4. This is important because my ATV3 AirPlays to outdoor speakers through an AirPort Express and amplifier.
3. My ATV3 will accept input from my Apple Wireless Keyboad. The ATV4 won't. Enough said here.
4. My ATV3 connects to my soundbar that has an optical input. The ATV4 doesn't. I don't want to replace a perfectly good, 2 year-old soundbar simply because Apple decided to remove a $1 interface.
5. When my ATV3's remote battery dies (which so far is still going after 2 years), I pop in another one without having to wait for it recharge like the ATV4's.
I couldn't find any advantages to the ATV4 over my ATV3 significant enough to justify its price. At least for me, the ATV3 offers more functionality for less than half the price of the ATV4.
I gave it a try, but it just didn't work out for me. I really wanted to love it - I just couldn't.
Oh you're so clever, I can't believe my eyes! But seriously, I need a digital out source for audio separately from the HDMI cable, because this is the set-up that my musical hardware has. I recognise that if you're just a consumer, you may be fine with just the HDMI, but it doesn't work for me. By the way, you should stop using paper in your apartment, that's so 18th century
The time it took you to write that spew......AppleTV just outsold the total FireTV's sold in its lifetime.
That you can't see AppleTVs clear superiority over the FireTV is hilarious. But go ahead and keep living in your dream world. In 12 months the AppleTV will sell 30 million units while the FireTV will barely sell a million. And then guess who the developers will make Apps for? Guess who will have the leverage to offer live TV packages? LOL.
Apple TV is "clearly superior" because it doesn't have user-upgradable storage. Good point.
Better navigation is only needed by people living in dream worlds, not Apple TV users. Really just a great point.
And 4K video? Who needs it when Apple is selling so many units? If Apple sells a high number, than it is better that Apple TV lacks 4K. Makes perfect sense.
And paying twice as much for it is clearly superior for me. I don't know what I was thinking.
Oh, I didn't even realize I needed live TV packages. Thanks for telling me. It's like you know me better than I know myself. As long as Apple sells a high number of units, I should be happy with what it lacks.
Sigh.... This is I'm growing tiered of how Apple cripples it's devices for users with every next generation device that they unveil. Apple could have added another HDMI port, as well as audio port, more storage space (the price of storage has gone down dramatically in price, but you wouldn't know that by how Apple offers its internal storage specs), but the biggest miss is not adding 4K to it.
If I'm going to buy a device that only puts out 1080p for my 4K TV with 1 HDMI port & no audio output it should reflect in the price & $150 is extremely over priced for what should've been the 3rd generation Apple TV. But I shouldn't set my expectations to high for features that it likes to wait a year or 2 to add to their devices...
I second what adrayven said. The Plex app alone makes the new Apple TV worth it. Sure, other boxes and even TVs have their own implementations of Plex, but this one looks to be the best and the Plex guys are really proud of it. And with the ATV4's zippy processor, I'm sure it's going to run real smooth.
$150 is not all that much, the new Apple TV hardly redefines the TV experience.
A TV app store with universal apps and apps specifically designed for HDTV and controllers is a major change. It could be disruptive to both the TV and gaming markets.
It's not clear to me yet what the 32GB is for. Just app. storage?
It seems that way. As I understand it apps are limited to 200MB of initial space and can't store much data locally. They will need to use iCloud to load or save data. This leaves room for lots of apps on a 32GB setup.
I enjoyed reading this review, and the comments are interesting. I doubt the readership of AI is really a cross section of Apple's market. Apple makes great products *for their customers* and you can bet they know exactly who that is. A new product can't be everything to everybody out of the box. I do agree with the reviewers general point - this is a start.
The lack of an HDMI cable is kinda strange but they include a lightning cable for the remote?! Which if you are buying an Apple TV I'm sure you have a few lying around, I have at least 4.
1. HDMI cables are universal and widely available.
2. Why would they assume you have any other Apple devices?
3. Who in their right minds would buy a device with no means of re-charging the battery?
Considering the app size is limited to 200MB (most will be much less), you could probably have gotten away with the 32GB model. Out of the hundreds of app you could install you would only be using a very small subset anyways.
It seems that way. As I understand it apps are limited to 200MB of initial space and can't store much data locally. They will need to use iCloud to load or save data. This leaves room for lots of apps on a 32GB setup.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
First my credentials, I am an Unabashed Apple Fanboy and proud of it. I buy every new product Apple manufactures and I buy right at launch. So I bought two of the new Apple TVs. Received one last night and within two hours, I decided to do something I have never done before since I bought my first Mac in 1984. I am returning the new Apple TVs!!!!! Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($487 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it. This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
First my credentials, I am an Unabashed Apple Fanboy and proud of it. I buy every new product Apple manufactures and I buy right at launch. So I bought two of the new Apple TVs. Received one last night and within two hours, I decided to do something I have never done before since I bought my first Mac in 1984. I am returning the new Apple TVs!!!!!
Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($456 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it.
This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
I understand your frustration, and agree you should return them. $456 is too much to bet on a product that clearly doesn't meet your needs or expectations.
However, I fully expect it to meet mine for $149. I don't use HBONow, and since I have many sources and a relatively old setup, I am fine with use of other remotes. The box just arrived, setting up tonite.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
You may be correct. I haven't looked into it too closely yet... On the other hand, as the iOS limit is 2GB+DLC (I have a few of those) there's no real comparison. Many of those apps already include most of their data since they were written before app-slicing and resources-on-demand. Apple seems to be moving to lighter weight apps across the board. There's not much point in keeping multiple copies of large media files for all these different devices when you can just pull it down from iCloud.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
Quote:
Originally Posted by siretman
First my credentials, I am an Unabashed Apple Fanboy and proud of it. I buy every new product Apple manufactures and I buy right at launch. So I bought two of the new Apple TVs. Received one last night and within two hours, I decided to do something I have never done before since I bought my first Mac in 1984. I am returning the new Apple TVs!!!!!
Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($456 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it.
This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
It's a bit much to blame Apple for the quality of the HBO app. Seems you're just ticked off and want to justify your decision.
Comments
I don't know what that means, but it feels weird.
Although the review is ok, it seems to miss the lack of local photos support. The only support for slideshows or photos is through iCloud or photo stream. The link to computers doesn't support the photos as in previous devices/software versions. Hopefully that will be fixed with a software update, especially for some of us with large picture libraries.
How stupid is that?! Come on, Apple. Don't remove features!!! If the aTV3 did it, the aTV4 had better do it - and better. How hard a concept is that? Add this to the removal of support for Bluetooth keyboards as a dumb move.
My internal aTV rating is about two stars now.
FWIW, my family and I recently spent a week at Disney World. We got the photo package where you get all the photos their photographers take. We ended up with just over 500 hi-res pictures and some videos. No way in the world I'm pushing all those to iCloud just to view on the aTV.
I assume so.
Interestingly this is the first Apple product I have purchased for the same reason people used to buy Windows machines: it will have, by far, the most developers creating high quality apps for it because Apple is the dominant player in the mobile space that the ATV is a cousin to. I did not buy it because it offers much of a great leap forward technologically compared to its predecessor or competitors.
I don't know what that means, but it feels weird.
Agreed. I used to be a gamer. Then I got married to a non-gamer and had a daughter. My time & money to shell out for the latest XBox or/and PS is not there. However, I have a collection of games on my iPhone & my daughter plays a bunch of iOS games, too. The aTV looks like a good casual gaming machine. Many free-to-play games from iOS will be ported, many $1-$10 games will be available. Disney is releasing their popular Infinity 3.0 for it with a Bluetooth base station and I expect we will see more big companies releasing games for the platform.
So the aTV feels like a reasonable alternative to a "real" gaming system in part because many games will be coming to it because of Apple's popularity.
1. My ATV3 has a "Podcasts" app. The ATV4 doesn't. This forced me to watch Podcasts elsewhere or AirPlay them, which is less convenient.
2. I can control my ATV3 with my iPhone, but not the ATV4. This is important because my ATV3 AirPlays to outdoor speakers through an AirPort Express and amplifier.
3. My ATV3 will accept input from my Apple Wireless Keyboad. The ATV4 won't. Enough said here.
4. My ATV3 connects to my soundbar that has an optical input. The ATV4 doesn't. I don't want to replace a perfectly good, 2 year-old soundbar simply because Apple decided to remove a $1 interface.
5. When my ATV3's remote battery dies (which so far is still going after 2 years), I pop in another one without having to wait for it recharge like the ATV4's.
I couldn't find any advantages to the ATV4 over my ATV3 significant enough to justify its price. At least for me, the ATV3 offers more functionality for less than half the price of the ATV4.
I gave it a try, but it just didn't work out for me. I really wanted to love it - I just couldn't.
LOL.
The time it took you to write that spew......AppleTV just outsold the total FireTV's sold in its lifetime.
That you can't see AppleTVs clear superiority over the FireTV is hilarious. But go ahead and keep living in your dream world. In 12 months the AppleTV will sell 30 million units while the FireTV will barely sell a million. And then guess who the developers will make Apps for? Guess who will have the leverage to offer live TV packages? LOL.
Apple TV is "clearly superior" because it doesn't have user-upgradable storage. Good point.
Better navigation is only needed by people living in dream worlds, not Apple TV users. Really just a great point.
And 4K video? Who needs it when Apple is selling so many units? If Apple sells a high number, than it is better that Apple TV lacks 4K. Makes perfect sense.
And paying twice as much for it is clearly superior for me. I don't know what I was thinking.
Oh, I didn't even realize I needed live TV packages. Thanks for telling me. It's like you know me better than I know myself. As long as Apple sells a high number of units, I should be happy with what it lacks.
If I'm going to buy a device that only puts out 1080p for my 4K TV with 1 HDMI port & no audio output it should reflect in the price & $150 is extremely over priced for what should've been the 3rd generation Apple TV. But I shouldn't set my expectations to high for features that it likes to wait a year or 2 to add to their devices...
^^^ Instantly blocked.
Yup.
$150 is not all that much, the new Apple TV hardly redefines the TV experience.
A TV app store with universal apps and apps specifically designed for HDTV and controllers is a major change. It could be disruptive to both the TV and gaming markets.
It's not clear to me yet what the 32GB is for. Just app. storage?
It seems that way. As I understand it apps are limited to 200MB of initial space and can't store much data locally. They will need to use iCloud to load or save data. This leaves room for lots of apps on a 32GB setup.
I enjoyed reading this review, and the comments are interesting. I doubt the readership of AI is really a cross section of Apple's market. Apple makes great products *for their customers* and you can bet they know exactly who that is. A new product can't be everything to everybody out of the box. I do agree with the reviewers general point - this is a start.
The lack of an HDMI cable is kinda strange but they include a lightning cable for the remote?! Which if you are buying an Apple TV I'm sure you have a few lying around, I have at least 4.
1. HDMI cables are universal and widely available.
2. Why would they assume you have any other Apple devices?
3. Who in their right minds would buy a device with no means of re-charging the battery?
Just got mine this afternoon
My kids are all over the games on it
Glad I bought the 64g version
Considering the app size is limited to 200MB (most will be much less), you could probably have gotten away with the 32GB model. Out of the hundreds of app you could install you would only be using a very small subset anyways.
It seems that way. As I understand it apps are limited to 200MB of initial space and can't store much data locally. They will need to use iCloud to load or save data. This leaves room for lots of apps on a 32GB setup.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($487 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it.
This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
First my credentials, I am an Unabashed Apple Fanboy and proud of it. I buy every new product Apple manufactures and I buy right at launch. So I bought two of the new Apple TVs. Received one last night and within two hours, I decided to do something I have never done before since I bought my first Mac in 1984. I am returning the new Apple TVs!!!!!
Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($456 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it.
This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
I understand your frustration, and agree you should return them. $456 is too much to bet on a product that clearly doesn't meet your needs or expectations.
However, I fully expect it to meet mine for $149. I don't use HBONow, and since I have many sources and a relatively old setup, I am fine with use of other remotes. The box just arrived, setting up tonite.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
You may be correct. I haven't looked into it too closely yet... On the other hand, as the iOS limit is 2GB+DLC (I have a few of those) there's no real comparison. Many of those apps already include most of their data since they were written before app-slicing and resources-on-demand. Apple seems to be moving to lighter weight apps across the board. There's not much point in keeping multiple copies of large media files for all these different devices when you can just pull it down from iCloud.
This is not exactly true. The initial download may be limited to 200MB, but apps can download their own content and grow quite large. Disney Infinity Toy Box is 2GB on iOS, and Disney will be releasing the full game for tvOS, so you can expect it will be similarly sized. So, just like iOS, the apps can be very large; it is just the initial download that is limited. I have several iOS games that are close to or over 1GB in size, so if you want the aTV as a game box, 32GB will not be much storage - don't forget, the OS takes up some of that room.
First my credentials, I am an Unabashed Apple Fanboy and proud of it. I buy every new product Apple manufactures and I buy right at launch. So I bought two of the new Apple TVs. Received one last night and within two hours, I decided to do something I have never done before since I bought my first Mac in 1984. I am returning the new Apple TVs!!!!!
Here are my reasons:
1. Touchpad not accurate enough. It moves faster than I want it and using it to go up feels awkward. I like the arrow keys and the select.
2. I was surprised that the Apple TV volume control worked for my TV. I did it not think that it was a universal code for all TVs. Going to Settings and Audio I was surprised it found my Pioneer VSX-1021 receiver. I set the audio to the receiver instead of the TV but it did not work. It still went to the TV volume control.
3. HBONow app is a disaster with European date styles and no discernible chronological order of episodes.
4. HBONow also does not remember where you left off in an episode other than one time and insists on returning to a spot 5 minutes into the episode which was the spot I left off the first time I stopped viewing the episode.
5. HBONow used to automatically put episodes or movies you are watching in the Watchlist. Now, you have to do it manually. This is progress?
6. Siri is a big miss. Did not understand my commands and could not find the shows like HBO Real Time. My iPhone and Apple Watch Siri understand me but Apple TV Siri is a dummy.
This Apple TV is a real disappointment to me. I understand that the faults are in software which is fixable. But this product is below the high quality standard I expect from Apple. I will not spend my money ($456 for two 64 Gig units and Apple Care) and be frustrated while using it.
This product is still in the hobby phase and not ready for prime time.
It's a bit much to blame Apple for the quality of the HBO app. Seems you're just ticked off and want to justify your decision.