Ok, so I was having a ton of issues with the HBO app before the most recent update. It would hang, crash, freeze and was generally unusable. It seemed to be mostly related to closed captioning too. It would stop displaying the closed captioning, crash, then when I restarted the app, it would come back up but be switched to the Spanish sub-titles. It was flakey and infuriating.
The app at least seems stable now.
Does anyone know if tvOS apps are also subject to the privacy nutrition labels and other privacy changes that iOS apps are now subject too?
Also, is it possible that the devs at HBO are just so bad that they could not figure out how to code to the Apple APIs correctly and decided to take the dreaded cross platform route instead?
I don't like the changes, but I'll wait and see for a while if they are fixed. I personally think HBO abandoned the tvOS API as part of their efforts to offer a less expensive tier with commercials.
The developers I worked with were notoriously adverse to any code they didn’t write themselves and will make any excuse to rewrite code so it’ll be written “the right way”. They invariably mess things up and the code always ended up as a 1.0 release mess with bugs and deficiencies. I’m guessing there’s a bit of this going on although the cross platform suggestions in these comments sounds right too.
The HBOMax TvOS app has been unstable for quite a long period of time now - several weeks at least. I gave up on it a couple of weeks ago and canceled my subscription. Sounds like that was a good move!
Either this is a poorly thought out strategy to get HBO customers to be dissatisfied with Apple TV
or
Its an engineer or more who has a distaste for Apple personally and sold the board on going a generic coding route.
Either that or a new lazy/incompetent dev team.
Either way, it’s all bad news.
HBO needs to fix this ASAP.
Apple doesn’t look bad for this. HBO does. It reflects poorly in their brand and standards.
Occam’s Razor would suggest it’s neither scenario. I’d guess it was straight incompetence in design and testing. They wanted to do their own thing…it probably came from a hubristic tech team….and they f*cked up royally. And yes, it’s a terrible look.
The even simpler answer is that they created a new app that’s meant to be cross-platform. That means using a cross-platform API they can port to multiple platforms, and this ALWAYS screws up UI conventions and platform specific features, refusing to use any native anything. This is why, for example, Google apps suck and are so large.
I am not sure if this is due to the app update, but now, when I search for movies etc, I am not able to navigate to any of the displayed results. When I hit any directional key, the results page down one row at a time until I am left with a blank screen. It is 100% unusable. QA for the win!
Sigh. Apple needs to FORCE content providers to use their tech standards so all apps work the same. Make the 'walled garden' work in our favor. Our discounted rate just ended. Goodbye HBO Max.
Actually this is a fantastic case study that illustrates 2 things: First, content providers arent forced to do anything. No one can complain of Apple overreach. Second, when developers decide to go their own way, THEY will be accuswed of overreach and embarassed by how the market and press react. Its perfect for Apple.
The HBOMax TvOS app has been unstable for quite a long period of time now - several weeks at least. I gave up on it a couple of weeks ago and canceled my subscription. Sounds like that was a good move!
Concur with this — they’ve been messing with it for a few weeks.
We haven’t used it in the past week, but I thought they were using more of the tvOS APIs than before, moving away from their own stuff. We were watching season 4 of Gomorra when the language controls (you can watch in either Italian or dubbed English, we watch in Italian with subtitles) switched from in-app to the standard tvOS interface.
EDIT to add that I just looked at it now and it doesn’t look any different than a couple of weeks ago — I’m not sure what people are talking about when they say there was a big change this week.
Sigh. Apple needs to FORCE content providers to use their tech standards so all apps work the same. Make the 'walled garden' work in our favor. Our discounted rate just ended. Goodbye HBO Max.
Yes! Let’s make sure one single company tells all the others what to do!
I’m not sure on what basis Screen Times is saying HBO has switched to a homegrown player. Yes, the update broke stuff, and if they say it looks different, then I’ll take their word for it, but it’s something of a leap to go from there to saying HBO has abandoned the tvOS player. As mentioned by myself and others here, HBO has been messing about with the player for a month or so, and it hasn’t been perfect. But it still works well with Up Next in the tv app, so they’re not heading out on their own, like Netflix or MHz Choice and Criterion.
The Screen Times article also neglects to mention the fact the HBO Max app had a direct predecessor on tvOS prior to and concurrent with the tv Channels experiment, the HBO Now app. For many people, including myself, HBO Now just became HBO Max overnight. Seems like an odd thing to leave out of the discussion.
That said, Screen Times looks interesting — a site focused on tvOS — thanks AI for linking to it. I’ve been looking for something like it.
Sigh. Apple needs to FORCE content providers to use their tech standards so all apps work the same. Make the 'walled garden' work in our favor. Our discounted rate just ended. Goodbye HBO Max.
Yes! Let’s make sure one single company tells all the others what to do!
Sigh. Apple needs to FORCE content providers to use their tech standards so all apps work the same. Make the 'walled garden' work in our favor. Our discounted rate just ended. Goodbye HBO Max.
Yes! Let’s make sure one single company tells all the others what to do!
On THEIR own platform. Not everyone else.
Apple should definitely do this or kick them out!
Why? What difference does it make to Apple? If HBO want to make their app crappier then that's their problem.
Apple shouldn't be the gatekeeper for all UI design, lots of good design is provided by the developer community and Apple would be crazy to cut off that creativity for the sake of some misfires.
My year of the $2 monthly discount ended on May 24th, so I missed the new, terrible app, but the old was also having a lot of annoying problems. I frequently had to force quit it and restart when it increasingly went into a mode of only showing an endless ellipsis.
I heard about their new discount pricing for annual plans, both with ads and ad-free, and was thinking of resuming the subscription with one of those, but not until these latest bugs are worked out. I just need it back by August for The Suicide Squad premiere.
Sigh. Apple needs to FORCE content providers to use their tech standards so all apps work the same. Make the 'walled garden' work in our favor. Our discounted rate just ended. Goodbye HBO Max.
Yes! Let’s make sure one single company tells all the others what to do!
On THEIR own platform. Not everyone else.
Apple should definitely do this or kick them out!
Why? What difference does it make to Apple? If HBO want to make their app crappier then that's their problem.
Apple shouldn't be the gatekeeper for all UI design, lots of good design is provided by the developer community and Apple would be crazy to cut off that creativity for the sake of some misfires.
Makes the Apple experience crappier. A lot of manufacturers do this. It’s only when Apple does it that everyone has a tantrum.
Funny, people cancelling over some app bugs. Not sure I actually believe them. Most HBO subscribers are watching several series at any given time. They aren't going to cancel a subscription and miss finishing a series. Well, most subscribers other than the weirdos that inhabit this forum.
Comments
The app at least seems stable now.
Also, is it possible that the devs at HBO are just so bad that they could not figure out how to code to the Apple APIs correctly and decided to take the dreaded cross platform route instead?
…bound to miserably fail. Obviously some business school nitwit consulting, thinking he knows it better than Apple which has been at it for decades.
We haven’t used it in the past week, but I thought they were using more of the tvOS APIs than before, moving away from their own stuff. We were watching season 4 of Gomorra when the language controls (you can watch in either Italian or dubbed English, we watch in Italian with subtitles) switched from in-app to the standard tvOS interface.
That said, Screen Times looks interesting — a site focused on tvOS — thanks AI for linking to it. I’ve been looking for something like it.
Apple should definitely do this or kick them out!
Apple shouldn't be the gatekeeper for all UI design, lots of good design is provided by the developer community and Apple would be crazy to cut off that creativity for the sake of some misfires.
I heard about their new discount pricing for annual plans, both with ads and ad-free, and was thinking of resuming the subscription with one of those, but not until these latest bugs are worked out. I just need it back by August for The Suicide Squad premiere.