zroger73

I rarely use Siri. On the rare occasion I do, it seems to be an exercise in frustration. It seems like an update somewhere along the way changed the way Siri activated using the home button and I've never got the hang of it.

Alexa, on the other hand, is very useful. I talk to her several times each day on my three Echo devices to control lighting, read news and weather, set timers, make conversions and calculations, add items to my shopping list, read audio books, and play music.

I'm a huge Apple "fanboy" and I'd much prefer to be tied to their ecosystem instead of Amazon's, but Alexa has Siri beat in terms of ease of use and the ability to actually accomplish things - at least for me. I've not used Google Home and have no desire to at this time.

Today was the last day of my 3-month subscription that I finally got refunded a while back due to constant problems on DTVN's end. I figured I would open the DTVN app on my Apple TV to see if anything had changed since I left. The first thing that popped up with a QP1401 error! I then tried watching an on-demand show, which played, but the audio was several seconds out of sync with the video. I deleted the app from all my devices. Done.

I tried Sling a few months ago. The interface was confusing and there was pixelation and commercials would get stuck in a loop.

I tried PlayStation Vue. The interface was better, but still not as "easy" as the STB/TiVo interfaces I used for decades. The video quality and stability were excellent.

I tried DirecTV Now on their 3-for-$35 with free Apple TV promotion. The interface was better still, but I was never able to watch a single, complete episode of ANYTHING during the first two months without some type of error occurring. It took multiple chats with customer service, a charge dispute with my credit card company, and a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, but I finally got a full refund. I'm confident/hopeful it will eventually work as advertised, but I refused to continue to pay for a service that didn't function properly.

At this point, Sling isn't a consideration for me. PS Vue was the most stable, but DirecTV offered the most channels (that I watch). Currently, I no longer use any of them and have no immediate plans to re-subscribe. If I were forced to choose one right now, it would be PS Vue.

So, the ATV 4.1 or ATV 5 will is finally catching up to what the ATV 4 should have been 15 months ago.

I'm waiting for the Apple Watch app that notifies the wearer when their heart stops beating. That will be the "killer" app.