I went to Cupertino to meet with the Apple TV team yesterday, and to pick up a unit to try out for myself. What struck me about the new model was Apple’s attention to detail—this is the most “Apple” Apple TV the company has ever released.
Most of us use Apple because the products are just so simple to use—the new Apple TV follows that mold and in some cases takes it to a whole new level. From setup to functionality, what Apple did with Apple TV screams ease of use.
Let’s take a few simple things to highlight the level of detail in the Apple TV.
Setup
When you first setup the device, it asks you if you want to set it up with your iPhone instead of typing WiFi and Apple ID passwords in manually. A long arduous task that we’ve all done many times. Just make sure Bluetooth is on and you are greeted with prompts on your iPhone to type in your passwords. And that’s it, you’re up and running.
One thing that was a bit frustrating with the old Apple TV was the fact you had to have a TV remote for volume and then the Apple TV remote to navigate the device. No more.
When you first plug in the Apple TV, it grabs all of the information from your TV and transfers it to the unit over the HDMI cable. From there, the TV information is sent to your remote via Bluetooth.
Before you even know what’s happening, you are signed into WiFi, your Apple ID, and your Apple TV remote is active to control the volume on your television.
That’s quite a first impression.
Apple Remote
Speaking of the remote. When you get you’re Apple TV, you’ll notice the remote has a mic on the front and another on the back. Of course, the one on the front is so you can speak to Siri and bring up movie and TV show suggestions on your TV. But what about that second mic?
That mic measures the ambient noise in the room and automatically lowers that volume so Siri can better hear what you are saying in the front mic. This just happens automatically.
I held the remote about an arms length away, pressed the Siri button, and spoke normally. It picked up even command I gave it. Oh, If you’re watching something on TV, Apple TV will automatically lower, or duck, the volume so Siri can hear you better.
Swiping on the remote can be very precise, allowing you to move to a specific target, or you can swipe across the face of the remote and it will be quite fluid, racing across the screen.
While the remote has a port for charging, you’ll get about three months of use from a single charge, so you won’t be running to charge it up all the time.
These are the types of detail that nobody else really thinks of, but Apple did.
Video screensavers
Using helicopters and drones, Apple filmed some iconic cities around the world that you can use as your Apple TV screensaver. Big deal, right? Well, the screensaver knows what time it is where you are, so the movie you see of London will be at night or in the day, depending on what time it is locally.
Detail. Attention to detail.
There is a setting to automatically download new screensaver as they become available.
Siri
Siri is smart. On Apple TV you can use Siri to find movies, TV shows, display the weather, sports scores and stocks.
When you ask Siri about the weather, Apple TV displays the current conditions on the bottom third of the screen. It’s enough to see the forecast, but still watch the movie.
If you want to see more detail, you can make weather go full screen. Here’s the detail bit—Apple TV will pause the movie in the background, so you don’t miss anything while you’re looking at the detailed forecast.
Siri will also not talk over your show. When you press the button, the familiar waveform will show on screen, allowing you to ask your question.
I didn’t raise my voice one bit when asking Siri a question, like, “What did he say?” when watching a movie. Siri skipped back, turned on closed captioning, and then turned it off after the section I was asking about had finished playing. Brilliant.
For now Siri is able to find TV shows and movies. You can’t use it to find sports from ESPN or news, or other content on the device. This actually makes a lot of sense, if you know Apple.
Apple has a history of releasing features slowly to make sure they work right. Then they’ll broaden the scope of the features to include more content. This is a smart way to introduce features, especially groundbreaking features like these.
Apple TV: The Platform
This is not an upgrade to Apple TV. This is a brand new platform, designed to allow you to get the most of out your TV. That’s the big takeaway with this Apple TV—it’s going to change things.
Apple is giving developers and video providers free reign to display content the way they want, not the way Apple feels it should be displayed. Scrolling through some of the channels, you see how different networks are using the available screen space to do something different.
With the Apple TV app store, it’s not just about video and music. There’s a fitness app called ZOVA that connects with your Apple Watch and displays your heartbeat onscreen.
There are games for kids and adults alike, all using the Apple TV remote as the game controller.
There is a lot to Apple TV. I’ve loved every minute of it so far.
Bottom Line
This Apple TV is nothing like you’ve ever seen from Apple in the past. This is the start of something new for Apple, and for us as consumers.
I really believe that this could be a pivotal moment, one we look back on and say, I remember when that happened.
Let me be clear—we aren’t there yet. Content is still a big issue. However, Apple has laid the groundwork to fix the content problem—the problem of having content subscriptions, or simply having content when and where we want it, not when Comcast thinks we should have it.
iPhone brought a massive change to the way we interact with phones. This Apple TV has the potential to bring that same kind of change to the television.
What happens to the old TV’s? Do they get a software update or do they stay where they are?
I assume we’ll get some minor updates for a while, but they won’t be new features just fixes.
I love my old AppleTV. I’m sure this one will be better, but I’m in no hurry to toss the old one even after I get the new one. 🙂
I think so too, was wondering what the incentive would be for existing users to upgrade. I’ve sold my old one 🙂
This bit was true for the last gen AppleTV as well- and very impressed I was too when setting up my Apple TV in January.
If I am remembering the keynote correctly, the grid of icons that you see on the current Apple TV remains on the new one. You see them by scrolling below the new interface and apps. I remember asking myself if that means I would use the old ABC app or download a new one.
So, for a while at leas, Apple will still maintain those old AppleTV apps, I think. Since I will likely pass mine on to my mother, she should be quite happy with all of that. (She’s a bit of a technophobe, but I think she’ll enjoy Netflix and that channel/app with all the Hallmark-style movies. 🙂 )
I’m sorry Jim, but this doesn’t change everything.
If Apple were to give its customers what they want (recording) rather than what the studios want (streaming), it might change everything.
If Apple didn’t force us to jump all over the place to different applications to find what we want to watch, and allowed us to have all of our content in a single app, that would change everything.
If Apple just started buying studios and selling all their content on-demand at $0.99 for every half hour, that would change everything.
If Apple didn’t give us a middling, also-ran gaming console, but something that was a market-leader, beating the Xbox One and PlayStation, that would change everything.
Time and again, consumers have rented DVRs from their cable companies, which act as a dragnet for content that the consumer wants to watch, so when they sit down, they eschew channel guides and skip commercials, getting just the content. These DVRs aren’t dependent on unreliable, slow broadband Internet like we get in the U.S., but use satellite or coaxial cable which gives an uninterrupted experience (unlike residential broadband).
The new Apple TV continues Apple’s plan for giving us what we don’t want. With Steve gone, it’s time for Tim and Phil to engage in some market research so they don’t bring out another product people don’t want.
Amazon is so scared of this they have pulled all Apple TVs from sale on their website. Goes to show Amazon does not believe in competition. They whine about confusion what will work well with Prime. Well, Amazon, put up or shut up. Create an App, or expect us to cancel our Prime accounts.
Hrunga Zmuda Right on! Best analysis of Amazon ever!
You GO girl!
“mold” Jim? C’mon. You’re a Canuck, a happy Haligonian (first American to know what this means gets a Cracker Jacks prize). Set that default dictionary to “Canadian” and be proud. 🙂 Your US readers will understand and your Canadian readers will appreciate it.
What you’re saying is that Apple has already changed everything, then.
was curious if this Apple TV will work through projection instead of a TV as long as there is an HDMI port on the projector? Don’t have a TV…
Can the remote adjust the audio from your soundbar? or just the TV volume?
Not sure if you have the 2nd or 3rd gen but my 2nd gen constantly crashes, reboots, fails to stream videos, and loses network connection. My four year old already has a phrase, “Daddy, the Apple TV is broken! AGAIN!”
No Amazon Prime still? Could you please ask them why?
The future isn’t DVRs. What an odd perspective.
Jim, did you test this in the U.S. or Canada. There are likely significant differences in content and availability between the two locales
Because Amazon didn’t write one. The lack of Prime Video on Apple TV is squarely on Amazon.
I’ve got the 3rd. I think I’ve seen it fail 2 or 3 times, and those were all in the same night. (And I fixed it by restarting our router.)
But in your shoes I’d definitely be deeply unsatisfied. Don’t blame you at all.
I’m not sure if this is true of all the “last gen” units or if they did a secret mini-update. Although maybe that’s what you’re saying, too. 🙂
To be fair, that’s speculation. Isn’t it? It’s not like we know they didn’t write one.
But you’re almost certainly correct. We certainly haven’t heard them whining about being rejected.
According to whom?
The AppleTV 2nd Gen has an A4 processor with 256MB of onboard RAM. THe 3rd Gen has an A5 processor with 512MB of onboard RAM. THey both have 8GBs of flash storage to hold streaming content, but the on board RAM and the chip speed are really going to be what is behind much of the crashes, I suspect.
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/apple-tv/apple-tv-faq/differences-between-3rd-gen-2012-2nd-gen-black-apple-tv.html
It just isn’t hard to figure out. All of the competing streaming services are available (Netflix, Hulu, etc), so obviously Apple isn’t the one blocking them. The only other option is that Amazon didn’t write an app and submit it. And judging by the pulling of Apple TV and Chromecase from their retail site, I’m guessing they don’t plan on doing so.
Aside from that, if Amazon had written one and Apple blocked it, there is zero doubt it would have been a front page “Letter from Jeff Bezos” moment.
So this is Amazon’s own doing, no one else’s.
Aha! Found it! Here is John Packzkowski from BuzzFeed (3rd paragraph down in his article) who includes a response from Apple regarding it’s absence:
“Incidentally, that Amazon Prime Video is the exception to the conga line of content offerings above is entirely Amazon’s doing. A ~magnanimous~ Apple tells BuzzFeed News that “all are welcome” on its new Apple TV platform. But Amazon — whichrecently purged Apple TV from its store — doesn’t have a Prime Video app in the Apple TV App Store. And as of a few days ago, it hadn’t submitted one.”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/johnpaczkowski/the-apple-tv-youve-always-wanted-is-finally-here#.kppaz6ONe
Yes, it does. Have no TV either.
That’s what I want to know as well. All the reviewers (this one included) are going gaga over the volume control, but in reality almost no one uses the tiny, crappy 2″ speakers that are built into the TV set.
Just for another data point, I have the 3rd gen and it crashes quite a bit even though it’s only five feet from a brand new Airport Extreme. What’s been more noticeable however is that 1080p movies stall and stutter when you try to fast forward even if the data is coming off your own home network. It just doesn’t seem to have the processing power to actually stream a 1080p movie correctly. This has been the longest period between (serious) hardware updates for Apple TV ever. The 3rd gen version barely works if we are honest.
Anybody still uses DVRs? I have not seen one in ages. All the good channels here are public free TV (free being a mandatory fee per household, around $22 per month) and have their content available for streaming for free anyhow (including on the Apple TV), the private free channels are all utter horse manure, and the few things I want to see without commercial breaks, I buy on iTunes.
And the Apple TVs capability to search across all these sources does solve a huge inconvenience for me, instead of going through an EPG and 5 to 10 apps, I can now use one search.
My 2nd generation AppleTV has had the YouTube function ripped out of it – I understand not getting any new functionality or updates for an older version, but I have NEVER heard of existing functionality taken away!
It’s like, buy the new one or we’ll continue to cripple what you’ve got until it’s useless.
Pathetic.
That YouTube function is actually on Apple’s servers, as far as I’ve read. (It’s how Apple changes the channel/app lineup from time to time.) When Google updated the app for new YouTube abilities, it broke that version of the app. It wasn’t necessarily Apple’s fault, although I admit there may have been a possibility of testing for the generation of the AppleTV connecting and then deliver the proper app. That’s assuming, of course, no OS issues with the older app. Also that’s assuming no issues between the old app and Google/YouTube, who I’m fairly certain also made some huge behind-the-scenes changes.
EBay has some used 3rd Gens for around $40-45. If I wasn’t giving mine to my mother, I’d actually offer you mine for less 🙂 Keep looking for bargains like that if you’re interested in moving to at least the 3rd Gen.
It can control a sounder or receiver, but you have to manually program it in Settings.
http://www.imore.com/how-use-your-apple-tv-remote-control-your-tv
They are not entirely wrong. I stopped shopping at Amazon (have never been interested in the rummage bin videos and yesteryear’s TV shows on Prime anyhow), and all confusion is gone. What they offer is likely on one of my 200 channels anyhow.
(I still give them kudos for saving Ripper Street, which I buy on iTunes.)
Thanks for the insight, but my comment was highlighting the fact that this is the first instance I’ve seen of REMOVING functionality from a purchased product. Whether Google changed the API or not is irrelevant – I bought the product from Apple, not Google. Apple should have updated the YouTube app to use the new API.
I’m not asking for new features in an old product, but don’t disable things I paid for and were working.
mine works fine. sounds like yours is broken.
my dad has an ATV w/ HBO Go on it, but still uses his DVR to record HBO shows. smh….
theres no reason to record when you can pull it down anytime you want.
and if you think the ATV was designed to over-power hardcore gaming consoles, then you dont understand apple very well.
Have never had any of those problems. I wonder if you’re too close to the router and are having connectivity problems due to that.
I don’t see this as much different than paying for an application and then eventually it just doesn’t work anymore, but I mostly see where you are coming from.
Exactly — they don’t have to beat the hardcore systems. The Nintendo Wii and Wii U were/are selling hugely, and much of that is because they cater to people who play games other than the first person shooters that the other consoles’ and computers’ players seem to love.
AppleTV is going to cater to the Wii-type gamers as well as crossovers from iPad and iPhone gamers. Like the Wii, they’ll have a few of the big games (I’ve even seen Guitar Hero coming with a Guitar Hero guitar controller for sale), but mostly we’re going to see casual and puzzle games, I think.
o you have it connected via a ethernet cable or via wifi? Five feet seems a bit close for wifi — you can actually get slower speeds being that near to the router.
I have an Airport Extreme, also, and it is that close tot he AppleTV, but I’ve got the AppleTV plugged into one of the available ethernet ports. I don’t get any stuttering that can’t be attributed to issues with my actual internet service.
For the record, I few issues with wifi connection, also, but I did notice stuttering. Once I connected via ethernet cable, that went away. That was with a D-Link router I had at the time. Since getting the Airport Extreme, I’ve never used wifi with the AppleTV.
Never had anything at all like what you’re referring to. The 3rd generation Apple TV has been the best one by far and I have two of them, as well, I owned 2 of each of the first & second generation ones too!
I agree with the review, but I think we should also mention some grave negatives, which might be solved down the line, but are not solved as of now:
(The three together make entering passwords and codes a nightmare. Of course you now have to stay close to the Siri Remote all the time, pausing or muting from an Apple Watch or iPhone is no longer possible. Everything just works together my ass.)
While I love what the new model does, these are (for now) some glaring issues.
Thanks for the overview. It helps in deciding whether I want to buy one. (Not surprisingly, I do!)
Miscellanea:
“When you first setup the device…”
Set up. The verb is “set up”.
“…free reign…”
free rein
It is a marvel in so many ways. But tagging and Siri queries are so full of holes that it is frustrating.
Examples:
After a Siri query, the answer doesn’t disappear on its own (after a period of time). You have to use the touchpad to bring it down.
And, to top it off, there is still a ridiculous keyboard for text entry. Why didn’t they just create a really good iPhone/iPad/iPodT app as a remote control for AppleTV and save everyone some money?
But all my complaints do not change the fact that it is a refreshingly new way to watch TV.
The “real disaster” (and it is) that you point to in regards parental controls is a result of Apple’s abandonment of it’s old model of customers buying content and storing and streaming locally in favour of pushing it’s new streaming services.
This “old” model of iTunes has been basically abandonware for years. Home users have no access to the metadata fields to organise their media and no real control over it for years now. Apple has given up on their most loyal users and most of their paying customers in that regard. It’s either move to the new streaming model or GTFO from their point of view.
I would go so far as to say that iTunes for OS X along with the iOS Music app are almost completely useless unless you now buy into this streaming model. Both operating systems are now also full of advertisements for Apple’s streaming properties that cannot be deleted or gotten around.
If you think about it, even the App stores on both OS’s are really tailored to and aimed at developers, not consumers. Apple has lined itself up with the media and data producers and against the consumers and users of such services.
As a life long Apple user and Apple supporter, I would leave their entire ecosystem tomorrow if I could. Their behaviour is just appalling to me. The trouble is that there really isn’t an alternative.
Apple used to be a great company that cared about it’s customers and made the best devices in the world. Now … they still make the best devices in the world, but all that other stuff just isn’t true anymore.
It will take a decade or so before it becomes really apparent and people realise this, but those are the facts as I see them.
How is HomeSharing? How is the interface to access your own content? Is it usable with no Internet? Can you hide away iTunes Store content? Can I use Siri to search my own content?
I have to mainly agree. I do not really mind them putting their services front and center (I have no problem ignoring them, if I do not want them(, but the approach to force things down our throats has really gotten out of hand lately.
I understand that pushing for new solutions and maintaining “legacy” stuff can be hard to balance, but right now I can’t even see them trying. The havoc that iTunes 12.2 caused on existing libraries (and still does to some point, if you happen to have multiple versions of songs), the greatly reduced usability of the iOS Music app. the almost non-existant home sharing support, the abandonment of decent local storage support (e.g. killing iPhoto and Aperture and replacing it with that complete POS Photos), the removal of most features from iWork for the sake of having compatible Web apps (which are now still not 100% feature identical, but boy do they have less features)… they damage everything for a Cloud future that is just not there for many. With metered Internet access, still slow connectivity in many places, WiFi being restricted or not available in many corporations… Many still rely on local storage and managing local files (or simply prefer it for privacy or other reasons) – and Apple should actually know that, droves of people pay for higher storage capacities in devices for a reason.
I love my music, I have a lot of uncompressed stuff and I want to listen to “my” music on every device. Not Apple’s randomly fucked up replacements maintained by stupid algorithms that do not even work. I did give Apple music a try, found it to be shit and dangerous for my content… Even more embarrassing is the aggressiveness Apple used in sacrificing existing functionality to promote this stuff. Frankly, being an Apple user since 1983, I have never seen such an asshole move from them. Here is hope that they will eventually fire Cue, and put people with a brain in charge of these things. Their hardware keeps getting better and better, they should be able to do the same for software and services if they ever try.
“it’s time for Tim and Phil to engage in some market research so they don’t bring out another product people don’t want.”
If you knew anything about Jobs, then you’d understand how ridiculous this statement is.
He believed firmly in not just giving people “faster horses”
Sticking with my 3rd generation Apple TV. Siri on the remote is pointless.
Thanks Dean! I feel ya!
It goes in the bedroom with the small tv.
You see them by scrolling below the new interface and apps. I remember asking myself if that means I would use the old ABC app or download a new one.Seahawks Beanie
I hope they fixed the darkening of the screen when switching to Apple Tv. Haven’t been able to find a fix for that on v 2 or v 3