Josh Centers, writing for TidBITS, pulled together a well-written assemblage of frequently asked Apple TV questions.
There are some obvious questions, like whether to buy and which model to buy, but there are lots of subtle, important questions that make this well worth reading. The design is eye-scan friendly, so you’ll find it easy to skip from question to question to spot the ones that seem relevant to you.
Jean-Louis Gassée, writing for Monday Note:
Fueled by a significant number of hires from other car makers and real estate expansion beyond the upcoming hypergalactic spaceship HQ in Cupertino, rumors of an Apple Car keep percolating. I hope to drive an Apple Car someday… but does Apple’s personal computing software knowhow translate into the high-reliability real-time code required for a safe, reliable and, of course, elegant electric car?
Just one example of the incredibly complex interdependencies that make a car safe:
Consider the complicated, contradictory tasks that are controlled by the Electric Power Steering system (EPS). Sensors, electric motors, gears, and software make it easy for you to maneuver your vehicle at low effort parking speed and still maintain a straight line at highway speed with its variable return-to-center force. In a steep turn, EPS must provide sharper steering angle ratios and let you know if the car is starting to “push” (understeer) or if the back of your car is about to swing loose (oversteer).
To save your life, EPS software attempts to get between you and the front wheels, using speed and yaw information, comparing intended and real trajectories, and then applying steering and braking corrections. Take the “famous” Moose Test, an evasive left-right obstacle avoidance maneuver performed at highway speeds. Without assistance from sensors, software and electro-hydraulic actuators, most of us will either hit the obstacle or roll the the car into the ditch. At the highway speeds for which it is designed, a modern EPS, in collaboration with the braking subsystem, will not let you roll over, regardless of your steering input.
And:
I also have to consider that my current vehicle is more than five years old — and how many software or mechanical bugs in those five years? Null. Zero. Before that, I drove a car from the same series for four and a half years. Bugs? One out-of-the-box suspension problem that was fixed a few days later and that was it. No more problems.
On my Mac, I tolerate the occasional screen message telling me that Mail or some other service has quit.
And:
Just because the software running inside Apple’s personal computing devices is considered high quality doesn’t mean that the culture that produces it is capable of producing the high-reliability, real-time embedded software needed for an electric car.
A thoughtful column (as usual) from JLG.
To me, these issues are likely major topics of conversation within the Apple Car team. The bulletproof culture of embedded software (think about the software in your microwave oven, something that just can’t crash) is well known and, I suspect, embedded expertise is part of the talent being brought into Apple’s automobile efforts.
Ed Colligan, Palm CEO from long ago:
“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
We shall see.
This is an incredible infographic. Be sure to click on the image to make it full-screen, then click again to zoom in.
If you see something wrong/missing, be sure to click the ADDITION/CORRECTION button on the main page.
Dave Smith, writing for Tech Insider:
In September, a new Apple Store opened in Brussels. But this is not your typical Apple Store you’d find at the mall.
Located in the heart of Belgium, this new location was designed by Sir Jony Ive, Apple’s design genius who ultimately controls how the company’s bestselling hardware and software looks and feels.
Though Apple cofounder Steve Jobs is famously known for partially designing many of the Apple Stores, including their signature glass staircases, Jony Ive has never designed an Apple Store until now, believe it or not.
It’s not the biggest Apple Store we’ve seen, but it definitely feels like Jony Ive’s work: Simple, elegant, and friendly.
Check out the images. This is an incredibly beautifully designed store. My favorite is the shot of the front corner of the outside, showing off the huge, curved glass panels.
[H/T John Kordyback]
This is phenomenal. Note that this was filmed in 4K, so ratchet the video settings up if you have gear that will support it.
Happy Halloween to all of you from all of us here at Loop HQ.
Some Halloween links for your horrification:
Some surreal body art that is sure to give you the creeps.
A video tour of Evil Children in Horror Movies
The monster list of 788 Halloween projects you can make
The TV Guide list of movies, TV, specials, marathons on this weekend.
And, finally:
Have a great Halloween. Save some candy for us!
Thanks to Marketcircle for sponsoring The Loop this week. Marketcircle, helping small businesses grow with amazing Mac, iPhone, Apple Watch, and iPad apps. Marketcircle is a Mac-based software company in Toronto that develops award-winning apps to help you save time, stay organized, and work happier. Serving the Apple/Mac community for over 10 years, Marketcircle’s Daylite and Billings Pro can take your business to new heights.
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New in Billings Pro: support for El Capitan, and iOS 9, including multitasking support.
Read about how small businesses have grown with the help of Billings Pro.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
I am a huge fan of both. Amazing how many of these shots are strikingly similar. I just can’t imagine this is coincidence.
Got an Apple TV on its way? Spend a few minutes and Christian Zibreg, writing for iDownloadBlog, will give you a tour of some of the best Apple TV apps and games you can look forward to downloading.
Serenity Caldwell, writing for iMore:
Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV offers an App Store chock full of third-party apps for you to enjoy—including, yes, games. To expand the gaming universe further, the Apple TV is supporting Apple’s Made For iPhone (MFi) standard for third-party controllers, which means you’ll be able to game with a Siri Remote and Xbox-style controller alike.
So, how do third-party controllers work in the wide wonderful world of tvOS? We’ll walk you through it so you can start gaming in no time.
One thing that struck me in particular:
All games on the tvOS App Store offer a helpful indicator on their app pages in regards to controllers: If your game offers third-party controller support, you’ll see Game Controller Optional below the description.
I do find that wording interesting—”optional”—given that, currently, Apple prevents tvOS games from requiring a game controller. It might be worded in such a way to open up the possibility controller-required games in the future… or it just might be a random word choice on the part of tvOS App Store staff.
Great job, as usual, from Serenity.
This was just lovely. Watch the video below, then take a trip over to the home page to read through the time line. Terrific job.
Another of those tips that you should bookmark and pass along. You never know when you’ll need it.
The TL;DR version: To reset your Bluetooth, hold down shift-option, then click the Bluetooth menu in your menu bar. Surprise! There’s now a Debug menu.
Among other things, this menu lets you remove all devices (you’ll have to re-pair all your devices if you do this) and reset the Bluetooth module.
Read the article. It’s full of interesting nuggets.
Hayley Tsukayama, writing for The Washington Post:
The new Apple TV, which launched this week, offers a tantalizing breakthrough: It has the potential to be the only set-top box you will need.
The hockey puck-sized box offers some cool new features that can be used now — you can search for shows through the voice assistant Siri and a new remote lets you navigate by touch and play games. But more importantly, it reveals the company’s vision for the future of television — Apple hopes TV watching won’t be shaped by static channel guides of hundreds of shows that can be viewed only in certain time slots, but apps, largely developed by third-party companies, that offer your favorite shows on command, anytime you want. Anyone can submit an app, from big companies such as CBS or Netflix to smaller players such as Snapchat or Airbnb.
Apple TV’s watch-by-apps approach has another benefit — it can be the device that finally pulls together all of those subscriptions, watchlists and movies you’ve randomly downloaded all across the Web.
Apple is fantastic at constructing ecosystems. They’ve done a remarkable job with the new Apple TV. The potential is dazzling. The key is to establish a standard so strong, so compelling, that anyone who wants to play has to build an app for it.
The biggest domino in the bunch is Amazon’s Instant Video. Apple TV can certainly win without Amazon. After all, there’s plenty of content with Netflix, Hulu, and the like, with the networks in negotiation and already represented with time delayed shows on Netflix and Hulu.
But if Apple can get Amazon onto Apple TV, that’ll be the ballgame. The Apple TV will have established a standard with enough pull to bring everyone to the table.
Side note: If you are interested in cord cutting, watch the video at the top of the linked article. The first half is pretty basic, but the second half does a nice job of laying out the content offered by services like Netflix and Hulu, so you can start planning your own cord cutting.
Once a year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires every company of a certain size ($10m in assets) to file an annual report, laying out a comprehensive summary of its financial performance. That report is known as the Form 10-K.
Here’s a link to Apple’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year that ended, oddly enough, on September 26th.
There are a lot of interesting tidbits in Apple’s 10-K, including patent filings, dependencies, and lots of discussion of risks in the marketplace. But if you don’t feel like digging through all the cruft, Chris O’Brien, writing for Venture Beat, did a nice job of laying out some of the highlights.
Reinhardt Krause, writing for Investors.com:
Some analysts have pushed back the arrival of Apple’s web TV service to the second-half of 2016. Apple’s focus on ensuring high quality streaming could be one reason for the delay as well as acquiring content rights.
Most of what you read about Apple’s rumored web TV service (where Apple provides both the set top box and the content) revolves around the complexities of acquiring rights from players like the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox) and others.
But a subtler problem is the complexity of handling the stream surge problem, where demand for content can build quickly, beyond the network’s availability to deliver. A perfect example of this is demand for a live sports event:
Dish Networks’ (NASDAQ:DISH) new Sling OTT (over-the-top) has been hampered by streaming issues, including problems during college basketball’s “March Madness.” For Apple, the worry is that while it can estimate demand for a web TV service, it doesn’t want traffic surges to give the service a black eye.
Handling surge streaming well is a critical issue. Interesting article.
AmpliTube 4 is a guitar and bass tone studio for Mac/PC that works as a standalone application and as a plug-in for your favorite DAW. AmpliTube recreates the entire guitar/bass signal chain from instrument to recording device, and does so in a very realistic and intuitive way. But it also does it in ways you never dreamed possible.
AmpliTube has been around for years and is one of the best amp software packages on the market. I’m looking forward to trying this out.
Wired:
Although South By Southwest has long been one of digital culture’s foremost summits, recent events suggest it’s time to re-assess that. SXSW’s organizers have publicly foundered over some of the event’s programming on online harassment—undoubtedly one of the most important and complex topics facing digital culture today. And that they’ve messed this up so monumentally exposes a fundamental problem with the very events that purport to champion the issue.
This may seem too “inside baseball” and uninteresting but it’s actually an important issue on many fronts – it’s about the continuing and vehement online harassment of women by cowards and the companies and organizations, like SXSW, who don’t have the courage to stand up to that same harrassment themselves.
This is a bit terrifying but gorgeous at the very same time. Be sure to scroll through the whole thing, especially that page that zooms in and out from a skyward overhead view of Greenland, to the closeup on the porous ice at the surface.
This detailed analysis is from a firm that does both Android and iOS development. Read the blog post, draw your own conclusions.
As reported by the BBC’s own Leo Kelion, the iPlayer app is being rewritten as a native Apple TV app, which means it can now be searchable, right alongside Netflix, Hulu and other third party apps.
A key part of Apple’s pitch for its new box is that owners can use their voices to request programmes and movies by theme from across a range of services without having to open and close individual apps.
Users can, for example, ask for popular science fiction shows and be shown a range of suggestions from Netflix, NowTV and other apps that communicate their content with Apple’s computer servers.
Searchability is a huge selling point for Apple TV. Rather than dig into the Netflix interface, then slogging through the Hulu interface, etc., all to find a specific show, this new generation of Apple TV puts Siri front and center on search. Ask Sir to find a specific show, and Apple TV will show you an availability screen, listing apps that stream that show.
This is a tipping point. If Amazon wants their Instant Video to become a player on the level of Netflix and Hulu, they have to make it available as a searchable Apple TV app. Imagine the Kindle without an iOS app. There’s no way the Kindle Store becomes the giant it has become without the ability to read books natively on the iPhone and iPad. To me, this same holds true for Apple TV.
Ben Thompson, writing for Stratechery, takes on this New York Times article, which casts doubt that Apple can continue its success.
Ben writes:
I am increasingly finding most commentary around the iPhone to be just a bit maddening: the iPhone — and, by extension, Apple — is in the strongest position it has ever been in, and I feel like far too many folks are being obtuse about that reality.
Great, detailed piece. Go, Ben, go!
This is an ambitious effort. As with all lists, some of these will click for you, others might not. But worth looking through this, I think. Some excellent apps worth having here.
CNN Money did an interview with Apple Senior VP Eddy Cue to talk about Apple TV. The interview was split into two parts.
NOTE: The linked pages are set to AutoPlay, which is why I did not embed the videos here. My two cents: AutoPlay is awful, disrespectful to your audience. Turn it off.
The first part of the interview focuses on the basics: apps and the app ecosystem, the remote, Siri, and the overall interface, with a focus on search.
The second part of the interview is a little more Eddy Cue, a little less packaged and, frankly, I found it a lot more interesting. The focus was more on the possibilities for app developers, as well as the Apple TV as an add-on, rather than a replacement to your set top box.
Fascinating question at the end:
Do you think Apple TV needs exclusive programming in order to thrive?
A party line answer from Eddy, but a great question.
Watching these videos, I definitely get the sense that Apple is all-in with the Apple TV, that this is just the beginning of something truly great.
From the Wall Street Journal live blog:
Nintendo has introduced its long-awaited and highly anticipated first smartphone app, called Miitomo, but pushed back the release date to the spring of next year. The title is a new franchise for the company– first of five smartphone apps Nintendo plans to release by March 2017. But we’re not sure whether to call Miitomo a game. Users will design their own avatars, or miis, to communicate with other users.
Nintendo is saving its most famous character, Mario the plumber, and others for a later date. Analysts say the company probably didn’t want to risk Mario on an unproven mobile format, but might introduce him later.
Nintendo also said it was creating a new membership service, called “Nintendo Account,” to connect users of its hardware as well as PCs and mobile devices. It said it would use a cloud-based service to transfer data between mobile games and console games.
Sounds like Miitomo is an avatar management app (the Mii is your avatar on the Nintendo Wii, Wii U, 3DS), perhaps with some social aspects. Could also be an avatar bridge between the Wii U and Nintendo’s next gen console, the Nintendo NX. A few more details:
The new smartphone game will be “Miitomo”. It will be free to play, with attractive add-ons that people can pay for, Mr. Kimishima says. Other smartphone games will be pay-to-download, he says.
Looks like Miis go ahead and communicate with other Miis without your knowledge. This will help people who are hesitant to talk about themselves to communicate with others, and reveal a side of your friends you never knew, Mr. Kimishima says.
Interesting privacy aspects to this.
Regardless, Mario won’t make his appearance in this app. Nintendo also teased four follow-ons to Miitomo, built with partner DeNA, all of them games, all shipping by March 2017.
One thing I didn’t get from this live blog was any mention of platform. I can imagine these games being iPhone only, or iPhone, then Android. I can’t imagine them being Android only, though.
Looking forward to the details.
Mashable:
Inside the Apple bubble, a giant campus with more than 10,000 employees, it’s easy to lose introspection. Yet, when I ask Schiller if Apple does everything well, his answer surprises me.“No, of course not, of course not,” he said. “And we don’t want to sound like we’re perfect. We never are, we always have to get better and always have to listen to where we’re not doing well.”
Well written and visually interestingly laid out piece by Ulanoff. I’ve met Schiller several times and I’ve always found him interesting and engaging. Then again, we both love hockey so that means I’m biased.
ZDNet:
During its quarterly earnings call on Tuesday, Apple CFO Luca Maestri was keen to point out how beneficial swapping out PCs for Macs can be.“There are currently over 30,000 Macs deployed within the company with 1,900 more being added each week. IBM tells us that each Mac is saving $270 compared to a traditional PC, thanks to the much reduced support cost and better residual value.”
Those of you who work in IT have known this for years. When I worked in a corporate environment, it was obvious there was more tech support needed for the PCs than the Macs. One company I worked for had 40 PC support techs who were busy all day, every day. They had two Mac guys for the same number of machines. They spent most of their day doing “fun IT” stuff and not troubleshooting and putting out fires. When you’re talking about thousands and thousands of Macs, that $270 per machine adds up to real cost savings for corporations.
Jeff. Jeff, Jeff Jeff, Jeff Jeff Jeff. Jeff!!!
If you are interested in the new 4th generation Apple TV, take some time to read this detailed, thoughtful, well-written review by John Yanarella for Universal Mind. There’s a lot to process.
A few highlights:
The new Apple TV is powered by the dual-core Apple A8, an Apple-designed 64-bit ARM based system on a chip processor first used in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus—a significant upgrade from the previous edition’s iPhone 4S era single-core Apple A5. It includes 2GB of RAM and comes in two models, offering 32GB and 64GB storage. It offers wireless and wired networking capabilities via 802.11ac Wi‑Fi and 10/100 ethernet. Developers can use the new USB-C port to connect to the Apple TV for development and debugging purposes. The new model is slightly taller than the previous two generations, but it is still a diminutive little box measuring 3.9” by 3.9” by 1.4” and weighing in at just under a pound (at 15 ounces).
It features HDMI 1.4 output at 720p and 1080p resolution with support for Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 audio (up from Dolby Digital 5.1). It adds support for HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) extensions that allow the Apple TV to send commands over HDMI to automatically turn on CEC-enabled TVs, switch to the correct input and control audio volume.
And:
The new remote communicates with the Apple TV over Bluetooth 4.0 (rather than relying on the IR transmitter as in the previous generation), eliminating previous line-of-sight issues and enabling its new voice and data communication features. It still includes an IR transmitter which can now be used to control TVs and A/V home theater receivers.
Ditching the replaceable coin battery used in the previous model, the new remote includes a built-in lithium ion battery which Apple claims will last months on a single charge. The battery can be charged via the lightning connector on the bottom edge of the remote.
There will be two versions of the remote—one with Siri natural language voice recognition, the other with on-screen text-based search. At launch, the Siri remote will only be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan. Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
And:
More than simply an aesthetic update, all of the user interface interactions have been rethought in terms of new touchpad and voice-based interactions made possible by the new Siri remote.
For example, Apple invented a new kind of UI component for tvOS it has dubbed the “parallax icon.” A parallax icon is composed of multiple flat image layers that are rendered with a parallax effect, whereby each layer is shifted independently with simulated lighting to create the illusion of three-dimensionality and depth of field. tvOS uses this in place of bright blue selection borders as a more tangible means of indicating that an item is selected as the target for interaction. As a user moves his or her thumb on the touchpad, the parallax effect provides immediate and continuous feedback that a parallax icon is focused.
There is so much more to this review. An excellent read.
Mark Bergen, writing for re/code:
The Alphabet company is getting ready to open a dedicated home for podcasts on its Google Play hub. Today the company is letting podcast creators upload shows to Google Play Music, its streaming service; it says listeners will be able to listen to those shows “in the coming months.” It will be, remarkably, the first native app for podcast listening on Android in the content market where Apple carries disproportionate weight.
Remarkable that this is the first major challenge to Apple’s longtime podcasting dominance. The word podcasting comes from iPod, an Apple product. Podcasting was born in the Apple universe, but it is not protected by the Apple ecosystem the way music is. You can do all your podcast listening on the web. There is no digital rights management to overcome, there are no major rights deals to negotiate. Amazing it took this long for Google (or Amazon) to make this play.