Apple Announces New Apple TV 4K With Redesigned Siri Remote (theverge.com) 27
The new Apple TV sports a more powerful A12 Bionic chip that lets it play HDR video at higher frame rates. It also comes equipped with a redesigned Siri remote. The Verge reports: The new Siri remote has an iPod-style scroll wheel, a five-way click pad, touch controls, a mute button, and a power button that can turn your TV on and off. Meanwhile, the Siri button is now on the side of the remote, and Apple says that the voice assistant now works on Apple TV in Austria, Ireland, and New Zealand, in addition to the 13 countries where it was already supported. Finally, the new Siri remote's enclosure is made out of 100 percent recycled aluminum.
You'll get the new remote with the new $179 4K set-top box, or it's available separately for $59. As well as being compatible with the new Apple TV 4K, it also works with the 2017 model and Apple TV HD. Apple will also sell the remote bundled with the Apple TV HD for $149. Other features of the Apple TV 4K include support for 60fps Dolby Vision playback over AirPlay from a compatible iPhone, and the ability to optimize the colors of your TV screen using the light sensor on an iPhone.
You'll get the new remote with the new $179 4K set-top box, or it's available separately for $59. As well as being compatible with the new Apple TV 4K, it also works with the 2017 model and Apple TV HD. Apple will also sell the remote bundled with the Apple TV HD for $149. Other features of the Apple TV 4K include support for 60fps Dolby Vision playback over AirPlay from a compatible iPhone, and the ability to optimize the colors of your TV screen using the light sensor on an iPhone.
Yay. They've Caught Up With the $99 Roku Ultra (Score:5, Interesting)
That puts them just half a year behind the competition, and at only twice the price.
The thing is, I like the Apple TV, at least in principle. But I've worked with both that and the Roku, and there are really only two reasons I preferred the Apple TV in principle: Being able to access iTunes content and AirPlay.
The iTunes content stopped being an issue the moment the Apple TV app came out for Roku, so that's not an advantage anymore.
And AirPlay to an Apple TV just doesn't work. I've spent countless hours of non-stop swearing trying to get AirPlay mirroring to stay connected without dropping out with an impenetrable error message the second I start to play video in some unsupported app or unsupported format. It basically *has never* worked for me, with multiple different models of Macs, on multiple networks, etc.
And now that Roku Ultra even has AirPlay support.... Yeah.
Sure, the Roku is slightly clunky at times, but it also can do a lot of things that the Apple TV can't, and their high end costs half as much as Apple's high end. And Roku's low end only costs $20, and is absolutely usable. I can literally connect every TV in my house and my next door neighbor's house for the cost of one Apple TV.
I just can't get excited about a $200 set-top box that you'll want to throw away in two or three years anyway, when you can get a throwaway set-top box for $20 that works just about as well, so long as you aren't doing something goofy like trying to use HomePods as speakers or whatever.
Now if Roku wants to guarantee that I never even think about moving back to the Apple ecosystem, they could do one little thing: Make the four "app launch" buttons reprogrammable. On each of my Roku remotes, exactly one of those is for a service that I would ever use in a million years. Let me configure them for Netflix, Prime, Apple TV, and Plex. But I digress. Still, that's one more than Apple's remote has, even in the new version, so....
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Yea because pressing the netflix button to bring up Apple TV isn't kludgey at all :)
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And don't forget with Roku you pay for the device that tracks and sells every bit of your personal and viewing information without receiving any compensation in kind. Suck on that Apple.
Re: Yay. They've Caught Up With the $99 Roku Ultr (Score:4, Informative)
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Same here. For me it works fine; especially mirroring from iDevices works very well.
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From iOS, it's fine. It's from macOS that it is problematic. For example, try to do AirPlay mirroring and then play a video in Safari, and it chokes.
Inputting asian characters... (Score:3)
I couldn't get asian character inputs to work with a TCL HDTV's Roku from an old iPhone 6+ (iOS v12). No problems with Apple TVs (3G and 4K) though.
What about the apps? (Score:1)
That puts them just half a year behind the competition, and at only twice the price.
At 1000x the apps (including all of Apple Arcade), that means the Apple TV pulls way ahead.
Roku is OK but it simply can't match the flexibility of the Apple box. And the AppleTV is a hub for Apple Home, so for instance actually secure security cameras can connect to it and be access remotely.
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That puts them just half a year behind the competition, and at only twice the price.
At 1000x the apps (including all of Apple Arcade), that means the Apple TV pulls way ahead.
Ah but in terms of entertainment apps, Roku is way ahead, or at least it was the last time I checked. You have to include games for Apple to be ahead, and most people don't buy a set-top box for games; they buy it to passively consume content. Most people who want to play games (beyond dabbing) buy an actual game console.
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Ah but in terms of entertainment apps, Roku is way ahead, or at least it was the last time I checked.
I don't think so, any app Roku would have also exists on Apple TV, then you have all the Apple TV apps Roku does not have, then you have Arcade on top of that... There is simply no category where Roku comes out ahead.
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Well, iMore would disagree [imore.com].
If you're looking for off-the-path content, however, Roku remains ahead of Apple's box. It boasts hundreds of channels and apps that are missing on Apple TV.
Is the SIRI really SIRI or Useless SIRI? (Score:2)
The SIRI on the Apple TV is nearly useless other than asking. "What time is it."
Is the the real Siri or useless Siri?
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Hey now! Be fair. You can also say, "what did they say" mid stream to have it rewind fifteen seconds. MODERN TECHNOLOGY AT ITS FINEST!
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Me: "What time is it?"
Siri: "Check your iPhone."
Confirmation (Score:2)
Just another sign that the Jony Ive era at Apple is over.
Colour calibration in TVOS (Score:2)
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Ooooh that is very cool.
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I checked the color calibration on my TV with my i1 Display LT and it was about 99.9% correct. If you have a good TV then this step was done for you and it's unlikely to have drifted noticeably — I checked mine after like 7 years of use. 52" Sharp AQUOS CFL backlit here.
Question (Score:2)
Will this work with my quad 4k monitor setup?
Not bad, but not wow either (Score:2)
I’m ordering one, but mostly because tvOS is nice to develop for. Sure there are others, but they’re shit shows to develop for in comparison. Is it over priced? Absolutely, it made sense at a $99 price point, $179/$199 is almost as much as a 50” TV. I think what would make it “killer” is if they add (back) a USB-C port for accessories, but that’ll probably wait until M1 makes it to ATV.
Black ? (Score:2)
So they admit it! (Score:2)
Finally they admit the old Siri remote was awful.
The new remote should be provided free of charge to all buyers of the original Apple TV 4K. We shouldn’t have to pay $60 to correct their mistake.
I have an old Apple TV 4K and stopped using it because of the horrible remote, getting a FireTV 4K to replace it.
Re: So they admit it! (Score:2)
We all know you'll buy it anyway, so why would they?
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The new remote should be provided free of charge to all buyers of the original Apple TV 4K. We shouldnâ(TM)t have to pay $60 to correct their mistake.
You don't. You have to pay to correct yours, giving Apple money for something they didn't deserve money for.
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All Apple's remotes are horrible. Luckily I have a 'programmable' remote from Philips that can mimic an Apple remote.
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Finally they admit the old Siri remote was awful.
This implies that the new one is any better. It's still a two-dimensional anomaly which can only exist tucked away in a Chesterfield sofa. The only possible improvement would be to attach an Apple Tag to the thing so it can be returned to three-dimensional space.