'A glimpse into the future of the living room': Dailymail.com's verdict on the Apple TV that brings apps to the big screen
- Apple TV will go on sale on Friday costing from $149
- Hundreds of apps will be available at launch, from games ans shopping apps to video on demand services
- Apple claims 'apps are the future of TV' - and is rumoured to be working on live TV service
Television is broken.
With its mess of horrible, ugly interfaces and extortionate pricing 'bundles', it is driving people to find new ways to watch.
While streaming services offer an alternative, finding what you want to watch can sometimes be almost as tough on them.
Apple hopes to change this, and the new version of its Apple TV is a glimpse into an app-focused world that really could change the way we watch, and see Apple dominate the living room in the same way it has the phone and tablet world.
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Apple says apps are the future of TV, and its new $149 box has a winning combination of streaming services, games and other apps to make it the best way to make your TV smart.
The new Apple TV, which will arrive in consumer's hands later this week, has been the subject of more speculation that almost any other product in the firm's history (with the possible recent exception of its car plans).
Tim Cook described it as 'the future of television' when he unveiled it, and admitted: 'We've been working really hard, and really long on bringing it all together.'
The new Apple TV is a chunky hockey puck sized box designed to disappear into your living room.
It uses a new bluetooth remote, so can even be hidden inside a cabinet.
For this,the fourth generation of Apple TV, the iPhone maker is laying out its vision for the living room - and it's all about apps.
For the first time, there's now a TV app store, and later this week, when the first units are shipped, it will, the firm says, have hundreds of apps.
We were able to try a selection of them - and they bode well for the future.
Setup is simple, and uses your iPhone - simply hold it near with bluetooth switched on, and it will pull down all of your wifi settings and Apple account information.
With most modern TV's, the remote will also switch your set on and off.
To avoid annoying your partner, there's even an option to use bluetooth headphones.
As of the time of writing, Apple hasn't yet revealed its inevitable companion 'remote' app for the iPhone and iPad, and for the rest of the setup process, this would be a real timesaver when entering account information.
In the US, there are a huge number of TV apps to download, from HBO Now and Go to Red Bull TV, and in the UK, Apple confirmed that the BBC's iPlayer will be coming to Apple TV.
They all currently follow a similar pattern in terms of look and feel, although firm's such as HBO have produced stunning apps using full screen graphic, and hopefully more providers will do the same.
Elsewhere, there are games, shopping apps and even some great 'property porn' apps such as Zillow and Airbnb which translate surprisingly well to the big screen.
The new remote, which features a plethora of sensors, allows you to use it like a joystick, waving it in the air like a nintento Wii controller. Games like Beat Sports from Harmonix and Tilting Point take advantage of the remote control, giving users a Wii like experience - and its also highly addictive.
The new remote is the key to making apps usable.
It's got a glass touchpad built in, and is incredibly intuitive and responsive.
During playback, you can easily move around a film for instance, and moving your finger quicker lets you scroll quickly through films and TV shows.
In terms of TV and film, universal search is what makes the Apple TV different, and what puts it head and shoulders above everything else on the market.
In a nutshell, tell it what you want to watch, and it will show you every service that has that film or show available.
The other key to getting around is Siri.
New Apple TV | Old Apple TV | Amazon Fire TV | Amazon Fire TV Stick | Nexus Player | Chromecast | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Price | $149-$199 | £59 ($69) | £79 ($99) | £35 ($39) | £79 ($99) | £30 ($35) |
Processor | Apple A8 chip | Apple A5 Chip | Qualcomm quad-core | ARM A9 dual-core | Intel Atom quad-core | Marvell |
Storage | 32GB & 64GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 8GB | 2GB |
Weight | TBC | 272g | 281g | 25.1g | 235g | 34g |
Operating System | TV OS | iOS | Android | Android | Android | Android |
Remote | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
The remote has a microphone button which enables you to just ask for what you want - be it the weather, a particular film, or even 'that episode of Friends with Brad Pitt in'.
It works well, although it is limited in what you can ask at the moment - but if its progress on other platforms is anything to go by, expect it to improve dramatically quickly.
However, there are quite a few caveats to using Siri - and it does feel like it needs work to truly unleash the vast potential of the Apple TV.
One of the most powerful features is universal search, which shows exactly where a film or TV is available, and which services has which episodes.
With Siri, you can use your voice to search TV shows and movies by title, genre, cast, crew, rating or popularity, making it easy to say things like 'Show me New Girl,' 'Find the best funny movies from the '80s,' 'Find movies with Jason Bateman' and 'Find popular TV shows for kids.'
Apple TV will search iTunes and popular apps from Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Showtime, displaying all the ways the resulting TV shows and movies can be played.
However, different apps support different amounts of data, and some not at all - but this is something we expect to see improve dramatically as more apps appear.
Siri also offers playback control and on-screen navigation, as well as quick access to sports, stock and weather information, which appears on screen at the bottom in a 'drawer' so you can still watch your show or movie.
Other Siri features include the ability to find exact clips within episodes, and the option to skip back and show dialogue that was missed.
While watching a film or TV show, swiping down on the touch surface will present a menu of information about actors, for example.
Viewers can also ask Siri questions about the show, or ask for sports scores or weather information, and the answers appear at the bottom of the screen.
The Zova apps lets you follow workouts on screen - and users with the app and an Apple Watch even see their heartrate
One of the most impressive features is Apple Music.
It's come under fire for playing catch up to others, but on the big screen, connected to a hifi, it's fantastic and makes total sense.
The service's playlists and curated content also come into their own, and as a replacement for radio, it's hard to beat (and some of the curated sections are superb - Rolling Stone and Burberry are both highly recommended).
There's also a hypnotic, and unexpected, features of the new Apple TV - screensavers.
These are high definition videos of different parts of the world, such as London or San Francisco, and reflect the right time of day - dark and night, light during the day.
They're strangely hypnotic on the big screen, and absolutely beautiful to look at - with Apple promising more will be added.
HBO has one of the best looking apps on the service, taking advantage of the high definition graphics
There is something of an elephant in the room with the Apple TV - live television.
Apple is rumoured to prepare a streaming TV service to address this issue, and at that point, the Apple TV becomes a very different device, and one that really could let you dump your TV package for good.
Adding live TV and the ability to search for shows would make this an unbeatable device - and show Apple really has 'cracked' TV, as Steve Jobs boasted to his biographer shortly before his death.
However, at the moment, this is very much a secondary TV service for most people - albeit a very good one.
The Apple TV does have some issues.
Airbnb on the big screen: The app suffers from some early glitches, but showcases the site's photography and could become the perfect way to browse for holiday destinations.
Apple Music on the new Apple TV puts all of the streaming service's features on the big screen (left). Users can easily switch between running apps in the same way they do on an iPhone by double tapping the home button
It is a 'V1' product, and some apps we used crashed regularly - although many of them are expected to be upgraded before the app store goes live to consumers.
Siri on apple TV, as it stands, is a great introduction to what voice recognition can do - but it does need work.
Despite this, the combination of apps, voice control and universal search mean that what Apple has done is plant a stake firmly in the ground for its vision of apps on the TV, and reveal its ambitions to own the living room.
It's an incredibly impressive product, and without doubt will change the way we watch TV, listen to music and even shop.
However, it's also a product that needs a little more work, and time for app developers to get used to - but in six months, don't be surprised if the Apple TV is the only living room device you find yourself using every day.
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