An Apple television receiver update hasreportedly been in the cardsfor a few months now , and late last week , reports suggestedthat the much - wait fresh variation of the set - top loge would arrive this fall .
But the doubt on everybody ’s mind is exactly what such an update will entail . The be Apple TV has grown long in the tooth without a really substantial update since the second - generation version appeared in 2010 . ( The third generation , which debuted in 2012 , added a expert processor and backup for 1080p . ) No surprise there for a product that Apple executive have repeatedly categorized as a “ pursuit . ”
Meanwhile , competitors like Amazon , Roku , and Google have continued to raise the bar , summate support for apps , better hunting features , and young class factors . But Apple makes its bread and butter not by being first , but by get in a populated category and being the honorable . So when a raw Apple TV does get in , what might it contribute ?
Talk back to your TV
interpreter interaction via Siri has become a staple of both the iPhone and Apple Watch , but the Apple TV has so far been left out on the fun . Rumor has it that Siri may at last make its way to the keep room in the next iteration . This is far from unprecedented : Amazon ’s Fire TV supported mere representative hunting out of the boxful , and Microsoft ’s Kinect permit gamers control an Xbox , including media playback features , via vocalisation instruction .
The Fire tv set has a unified part search feature you could utilise by speaking into the distant ascendence .
When it come to omnipresent vox command Amazon ’s Echo is perhaps the most telling execution . The machine ’s seven microphones do a fantastic occupation of picking up audio anywhere in a room ( or several rooms ) and parse it . But that machine is also project around voice search as its canonical function , and the form factor a countersink - top box ( or dongle that plug into an HDMI interface ) is n’t idealistic for that feature of speech .
So what if Apple rather tackle the Siri we already have — on our iPhones and our Watch — and made it a small impudent ? If those equipment could just recognise that you have an Apple TV on a connection , you could tell apart your phone to queue up a sure idiot box show on your Apple TV , or purchase a picture show that you want to ascertain there subsequently . Apple ’s giving strength , after all , is its ecosystem . Rather than reinvent the roulette wheel , it can leverage the resources already at its disposition .
Apps galore
After days of expectation , it seems that the redesigned Apple TV might once and for all bring apps to the living room . presently the set - top box indorse a variety of channels , but rather than disjoined apps , they ’re each fundamentally different sections of the same “ Apple TV app ” that runs the set - top boxful .
Do n’t bear all of your favourite apps to make the jump , for the simple reason that many — in all probability most — iOS diligence wo n’t be useful on the Apple TV . Just as iOS required developers to interchange the agency that they thought about apps — interacting directly with a touch screen instead of an abstracted manner with a keyboard and computer mouse — the living room introduce yet another distinct user experience .
Gaming on a pose - top box like the Fire TV is no reliever for a console like the Xbox or PlayStation , but it ’s a fun value - add .
Video apps are the most obvious nominee for translation the TV , so bear to see update to the television services that are already there , from YouTube and Vimeo to Netflix and Hulu to ABC and FOX .
The with child Modern opportunity , however , may be games . Amazon and Roku both offer game titles for their situated - top boxes , in generally they have n’t really trip up on . There ’s a variety show of reasons for that : many of the games , for example , are ports of smartphone titles , and what shape great on a touchscreen may not be as sport on a big screen . Meanwhile , there ’s down air pressure from consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation , devices expressly designed for play .
As for exactly what an Apple TV App Store might look like , you do n’t have to look far : the iOS App Store and Mac App Store seem to present a pretty clear mental picture of how Apple wants its shopfront to look . Just imagine navigating it with a remote instead of your finger or a mouse — or search via vocalization ascendance — and you ’ve start out a pretty good mind .
You’re in control
speak of remote control , how we ’re going to keep in line the Apple TV is the $ 64,000 question . Apple has long favored a simple distant control with a directing pad and a few common buttons , even while allowing for alternatives like using the Remote app for iOS and the Apple Watch or pairing a Bluetooth keyboard — but none bring home the bacon an ideal experience . Your iOS twist want too much attention , while a Bluetooth keyboard is awkward and feel too much like using a data processor .
So I inquire if perhaps it ’s clock time to dust off a part of Apple ’s history . It was n’t so long ago that the idol of Apple ’s interface design was the iPod ’s clickwheel . The welfare of the clickwheel were multiplex : a bare , streamlined appearance ; a touch - tender ascendence that could be mediated by software package ( allowing , for example , faster scrolling when you moved your finger faster ) ; and , most of all , the ability to well practice it without having to wait . Plus , with the iPod Classic ’s demise last fall , it ’d be nice to see the clickwheel live on — and Apple ’s certainly no stranger to reuse honest-to-god noetic property ( iBooks , anyone ? ) .
The Roku 3 remote control has a ready to hand earphone Jack-tar for individual listening .
While they ’re at it , it ’d be great if Apple could take advantage of some of the other improvements in remote controls ushered in by their competitors . Roku ’s , for exemplar , has a headphone diddlysquat for private listening ( I ’d also accept permit you to stream audio from your Apple television straight to your iPhone , iPad , or Mac — a kind of rearward AirPlay ) ; Amazon ’s includes a dedicated articulation search button and microphone on the gadget ; and both those companies , as well as others , use remotes that swear on Bluetooth or RF , which do n’t trust on line of mountain , instead of the increasingly outdated infrared . ( Given the prevalence of infrared oecumenical remote and solutions like IR blasters , however , that could be construed as more of a limitation . )
Despite the fact that gaming on the Apple television receiver could be popular , I do n’t see Apple make an real physical game control to go along with it — it just does n’t strike me as something the company cares enough to do . But I expect ahead to potentially being try wrong .
The Apple TV has more ( and in force ) rival than ever , and we ca n’t wait to see what comes next .
The best of the rest
There are a whole legion of other improvements that a new Apple television might bring : funding for the 4 K resolve , much improved search , and perhaps even the ability to actas a HomeKit hub . One affair that we probably wo n’t see , however , is therumored television receiver subscription divine service — the same report that nail down the approaching Apple goggle box revision to September indicate that the military service wo n’t arrive until by and by this year , or possibly even next .
I ’ve been waiting for an Apple telecasting for a while — so long , in fact , that I ’ve largely given up using my increasingly slow and unreliable Apple TV in favor of an Amazon Fire TV . But I ’m ready to make the switch back , just as soon as Apple give me a peachy reason to do so . You might say I ’m on the boundary of my place .
