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7 Ways Apple Can Fix Apple TV: Updates, Features & Tweaks
The new Apple TV is off to a great start, but here’s some ways Apple can improve it.
Michael Grothaus
13:21, 2 Dec 2015
I’ve got to admit–I rushed out and bought the new Apple TV on the first day it was available. The previous third-generation Apple TV, after all, was probably my most-used Apple device after my iPhone. And 99% of the time I have my TV on, it’s connected to my Apple TV, not freeview. So I was really excited about the new Apple TV because not only would it let me access my Netflix and iTunes movies, but thanks to its all-new tvOS operating system, it now supports improved features and third-party apps and games. But after using the new Apple TV for over a month now I realize there are clearly some things that Apple needs to do to fix it. Here are my suggestions:
Add dictation
The new Apple TV offers Siri voice search to find movies and TV shows. So, for example, you could use the Siri Remote to say “Show me movies with Brad Pitt” and you’d see all of his movies iTunes offers and any that are offered on compatible third-party apps. Siri works incredibly well, accurately understanding what I say 99% of the time. That’s why it’s so baffling that tvOS doesn’t support the simpler dictation function–the ability to speak and have your spoken words typed out in a search field on screen. iOS devices have had dictation of years and it works incredibly well on them, so why not the Apple TV? And the reason dictation is so important? Because the Apple TV on-screen keyboard sucks so much and being able to dictate your search queries (for apps that don’t support Siri) or dictate your app login names would be a godsend.
Fix the keyboard
This is probably the most common complaint about the new Apple TV. Its keyboard layout sucks. It’s just one long horizontal row of letters from A to Z with caps, lowercase, numbers, and symbol toggle buttons below. Because of this you need to swipe on the Siri Remote trackpad an insane amount of times just to spell simple words. What’s worse is that the space button is on the left side before the A and the backspace button is on the right side after the Z, so phrases are even harder. It’s the most baffling keyboard layout in history–it just takes so long to type anything. Apple, just give us a QWERTY three-row keyboard like every other device has.
A new Apple Remote app
The old Apple TV has a really good iOS app called Remote that allowed you to use your iPad, iPod touch, or iPhone as a remote for the Apple TV. For some reason Apple hasn’t updated the Remote app to work with the new Apple TV. That’s a shame too, because one of the best uses of the Remote app was to use its iOS keyboard to type out long search queries or login names on the old Apple TV–as shown by the two examples above something the new Apple TV desperately needs.
Siri App Store search
I’ve praised Siri’s powers of understanding and search on the new Apple TV already. But one big drawback Siri has is that it doesn’t allow you to look for apps in the App Store. You can’t say: “Find the YouTube app in the App Store” and be taken to that app’s App Store page. This again is baffling as discovery in the tvOS App Store already leaves much to be desired.
A mute button
One of the best features of the Siri Remote is old school: it has a physical volume button so you can use it to turn the volume of your TV up or down. What’s even more amazing about this button is that it requires zero pairing or set up with your TV (unlike when you buy normal third-party universal remotes for an existing TV). This makes using your Apple TV a much more enjoyable experience because you don’t need to use two remotes to operate things–well, most of the time anyway. Like many, I frequently mute my TV when I get a phone call. The thing that sucks about the Apple TV is that even though the Siri Remote can control my TV’s volume, it can’t mute it. This is a small complaint, but it becomes annoying when I can control my whole viewing experience with a single remote, yet I need to pick up a separate remote just to mute my Apple TV. I can’t see this being a problem Apple can fix via software, so the only hope is that Apple comes out with a new Siri Remote in the future that offers a mute button.
Dark mode
OS X has a dark mode now. Hopefully iOS 10 will get a dark mode–and for the love of god, I hope Apple adds a dark mode to tvOS. What is a dark mode? It turns the brighter UI background elements (think the menu bar in OS X) dark or black so our eyes can better focus on the content on our screens. The old Apple TV interface features a dark background beneath the channel icons. In tvOS on the new Apple TV the background is a bright frosty white. This can be painfully glaring when you are browsing your Apple TV home screen in a darkened room–as we often do when settling down to watch a movie. The option of a dark mode on Apple TV would alleviate this glaring, excuse the pun, oversight.
A killer app
Yes, the new Apple TV supports third-party apps and games…the problem is there isn’t a “killer app” for it yet. Sure, there are plenty of good apps–these are mainly content apps like Netflix–and some fun games like Alto’s Adventure, but the Apple TV still lacks that one app that really showcases the power and functionality of what tvOS can bring to your living room screen. What might a killer app for the Apple TV be? If I know, I’d make it. But everyone will know it if and when they see it. One thing for sure is it will be more than just a video content app. It will likely include video, social media, and the ability to view data you usually need to go out onto the internet in a web browser to find.