We’ve known for a while that the fourth generation Apple TV was coming, and supposedly set to bring a revolution in the living room. The set-top box has just been released, meaning that we can now take a good, close look at it and ask whether the talk of major changes really holds up.
Early impressions out of the box
Naturally, upon buying the new Apple TV, your first step will be unboxing it and taking out the hub and the various included accessories. So, what can you expect to find in the box? Of course, there’s the Apple TV hub itself, which is noticeably thicker than its predecessor’s due to the more sophisticated internal components, plus the new Siri Remote. Its black color matches that of the hub, unlike the previous Apple TV’s silver remote – but, as MacRumors makes clear, there are many more differences…
The new remote also differs in coming with a Lightning-to-USB cable for recharging. You’ll probably find yourself doing that quite a lot, as the Siri Remote is far from the basic tool that the previous remote increasingly comes across as in comparison.
Like a giant iPhone? Yes, frankly
So, once you’ve used the Siri Remote to turn on the Apple TV, what should you expect to appear on your television screen? You can get a good idea right from the beginning of Mashable‘s video review which you can watch below. Using the new Apple TV is very reminiscent of using a giant iPhone, with potentially huge numbers of app icons to easily swipe through. However, you are swiping not on the TV screen, which would obviously be inconvenient, but instead the Siri Remote.
And, as with an iPhone or iPad, you can download whatever apps you like to it from an App Store – this time, a dedicated such store for the new Apple TV’s tvOS, which is largely based on iOS. This means greater flexibility than with the old Apple TV – there are more options to pay just for the specific content that you want, rather than extra superfluous content that comes as part of a package.
The Siri search function also eases searching through lots of downloaded content for exactly what you want, right down to a single episode of a particular show with a cameo from just one actor. As Mashable‘s Christina Warren explains, it overcomes a common frustration of the modern TV ecosystem.
So, is the new Apple TV genuinely the future of TV? It might be too early to judge, but it seems like a step in the right direction – the potential is certainly huge.
