So here's my quick Should I Upgrade to the New Apple TV article (if you don't know Rene, he's iMore's illustrious Editor in Chief who I respect A LOT), I was optimistic that the new Apple TV would be an upgrade in every single way.
Instead, both me and my wife quickly went BONKERS over some basic usability issues / annoyances, namely:
1. The New Remote, in our opinion, is a clusterf*ck of epic proportions: The touch pad is uber sensitive to use, and it's way to easy to accidentally press on it (your leg touches it when it's sitting on the couch and it's not in your hand and you accidentally pause or start forwarding/rewinding in shows) and the all black color scheme makes it harder to find in the dark (which, you know.. a lot of people watch movies with the lights off) and because the buttons are more centralized, it makes it really easy to pick up the remote backwards. You think you're holding it the right way, but it turns out your not so you start hitting the wrong buttons or swiping on the wrong end of the remote.
2. The UI is more difficult to use. For starters, on the 3rd generation Apple TV you always have the "ring" around selected items on the screen. So if you look away and look back at the static screen, you always can easily see where the "cursor" is and what's selected. The new UI looks fancy in motion, and the highlighted items jump out at you, but it's super, super easy to lose where you are on the screen or get confused between what's selected. If I look away from the screen and come back, it's like you have to start swiping just to regain control over where you are in the UI. Plus, as you dive into iTunes shows (within paid for TV series where you've purchased the full seasons), things just feel really backwards. It's more work to find your seasons and next episodes to watch.
Despite my (and especially my wife's) initial concerns, we have kept using our new Apple TV for the past few months. I expected it grow on us and we'd get used to it. Instead, we keep finding ourselves literally HAPPIER when we go back and use the older Apple TV in the bedroom with it's more analog remote. Sure, pushing buttons is more tedious (this coming from an older BlackBerry guy who used to push a lot of buttons but loves touchscreens), but in this usage case the additional confidence and dexterity in button pushing is still welcome, not to mention the ease of finding the silver remote in the house/bedroom and always picking it up with confidence knowing which is the business end.
OK, Rant Over.... (I'll let Apple off on the lack of a Podcast app at launch because they addressed that) so what's the one feature about the new Apple TV that I love?
You may be thinking it's Siri or playing games with the remote, which *are* both cool features, but these are ones I could like but would gladly live without if meant addressing gripes 1. and 2. above.
Rather, what I love about the new Apple TV is the FAST scrubbing within tv shows. Turns out we often fall asleep when watching movies or TV shows (case in point, I passed out last night on the couch at 11:30pm while watching Episode 12 of House of Cards). On the old Apple TV, finding my spot in the show the next day where I dozed off was a pain in the ***. The new Apple TV makes this a BREEZE. It's so good that it keeps the new Apple TV in the living room, despite my hate for the remote and the UI which doesn't seem to be improving.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I've had these opinions now for a while, but I've held off sharing them here in case it was just me and my wife that were being overly picky / jaded / unwilling to adapt to change (you know... maybe we're getting "old" and I just was scared to admit I didn't like something new and hip). But in the last two weeks I've chatted in person with a few other longterm Apple TV owners, both younger, older and same age as me and I was surprised (or maybe not surprised) at their equally strong hate for the new Apple TV for the same reasons that I had.
In all my years of owning Apple Products, it's been pretty rare for me to upgrade to a new version of a product and to actually not love it more than the previous generation product. Usually Apple finds a way to keep the best of what's in the old product, while taking steps forward to bring you features you never even knew you wanted (and then you find you can't live without).
In the case of the new Apple TV, they brought me a few features I love, but with it brought me basic features that actually make me hate using the product.
I used to tell everybody in a heart beat to go buy the new Apple TV and that they wouldn't be disappointed in the purchase. Now I don't.
Instead, both me and my wife quickly went BONKERS over some basic usability issues / annoyances, namely:
1. The New Remote, in our opinion, is a clusterf*ck of epic proportions: The touch pad is uber sensitive to use, and it's way to easy to accidentally press on it (your leg touches it when it's sitting on the couch and it's not in your hand and you accidentally pause or start forwarding/rewinding in shows) and the all black color scheme makes it harder to find in the dark (which, you know.. a lot of people watch movies with the lights off) and because the buttons are more centralized, it makes it really easy to pick up the remote backwards. You think you're holding it the right way, but it turns out your not so you start hitting the wrong buttons or swiping on the wrong end of the remote.
2. The UI is more difficult to use. For starters, on the 3rd generation Apple TV you always have the "ring" around selected items on the screen. So if you look away and look back at the static screen, you always can easily see where the "cursor" is and what's selected. The new UI looks fancy in motion, and the highlighted items jump out at you, but it's super, super easy to lose where you are on the screen or get confused between what's selected. If I look away from the screen and come back, it's like you have to start swiping just to regain control over where you are in the UI. Plus, as you dive into iTunes shows (within paid for TV series where you've purchased the full seasons), things just feel really backwards. It's more work to find your seasons and next episodes to watch.
Despite my (and especially my wife's) initial concerns, we have kept using our new Apple TV for the past few months. I expected it grow on us and we'd get used to it. Instead, we keep finding ourselves literally HAPPIER when we go back and use the older Apple TV in the bedroom with it's more analog remote. Sure, pushing buttons is more tedious (this coming from an older BlackBerry guy who used to push a lot of buttons but loves touchscreens), but in this usage case the additional confidence and dexterity in button pushing is still welcome, not to mention the ease of finding the silver remote in the house/bedroom and always picking it up with confidence knowing which is the business end.
OK, Rant Over.... (I'll let Apple off on the lack of a Podcast app at launch because they addressed that) so what's the one feature about the new Apple TV that I love?
You may be thinking it's Siri or playing games with the remote, which *are* both cool features, but these are ones I could like but would gladly live without if meant addressing gripes 1. and 2. above.
Rather, what I love about the new Apple TV is the FAST scrubbing within tv shows. Turns out we often fall asleep when watching movies or TV shows (case in point, I passed out last night on the couch at 11:30pm while watching Episode 12 of House of Cards). On the old Apple TV, finding my spot in the show the next day where I dozed off was a pain in the ***. The new Apple TV makes this a BREEZE. It's so good that it keeps the new Apple TV in the living room, despite my hate for the remote and the UI which doesn't seem to be improving.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I've had these opinions now for a while, but I've held off sharing them here in case it was just me and my wife that were being overly picky / jaded / unwilling to adapt to change (you know... maybe we're getting "old" and I just was scared to admit I didn't like something new and hip). But in the last two weeks I've chatted in person with a few other longterm Apple TV owners, both younger, older and same age as me and I was surprised (or maybe not surprised) at their equally strong hate for the new Apple TV for the same reasons that I had.
In all my years of owning Apple Products, it's been pretty rare for me to upgrade to a new version of a product and to actually not love it more than the previous generation product. Usually Apple finds a way to keep the best of what's in the old product, while taking steps forward to bring you features you never even knew you wanted (and then you find you can't live without).
In the case of the new Apple TV, they brought me a few features I love, but with it brought me basic features that actually make me hate using the product.
I used to tell everybody in a heart beat to go buy the new Apple TV and that they wouldn't be disappointed in the purchase. Now I don't.