Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “This is what’s most exciting – Apple TV 4K (2021) and Siri Remote Review”.
( pillows whooshing ), (, playful music ). Where is the remote ( dramatic music ) There, it is. One of the minor announcements at Apple Spring Loaded event was the update to the Apple TV.. Now, that’s not as exciting as what comes with the Apple TV, which is a brand new, updated, Siri remote..
We don’t have to use this anymore. And where’d. I put that one ( dramatic music playing ).
Oh there, it is. The new Siri remote does come with all the available Apple TVs like this new 4K model and the remarkably still-available HD model.. But if you’re already the proud owner of an Apple TV, you can get the Siri remote on its own for $ 60.. That seems a little bit steep. So to find out if it’s worth the money, I’m gon na, compare it to the old one and see just how it stacks up., But to do that, let’s figure out what made the old one so bad in the first place.. The old Siri remote was one of Apple’s design failures of the last decade.
Like the butterfly keyboard., The design is a case of form compromising function. With early versions of the remote people were having troubles telling, which way was up in dark living rooms. ,’Cause, it’s black and all the buttons look the same with nothing really to orient it..
They did add a white circle to the menu button to help, but that didn’t solve the many other problems. The touch pad is just bad.. You have to move your fingers so much just to navigate around the interface. And it goes from edge to edge while being clickable.. So if you do find the remote in the couch cushions while something is playing – and you don’t grab it correctly – you’ll pause your video.
And if you grab it correctly from the bottom you’re grabbing the glossy part, which is so prone to smears and hand goop. It Never looks good., Ah, you can clean it, but it’s futile because you’re gon na need to wear white gloves.. If you don’t want to make it dirty. Again., There’s other stuff too..
These volume buttons are convenient, but there’s no mute button. And I can’t get it to work with that old receiver. There.
It charges through lightning and the horizontal keyboard on tvOS is really cumbersome.. ( groans ). This design is much much better..
Firstly, it’s no longer black. So you can see it on a black sofa.. It’S much thicker..
It has a curved bottom., So it’s less likely to slip between the cushions and feels much nicer in the hand. Still looks good too. I’d say these design improvements are worth about $ 15..
Next is the D-Pad.. This has many benefits.. Firstly, it’s no longer too easy to press the select button when grabbing the remote, because the button doesn’t go to the edge and is clearly defined.. It works like any other D-Pad., But Apple has also kept. It touch sensitive like the old remote.. You can turn that off. If you want though. More interestingly, is a circular jog control, like you got on an old click wheel. Ipod., Though, it’s not quite obvious how that works.
To use it, you have to pause the video., Then rest your finger on the edge of the click wheel until a little circular dial shows up on the progress bar. And then you can swirl away., It’s nice, but I think what I want is to be able to turn off the swiping gestures, while keeping the spinny jog dial available with regular D-Pad presses., But that’d be just yet another setting too many. Still a little disappointing..
I’D say that these improvements are worth another $ 15.. Some other changes of value is the addition of a mute button which, I would say is worth about $ 4.. There’S a power button to turn your TV on and off $ 2.. What was once mislabeled as a menu button is now properly labeled as a back button $ 2., And the Siri button has now been moved to the side, another $ 2.. What won’t add any the value is the fact that the keyboard remains one dimensional and lightning charging persists. So doing the calculations here that comes out to about $ 40, which is $ 20 less than the $ 60. That Apple asks for the remote..
If you’re already got an Apple TV and are suffering with the old remote, that’s a lot to swallow.. But I guess it’s better that you can buy it as a standalone option, as opposed to having to upgrade to a completely new Apple TV for $ 180. (. Chill music ) And as for that Apple TV, well, the processor’s been updated to the A12 chip., So that should mean it should run a little bit faster for a little bit longer through more OS updates. Functionality.
Wise, though, all you really get is the addition of HDR at 4K, 60 frames per second., That’s great. If your TV supports it. And the content you watch supports it. And if you’re among the few, who own a HomePod or even two, this new box supports eARC, meaning you can send audio from your TV through the Apple TV to your HomePods.. Minis will be supported in the fall. At a $ 180 for 32 gigabytes of storage and $ 199 for 64 gigabytes of storage.
It really is quite expensive in the world of set-top boxes. In the past it was a bad option, quite simply because of that remote., But now it’s a little bit easier to justify and less annoying.. So that means that the final design failure that Apple needs to fix is the charging of the Magic Mouse.. Thank you for tuning into this “ Mac, Address”, Be sure to like and subscribe..
One interesting thing I discovered is: I have this original Apple remote. And it’s still the works with a current Apple TV.. How cool is that .