Apple’s first update to its television set-top box in years didn’t get much attention Wednesday amid all the other shiny objects — the new iPhone, iPad Pro — on display. But the introduction of its sophisticated $200 set-top box may have been the most significant of the day, giving us a peek into the way Apple wants to interact with it customers in the future.
I had the opportunity to play around with the Apple TV a little bit after the company’s press conference, in a hands-on area at the auditorium. One thing is clear from those demos: Apple wants to be at the center of your living room, perhaps giving back a little of the family time that we’ve lost while getting buried in our smartphone and tablet screens. Every part of the Apple TV has been designed to be shared, from its streamlined search features to its nascent gaming capabilities.
The TV’s redesigned remote makes navigating through your options very easy, whether you’re sliding along the menus or using the dedicated Siri button to talk to Apple’s voice assistant.
Search is smooth and complete — something that we quite frankly need as we pile on video subscription services and never quite know what’s in any of them. You can ask questions that build on each other: one of the demonstrators showing the device in my demo asked Siri to “Show me popular comedies,” then followed up with “Only ones with Zach Galifianakis.” (Siri actually got a little flummoxed by that request at first but — to be fair — the speaker did stumble a bit over his words. Galifianakis is not an easy name to say.)
Siri’s good on the Apple TV, but users should know that it’s not totally the same program that you may have gotten used to on your mobile device. The searches here are limited to the Apple TV world — queries about entertainment content, the weather, etc. This Siri, at least for now, isn’t going to know your schedule, or entertain you with snarky comebacks. It’s all business here, though the program has learned a few new tricks. You can ask Siri to skip ahead or back in programs, or for sports scores and weather forecasts that show up in the bottom third of your video.
Apple’s also using the device as a way to approach the gaming world. As it stands, the TV will probably never be a gamer’s console, but it’s nice for families that want to drop a little bit of extra fun into the time they spend in their living rooms. The ability to play multiplayer games with people in the room, via the TV remote, iPhones or iPads is key — you could easily see an impromptu gaming tournament slipping into a family movie night. The TV will also let you hand off games between the iPhone, iPad and TV.
It’s a little unfair to compare this to the Xbox or the PlayStation. The Wii U, which is under far more threat from Apple given the apparent target market here, has a more advanced gameplay experience. That said, as game consoles move more toward providing entertainment options, it’s possible that families with more casual gamers will face a choice between grabbing Apple’s device or a game console.
Right now, the biggest obstacle that Apple TV faces is content. While the firm locked up some good deals with Showtime and MLB.tv, as well as with game studios such as Disney and Activision, it doesn’t have anything that screams “must-have” quite yet.
