“When Apple announced its next-generation Apple TV last week, Siri was clearly the star of the show. Voice commands feature heavily in Apple’s promo video for the $149 media streamer, and they took up a big chunk of Apple’s on-stage demo,” Jared Newman reports for TechHive.
“Siri’s mere presence on Apple TV isn’t a monumental achievement, given that other streaming video platforms, such as Roku, Amazon’s Fire TV, and Google’s Android TV, have offered voice controls for a while now,” Newman reports. “Rather, the way that Siri works on Apple TV is what makes all the difference. Compared to what’s out there already, Apple is leapfrogging ahead in voice interaction on television.”
“Here are some examples: ‘Show that Modern Family episode with Edward Norton’ This query, demoed on stage by Apple senior design producer Jen Folse, showed off not just the ability to handle complex queries, but Siri’s own deep understanding of popular TV shows,” Newman reports. “In my testing, every other streaming video platform is flat-out stumped by the same query.”
More examples in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: In typical fashion, Apple does it right while the others merely claim it on spec sheets but fail to deliver anything close to what Apple does.
Can’t wait….still holding onto my first gen apple tv.
BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT Damn Dung From Samsung phones let you wave your finger in front of the phone like a magician for scrolling.
No, more like BUT BUT BUT, Amazon’s Fire TV blows this thing outta water with 4K streaming and Alexa which integrates into the actual remote.
Well as far as the 4k goes, that’s nice, but I’m willing to bet there’ is a good reason Apple chose not to flip[ the switch on that one yet, they never worry about being 1st to market with tech…. just making the best experience… time will tell. But Alexa! That’s a different story: Here’s a reviewer’s analysis;
Alexa is Amazon.com ’s answer to Apple’s Siri, Google Now and Microsoft ’s Cortana, which all come standard with different smartphones. She’s the latest sign that big tech firms believe our future involves talking to computers that can talk back.
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But spend a little more time with Alexa, and the dream of a virtual assistant in a bottle begins to fizzle. “Alexa, can you give me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies?” I asked. “Sorry, I didn’t understand the question I heard,” she said. “How long will it take to drive to the office?” She couldn’t answer that, either.
In fact, what Alexa can’t answer far outweighs what she can, so her novelty wears off fast.
Eventually. Most people don’t have a 77″ screen or bigger to watch 4K on. Less than that and 4K looks the same as 1080.
Not to mention streaming 4K, ISPs will have a field day seeing their networks saturated.
It doesn’t matter how many people actually need 4K but it’s a great spec for rivals to throw at Apple. Most of the articles I’ve seen making a comparison between the new AppleTV and the new Fire TV say, “Gosh almighty, AppleTV doesn’t have 4K video. For shame how Amazon is beating Apple to death and Fire TV costs a whole lot less.” That’s the type of impact investors like to see.
Now everyone thinks the brand new AppleTV has gotten it’s ass kicked by Amazon’s Fire TV. I know it’s stupid but that’s how the tech world and pundits think. Of course, the Fire TV also offers local USB and SD card storage. Apple would never allow such conveniences for users because… well… Apple thinks differently. I’m sure Apple will sell more AppleTVs than Amazon sells Fire TVs but Apple had the opportunity to basically squash Amazon’s product flat, but oddly chose not to. Yet another reason for Wall Street to shun Apple and run to Amazon.
Don.t sweat it 748, there are those who know, and those who simply refuse to know, or as B.T Barnum Put it… it’s 1 born every second. Some you an help, others you can’t
Apple could easily have 4K support. They could also have a million people having buffer issues and/or choppy video, and an overall poor experience. All for hardly any benefit.
I’d rather just wait until it’s actually going to work too.
Exactly! That’s why I’ve been saying for two years! The infrastructure just isn’t there to support it. It’ll probably take several years for everyone (including ISPs) to be ready for 4K.
I also hear that Siri will be able to answer the question “‘Show me my most at-risk opportunities” by revealing a map of a certain country that I won’t mention because someone totally lacking a sense of humor won’t get it and do whatever they have to to get this post removed.
But folks of the free and civilized world should get it.
Oh yes, and the /shjtt tag to illustrate that this post is satire, humor, joke tall tale tag. It might have to be modified to /shjtttt to include satire, humor, joke, tall tale, top ten tag since it is obvious that some post erasers have not made the connect that top ten lists are humorous.
But can it tell me where to buy milk?
Sorry to mention, that my LG Smart TV with WebOS does a pretty darn great job at searching and finding what I ask, in a totally Siri like manner. Plus, its been there for about two years already; well ahead of Apple TV. Yet still, I am really happy to see this finally arrive on ATV.
In the same thought, Roku has had Android running games on its TV streaming box for a good while too.
For me, Appel is behind the curve… however lets remember, Apple studies the field well. It isn’t always an inventor but a innovator and does leapfrog what the market typically offers. Quality and Easy of use shall shine for Apple.
Apple likes to let other companies walk in to the mine field, and when the competition has cleared the mines by stepping on them, Apple saunters down the path made obvious by the blunders of others. Everyone always talks about learning from your own mistakes, but it’s just as important to learn from the mistakes of others, because since there are more people out there than just you, the number of other people’s mistakes to learn from is much higher, so you can learn much faster.
I’m pretty sure Apple can’t do everything in a short period of time due to lack of employee resources. I think we’ll see a much more active company when the new headquarters are settled. There may be a lot more synergy at play in the future considering there will be so many employees in one area.
What Siri HAS is a deep knowledge base. Like with other Apple devices with Siri, Siri is NOT self-contained on the device. Apple is very good a distributing the “processing of intelligence” across levels, like Apple Watch to iPhone to Apple’s data center servers. Apple TV works the same way. So does Spotlight Search on Mac (which is now like a text-based form of Siri).
The “magic” here is Apple creating the illusion that the Apple TV mini-box is doing it all. That’s why the competing voice control features seem stupid in comparison; they can only do what fits inside the little box.
Sounds like you’ve never actually tried the competition, Ken. It would be wise for you to reserve your judgement until you’ve actually seen what the others can do.
This article is by someone with the resources (and time) to “try the competition.” It’s obvious why the competition can’t, “Show that Modern Family episode with Edward Norton.” The competing TV devices cannot access the knowledge (and understanding of the topic) to answer that query… “In my testing, every other streaming video platform is flat-out stumped by the same query.”
The “review” reads like an infomercial. Newman merely parrots what the canned Apple demos revealed — which is nothing more than having Siri actively query IMDB for content. Other competitors do the exact same thing, although Google and Amazon in general manage their own media databases.
The problem is that for those of us who used to enjoy the Apple TV as an airplay port, Siri is guaranteed headache. We have a multilanguage household with multiple computers and the desire to drive content like home videos and photography to the big screen. Siri won’t help. From our experience on iPhones, Siri is more of an annoyance than an asset. Most likely any attempt at Airplay or Home Sharing will rely on some new app which, in recent Apple fashion, will be to tightly entwined with iCloud rental that the user’s ISP becomes the bottleneck.
When it comes to movies and TV, there is nothing the new Apple TV offers that the old one didn’t. Adding the option of using Siri so Apple can monitor everything you say is hardly a boon, it actually takes more of your precious ISP bandwidth.
Our Blu-Ray player already has Netflix and other services built in, and there’s a RedBox nearby. 4K video is something we’ll look forward to in the next year, but it doesn’t look like there will be an Apple TV attached in our household. Sorry Apple, we waited for you to get serious and you blew it.
Wow… Sounds like you’ve never actually tried the new Apple TV, Paul. 🙂
People just can’t digest when someone does it good, just like Apple. They have been making Great products right from the start. Without their lead God knows we would be fiddling with COMMAND PROMPT still now. Or with BB keyboard, or with STICK MP3 players or ugly laptops, now Apple about to revolutionised medical field with Apple watch and iPad, God knows whatelse. Because of Jonathan I’ve, designers have a lot more respect and power in MNC’s. Designed product have much more preference, stores are better designed etc etc……Those people who don’t appreciate what Apple have done will never appreciated anything in their lives. They are always complaining. They have never stood for anything and have always missed out on good things.