It’s widely expected that Apple is working on a new Remote for their next-gen Apple TV which can only be good news because, hey, the Apple TV’s bundled remote can’t get any worse!
Filipe Espósito reports for 9to5Mac:
9to5Mac has learned that Apple is developing a new Remote for Apple TV, which corroborates some previous rumors about Apple updating the Siri Remote.
Details about this new Apple TV Remote are still unknown, but 9to5Mac’s sources have told us that this model is being developed under the code name “B519,” which is quite different from the code name of the current Siri Remote — internally identified as “B439.”
With a new Apple TV model on the way, this could be the perfect opportunity for Apple to create an improved Remote.
MacDailyNews Take: We’d love to see Apple sell the next-gen remote on its own for those of us who’d like to upgrade our many Apple TV units over time, but replace those damn Siri Remotes ASAP!
With the Siri Remote, users can’t tell which end is up in a darkened room due to uniform rectangular shape. The remote is still too small, so it gets lost easily. All buttons are the same size and similarly smooth (the raised white ring around the menu button helps, but so barely it’s astounding that Apple even bothered; it’s a bandaid on a turd). The tactile difference between the bottom of the remote vs. the upper Glass Touch surface is too subtle as well; this also leads to not being able to tell which end is up. A larger remote, designed for hands larger than a 2-year-old’s with a simple wedge shape (slightly thicker in depth at the bottom vs. the top), as opposed to a uniform slab, would have instantly communicated the proper orientation to the user. — MacDailyNews, September 25, 2017
We are due for a world changing ergonomic revolution in remote design.
I’ve got some ideas about this, but it would be too big a post.
It is the round mouse of this century. . .
My AppleTV remotes are both in silicon cases which resolve all of the problems noted above.
You have a case that adds a mute button?
Tommy Boy: Hell no it doesn’t resolve the crappy design. I have the silicone cover for the remote and, while it does have a textured bottom, it still is too subtle and the remote sucks eggs, regardless.
Jonny Ive, we’re glad you’re gone. From too thin phones with poor battery life to the trashcan Mac Pro to this Sh*tty remote we’ll never forget you. And….that’s not such a good thing. The iPods were great though.
@C. I agree. Jonny was great for a time, but without someone to reign him in he was all about form trouncing function.
I gave up when you could get a paper cut on the edge of an iMac screen. I think he just became too interesting to himself and speaking. slowly. with. import. in. an. English. dialect. to. prove. that.
But not mute. (Fail)
And not losing tiny remotes which could easily be a FindMy device. (Opportunity)
The turd of a remote was designed by the same idiot that put the charging port on the bottom of the Magic Mouse. Should have been fired
++
Design (i.e., looks) over functionality….
Someone was overly intoxicated by the looks of his/(her) industrial design.
Even I could have placed a jack port at the forward tip, which is probably a wasted space anyway (looking at the current location of port).
Sorry…your assumptive definition of design is wanting. With a functional item, good design is in, on and throughout the object. “Aesthetics” is closer to your thinking.
A successful CEO, named Steve, who had quite the design and aesthetic mind said of design….
“Design is not just what it looks like and how it feels. Design is how it works.”
You are right, totally agreed. I was thinking too much of usual criticism directed toward a certain person in Apple.
I’d like a new remote for my AppleTV and a new mouse for my iMac. Yes, inexplicably bad design coming from Apple. They had Teams working on these?!?….
After using an Apple remote extensively for a few months, and comparing it to a Roku remote to control the same content, this is what I want:
1. MUTE BUTTON! (and why can’t Siri mute audio, when the volume buttons are functional?)
2. dedicated FF 30 sec, and Rewind 30 sec buttons
3. Completely redesigned touchpad–sometimes it’s too sensitive, and other times, it’s not sensitive enough. Controlling content with the Roku Remote’s less-fancy arrow buttons is much easier/faster than the Apple remote.
4. AirTag technology integrated
5. Sized for adult hands
6. Backlight when moved or activated by Siri
7. “Hey Siri, find my remote”
8. Last channel button, voice command, whatever–man I miss this option from traditional cable remotes. Sometimes I just want to jump back and forth between two games, for example.
9. In general, Siri voice commands don’t seem to be nearly as useful as I would expect. For example, if I say “go forwards thirty seconds” while content is playing, it works, but if content is paused, it doesn’t.
It always seemed to me that Jony Ive handed a slab of a rounded rectangle to a designer and said, “Ok, you can put 5 rounded buttons on this– then decide what their function is” — what may be “visually appealing” may not be the right tactile design for the hand . . . but I must say the remote is effective in eliciting the word “F*&#” from me, every time I accidentally hit the TV/Home/Control Center Button in the top right.
I took a rubber band off a broccoli bunch and double-wrapped it around the bottom of the remote. It’s visible, tactile, durable and cheap. And the tackiness suits the rest of my decor.
Or maybe it was asparagus.
Yes, please kill the current AppleTV remote.
I agree with every complaint mentioned here by MDN and others.
It gets my vote for the worst piece of hardware Apple has ever designed. Truly baffling how non-intuitive it is. Nearly impossible to pick up and use whilst watching something and not accidentally stop, pause, logout, or fire some command at the box that otherwise completely disturbs your viewing. It’s a deal-breaking disaster. 😞
We have 2 of the latest AppleTV boxes and have taken one completely off line, while the other is only used for my wife’s AppleFitness+ workouts. [She raves about these as best in class, BTW]
I’m a huge fan of the vision of Jobs, but this device has not “cracked TV,” as he suggested to Walter Isaacson. I really want Apple to crack TV, but this ain’t it…yet.
Even the generally agreed upon dumb remote aside, the interface is also confusing.
AppleTV+ original content (of which I’m a huge fan) is mixed in with other streaming channels’ stuff. I get that Apple wanted to be the ONE box that users use to access all streaming channels, but that just ain’t gonna happen if things are not better organized and easier to navigate. It seems to be intentionally set up to get you interested in seeing something you believe is part of AppleTV+, only to realize it’s on HBO and you need to pay $15/month.
Early AppleTV incarnations were pretty good Blockbuster boxes. We used ours to rent movies frequently. I gave one to my octogenarian, fairly tech-savvy mom as a gift I was sure she’d love.
For 2 years, whenever I inquired about it, she’d say, “Now what do I do with this again?”
“Mom, think of it like a place you go to rent movies,” I said.
She could never figure that out. She then gave hers to a guy who helped her with her iMac one day. [sigh]
This was the woman who had one of the early green-screen Compaqs in the mid 80s (running WordStar?) and let me use it to write my dissertation before I had the pleasure to meet my first Mac.
After hearing so much about Roku through the years, I bought one a year ago and fell in love. Well, perhaps “love” is too strong a word, but “strong like?” At least in comparison to my AppleTV disappointments. I know that’s heresy, but Roku was simply the superior device.
Even the logical layout of channels and super fast logins is just easier than trying to figure out AppleTV’s content and where it’s actually streaming from. And fortunately, it has an AppleTV+ app so you can watch “Ted Lasso,” and “For All Mankind” there! When you want sign up for a new streaming channel, it’s fast, easy, and clear. It’s equally easy to cancel one with a few clicks when you’ve seen all you want to.
The Roku remote is far from perfect, but it’s infinitely faster and more functional. And I’m ready for Apple to give Roku a run for its money and do what it does best:
Innovate an existing idea and make it better than anyone else’s implementation.
Like yours, our family has spent tens of thousands of dollars on Apple hardware over the decades. But we expect more out of Apple than this. I think it’s really time for Apple to show up to market with superior hardware that can promote its confusingly named (but quality) AppleTV+ streaming network. But similar to Apple abandoning the Airport/TimeCapsule market, if they’re not truly committing to being in the space, don’t lead us on.
Apologies for the heresy, but I want Cupertino to get this right and AppleTV’s not…yet.
This is correct—We have a RokuTV and a Roku Box, and both have a better user experience than the AppleTV. What really baffles me is that the Roku is much faster/responsive than the AppleTV while costing half the price. Fortunately I bought the AppleTV from a friend for $25, so I don’t really feel too cheated at this point.
Truth. Honestly, I was a little sad how much faster and easier to use my Roku Ultra was. We now own 2.
How can another company so clearly beat Apple at an intuitive, easy-to-use interface with complementary hardware? I’m an Apple guy all-in, but AppleTV has been a chronic disappointment that baffles me.
I’ve owned every model since the beginning and they’re getting worse with successive generations.
Especially after Jobs made such a point of that in the Isaacson Bio. “I finally cracked TV.”
He said that TEN years ago!
Clearly there is some ambivalence on Apple’s part to really do this right because there are plenty of competing examples out there for them to borrow from and make a superior product. That’s Apple’s M.O.
Why don’t they hire me to take over the project? I could crush that job. Many of us could.
It’s just such a strange, glaring hole in Apple’s hardware/software line up now more than ever with the high quality original content on AppleTV+ as well as AppleFitness+
We’ll see what the new box looks like soon enough, but honestly?
I’m not holding my breath. 😞
Perfect list of needed upgrades.
As an aside, I have had an Apple (?) strap on the TV remote for years. I never have trouble knowing which way is up on the remote. It also makes it easier to pick up and find when it drops.
(The list I referred to Synth – above.)