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Apple Updates Apple TV, But How Well Does It Work?

4 Comments
by
Kyle Buckley (Senior Editor)
on October 29th, 2009 at 05:25 PM
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Apple has released a new version of the Apple TV software bringing it to version 3. It delivers support for iTunes LP and iTunes Extras—sort of. The Apple TV has a slightly new interface and now supports streaming of internet radio. Apple also claims that the interface is more simple and responds quicker, but I have found this to be untrue.

iTunes LP and iTunes Extras

Introduced in September with iTunes 9, iTunes LP and iTunes Extras delivers extra content for select albums and movies. The features are impressive and bring more entertainment for users, but until today, Apple TV owners have been left wanting. Apple TV 3.0 now supports iTunes Extras and iTunes LP, but not entirely. You must store the LP and Extras content on the device in order for the bonus features to work. Many people, including myself, keep their media library on a Mac or PC and stream the content to the Apple TV. For those of us who have already purchased iTunes Extras and LP content, we have to move the content to the Apple TV to utilize it. Since syncing or moving content between Apple TV and a computer has been problematic for many, this iTunes LP and Extras feature for the Apple TV isn't useful.


Internet Radio

It works. And there is a huge variety of channels and genres to choose from: Rock, Jazz, Blues, Talk/Sports, News, R&B, Country, etc. And each genre has multiple stations to choose from. Depending on the source's streaming quality, the sound can be as limiting as AM-radio to as high as full CD quality.

Interface

The user interface has been changed for the sake of change. Unlike what Apple claims, it's not more simple.


The new home screen of the Apple TV


The only real difference is the home screen. In this new version the categories (Movies, TV Shows, Music, Podcast, etc) have been moved from a left-side column to a horizontal navigation bar. That's all.

My largest complaint with the Apple TV interface is, and always has been, that it focuses far too much on the iTunes Store. Instead of focusing on the content you own, Apple TV focuses on what Apple wants you to own. When I turn on my TV and want to watch my content, I want to watch my content, not be bombarded by iTunes Store promotions.

Speed, Or Lack Thereof

The speed of Apple TV 3.0 is awful. No, it aspires to awful. When my Apple TV is connecting to my iTunes library on my iMac, it takes a good 20 to 30 seconds longer than before. Not only that , but when switching between TV shows to movies being streamed from my iMac, the Apple TV now needs to disconnect and then reconnect to my iMac. This process can sometimes take several minutes.

Scrolling through content is even more sluggish than before. When selecting to display all music sorted by artist, my Apple TV took 2 minutes to load it.

Conclusion

Although the software update for Apple TV is free for Apple TV owners, it's not worth it at this point. The sluggishness alone outweighs any benefits, unless you only plan on listening to internet radio. It would be best to wait to upgrade your Apple TV after maintenance updates for 3.0 have been released.

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Categories
Technology

Comments

  1. annonymous_man - October 29th, 2009 06:02 PM
    annonymous_man's Avatar
    Decided Apple TV 3.0 was not worth it with the new UI changes (even when 3.0.1, 3.1, 3.2 maintenance updates come out expect UI to remain the same so will likely stick with Apple TV Take 2 software I have indefinitely. Will only bother updating Apple TV firmware again when I hear Apple's got the UI right.

    Don't care about iTunes Extras or iTunes LP either as it is associated with iTunes Store content I want my existing content whether it was bought earlier from iTunes, ripped from DVD etc to have higher priority (content I have should have higher priority than iTunes Store content available for me to buy/download) than iTunes Store stuff. The online music streaming is nothing spectacular -- was hoping they would have a Pandora Radio channel like VUDU does but no they just seem to have incorporated the Internet Radio function of iTunes with Apple TV so they have an Internet radio tuner on Apple TV for online music streaming.

    Apple TV 3.0 UI sucks. This is something I would expect from Sony in the PS3 not Apple. Their supposed to design good visually appealing products -- since iTunes 7 are losing consistency among their apps -- changing UI of iTunes drastically replacing blue scroll bars with gray boring, dark ugly, old scroll bars; while maintaining the blue scroll bars in all other apps and across Mac OS X no more consistency and the UI changes to iTunes also suck.

    Wish I could go back to iTunes 4 actually with the polished brushed metal look -- maybe someday if I run Linux will definitely install WINE and the Windows version of iTunes 4 (saved the iTunes 4 installer for just such an occasion on a DVD) I even updated iTunes to 9.0.2 to work with the new Apple TV 3.0 update.


  2. TCM - October 29th, 2009 06:25 PM
    TCM's Avatar
    I think Apple TV could be so much more than what it is. 3.0 sucks! The UI is the same, just moved around a bit. People on other sites are going ga-ga over the "new" UI. It's nice to find someone who agrees with me that the UI is a piece of ****.

    Since updating to 3.0, my Apple TV has froze several times while streaming from my Mac Pro. It's a POS and very non-Apple like. I think Apple has had a decline in quality control
  3. Crude Dude - October 29th, 2009 11:05 PM
    Crude Dude's Avatar
    Um, your rant is silly. You didn't update itunes to 9.02. Do that and I'm sure the sluggishness you experienced will be eliminated.
  4. Kyle Buckley - October 29th, 2009 11:08 PM
    Kyle Buckley's Avatar
    Quote From Crude Dude
    Um, your rant is silly. You didn't update itunes to 9.02. Do that and I'm sure the sluggishness you experienced will be eliminated.
    Thanks, but I did update to iTunes 9.02. I did it the same time I updated my Apple Tv to 3.0.

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