2015 Apple TV4 experience: tvOS makes TV more advanced but not practical in China
The new Apple TV may be the least concerned about the Apple iPhone launch in September, but it has recently caused the editorial department's biggest turmoil. When the product arrived, everyone watched and wanted to see if this product that Cook had become "TV's future" actually wanted to play the above game.
What we have bought is Hong Kong 32GB version. The price is HK$1188, which is about RMB971. But what many people care about most is not price. What is this Apple TV doing? In simple terms, Apple TV is a TV box through which you can go online and watch the various video resources provided by the iTunes Store, but the latest generation is slightly different.
In addition to the previous Apple TV projection on the screen to the iOS device, there are only a bunch of paid foreign movies and TV shows, connection speed is particularly slow. However, due to joining the App Store (currently to land in the US area account), a new generation of Apple TV has more games.
The contents of the box are simple: the Siri remote control and the Lightning cable for charging, the Apple TV main body, and the power cord (Hong Kong version).
This slap-heavy host doesn't have much to say about it. It is black and has a frosted top. In addition to the power interface, HDMI interface, and network cable interface, a USB-C interface has been added. According to the instructions on the official website, it is for technical support and service use. It is usually not estimated.
tvOS: This beautiful UI instantly makes your TV bigger
tvOS's main interface uses gray as the background color, the second line as the Dock bar, and the top bar will change depending on the application of the Dock bar you have selected. After logging in to the U.S. area, you can see on the second line that there are movies, TV shows, and the App Store software store. If you do not operate for a long time, you will enter the screen saver mode. At this time, Apple TV will play a spectacular aerial video. You can also set an update cycle. Each screen saver is about 600 MB.
If you are logged in to an account in mainland China, you will find that the tvOS App Store is not yet open in Central. What is puzzling is that the iTunes Store movie store, which was already open in mainland China, has not appeared in Central District. So if you only have the Apple ID in mainland China, the only function of the new Apple TV for you is to project the image on the iPhone to the TV so you can buy the previous generation of Apple TV directly. However, as far as the content provided by Apple is concerned, even if the iTunes Store is opened up, Apple TV will not have too much place in video content in the short term.
We have reason to believe that in the future, the Central Account will also open the App Store and iTunes Store. Since more than a month ago, the iTunes Store has been opened in the Chinese mainland, not to mention the App Store. The content is ready-made and will be transferred to tvOS. It is not hard on it.
The tvOS interface looks very comfortable. Thanks to the A8 processor and the Siri remote control it comes with, it feels a lot more fluid and smooth than the previous generation. If on the icon, the finger gently rotates around the touchpad, the icon will be highlighted, and it will rotate, and the elements on the icon will also show a 3D effect. This small detail will make people feel that the entire operation interface is very spiritual.
According to the official website, the supporting Siri remote control supports Bluetooth 4.0 technology. In addition to the volume plus/minus button, the infrared transmitter is used to control the volume of the TV, and other buttons do not have to be aligned with the Apple TV main body like the infrared remote controller. , Do not be afraid that the host is blocked by any object, even if it is back to the host, there is no delay in operation, high degree of freedom.
Apple TV's interaction is also very spiritual because of such small details. Although it is not something particularly innovative, bright design style, smooth running of the system, freedom of operation, and small details on the interface put together. Let you feel that the entire experience is very comfortable and demonstrates Apple's consistent skill in the software interface. An old colleague made this sigh: After installing Apple TV, this Samsung TV also appears to be tall.
Applications and Games: Far from the Challenge PS4
There is no iTunes Store, the new version of Apple TV actually has another way out, that is, the App Store, there are already many applications in it, such as the Crossy Road game demonstrated at the conference, as well as CBS, Mashable and other foreign media. Imagine the appearance of Sohu video, iQiyi and other applications in the future tvOS App Store. Then you have the opportunity to look directly at the Apple TV or the US drama. (Incidentally, the SARFT recently shot to kill many domestic TV boxes. The application of video content).
Since entering account passwords on Apple TV is really too much trouble, Apple TV allows you to set an application for purchase later without entering a password after entering the password once. We also found that the App Store on tvOS and iOS is open. After you purchase an app on the tvOS App Store, use the same account to search for the same app in the iOS App Store. You will find that the system has prompted you to purchase the app.
In addition to games, the applications on Apple TV are basically content-consuming applications. You can find fitness, food and other tutorials on it. You can buy movies in the iTunes Store. However, there is a problem that these applications are almost always English content, and their practicality is greatly reduced for domestic users.
In Crossy Road and Lehman, you can use the remote's touchpad to control the character's movements. You may feel fresh in the early stages, but it may feel too monotonous to play a few more times. Siri's remote control also has an accelerometer and gyro that can sense your movements. You can use it to play somatosensory games. For example, at Beats Sports at the conference, you need to use a remote control to hit the opponent's thrown ball. . The wild car that is popular on iOS devices also introduces the tvOS version. In the game, the remote controller needs to be used as a steering wheel. Tried down and found that this type of game controlled by a gyroscope that uses a Siri remote control is obviously much more gameplayable.
It is certainly not enough to use a remote controller to control the game. Apple also has MFi (Made For iPhone) certification for Apple TV, allowing third-party manufacturers to produce accessories for it. The game controller that has already been introduced is the Nimbus wireless controller of SteelSeries, priced at 428 Hong Kong dollars (approximately RMB 350).
However, these games are still fairly simple casual games, more like you can play on mobile phones, and are far away from masterpieces such as PS4 and Xbox. After all, Apple TV uses the A8 processor for mobile devices, which is not as comparable to these home consoles. Its beauty, or through the App Store application to replace the concept of the previous channel, want to play the game's friends, the game host may be more suitable for you.
Siri Remote Control: It's Fun to Have No Relationship with Siri
This Siri remote control is the focus of the next-generation Apple TV control. It is very thin and light, and the back is made of aluminum alloy material, which is very good. Some colleagues also laughed that this was a remote control made from leftover material on the iPod touch. The upper part of the front is a touchpad that can also be used as a confirmation key when pressed. The manipulation of the touchpad is much more convenient than the four-way navigation key, especially when you need to select letters one by one for a word, I believe it can better understand this.
However, even if there is a better selection of letters on the touch screen, the typing experience is still very hard. Here, Apple designed a detail: the original backspace key is at the far right of the screen, but as long as the touchpad button is pressed while typing, a small box showing the different styles of the letter will appear, and the small box will slide to the left after appearing. , you can delete operation. Although it will not make you enter faster, it will make you comfortable.
However, we also think that since there are input methods, why not add handwriting directly? At least in the Chinese input efficiency will be much higher. However, as many resources on Apple TV are currently in English, it is estimated that there are not many scenes for inputting Chinese.
In terms of keystrokes, except for the TV logo key that is equivalent to the home key, the rest of you don't need me to speak. At the bottom is the Lightning charging port.
This Siri remote also has an accelerometer and gyroscope that senses your movements and can use it to play somatosensory games. This can not help but think of using the iPhone to control the Apple TV, because the touch operation and motion sensing on the remote control can be realized on the iPhone, and even the iPhone can be used to type on Apple TV. After installing Apple's official remote control application on the iPhone, we found that it was not compatible with this Apple TV.
I don’t know if Apple might add support for iOS devices in the future. Think about it. If you’ve got a few friends who want to play multiplayer games on Apple TV, it’s much easier to control them with iOS devices, and everyone’s iPhone is Connected to play, but also to Apple TV's playability greatly increased, developers also have more room for imagination.
Having said so much, Siri hasn’t been mentioned yet, because currently Siri on Apple TV only supports English and can only be used when the system language is set to English. You can directly speak to it in English to tell the movie name and let it help you find movies and American dramas. You can also let it search for a star with a star. However, before supporting Chinese, it was really not practical for us.
Future: Turn the TV into a giant iPhone?
At present, the playability and richness of the game on Apple TV is difficult to compete with the PS4, but if you take the curve to save the country, attract users with rich video content and then use the iOS App Store model to attract developers. It may also be able to open up a world of its own in the global market. However, in the current TV box market in China, it is not practical for many domestic users at least at present.
At present, Apple TV is not yet available on the Chinese mainland market. The Hong Kong market has a 32 GB price of HK$1188 (approximately RMB972) and a 64 GB price of HK$1588 (approximately RMB1298). A game is probably a few tens to a hundred megabytes. A high-definition movie requires several G's of space. If you want to buy, if the price difference is not too big, we recommend buying a large capacity.
Cooke said this is Apple TV is the future of television, but at present we have not seen too revolutionary elements. As mentioned in the previous article, it is the most out of the color, is the use of the form of the program to replace the previous channel on the TV concept, all have to wait for the future development of the App Store, when its playability will be greatly improved. In addition, by the middle of this year, foreign media believe that Apple TV will be combined with Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform to use Apple TV to aggregate HomeKit connections, allowing users to control HomeKit-enabled smart home devices on Apple TV. . With the integration of content, entertainment and smart home, Apple TV's potential is worth looking forward to.
As the Wall Street Journal's evaluation of Apple TV: Install it, the entire TV can be seen as a giant iPhone.
What we have bought is Hong Kong 32GB version. The price is HK$1188, which is about RMB971. But what many people care about most is not price. What is this Apple TV doing? In simple terms, Apple TV is a TV box through which you can go online and watch the various video resources provided by the iTunes Store, but the latest generation is slightly different.
In addition to the previous Apple TV projection on the screen to the iOS device, there are only a bunch of paid foreign movies and TV shows, connection speed is particularly slow. However, due to joining the App Store (currently to land in the US area account), a new generation of Apple TV has more games.
The contents of the box are simple: the Siri remote control and the Lightning cable for charging, the Apple TV main body, and the power cord (Hong Kong version).
This slap-heavy host doesn't have much to say about it. It is black and has a frosted top. In addition to the power interface, HDMI interface, and network cable interface, a USB-C interface has been added. According to the instructions on the official website, it is for technical support and service use. It is usually not estimated.
tvOS: This beautiful UI instantly makes your TV bigger
tvOS's main interface uses gray as the background color, the second line as the Dock bar, and the top bar will change depending on the application of the Dock bar you have selected. After logging in to the U.S. area, you can see on the second line that there are movies, TV shows, and the App Store software store. If you do not operate for a long time, you will enter the screen saver mode. At this time, Apple TV will play a spectacular aerial video. You can also set an update cycle. Each screen saver is about 600 MB.
If you are logged in to an account in mainland China, you will find that the tvOS App Store is not yet open in Central. What is puzzling is that the iTunes Store movie store, which was already open in mainland China, has not appeared in Central District. So if you only have the Apple ID in mainland China, the only function of the new Apple TV for you is to project the image on the iPhone to the TV so you can buy the previous generation of Apple TV directly. However, as far as the content provided by Apple is concerned, even if the iTunes Store is opened up, Apple TV will not have too much place in video content in the short term.
We have reason to believe that in the future, the Central Account will also open the App Store and iTunes Store. Since more than a month ago, the iTunes Store has been opened in the Chinese mainland, not to mention the App Store. The content is ready-made and will be transferred to tvOS. It is not hard on it.
The tvOS interface looks very comfortable. Thanks to the A8 processor and the Siri remote control it comes with, it feels a lot more fluid and smooth than the previous generation. If on the icon, the finger gently rotates around the touchpad, the icon will be highlighted, and it will rotate, and the elements on the icon will also show a 3D effect. This small detail will make people feel that the entire operation interface is very spiritual.
According to the official website, the supporting Siri remote control supports Bluetooth 4.0 technology. In addition to the volume plus/minus button, the infrared transmitter is used to control the volume of the TV, and other buttons do not have to be aligned with the Apple TV main body like the infrared remote controller. , Do not be afraid that the host is blocked by any object, even if it is back to the host, there is no delay in operation, high degree of freedom.
Apple TV's interaction is also very spiritual because of such small details. Although it is not something particularly innovative, bright design style, smooth running of the system, freedom of operation, and small details on the interface put together. Let you feel that the entire experience is very comfortable and demonstrates Apple's consistent skill in the software interface. An old colleague made this sigh: After installing Apple TV, this Samsung TV also appears to be tall.
Applications and Games: Far from the Challenge PS4
There is no iTunes Store, the new version of Apple TV actually has another way out, that is, the App Store, there are already many applications in it, such as the Crossy Road game demonstrated at the conference, as well as CBS, Mashable and other foreign media. Imagine the appearance of Sohu video, iQiyi and other applications in the future tvOS App Store. Then you have the opportunity to look directly at the Apple TV or the US drama. (Incidentally, the SARFT recently shot to kill many domestic TV boxes. The application of video content).
Since entering account passwords on Apple TV is really too much trouble, Apple TV allows you to set an application for purchase later without entering a password after entering the password once. We also found that the App Store on tvOS and iOS is open. After you purchase an app on the tvOS App Store, use the same account to search for the same app in the iOS App Store. You will find that the system has prompted you to purchase the app.
In addition to games, the applications on Apple TV are basically content-consuming applications. You can find fitness, food and other tutorials on it. You can buy movies in the iTunes Store. However, there is a problem that these applications are almost always English content, and their practicality is greatly reduced for domestic users.
In Crossy Road and Lehman, you can use the remote's touchpad to control the character's movements. You may feel fresh in the early stages, but it may feel too monotonous to play a few more times. Siri's remote control also has an accelerometer and gyro that can sense your movements. You can use it to play somatosensory games. For example, at Beats Sports at the conference, you need to use a remote control to hit the opponent's thrown ball. . The wild car that is popular on iOS devices also introduces the tvOS version. In the game, the remote controller needs to be used as a steering wheel. Tried down and found that this type of game controlled by a gyroscope that uses a Siri remote control is obviously much more gameplayable.
It is certainly not enough to use a remote controller to control the game. Apple also has MFi (Made For iPhone) certification for Apple TV, allowing third-party manufacturers to produce accessories for it. The game controller that has already been introduced is the Nimbus wireless controller of SteelSeries, priced at 428 Hong Kong dollars (approximately RMB 350).
However, these games are still fairly simple casual games, more like you can play on mobile phones, and are far away from masterpieces such as PS4 and Xbox. After all, Apple TV uses the A8 processor for mobile devices, which is not as comparable to these home consoles. Its beauty, or through the App Store application to replace the concept of the previous channel, want to play the game's friends, the game host may be more suitable for you.
Siri Remote Control: It's Fun to Have No Relationship with Siri
This Siri remote control is the focus of the next-generation Apple TV control. It is very thin and light, and the back is made of aluminum alloy material, which is very good. Some colleagues also laughed that this was a remote control made from leftover material on the iPod touch. The upper part of the front is a touchpad that can also be used as a confirmation key when pressed. The manipulation of the touchpad is much more convenient than the four-way navigation key, especially when you need to select letters one by one for a word, I believe it can better understand this.
However, even if there is a better selection of letters on the touch screen, the typing experience is still very hard. Here, Apple designed a detail: the original backspace key is at the far right of the screen, but as long as the touchpad button is pressed while typing, a small box showing the different styles of the letter will appear, and the small box will slide to the left after appearing. , you can delete operation. Although it will not make you enter faster, it will make you comfortable.
However, we also think that since there are input methods, why not add handwriting directly? At least in the Chinese input efficiency will be much higher. However, as many resources on Apple TV are currently in English, it is estimated that there are not many scenes for inputting Chinese.
In terms of keystrokes, except for the TV logo key that is equivalent to the home key, the rest of you don't need me to speak. At the bottom is the Lightning charging port.
This Siri remote also has an accelerometer and gyroscope that senses your movements and can use it to play somatosensory games. This can not help but think of using the iPhone to control the Apple TV, because the touch operation and motion sensing on the remote control can be realized on the iPhone, and even the iPhone can be used to type on Apple TV. After installing Apple's official remote control application on the iPhone, we found that it was not compatible with this Apple TV.
I don’t know if Apple might add support for iOS devices in the future. Think about it. If you’ve got a few friends who want to play multiplayer games on Apple TV, it’s much easier to control them with iOS devices, and everyone’s iPhone is Connected to play, but also to Apple TV's playability greatly increased, developers also have more room for imagination.
Having said so much, Siri hasn’t been mentioned yet, because currently Siri on Apple TV only supports English and can only be used when the system language is set to English. You can directly speak to it in English to tell the movie name and let it help you find movies and American dramas. You can also let it search for a star with a star. However, before supporting Chinese, it was really not practical for us.
Future: Turn the TV into a giant iPhone?
At present, the playability and richness of the game on Apple TV is difficult to compete with the PS4, but if you take the curve to save the country, attract users with rich video content and then use the iOS App Store model to attract developers. It may also be able to open up a world of its own in the global market. However, in the current TV box market in China, it is not practical for many domestic users at least at present.
At present, Apple TV is not yet available on the Chinese mainland market. The Hong Kong market has a 32 GB price of HK$1188 (approximately RMB972) and a 64 GB price of HK$1588 (approximately RMB1298). A game is probably a few tens to a hundred megabytes. A high-definition movie requires several G's of space. If you want to buy, if the price difference is not too big, we recommend buying a large capacity.
Cooke said this is Apple TV is the future of television, but at present we have not seen too revolutionary elements. As mentioned in the previous article, it is the most out of the color, is the use of the form of the program to replace the previous channel on the TV concept, all have to wait for the future development of the App Store, when its playability will be greatly improved. In addition, by the middle of this year, foreign media believe that Apple TV will be combined with Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform to use Apple TV to aggregate HomeKit connections, allowing users to control HomeKit-enabled smart home devices on Apple TV. . With the integration of content, entertainment and smart home, Apple TV's potential is worth looking forward to.
As the Wall Street Journal's evaluation of Apple TV: Install it, the entire TV can be seen as a giant iPhone.