#APPLE REMOTE CONTROL TV#

#APPLE REMOTE CONTROL TV#

“For the first time, the Siri remote has a power button, so you can use it to switch the Apple TV 4K on or off, along with your TV too, and it also now features a back button and a mute button.

Our Smart Home & Appliances Editor, Carrie-Ann Skinner, writes:“The new-look Siri remote included here is thinner, and ditches the touch-sensitive trackpad in favor of a circular clickpad, which makes scrolling through the interface far easier. The remote did see a big overhaul, though. The Apple TV HD streamer launched in 2015, with a 2017 4K model coming only two years after – but it took a whole four years after that to see a 2021 overhaul.īut the Apple TV hardware barely changed in that time, only packing in a faster A12 Bionic process, limited-use HFR support, and a color calibration feature you’ll need a new iPhone to make use of. The 2021 redesign of the Siri Remote (Image credit: Apple) Form over functionĪpple has long been a force for design-led hardware development, so it’s not surprising that this can lead the company into off-kilter choices on occasion – though it is odd that it took Apple so long to correct their mistake. Overall, we’re not quite in Magic Mouse 2 territory in terms of design disasters, but the Apple TV 4K remote is definitely a case of form over function.” “Despite its raised menu button, the remote’s symmetrical shape means you’re also never quite sure if you have it the right way up, while the touchpad is ultra-sensitive one minute and sluggish the next. And the lack of a bezel around the clickable touchpad means that when you do find it, you’ve probably accidentally skipped to the season finale of the show you were trying to watch.

The slippery, 5mm-thick design seems to have been custom-made for finding its way into sofa nooks you didn’t even know existed. “For a start, it’s probably my most frequently lost object, even beating my keys. “While I’ve never despised my Apple TV 4K remote to quite the same degree as some owners, it definitely isn’t Apple’s finest hour,” says Wilson. Our Camera Editor, Mark Wilson, tells us how the touch-sensitive pad caused issues through oversensitivity, a confusing layout, and its various attempts at defying traditional TV layouts – and baffling our hands in the process.

It’s something that LG has managed to play with in its Magic Remote, which can move around the remote’s cursor much like a laser pointer, and feels far more intuitive than trying to match the motions of a trackpad to your desired action on screen.īut even if you liked the idea of treating your TV screen like an expanded Macbook monitor, the Siri remote simply didn’t work all that well. The problem is that TV screens aren’t generally designed to be navigated in the same way as a keyboard and mouse, with smart TV platforms and TV channel guides generally having layouts that predict simple up, down, left and right movements – or navigation that circumvents that entirely, using voice commands or universal search functions which can skip to the desired content or app. The original Siri Remote (Image credit: Future)

Apple remote control