Disclaimer: I used to be a die-hard Apple Fanboy. All products. Latest software versions. Heated discussions with Android and Microsoft users. Click-refresh-click-refresh on the App store once a new version is released. Cloud 7-all is just beautiful-type thing. You get it. I still think that (some) products, as buggy and unstable as they seemingly are now, still represent the better evil in a world of over saturated electronics domination. I still believe that Microsoft just doesn't get it (or doesn’t want to). I personally still prefer the less-freedom-to-change-something-for-the-sake-of-usability approach. But my emotional connection with the brand and the products is starting to fade a little over the years. The line from hardcore evangelist to outspoken critic is a thin one.

The last product launch event left me again with that ‘meh’ feeling. iPhone 6s? Up until now I could never wait to get my hands on a new iPhone version. Haven’t skipped a single one since the first came out. Now? I got the 6 and I’m still happy. Touch control and a slightly better (but definitely not noticeably) camera just simply isn’t enough to convince me. I’m sure the faster processor would be able to make the iOS9 experience a bit smoother, but I’m not gonna throw (any) more money on them just to make my existing set up work. iPad Pro? Really? No comment. So the only thing left to excite me and trigger the ‘shut up and take my money’ reflex, was the new Apple TV. Something long left ignored by Apple. Finally a new gadget in the toy store. So I placed my order on the App store. 64GB. Bring it. Delivery time and communication was smooth as always and this week I had it delivered to my office.

Joy joy! The unboxing of Apple products still has that magic to it. Everything looks and feels just very elegant and exclusive. The font. The black and white colours. The materials used. The way how the upper cover gently slides up from the box when you lift it with both hands. The transparent protective wrapping. Sparkly and shiny. That’s how products should look like fresh out of the box.

When I got home I was excited to fire it up and try it out. The physical installation was a breeze. I simply just unplugged my old Apple TV and reconnected both power, ethernet and HDMI cable. Upon start up, the configuration was also very smooth. I really like the concept of using an existing Apple product (in this case my iPhone) to copy the iTunes settings to the new device. The system asked me to turn on Bluetooth and hold the phone close to the Apple TV. I could then do the whole set up on my phone. Everything was done in a matter of 2 minutes max. Plug and play! One of those things I really love about Apple products. I had a similarly nice experience when connecting my new magic keyboard and mouse. You just plug in the lightning cable connected to your Mac and you are instantly connected for wireless use.

So after everything was set up, I took a look at the new remote. Size and weight feels right and it lays comfortable in my hand. Navigating through menu points (horizontally) by thumb swiping left and right is easy, but, and that’s a big BUT for me, the accuracy of selecting letters is seriously impacted by the missing click feeling. I was asked to enter my iTunes password upon my first download and contrary to the old Apple TV, where I could set a 4 digit passcode (easier to enter with a remote), here I had to type the whole password out. So it was a rather annoying experience to always navigate between back button and the right letters. The next thing I tried was the volume button. I was used to my old two remote set up (one apple TV, one receiver), but I heard you could now control both ATV, your TV and the receiver with the new remote. Great I thought, but pressing the volume buttons didn’t seem to do anything. So I read up on the matter and I found one support article by Apple, explaining that the HDMI-CEC function of the receiver needs to be activated first. I had no idea what that was and it took me a good 20 minute of fiddling around in the 1980-style menu of my receiver to finally find that feature and turn it on. Much to my disappointment thought it still didn’t do anything.

Another 20 minutes of Google research and a few TV, receiver and ATV restarts later, I finally gave up. Seems either my receiver and TV are not supporting this or Apple didn’t configure it properly yet (I’m hoping a software update will sort this out).

Onto the new interface. Looks refreshingly fresh.

A cleaner and less cluttered home screen. Multi-tasking and app downloads

New menu icons and thumbnails. A smoother, swipe-enabled gliding experience. The menu structure is more or less the same, but there are a few changes. The apps are no longer forced on you beneath the main navigation (movies, TV shows, etc), but now have to be downloaded individually from the App store (another novelty in the ATV menu). So now you can select your preferred apps and un-clutter the main screen a little (depending on how many apps you download of course). Double pressing the airplay button (?) brings up the iOS style multitasking screen, where you can switch between different windows (e.g. App store, open applications like games, movie page, settings, etc). Not sure how often I will use that, but it’s still early days.

Everything else is more or less the same. You can now fast forward frames in a movie/show by swiping to the desired position. That works well /better with the touchpad. All other features are still more or less the same.

All in all it looks like a welcome new make over for a long ignored product category and let’s see which exciting new apps developers will launch in the near future.