A Quiet Leap for Remotes
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Apple rolled out changes to the Apple TV - and the Remote app for iPhone and iPod touch - shortly after the new iPhone came out. The Remote app was already pretty good, but it had some holes. You couldn’t control everything on your Apple TV — it was more of an iPod-like interface for Apple TV.
Now you can directly control the on-screen menu, no need to have another remote control just for that. What’s more interesting: You can control the Apple TV without looking at your remote.
Is that such a big deal? Probably not if you were using a little white Apple remote for Apple TV. There are so few buttons it’s easy to know where your thumb is.
But Murphy uses a JP1 remote that controls TV, stereo, DVD, and Apple TV. The little white Apple remote is in a drawer somewhere. The JP1 has quite a few buttons on it - so only a well-trained thumb can operate it without looking down. Yeah, your iPhone is another device to have around. But unlike the little white remote it’s probably right there anyway.
With my iPhone and its new Remote app navigating the Apple TV menus is simple, just drag your thumb up, down, right, and left. Tap anywhere to select a menu. During playback you can use simple drag gestures to fast forward and rewind at various speeds. Tap to pause. Incredibly easy and intuitive. Think of it this way: Your iPhone is a trackpad and your Apple TV is the computer display. Yes - Apple has quietly provided a wireless trackpad for your television.
Is it something you have to have? No. Is it nice to have? Yes. It’s an example of Apple devices working well together. It’s driving innovation. And it makes you wonder why a Sony phone or Wifi Walkman can’t do the same thing with Sony devices.
8. July 2009 at 2:38 am :
To give credit where credit is due, this sounds A LOT like the boxee remote for the iPhone - it had the drag to navigate, click to select, and I thought it was so awesome I couldn’t believe nobody else had done it (that I know of). Whether or not Apple “copied” it or not is up for the zealots to debate, but definitely a great thing for users!
8. July 2009 at 2:28 pm :
I’ll hopefully be in the market for an AppleTV in the next couple of months so I’m looking forward to being able to show this off to people!
8. July 2009 at 2:32 pm :
Steven -
Interesting about Boxee. It made me wonder about the app store and how it looks so much like the application library for hacked iPhones. Did Apple copy those hacker efforts or did the APIs for the iPhone lead the “libraries” to look the way it did? I don’t know.
Whatever it takes to push Apple TV development is good - Apple is kind of dragging their feet.
8. July 2009 at 2:37 pm :
Didn’t know about Boxee. I got aggravated with Boxee and uninstalled. But I appreciate their efforts - they’ve shown how much more the Apple TV is capable of. Hopefully it keeps Apple at work on future updates.