New Apple TV - Methods for Searching - please help!!
Dear all,
I requested an Apple Support call this morning (with someone from the Remote and Accessories department regarding the new Apple TV which I recently purchased) and I raised four issues but unfortunately the lady I spoke to wasn't able to give an explanation for any of my four queries, even after speaking with colleagues. So I thought I'd post the four queries here in case anyone has any thoughts, suggestions or workarounds.
The four points are copied and pasted from an email I have now sent to contactus.uk@euro.apple.com, in the hope of getting some kind of feedback :
1
The new Apple TV doesn’t support any Apple Wireless Keyboard and yet it has Bluetooth and supports wireless headphones and Bluetooth controllers. I understand the Siri remote uses Bluetooth 4.0 wireless technology. However I can pair some old bluetooth headphones to the box and listen to music and yet my more recent Apple wireless keyboard is not designed to work with the unit. And yet the 3rd generation Apple TV did. Why has Apple decided to withdraw support for its own keyboard when if offers an ideal solution for quickly entering information? Or alternatively as my iMac computer is on the same network as the Apple TV it wouldn’t seem a complicated solution for my Apple computer to be able to enter text to the Apple TV via an App on the App Store?
2
The lady at Apple Support spoke with a colleague and suggested I used the Remote app on my iPhone, as that would have a good way to enter text using the onscreen keyboard. I have doubled checked on the App Store and the Remote cannot work with the 4th generation device at present. This is for a new device that has been designed over the past three years or so. I am wondering why the new Apple TV has been released without this fundamental app working? I can understand if the app needed updating slightly but as both the app and the new Apple TV are on the same wireless network (as with the previous Apple TV) then why hasn’t the app been updated by now to work with the new device?
3
So following the above I have resorted to just using the new Siri remote, which seems great in many ways. However I don’t seem to find it particularly speedy to search with.
For example I go into the Music app, select My Music and then Albums to select an album to play. It would appear, unless I’m mistaken, that the only way to go through the albums listed in A-Z order is to keep swiping down on the trackpad. If the album is towards the top of the list this is fine but if say I want an album beginning with W do I need to keep swiping down repeatedly until W comes up? It can take a very long time!
Similarly the Search field in the Music app allows the Siri remote to be used to select letter by letter from the a-z list on the screen. So I swipe right or left to the letter I want and click on it, and then move on to the next letter. For short words this is reasonably quick but seems far from ideal as a solution to quickly enter the name of a song or album you wish to search for. And the Apple TV is marketed as the future of television.
4
So I have considered using Siri to search but it would appear that, at least for the moment, it is only designed for searching movies and TV shows. Although I have read there’s plans for a universal search API to be made available to expand the number of apps that can take advantage of the feature. I wondered however why the system won’t attempt to recognise Siri commands for playing Music and instead says ‘Sorry I can’t help you with music’. The iPhone can already search for Music using Siri and the Music app there is similar in many ways to the one on the Apple TV and was released some time ago, drawing upon the same Music I have in iCloud. Interestingly Siri on the new Apple TV does work very well to search for Movies and TV shows that you can rent or buy from the iTunes Store ! :-)
Any feedback much appreciated!
Kind regards,
David Phillips
Apple TV (4th generation), tvOS 9.0.1, null