AppleTV - Siri, tell me what to watch - The Something Awful Forums

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > AppleTV - Siri, tell me what to watch

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

What are people using to prop up their phone cameras for the new FaceTime app? (I will never attach a pop socket to my phone. They look horrible and have a horrible name). I can definitely see myself using it for work meetings etc.

# ¿ Oct 4, 2023 11:03

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:32

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

Duckman2008 posted:

Haven�t tried it yet but I have this:

https://www.zagg.com/snap-plus-powerstation-stand

Doesn't it need to use the back cameras (like continuity on Mac) or am I misunderstanding how it works here?

# ¿ Oct 5, 2023 12:02

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

WattsvilleBlues posted:

Hey hey, Apple TV buddies. A few meandering thoughts.

Device itself is nice, build quality feels good. Remote feels cold due to metal casing, a bright red rubber cover fixed that though.

I love having gigabit Ethernet built-in to the console itself, and was one of the main reasons I wanted to change from the micro-USB 100Mbps Ethernet port on the Fire TV Cube.

Artwork definitely loads faster with the gigabit connection - it's basically instantaneous. My wireless signal got me around 400Mbps on the Fire TV but it often dropped off the access point in the same room and got a crap connection to an access point elsewhere in the house, so for consistency I stuck with the slower, wired connection.

Setup was a breeze, after holding my iPad next to the console I continued setup from the iPad. Gotta love NFC or Bluetooth or whatever black magic that is. Fire TV setup is similarly easy in this regard, though probably not just as seamless.

Call me a nerd but I love love love knowing that I'm up to date with the latest operating system version. Fire TV is updated a couple of times per month but version numbers are about 8 digits long and there are never any changelogs available unless it's major version changes. I mean I know they're minor bug fix releases, but tvOS 17.1 etc. is just easier to keep track of. Updating from tvOS 16.x to 17.1 took quite some time considering the A15 chip and the 4GB RAM but that's just an observation.

The controller touch navigation is something I can't confidently get the hang of, I turned that off and I'm getting fewer accidental inputs. Muscle memory from the Fire TV remote, variations of which I've used for years, is strong, but hopefully in a few days my brain will retrain.

Two things that are absolutely night and day are the user interface and user experience. Ads are all over the place on the Fire TV and they're made all the more obvious with 10 times less advertising on the Apple TV. The fluidity of the Apple console is superior as expected, and the multitasking view is a nice touch.

I like the API that allows apps to present the last ten or so last played videos as visually pleasing UI.

The Apple TV doesn't recognise my soundbar through the optical output that connects it with my TV. The Fire TV recognised it and allowed volume control from the remote, which is great as the soundbar remote has long been lost to the sofa gods.

The soundbar does get picked up through Bluetooth and I can adjust the volume of that with the Siri remote, but that volume is independent of the onboard soundbar volume, which is frustrating. Soundbar appears as a "temporary" sound output via the Control Centre, but the positive so far is that there's no audio lag I can identify.

Any tips or guides on how to setup the soundbar to work as it did with the Fire TV? It's a Q Acoustics M4.

Last thoughts, any app that doesn't let you setup via phone/tablet and requires you to enter passwords manually by scrolling around the on-screen keyboard is abhorrent and the developers should be marooned.

If your TV has ARC input then there might be something you can do there. I'm currently using homepod minis as my TV speakers (because I'm a sicko) and it can tie in to the TV itself via ARC, which is great because I can use them as the speakers for games consoles too.

As others have said, if the soundbar has IR input you can teach the Apple TV remote to act as it, which I did with my previous speakers and mostly worked fine.

I agree with your feedback about the remote. It looks georgeous but it also feels like the most extreme end of Apple's industrial design aesthetic, to the detriment of the cosiness of your living room.

# ¿ Nov 8, 2023 14:29

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

MarcusSA posted:

These are the people that buy the $25 fire stick and think it works fine.

Buys a $1000 tv and the cheapest media device possible.

I think the apple tv is cool and nice, but also those people are correct that a cheap streaming usb stick or the TV's internal software does work fine for most people who do not have computer brain

# ¿ Jan 11, 2024 11:46

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

Ryuga Death posted:

Sorry if I'm clogging up the thread but I had a few questions regarding the AppleTV. I bought an LG C2 back in 2022 and have been using the built in apps, but have been given the advice of using a streaming device by others and it seems like AppleTV is the overall best option.

Does this thing ever go on sale? Is it still worth it for someone who has never owned an apple product? Do I need an HDMI 2.1 cable for it? Is it better to hook it up directly to the TV or should I hook it up to the AVR instead?

I got mine at a good discount from CeX, the big chain of second hand electronics shops in my country. You'll find them aplenty in places like that, and you can get one at 'used' or 'b' quality or whatever your equivalent's grading system is without much worry because it's a small black box you hide behind your TV and wear and tear really doesn't make a difference.

# ¿ Jan 14, 2024 13:03

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

Was real confused as to why there'd be a deal on a streaming box just for vets before I expanded the image
Especially combined with your profile pic

# ¿ Jan 29, 2024 13:15

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

Corb3t posted:

VPN to the Ukraine and sign up for YouTube premium for $4 a month for a family. Invite your friends to the premium account and you�ll be everybody�s favorite person. Charge them if you must.

I don�t want to derail this thread too much but please refer to it as �Ukraine�, not �the Ukraine�, if possible - thanks.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2024 13:05

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

I think it�s ok to ask people not to inadvertently use language that might be incredibly prickly or politically charged towards people who are having a tough time of things, and who also use the internet. There�s tons of politically charged language or otherwise thorny language that most Americans don�t use for good reasons too, which people on this site pick up on if it gets misused, so you really don�t have to be a baby about this one. I think I was pretty polite about the whole thing.

# ¿ Apr 22, 2024 15:17

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

eightysixed posted:

We can all copy/paste Wikipedia.
But honestly, I think they're currently more pissed off about what THE MUTHA RUSHA is doing to them than pedantically white-knighting the lack of the article "the."
ukraine:

The last thing I�ll say considering this is the loving appletv thread of all places is that I live somewhere with lots of Ukrainian friends and neighbours, and people genuinely get pretty angry and upset if you use the �the�, it was considered a slur before the war and those feelings have only heightened for people since. It�s not hard to understand why, it�s not pedantry, there are other slurs people don�t use on SA anymore, we are past this website�s edgelord era and are better off for it.
But it�s also easy and understandable not to know you�ve got it wrong and said something inadvertently offensive, which is why I corrected the poster. That�s all.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

# ¿ Apr 22, 2024 15:46

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# ¿ May 16, 2024 20:32

The Grumbles: Jun 5, 2006

Dicty Bojangles posted:

I�m pretty stoked over non-jailbroken emulation coming to the ATV.

Apparently airplay from Delta on your phone works really well

# ¿ Apr 22, 2024 16:50

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