Apple issues sixth beta of tvOS 9.2 for Apple TV with folders, voice dictation

Looks like almost all of the features the malcontents were bloviating about have arrived. Personally I’m glad Apple released the ATV4 when it did. I have had the pleasure of using it while it has matured instead of being released another year from now or whenever the pontificating blowhards deemed it ready. I’m sure the never satisfied crowd will still be harping about something though. Oh, and my personal pontification? Don’t hold your breath for the allegedly “coming soon” Amazon Prime app.

In this day of continuous improvements and updates, a product is never "done" the team must establish a list have must haves for launch. The rest of the enhancements are then laid out on a timeline for future introduction. If one waited for it all to be ready, nothing would ever get built.

lkrupp said:

Looks like almost all of the features the malcontents were bloviating about have arrived. Personally I’m glad Apple released the ATV4 when it did. I have had the pleasure of using it while it has matured instead of being released another year from now or whenever the pontificating blowhards deemed it ready. I’m sure the never satisfied crowd will still be harping about something though. Oh, and my personal pontification? Don’t hold your breath for the allegedly “coming soon” Amazon Prime app.

Don't you think you're being a little harsh?

While I have been generally happy with my Apple TV 4 it's been rather embarrassing trying to use the Photos app whenever the parents/friends/neighbors come over.  It never worked right on my Apple TV 2, it seems "ok" on the Apple TV 3 we have in the office but it not always.  Nothing worse than saying "Hey mom check out the pictures of the kids from over the holidays, oh wait it'll work, just wait... a... second....  damn it...."  Literally last night we wanted to look at some recent photos I put in to iCloud and couldn't without logging out of my Photos account and logging back in.  It shouldn't take 6 months to fix that.

While I don't use a bluetooth keyboard I think people that do (or at least did) have a right to complain when that feature was lost.  Just because you weren't using the old hardware to its fullest doesn't mean others weren't.

Am I glad I have the new hardware?  Yes, its a cool toy and better than the Apple TV 2 I replaced.  I and the ones you call blowhards just wish it would have worked a little better out of the box, especially since they had years to get it right.

razorpit said:

lkrupp said:

Looks like almost all of the features the malcontents were bloviating about have arrived. Personally I’m glad Apple released the ATV4 when it did. I have had the pleasure of using it while it has matured instead of being released another year from now or whenever the pontificating blowhards deemed it ready. I’m sure the never satisfied crowd will still be harping about something though. Oh, and my personal pontification? Don’t hold your breath for the allegedly “coming soon” Amazon Prime app.

Don't you think you're being a little harsh?

I and the ones you call blowhards just wish it would have worked a little better out of the box, especially since they had years to get it right.

Sadly we live in a world where being overly harsh is now the norm. Was he a bit harsh? Perhaps but then so are the malcontents. Everyone these days wants everything now.

I don't think Apple had years to get it right. I think they had something much different in the works for the cable companies to keep them relevant and came close to closing a deal but in the end, the deal fell apart. Do I have proof? No but since when does anyone these days have proof of any rumor? I think in the end Apple realized the deal was never going to be made and they had to go with an Plan B that was hurriedly put together. Am I happy with it? Yes. I bought one the first week. To me it was missing some functionality but those seem to be coming on board fairly quickly.

I dropped cable TV last spring and couldn't be happier. I have a few local stations and Apple TV 4 on my main TV (Apple 2 and 3 on the other two TVs). It still sucks that some apps are limited to Cable TV/satellite subscribers but I still get to watch the clown debates using the CNN and Fox apps and my sibling's Dish TV login.

Some time ago I posted a comparison of watching a movie on a Cable network station vs renting it on iTunes. The bottom line is what is your time worth? As a $4 rental, a movie like Gladiator is 2 hrs 50 minutes (extended cut).  Watching on a network like AMC, the move can run 4 hours. Is an an hour and ten minutes of my time worth more than $4? You bet it is. The amount of advertising in video has crept up over the years. 'Free' TV just isn't worth it to me anymore.

Wow, I really got off topic. ;-)

I agree Apple had a really revolutionary device and service but help back when deals weren't closed.

And YES I will complain because some of the features are FRUSTRATING. I'm always trying to convert people to Apple and showing off AppleTV has been fuc*ing EMBARASSING. I tell people how cool Siri is but on AppleTV, her and the UI are dumb as a rock. Searching Bob's Burgers brings up this cool interface with all seasons displayed with options to stream on Hulu and Netflix, searching "SpongeBob" on the other hand brings up the bottom menu tray with cluttered results that's tedious to navigate. Siri will only search some shows inside Hulu and ignore others for whatever reason, some shows with 2 words fused into one (PowerPuff Girls) confuse Siri and don't even try saying "Hulu". Siri will reply with "Who what?" This kills voice navigation for me which is otherwise FAST and smooth.

I just wish they'd replace this dumb AI with the real Siri.