Unauthoritative Pronouncements

Time 2021-08-30 13:20:18

Web Name: Unauthoritative Pronouncements

WebSite: http://joe-steel.com

ID:189577

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Unauthoritative,Pronouncements,

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a6400In 2019 I was shopping for a replacement for my Nikon D3200. We were going to go on a big trip, and my D3200 wasn鈥檛 what I wanted to bring. To say that the direction Nikon was heading in at the time was uninspiring would be putting it mildly. Anything I was going to buy would mean starting over again on all my lenses because the Nikon DX lenses were a dead end.I rented a Fujifilm X-T30 from Lens Rentals to take to Hawaii for a week. I was underwhelmed by how slow, and inaccurate it鈥檚 autofocus was, as well as how buggy their iOS app was. It s supposedly been improved through firmware updates since then, but I haven t tried it.This led me to the Sony a6400, partially on John Siracusa鈥檚 recommendation. The a6400 was new at the time, and boasted better features than the a6500, except it lacked in-body image stabilization (the a6600 would have stabilization but it was still several months away from coming out). The choice to bundle the camera body with the 18-135mm lens meant I would have all my bases covered for my trip. They鈥檙e a great combination, and I would say it鈥檚 also a good deal. While the X-T30 had poor autofocus performance, and a bad iOS app, the a6400 had great autofocus performance, and a bad iOS app. You can鈥檛 have it all.I wanted a small setup, which means APS-C mirrorless. Not just because the camera body is smaller, but because APS-C lenses are smaller since they don鈥檛 have to cover a larger sensor. I happen to like the rangefinder-style electronic viewfinder that Sony uses on their a6xxx line, but I know people like the bulkier pseudo-prism style viewfinders. I might have gone for the Sony a7C, if that had been around in 2019, but it has some compromises that I鈥檓 not entirely sure I would be happy with.I鈥檓 not going to get into the details of APS-C vs. full frame here. The only thing you really need to know is that if you鈥檙e familiar with full frame lenses, then multiply the APS-C focal length by 1.5 to get an idea of what kind of focal length you would use on a full frame camera for a similar image.It鈥檚 possible to have a bigger, better camera, but there are trade-offs for that. I鈥檓 a hobbyist photographer that takes hobbyist photos mainly when I鈥檓 traveling, so I鈥檇 rather optimize for portability, and expense over maximum resolution or bokeh.Minolta X-700I watched too many YouTube videos on film photography during the pandemic and mistakenly decided to see what the fuss was about. I settled on something relatively inexpensive for both the camera body, and lenses, and that was the Minolta X-700. I had also wanted to have something without autofocus to try to train myself, or be one with the camera, or some shit, but it鈥檚 unlikely you鈥檒l see me take this camera out of my camera bag first. If there鈥檚 a landscape, or just some street stuff, I鈥檒l take this out for some shots, but the a6400 is still my preferred tool.Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS25This is a piece of shit. My boyfriend and I bought this waterproof camera to use when we were going to snorkel with the manta rays off the coast of Hawaii. Since we were not spending a lot of money, the bar was low. The camera still managed to come in under that bar. That is not to say that it is impossible to take a good photo with the camera, but you鈥檙e unlikely to do so in an underwater environment, which is the only reason we bought this. It can take short video clips underwater and you may have more success using a smeary still from that than anything where you were trying to artfully push the shutter button. This gets thrown in the backpack only if we鈥檙e expecting to go snorkeling somewhere, like we did recently. Otherwise this is an omit.LensesSony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6This is a kit lens, but it鈥檚 my favorite all-purpose lens. It鈥檚 also a significantly different lens than the older 16-50mm bundled with the other Sony APS-C bodies for years. This lens is essential to pack in any configuration of camera gear, and I would never leave it behind for other primes, or my other zoom. You鈥檒l never get beautiful bokeh and shallow depth of field with this, but because of the a6400鈥檚 incredible low-light sensitivity you can still use this lens in a dark setting without having to hold steady for long exposures.There is significant barrel distortion at 18mm, which is the most disappointing part of the lens. When that distortion is corrected you lose some of the image. This makes me wish it was wider on the wide end, and maybe not as long. Another consequence of having a zoom that covers this range is that it鈥檚 not well-balanced with the a6400. If you let your camera hang from your neck on the strap, the lens will flop down like a flaccid鈥?banana.I very rarely use the lens at 135mm, with an almost exponential drop-off from 18mm to 135mm. The 135mm does come in handy though when something unexpected pops up while you鈥檙e shooting, like a bird, or other wildlife. It鈥檚 not as desirable as my longer zoom for wildlife, but life doesn鈥檛 usually wait around for you to change lenses.135mm f/5.6 iso 4,000 1/25041mm f/5 iso 640 1/30, 1/8 Black Pro-Mist filter83mm f/5.6 iso 250 1/80026mm f/5 iso 100 1/800135mm f/5.6 iso 6,400 1/100Rokinon (Samyang) 12mm F2.0 ED AS IF NCSI love this little lens for how wide it is, and how inexpensive it is. It鈥檚 also relatively easy to manually focus. The downsides are from the lack of electronic connections to the camera. There are no automatic lens corrections, to take care of vignetting or distortion, and there鈥檚 no recorded metadata for the aperture. It would be helpful when I鈥檓 reviewing photos later to have that information, but it鈥檚 not a dealbreaker. It costs nothing to shoot a lower aperture shot, and then quickly stop up and take the same shot again, just in case your focus was slightly off. There鈥檚 nothing wrong with having everything in focus in a landscape shot, and this is terrific for landscapes. Unlike the 18-135mm, this thing is itty-bitty.12mm maybe f/8 iso 100 1/4,00012mm maybe f/11 iso 320 1/16012mm maybe f/11 iso 1,000 1/640Sony E 70-350mm F4.5-6.3 G OSSThis is an outstanding lens for its size. Because it鈥檚 for APS-C it鈥檚 smaller than a zoom lens that covered a comparable focal range on a full frame camera. Having said that 鈥?it鈥檚 still enormous. It鈥檚 not a walking-around lens. You put this lens on when you鈥檙e taking photos of something specific, like some birds, or the moon, and then you swap back to something else.Another benefit of a APS-C sensor on a long lens, is that it鈥檚 actually even longer than you think it is. 350mm is equivalent to what you would get with a 525mm lens on a full frame camera.The best use of this camera during the day time is when you see birds around. Switch to this lens and you鈥檒l get sharp, crisp shots of birds, thanks to the autofocus performance of the lens and camera combination. No one wants to see an out-of-focus bird eyeball. It鈥檚 so sad.350mm f/6.3 iso 100 1/1,000Minolta 28mm F2.8 MDThis was not the first lens I paired with the Minolta X-700, but after I tried the 50mm F1.7, I realized that I really prefer to shoot wider, even though this is slower than the 50mm. Adapted for my a6400, this is approximately a 42mm lens, which is tighter than what I would prefer to shoot in most scenarios, but good for certain kinds of closeups. The trade-off of swapping this, and the adapter, and all that means it just stays on my X-700. Another consequence of film photography is that I don鈥檛 have any developed photos from this lens yet.Minolta 50mm F1.7 MDThis was the first lens with the X-700 and it鈥檚 fallen out of favor. If I鈥檓 paring down lenses for a trip I will leave this one home. There鈥檚 nothing really wrong with it 鈥?from the perspective of a 30+ year-old consumer-grade photography lens 鈥?but I just always wish that I was able to shoot just a little bit wider.50mm maybe f/2.8 Kodak Gold 20050mm maybe f/5.6 Kodak Ektachrome 100Sony E 35mm F1.8 OSSWhen I got the a6400 with the 18-135mm, I also bought a Sony 35mm F1.8 prime to replace my Nikon 35mm F1.8 AF-S DX Nikkor. The Sony APS-C prime is one of Sony鈥檚 older lens designs, and I wouldn鈥檛 recommend it to anyone for its optical performance. This is lightweight, but the lens coatings are awful. If you鈥檙e shooting at night you鈥檒l get ghosting, and flaring all over the place. I鈥檓 shopping for a replacement for this and I haven鈥檛 found anything satisfactory yet.I was hoping to replace the 35mm with a Rokinon 24mm F2.8 AF lens, especially since I liked the Rokinon 12mm so much. Sadly, that lens has terrible autofocus performance, and the sound of the autofocus motor working is very distracting.35mm f/2.5 iso 100 1/30The BagsUnknown Lowepro Shoulder BagIt is 鈥?It is blue? I don鈥檛 know. It doesn鈥檛 have a model number on it, and Lowepro no longer makes exactly this one, but they do make 4,000 other nearly-identical, ugly bags.I started my photography hobby with a Nikon D60, then a Nikon D3200. I use none of the stuff from that time period except for this unremarkable shoulder bag with two movable compartments inside. If I leave the 18-135mm attached to my camera, and drop that in the middle, I can put the 70-350mm in one side, and either the 35mm or 12mm lenses in the opposite side, sort of next to the camera, and underneath it鈥檚 grip. I wouldn鈥檛 want to throw the bag, or drop it on to anything other than a feather pillow, but the padding helps make sure the lenses aren鈥檛 hitting each other or bumping into anything while I鈥檓 walking, and being able to carry 3 lenses in a shoulder bag the size of my old school lunch box means that this provides me with a lot of flexibility in a small volume.There鈥檚 also a zippered compartment for lens wipes, filters, adapters, and chargers which is sufficient for any essential accessories to come along with you.I believe that no matter what other camera bags a person has, they need to have something minimal like this in order to hold all their stuff. Even when I鈥檓 bringing my camera backpack, I鈥檒l likely pack this empty shoulder bag in my checked luggage so I can reconfigure for any quick trips during a vacation.Lowepro Truckee BP 250 Camera BackpackWhen I bought the a6400 in 2019, I was also looking to replace the backpack I had with something that wasn鈥檛 as bulky, or as 鈥渢echnical鈥?looking as my existing one. The old one had real nerdy-prepper vibes. Unfortunately, I didn鈥檛 like any of the backpacks that looked like hipster schoolbags, because those need a separate foam, cube inside to store the gear. That cube makes the backpack bulky, and the foam cube would always be burried underneath everything else making getting the camera, or swapping lenses, disruptive.A lot of the camera-gear backpacks were also very focused exclusively on the camera gear, and not so much on the backpack part. The only one I could find online that seemed to have the appropriate amount of bulk, access, and non-camera space was a backpack Lowepro makes exclusively for Best Buy. That this was a Best Buy exclusive was a huge red flag, but it also meant I could go into a Best Buy and actually check the thing out. I鈥檓 glad I did because it suits my needs perfectly.As for the styling: It鈥檚 mostly dark gray with some black bits, and a crappy, orange Lowepro logo embroidered on it. It does have a few more buckles and straps than I would like, but I consider it aesthetically acceptable.Everyone鈥檚 needs vary, but this has a compartment where I can fit my a6400, all of my lenses, and a top part where I can fit cables, chargers, a scrunched-up hat, and a laptop or iPad. I can also put my film camera (which I am far less precious about) in the top compartment, or take fewer lenses with me and put it in the purpose-made camera compartment. There鈥檚 a sliver of a zipper pouch on top that is lined with a soft material. I assume that鈥檚 intended for filters but I would never do that because there鈥檚 no padding there, just fabric lining. That means I leave the filters in their plastic cases, and put them in the top/main compartment instead of that skinny zippered pouch. I use that to store my Mophie battery pack.The sides of the bag have two mesh bottle holders, which are great for hikes, or being a tourist in Europe. The camera compartment zipper has a little plastic bar that fits through a loop on the other zipper to prevent any unintentional unzips.Of course, because I didn鈥檛 want a bulky backpack, it isn鈥檛 heavily armored. This isn鈥檛 something I鈥檝e ever wanted to drop, but when I fell about 8 feet on a hiking trail at Yosemite and skidded down the icy trail all of my stuff was very protected. I鈥檓 scarred forever, but the replaceable items in my bag are unblemished.I heartily endorse the backpack, despite it鈥檚 Best Buy exclusivity, if anyone is in the market for a not-too-big, little-bit-of-everything backpack.AccessoriesSony BC-TRW W Series Battery ChargerManufacturers just don鈥檛 ship chargers with their cameras any longer. I don鈥檛 want to leave my camera, with it鈥檚 way-too-small cable, lightly tethered to a poorly positioned wall outlet in a hotel. I don鈥檛 even want to do it in my own home. The wall charger is absolutely required.Zeiss Lens WipesYou can buy a big box of these on Amazon. Each wipe is individually wrapped like a wet wipe. I always keep a few packs in my shoulder bag and in my backpack. They鈥檙e useful for everything from your lenses and filters, to the display on your camera, or iPhone 鈥?and your sunglasses too. It鈥檚 not a camera cleaning kit (which I also have) but this is good for when you鈥檙e out and about.Peak Design SL-BK-3 Slide Camera StrapI use this camera strap on my Minolta since it came without one (and who would want a used camera strap? Yuck!) Peak Design has this whole system of little circle tabs that attach to cameras and allow you to quickly swap the camera attached to the strap. The plan was to put those tabs on the a6400 and be able to do that, but I鈥檓 honestly too lazy so I just have the ugly Sony Alpha camera strap that came with the camera on it still.Tiffen 55BPM18 55mm Black Pro-Mist 1/8 FilterI originally bought the 1/4 filter, but that鈥檚 a little too much Black Pro-Mist for my taste. The effect that the filter provides is a soft diffusion. At 1/8 it鈥檚 not too Barbara-Walters. It鈥檚 just going to break up some of the crispness. I like to use this in high contrast situations like night time street photography. Particularly if there are neon lights. It鈥檒l just give everything a little atmosphere.Hoya 55mm Circular PolarizerThis is great for controlling the sky, and reflections. It does cut down on the light, and can be a little too fiddly to use for every shot, so I don鈥檛 always have it on.Tiffen 49-55mm Step Up RingThe 35mm Sony lens has a 49mm filter thread, as does the Minolta 28mm MD lens. This lets me adapt all my lens filters for those smaller lenses.Tiffen 55mm 4 Point Star FilterThis is a cheeseball filter, and I have never used it to photograph anything in the real world, but some day I鈥檒l need this and I鈥檒l have it with me. I don鈥檛 know when that day will be, but at least this is pretty lightweight.Assorted FilmI don鈥檛 have a particular film stock I shoot with, so I just rotate through whatever I have with me. It could be Kodak Portra 400, Kodak ColorPlus 200, Kodak Gold 200, Kodak Ultramax 400, or Lomography Color Negative 400. I used up my only roll of Kodak Ektachrome 100 and it taught me a valuable lesson about how much of a pain in the ass slide film is.Lightning SD Card AdapterI don鈥檛 like this little thing, but I use it on every trip. It鈥檚 better than trying to use Sony鈥檚 Imaging Edge Mobile app to try and import photos. Unfortunately, the best use case is to also have my iPad with me, because then I can upload the files directly to Adobe Lightroom. Lightroom for iOS doesn鈥檛 let you do that, so you have to take up space on your Camera Roll with unedited RAW photos 鈥?which is not something I like, because when you export from Lightroom to your camera roll you have several nearly identical pictures.Mophie Powerstation (10,000mAh)This is an older model that鈥檚 no longer for sale, but it works fine. USB-C or USB-A. I carry the required USB-A to Lightning cable for my phone and a USB-A to Micro USB for the Sony a6400. Even though it was 2019 when I bought that brand-new camera, Sony didn鈥檛 believe in USB-C. This is a charger of last resort, but it does make me feel more prepared.Neweer MD-NEX AdapterThis is a piece of metal that adapts the Minolta MD lenses to the Sony E-Mount. I haven鈥檛 found a lot of scenarios in the wild where I want to shoot with the adapted lenses, but it鈥檚 just a little piece of metal so it鈥檚 fine to leave in the backpack. This never goes with me in the shoulder bag.Energizer 357BPZ BatteriesAt some unknowable point in the future the battery on the film camera will die, so I have these.TripodsJOBY GorillaPod SLR ZoomI like this lil鈥?scamp. It can鈥檛 take the weight of my 70-350mm without eventually drooping, but it鈥檚 the best tripod for when you don鈥檛 want to take a tripod with you. I usually leave it with my luggage, or in the car, unless I know I鈥檓 going to be shooting something at night where I need the camera to be steady. I don鈥檛 shoot video so this isn鈥檛 needed for anything else.Quantaray Titan II QT II-550This was a hand-me-down from my stepfather. He鈥檚 responsible for getting me into photography. Whenever he found a lighter-weight piece of camera gear I would get the heavier one he had before. There鈥檚 nothing wrong with the Titan II, and it鈥檚 really not all that heavy, but I only take it with me if there鈥檚 going to be road trip and there might be some night photography. I really have to have a plan for when I will use this instead of having it for just-in-case. It鈥檚 really useful for when I鈥檓 taking photos of the moon with the 70-350mm.What I WantThe Sony 35mm F1.8 has to go, and I need to replace it with something fast, wide-to-normal, small, and with quiet autofocus. That鈥檚 not because I need to sneak up on people, but because I personally don鈥檛 like listening to an autofocus motor making wheezing cricket sounds, and I want to be able to have a lens that鈥檚 more compact than my 18-135mm. The Sigma 16mm F1.4 was briefly considered, and rejected, because it鈥檚 not all that small or quiet. Rokinon (Samyang) makes a 24mm F1.8 AF lens that鈥檚 supposed to be their new, 鈥済ood鈥?version of autofocus, but I鈥檓 a little hesitant after the 24mm F2.8 AF lens.I鈥檝e also been musing about the new Tamron 11-20mm F2.8 Di III-A RXD as an additional lens, or to replace the Rokinon (Samyang) 12mm F2 and Sony 35mm F1.8. It鈥檚 not as fast as either of the other lenses, but it would still have advantages over carrying the pair of those. The Sony E 16-55mm F2.8 G also interests me, but it鈥檚 prohibitively expensive, and not as wide as I would like it to be. Sure, either of these lenses would leave me with a set of zooms, but maybe what would really make me happy is a set of zooms?Suggestions and recommendations are welcome if you have any first-hand experience with what you鈥檙e recommending to me, and it鈥檚 not just some theoretical preference based on your first-principles reckonings.2021-08-11 15:00:00Category: textOnce More, With FeelingFive and a half years have elapsed between setting up the fourth generation Apple TV (now referred to as the Apple TV HD) and the sixth generation Apple TV (referred to as the Apple TV 4K, even though that was the name of the fifth generation). A lot has happened to the tvOS platform to shore up software shortcomings, and the fifth generation Apple TV 4K addressed UHD and HDR output (with some necessary software tweaks afterward for SDR playback). The biggest issue that鈥檚 impaired the last two generations of hardware was the television remote control designed by people from another planet that never used a television remote control, or had the devices explained to them. That鈥檚 mostly been addressed.The following critique may seem harsh, but it鈥檚 honest, and it鈥檚 framed in the context of the Apple TV鈥檚 history, and the price relative to competition. There are also things I simply can鈥檛 test, like HomePod integration, Thread, Fitness+, Apple Arcade, Dolby Atmos, or other features that require hardware, or services, I鈥檓 not in possession of or subscribed to. This is a review for people that want to watch TV on their Apple TV.Buying an Apple TVIf you buy online, through the Apple Store app, the app will suggest buying a $29.99 Belkin HDMI cable. The Apple Store employee that helped me pick up my online order also asked if I needed to buy a HDMI cable. I told him it wasn鈥檛 necessary because I have this situation under control, but it was nice of him to think about it, just like it was nice of the app to recommend a cable. It was less nice that Apple continues to overlook the importance of bundling a compatible HDMI cable with their product.It is very likely that someone would eschew buying a $30 cable because they have an HDMI cable, but that鈥檚 no guarantee that HDMI cable they have is one that they should use to connect their Apple TV 4K to their 4K UHD HDR TV. At $149 for the Apple TV HD that鈥檚 been sold since 2015, or $179 for the entry-level Apple TV 4K, it really is something they should consider including in the box. This is not omitted to reduce e-waste, because Apple still includes a lighting to USB-A cable in the Apple TV box. Quite frankly, that is the cable that should be omitted if anyone cared about unnecessary waste.The Apple Store employee that was handling my online order pick-up also told me about how he had just bought a new Apple TV 4K and said that they鈥檙e great with his pair of HomePods. He asked me if I had any HomePods. 鈥淣o,鈥?I said. 鈥淲eren鈥檛 those just discontinued?鈥?He said I should still buy a pair of them, the 鈥渇ull size鈥?ones. Despite his endorsement I didn鈥檛 really want to spend over $600 on discontinued speakers.Set UpI was able to easily replace my existing Apple TV with the new one in the living room. Unfortunately, when it boots up for the first time, it doesn鈥檛 turn on the TV with HDMI CEC, the protocol for controlling connected devices over HDMI. You just get the white LED light. I turned on the TV, changed inputs, and I was greeted to the usual Apple TV welcome message in a variety of languages. Unfortunately it started the message in languages I was unfamilar with so I just intuited that it was probably safe to hit the center navigation button with a solid click. In English, it asked about the usual language and region options. It asked if I wanted to use 950 MB of local storage for pretty screensavers, and I said, 鈥淵es, what else would I use this nearly empty device for?鈥?The Apple TV didn鈥檛 reply.It asked if I wanted to use an iPhone to set up my Apple TV, or set it up manually as a new device. I wasn鈥檛 born yesterday, so I used my iPhone to shortcut the setup process. Privacy settings were copied, with the chance to amend them, and there was an option to keep all my Apple TV home screens in sync - a welcome option now that I was going to have to two devices in my home.During the setup process, I was asked if I wanted to download the default app for the service provider that I had in my Single Sign-On options from my previous Apple TV. Strangely, the Apple TV didn鈥檛 know that I already had that app installed, and that this was a redundant question. I鈥檓 curious how that made it out of quality assurance testing.I was also asked if I wanted to use my password after each purchase, after every 15 minutes from a purchase, or never. There was no option to carry over my existing setting.The Home screen appeared, but unfortunately it looked like the default Apple TV Home screen and my heart sank. A moment later it blinked out, and looked like Home screen of my existing Apple TV, but with any third party icons grayed-out. They started downloading and finished not long after.This was a little deceptive. I had all these apps, and they were arranged as they were on my prior Apple TV, but these apps were all completely blank slates. It was as if I had downloaded each one of them for the very first time. The email addresses I had used for logins on my previous Apple TV weren鈥檛 copied over either, so every login prompt expected me to use the email address associated with my Apple ID, which is not helpful, because the same email wasn鈥檛 used across all of these services. Also, this means any future logins, logouts, or password changes aren鈥檛 synchronized and need to be performed separately, manually, on each device.Not every company uses the same login mechanisms still, and not all of them are from in app purchase subscriptions so you can鈥檛 rely on 鈥渞estore purchases鈥?Just as a brief aside, it is archaic that customers are presented with a screen where they can 鈥渞estore purchases鈥? Shouldn鈥檛 Apple鈥檚 software, in the year 2021, check to see if I have purchased a subscription to something without me having to push a button, and ask the software to check if I鈥檓 qualified for things I pay for? Don鈥檛 you know? Aren鈥檛 you God?Isn鈥檛 the whole purpose of the exorbitant cut of money that Apple takes from companies, and from customers, to facilitate all these niceties without having to resort to a, 鈥淗ey, maybe this is actually paid for鈥?button?There鈥檚 also slightly less of a chance that your login information is stored with the Apple Store, because companies like Netflix left the Apple Store subscription system because of the cut Apple takes, and services like Amazon were never in it. Seems like there are some negative side effects of the Apple App Store, and that the Apple鈥檚 subscription cut can actually make it more of a pain in the ass for everyone than it needs to be.Amazon does have a handy QR code that opens the Amazon Prime Video app on your iPhone and does a little handshake to authorize.The YouTube mobile device authorization didn鈥檛 work, despite my devices being on the same wifi network. They don鈥檛 charge anything for that login so it鈥檚 a shame that I can鈥檛 鈥渞estore鈥?a non-purchase.One app is something my boyfriend pays for and he had to log into that service while I was washing some dishes. He used the new Siri Remote to do it and the verdict was, 鈥淭his is terrible.鈥?Even though we brought back the idea of four, clickable directions on the remote, the Apple TV on-screen keyboard is still an alphabetical string of characters in a single row. Just to ensure any text entry can be as needlessly painful as it can possibly be. They really should go back to the grid of letters to shorten traversing the entire alphabet.(Update: There is an option to override the linear on-screen keyboard and force the Apple TV to present the grid keyboard that it shows for non-Siri-Remotes. That override is not in the 鈥淩emotes and Devices鈥?settings, it鈥檚 under 鈥淕eneral鈥?- 鈥淜eyboard鈥? That鈥檚 not where that setting should be, features of the remote should be with the remote settings, and the default of linear is incorrect for this particular remote, and arguably the original Siri Remote. Credit to Twitter user @ApplWatcher for pointing out where this setting was.)The iPhone showing a keyboard prompt is worlds better than it was in 2015, but there are still situations where you weigh putting down the Siri Remote and picking up the iPhone and whether or not that remote juggling is worth it. Of course, this would be even less necessary if people weren鈥檛 ever typing in email addresses and alphanumeric passwords.There is still this logical disconnect in this process where I have authorized the Apple TV to log into my Apple ID, and access my iCloud data, including data from my existing devices, and iCloud KeyChain, but it can鈥檛 set up an Apple TV with all my apps and services logged in. I know someone might insist that this is for security, but it absolutely isn鈥檛 because all this data exists, in iCloud, accessible to anyone who has my unlocked iPhone and Apple TV - which is what is required to just populate empty apps on the screen.My login state for these other services should really be stored in iCloud across all Apple devices I own, or with a token authorization system that uses the iPhone in my hand. At the very least, aggregate all of the services I need to log into in one spot for me to do it with Face ID, or Touch ID, opening up the saved password data for each of the entries I need to make.The most expensive streaming box you can buy, from a company that boasts about its connected ecosystem, and easy-to-use privacy features really does deserve this extra level of scrutiny. It鈥檚 not too harsh to ask why I have to do things on this $179 box that I have to do on a $30 or $40 stick.SettingsDuring setup, your privacy settings, and WiFi settings are helpfully copied over, but curiously none of your other settings are. Arguably, one of the most important settings, what the Home button does, isn鈥檛 copied over and defaults to TV the app which is highly disorienting while you鈥檙e jumping in and out of apps trying to reset passwords. I had the navigation settings turned off, but guess what鈥檚 defaulted back to being on? The video settings were all default.No video settings are copied over. None of the settings for what my display is capable of, the refresh rates, none of it. I went through the 鈥淐olor Balance鈥?process (it鈥檚 not calibration) two weeks ago and that all needed to be done over from scratch. Was it different? I don鈥檛 know! The beach looked like I remembered it looking last time, so that鈥檚 all we can really ask for.It鈥檚 nice to copy some settings, but it鈥檚 frustrating to not copy all settings. Particularly when most people would weigh the functional settings higher than the intangible privacy settings. It really should be all of them, especially for $179 plus tax.The RemoteThere was some uncertainty about the remote from Apple鈥檚 presentation a few weeks ago because the no one could put it in their hands. In the abstract, it seemed like the edges were still too sharp (they are), the wheel and touch-click balance might be odd, and that it made very little sense to relocate the Siri button from the 鈥渞emote鈥?side of the remote to the 鈥渆dge鈥?of the remote. It was clear that even if these were questionable decisions that the device would at least have improved major flaws like the touch surface running up to the edge, a symmetrical design that made it seem like the touch surface could be either end of the 鈥渞emote鈥?side of the remote (thankfully it鈥檚 silver and black), and none of it is made out of glass any longer. The distinction of Apple selling the only glass-surfaced television remote for everyday use in a living room is really not something I鈥檓 going to miss.I can confidently say that, even with very little time using the device, it鈥檚 a solid improvement over what came before. It鈥檚 missing a few things like 鈥淢ea Culpa鈥?etched in the back, but It鈥檚 the remote that should have been released in 2015. How the other remote escaped from Apple鈥檚 campus, and ended up being manufactured for almost six years should really be the subject of a true crime podcast.The navigation controls now consist of a circular, touch-sensitive button, circumscribed by a touch sensitive ring that is also a clickable button in four directions. There are no middle-clicks, like upper-left. It鈥檚 either a click up or a click left.I鈥檒l refer to the ring as a wheel since the heavily advertised feature is being able to use it like a jog wheel (or jog dial, or shuttle dial) to move around the timeline during playback. It doesn鈥檛 really turn though, so you can think of it as a four-directional pad in all other contexts.I鈥檒l discuss the wheel functionality later, but I want to talk about the most important part of using that wheel to click on the Home screen, it will move the selection by single, solid tiles of movement. There is no parallax icon animation of the tiles going all wibbly-wobbly as you glide across, and then inevitably past, whatever you wanted. If you slide your thumb across the center circle, you鈥檒l see some tiny movement of the parallax tiles, but is no longer like a drunkenly playing a xylophone where the keys are made of tiny, pointless dioramas. It鈥檚 heartening to see this downplayed, because it was a situation where something made for an unique demo, but didn鈥檛 offer enough whimsy to offset its cost to usability.The wheel is still a little half-baked. Since it鈥檚 not a wheel, and those top, left, bottom, and right regions lack anything transitional, you can get some odd effects in certain interfaces. If you鈥檙e on the Home screen, with all your apps as little tiles, and spin your thumb around the wheel you鈥檒l see the selection spiral outwards from the center of where you started 鈥?but not in a circle. Depending on how quickly you鈥檙e moving across a particular region of that wheel it will go further, or not as far, in that spiral. It鈥檚 not something a person would purposefully do, but you will definitely accidentally do it.What about using it as a jog wheel? Well 鈥?it doesn鈥檛 work in all circumstances you will expect it to work in. You need to be in an app that supports the feature. YouTube, Hulu, and Disney+ don鈥檛 support it, for example. In some apps, the wheel moves the position on the timeline forward 鈥?and then backward, even though you鈥檝e completed 鈥渁 rotation鈥?around the wheel, because this isn鈥檛 really a wheel. It鈥檚 four directions mapped to a ring that doesn鈥檛 actually turn. It really breaks the rotation metaphor.It鈥檚 probably worth mentioning that Apple鈥檚 Music app doesn鈥檛 support any of these timeline gestures yet. I hope Apple can get in touch with Apple and entice Apple to support Apple in offering this.Annoyingly, you need to click in the center region of the interface, in a compatible app, to pause the playback, and then hold your thumb over the ring for a few seconds and then it will show an icon of the wheel that will turn as you 鈥渞otate鈥?around the wheel.The familiar swiping in the center-button region of the remote works as it did with the previous Siri Remotes. This is more comfortable here because the touch area is smaller, and most importantly, doesn鈥檛 extend to the edge of the device. Smaller movements are required, and the selection seems more certain. The ring also creates an area for firm, and decisive, clicking. People can say whatever they want to about clicking buttons of a directional pad being antiquated, but you sure won鈥檛 go past what you want to select.The volume buttons, and home button, do what they need to do, and work like they did with the previous remote. They do seem more 鈥渃licky鈥?than my old Siri Remote, but maybe that鈥檚 because it鈥檚 old. Relabeling the 鈥淢enu鈥?button to 鈥?lt;鈥?is a good choice because that鈥檚 mostly what it does. It goes back. There are a few instances where apps do have menus, like TV the app which has a menu row across the top, and hitting 鈥?lt;鈥?won鈥檛 go 鈥渂ack鈥?it will go 鈥渦p鈥?to that menu row. There鈥檚 nothing perfect to map this to so I鈥檒l still call this an improvement.MuteThe mute button is a welcome addition. It does what you expect. The reason it was added, according to Apple鈥檚 Tim Twerdahl in an interview with Patrick O鈥橰ourke for Mobilesyrup:For example, in Canada, Telus uses Apple TV as a set-top box. Now, here in the U.S., Charter Spectrum does, and as you get more live linear programming, it requires different things from the remote. I think the addition of mute, for example, is really interesting because when you are watching on-demand video, 鈥榩ause鈥?and 鈥榤ute鈥?are sort of the same thing, but once you鈥檝e got ad-supported content 鈥?once you have sports and things that maybe you don鈥檛 want the sound on, but you want to keep playing 鈥?mute becomes so much more powerful.What 鈥?the hell. The assumption that all content is on-demand content is bizarre, and telling. People were streaming live, or linear, content even with the third generation Apple TV. Using the device as a set top box for a telecommunications company was also part of the history of the fourth generation Apple TV.PowerThe power button wasn鈥檛 really necessary, because you could hold down on the Home button on the previous Siri Remote, and this one, and it will ask you if you want to put the device to sleep, and turn off the connected TV. The power button, curiously, wants you to hold down on it too. The button requires a firm press to begin with so holding it down seems like overkill in terms of safeguarding against accidental power-offs.An unfortunate exception exists if you have a television that doesn鈥檛 support HDMI-CEC, and thus cannot be turned on and off by by putting the device to sleep the old way. For those people, the power button is a welcome addition.Siri ButtonThe Siri button still bothers me on a philosophical level, but in practice, it鈥檚 usable. When I use the Siri button now I tend to turn the remote so the Siri-button side is facing toward me, instead of the main 鈥渞emote鈥?side of the remote. As if it was a handheld voice recorder. The microphone is at the top of the 鈥渞emote鈥?side of the remote, but the slight rotation doesn鈥檛 interfere with it working. I assume that I鈥檓 more prone to turning the button toward me because I鈥檓 pressing 鈥渄own鈥?and not pressing 鈥渟ideways鈥?鈥?if that makes any sense.That gets back to the philosophical issue: A TV remote should have all TV controls on the front of the remote, and all controls should be identifiable by touch without inadvertently triggering a control. The touch controls of the remote can still be triggered as you run your thumb across them, but you are less likely to do anything seriously disruptive in the current configuration. The side of the device is simply the wrong place for any button.Apple stated that the reason for it being on the side is to mirror the location of the Siri button on the iPhone. There are several problems with that reasoning. People don鈥檛 hold their phones like they hold their remote controls. Anecdotally, myself and others tend to use 鈥淗ey Siri鈥?(if we use it at all) over actually pushing the physical button, because it鈥檚 awkward. There鈥檚 nothing always-on listening for 鈥淗ey Siri鈥?so you can鈥檛 use that. Also, if we were to extend the 鈥渂ecause of the iPhone鈥檚 button placement鈥?logic then the volume buttons would be relocated to the left side of the remote, and the mute button would be a switch on the left side. So the reason is bologna.Someone must have not wanted to put an asymmetrical cluster of the large, black buttons on the front, and not wanted to promote the power button to a large button to have an even number. Form, and design philosophy, get to suffer a little bit because of that. It certainly doesn鈥檛 make engineering and manufacturing the device any easier to put exactly one button on the milled, aluminum side.I hesitate to suggest that Apple follow in the footsteps of Amazon with the Fire TV Cube, where there鈥檚 an always-on microphone array on the box itself, because Siri is very error prone when it comes to accidental triggers. It is nice to just shout out commands and have them happen, instead of grabbing for the remote, pushing, and waiting, but I鈥檒l be able to manage just fine by holding it like I鈥檓 dictating a voice memo.Find MyIn the same launch event as the new Apple TV 4K with new Siri Remote, Apple launched the long-talked-about AirTags. However, in a bizarre twist of fate, this Siri Remote, which was probably in development within that same time frame, doesn鈥檛 include a U1 chip, or even a little speaker to chirp like AirTag.A common complaint of the previous Siri Remote, and nearly all other TV remotes, is that they frequently get lost. Not like lost in an airport, or the back of a taxi cab, but lost somewhere in a living room, or potentially the other rooms of the home.When asked about why the Siri Remote wasn鈥檛 designed for Find My, Twerdahl said, 鈥淲ith the changes we鈥檝e made to the Siri Remote 鈥?including making it a bit thicker so it won鈥檛 fall in your couch cushions as much 鈥?that need to have all these other network devices find it seems a little bit lower.鈥?/p>While the new Siri Remote is thicker, I can assure anyone that鈥檚 wondering that it鈥檚 still couch-cushionable.High Frame Rate VideoHFR is not really something most people like, or appreciate. It feels alien, and unsettling, to people used to 24 and 30 frames per second. There really is a dearth of material you would want to watch in HFR. Only a handful of filmmakers, or even lowly YouTubers, put out material with high frame rates because it鈥檚 also more work, and more expensive for a thing people still think looks unsettling. HFR鈥檚 most common application is live sports. That may potentially push the technology into other places if it is used often enough in sports to be deemed beneficial, but no one should really buy this box in 2021 for it alone.StorageThere are still two tiers of storage, as there has been since 2015. 32 GB or 64 GB. The tiers haven鈥檛 changed in capacity. The tiers are still mostly meaningless. The storage on the device is entirely managed by the software. There are no movies that you download onto the device. The only thing that it does download is 950 MB of screensavers every week. Apps take up barely anything because most of them are for streaming. The only apps with substantial assets are games, and those are sliced and diced into little bundles that download in the background.It is a testament to Apple that they manage the device鈥檚 storage so well that the user doesn鈥檛 know, but it also makes it difficult to explain what possible benefit someone would get from a 64 GB model.From Apple鈥檚 Store page for the Apple TV 4k, emphasis mine:If you plan to use your Apple TV 4K primarily to stream movies, TV shows, and music or to play a few apps and games, you鈥檒l probably be fine with 32GB of storage. If you download and use lots of apps and games, choose the 64GB configuration. When making your decision, keep in mind that some apps require additional storage when in use.I don鈥檛 particularly appreciate Apple attempting to inject uncertainty with 鈥測ou鈥檒l probably be fine鈥?and again, I feel like it throws their own software engineers under the bus for their efforts in managing the on-device storage. That鈥檚 a sales tactic to push people to spend more. Don鈥檛 you, the customer, want to download and use lots of apps and games? Oh gee, better spring for 64 GB. It鈥檚 only $20 more.By my judgment, the only storage configuration that should currently be for sale is 32 GB. Apple may make some case to justify the 64 GB tiers at a later point in time, but it鈥檚 been five and a half years of 64 GB models that don鈥檛 do anything substantially different from the 32 GB models. It could buffer content for the household, including music titles, which would make it more valuable in areas with low bandwidth during the day. Maybe an offline mode if you鈥檙e going to take this Apple TV to a cabin and want to download some movies or shows? It could download and host your Apple system software updates on your local network instead of each device in your household needing to download the same thing from Apple. iCloud files could be cached there so each time you open the Files app on iOS it doesn鈥檛 act like you just woke it up for a melatonin-induced deep sleep. Just really do something with that unused space.GamingI would say that I鈥檓 baffled by Apple鈥檚 continued insistence that the Apple TV is a gaming platform, when everyone knows it is not one, but I know the cynical reason is that Apple can charge more if they say it can play games. Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels, she鈥檇 be a wagon. They can push people to spend more on the 64 GB version for lots of games. They can market Apple TV as a platform with Apple Arcade, which is clearly a priority for them. I鈥檓 not a gamer, I don鈥檛 own any compatible third-party controller, and I don鈥檛 subscribe to Apple Arcade. Yet, the platform is sold with a price tag that鈥檚 supposed to be justified, in part, by the gaming component.Is a game console without a game controller a game console at all? In the past, Apple said that the Siri Remote was a gaming controller, which was hilarious, and really not the case in any game I tried to use it in back in 2015. There was some back and forth at launch about whether or not the Apple TV鈥檚 App Store would sell games that required a game controller. A long, long while later, this policy was revised and gaming apps could have these requirements. The Siri Remote still shipped with an accelerometer and a gyroscope in it. The new Siri Remote doesn鈥檛. No one will mourn the absence more than me.A while ago, Apple added the ability to use PlayStation and Xbox controllers with the Apple TV, with the assumption that gamers have those other controllers lying around and it would lure in some unsuspecting gamer to try an Apple TV game and become hooked on that sweet, sweet Apple Arcade drug. I鈥檓 sure people have tried to use existing controllers with the Apple TV, because it exists as an option, but I would be truly surprised if this had any substantial effect on Apple Arcade adoption.Apple also recently announced that their stores would carry Sony PlayStation DualSense Wireless Controllers for $69.95. People are rushing out to Apple Stores to buy DualSense controllers instead of using ones they have lying around, I guess? I can only conclude that Apple鈥檚 designers went on strike when they were asked to design a controller, because why would this seemingly important accessory be absent for over five years?There really isn鈥檛 this middle space where there鈥檚 a controller-less gaming box with some iPhone titles that offers 鈥渃onsole quality graphics鈥?鈥?As Apple employees are fond of calling out in their presentations. Who is having that conversation?Arguably, Apple could charge even more for their product if they were willing to fully commit to offering a competitively featured gaming console, but maybe that return on investment isn鈥檛 worth it for them when they know they only want to collect transaction revenue by doing very little.That鈥檚 why even though I don鈥檛 play games on it, I resent being told I could or should be, or that I would find that the Apple TV us really a huge savings over a PS5, when what I really want it to be is a less costly streaming device.ValueThe other goofy thing Tim Twerdahl said to the press was when CNN asked him to explain why the device is so expensive relative to the competition.Apple TV has always lived in the upper echelons of pricing. We named the previous Apple TV 4K 鈥渢he upgrade pick鈥?after testing a plethora of streaming devices, as it was $80 more than our overall pick (Roku Ultra). Apple hasn鈥檛 done much to bring that price down, as it still starts at $179 for the 32GB model. 鈥淲e think there鈥檚 a tremendous amount of value in this $179. When we talk about the best way to watch TV, I sort of think about it at three levels,鈥?Twerdahl says.The three 鈥渓evels鈥?that Twerdahl mentions are:Quality, including viewing standards.Siri handling content requests.Apple鈥檚 ecosystem integration.The quality is non-negotiable, but that quality is attainable for less than $179 from competitors. Siri is imperfect at handling content requests, and its capacity in all other areas is pretty limited compared to other voice assistants. There is a factual error in the CNN interview (in addition to a lot of other mistakes) that the Fire TV platform doesn鈥檛 show results across services and that isn鈥檛 true, there鈥檚 a 鈥淢ore Ways to Watch鈥?button that spells out every way to watch something.In fact, hold down the Alexa button and say 鈥淪tar Trek鈥?I get a list popular Star Trek movie titles and TV series, and under it I get live TV, which shows that BBC America is currently playing an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. This is an example of the level of detail that鈥檚 available, not a suggestion that anyone watch Star Trek: The Next Generation on BBC America with commercial breaks. That鈥檚 absent from Siri鈥檚 search.Lastly, the integration with the Apple ecosystem is strong, but it still has those weaknesses where it isn鈥檛 all tied together. There have been many occasions where I鈥檝e started watching a video I rented from Apple on my iPhone, or Apple TV, and switched to the other device only to have the playhead position get lost, or reset to an earlier time when I had paused. That鈥檚 not even fancy device syncing, that鈥檚 just video playback that any other platform or vendor can do.Twerdahl also doesn鈥檛 address the ludicrous existence of the Apple TV HD model in Apple鈥檚 2021 line up. The Apple TV HD remains at the same $149 price as it has been since 2015. The remote is seemingly less expensive to manufacture than ever, so I have no idea what profit they鈥檙e turning on it. What is the value for customers when considering that box?A customer that is shopping for a streaming device for their HD-only TV shouldn鈥檛 buy a six year-old streaming box for over five times what it costs to buy a HD-only streaming stick from one of Apple鈥檚 competitors. Indeed, they aren鈥檛 buying it because Roku is still the reigning champ in the United States, with the Fire TV a close second. Then there鈥檚 an enormous gap between the top two spots, and everything else, with Chromecast and Apple TV dangling behind.To continue to sell the $149 HD model from six years ago because it enables you to up-sell people on the $179 32 GB model is marketing fever dream. To then use the price gap between the $179 32 GB model and the $199 64 GB model to drive people to 鈥渏ust鈥?spend $20 more to double the largely unused storage, is still just as bizarre as it ever was.I do hold Apple to a higher standard because they charge so much for their Apple TV products, and they insist it鈥檚 because of the value they provide relative to the lower-priced competition. There鈥檚 very little room for poor sign-in experiences, and settings not copying over, because then it鈥檚 more like those competing platforms and less of a premium product.The competition has also changed a lot from 2015, including the price-points where you can get voice search, and other features being dropped allowing Roku and Fire TV to dominate the market. Even the Smart TV software these days can ship with Roku or Fire TV. Getting the Apple TV+ app, AirPlay 2, and HomeKit on all these other devices and panels boosts the availability of Apple TV+ but does very little for promoting the Apple TV experience. Even Fitness+ can be used on TVs with AirPlay 2. It might as well be QuickTime for Windows and convincing them QuickTime on the Mac is better. How do you get people to spend money they don鈥檛 need to spend by telling them that the interface is 鈥渘icer鈥?or more 鈥渇luid鈥? You can鈥檛 convince them with Siri. You can鈥檛 say it鈥檚 because they can play iPhone games on their TV with a PlayStation controller. You can鈥檛 currently tout anything about Apple鈥檚 connected HomeKit experience through the Apple TV over cheaper and easier solutions from Amazon and Google (maybe that will change, but this about what鈥檚 currently on offer).Longevity As ValueThe real case to make for value is that anyone with an existing 2015 Apple TV will undoubtedly find somewhere else to put it in their home, or someone to gift it to. It has received all the non-hardware-required feature updates that the other models have, so there鈥檚 no planned obsolescence. In fact, I moved mine up to my office and connected it to a different TV (it thought it was connected to the other TV and I had to reset the color balance, etc.) Apple may not provide value for purchasing new models, but this thing is going to live longer as a relevant component of my home than a few of the laptops I鈥檝e owned.The financial hurdle to buying an Apple TV for every TV in your household is still there, but being able to budget buying one every 3-6 years, and doing a hand-me-down with the previous one, will eventually make it more likely that you live in a multi-Apple TV household.I can鈥檛 quite stomach spending the $59 to replace the bad Siri Remote yet, but that it鈥檚 an option is another example of the longevity of the product.That longevity isn鈥檛 really there for anyone buying the Apple TV HD as a new product today so it doesn鈥檛 represent the same value as it does for people who bought it in 2015. The longevity is there for the Apple TV 4K, and it will likely keep working just fine for six years when it gets retired to a less-important TV.I know that from an Apple marketing perspective they want to tell you that the value is already there, in the product you鈥檙e paying for, but it isn鈥檛. It will be, if you buy the latest model and hold onto it as something you amortize over half a decade.Better, But 鈥?/a>The new Apple TV 4K, with updated Siri Remote, and the current state of tvOS, is still such an improvement over where things were with the Apple TV of 2015. There isn鈥檛 a scenario where I would wish to be put in charge of Apple (for a variety of reasons), and then send this back to development rather than release it right now.It is important to stress that this is still an imperfect product, with several issues around general usability plaguing it for over half a decade. Adoption of the product has also been hamstrung by the pricing, and will be for the foreseeable future. Apple could cut prices at any time they wanted to, but this product seems specifically engineered to hit these targets, which means it鈥檒l be years before anyone at Apple reconsiders their stance, and even then, an executive might say they still offer tremendous value.2021-05-24 12:30:00Category: textTV Plus What?By the time I have a moment to write things about Apple TV+ these days someone else has already written it up, or talked about it, and I ve seen no real need to jump in on the blog. There is one area that I feel like I need to say something about, and that鈥檚 the question of how much Apple TV+ will cost. I鈥檝e posted before about how Apple鈥檚 service lacks content, so they can鈥檛 charge what competitors charge, but at the same time Apple isn鈥檛 running a charity for TV production, so money will exchange hands somewhere. They鈥檙e also making TV content, which means people need to watch it. TV content is unlike other services Apple provides, like Apple Music, where the content still exists elsewhere through other venues. It鈥檚 also unlike Apple鈥檚 other services like storage, where the goal is to charge people for space they mostly don鈥檛 use.People have speculated about TV+ being free with the sale of certain hardware 鈥?like with the purchase of an iPhone 鈥?but while the iPhone sales have been flagging that seems like a terrible way to boost those sales. Back before this year鈥檚 CES announcements of Apple content being available on third party TVs (which eventually turned into Apple TV the app being available on third party TVs) there was even speculation that Apple would boost Apple TV hardware sales by making streaming content exclusive to Apple. That seemed like a tremendous way to lose money by making TV content.People have also imagined Apple TV+ will be included with a bundle of Apple services. That鈥檚 something that鈥檚 a lot more likely, since it鈥檚 more akin to what Amazon Prime does where most people sign up for Amazon Prime for reasons other than the video content, and the video content turns out to be a nice-to-have, but unessential component for most customers. That鈥檚 not exactly the situation Apple finds itself in though, because I still have relatives that don鈥檛 want to pay Apple for iCloud backups, so that limits possible viewership.Prior to Disney鈥檚 price tag for Disney+ being announced, people even thought that Apple would charge $9.99/mo because Apple charges that for Music. That didn鈥檛 seem like it would be possible even then because HBO and Netflix 鈥?hell, even CBS All Access 鈥? are all far better deals. Apple lacks any established IP to hook anyone in. Even a free trial would be a risky proposal because people would run out of material to watch on the service before a one month trial was even up.So how does Apple make a profit on this? They could just do any of those things I said above, or a combination of those things above, because they can set money on fire for years and hope their service, and shows catch on, but that seems wrong.Let鈥檚 examine TV the app. It was recently refreshed with a strong emphasis on content you don鈥檛 own, and don鈥檛 subscribe to being featured prominently so that you will buy content, or subscribe to services. It鈥檚 really one of the things I like least about the refresh. The addition of Apple Channels is a good thing (don鈥檛 sue me, Martha) for consumers because it prevents them from having to use the bad apps that many content providers make to house their exclusive, branded experiences in. It鈥檚 also good for Apple because Apple takes a cut off of the subscription, while also being able to fill TV the app with material. The 脿 la carte sale of shows and movies lets people have access to things they wouldn鈥檛 consider paying a monthly fee for.I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 an accident that Apple configured TV the app this way. The one kind of bundling that hasn鈥檛 been discussed by Apple tech journalists is content bundling. Either:Sell Apple TV+ with a partner Channel, or a set selection of partner Channels. This pays for TV+ with the revenue of the bundled subscription fees. It鈥檚 also a way to redirect what consumers are already spending on subscription services. If they subscribe to HBO, CBS, etc. elsewhere, then they鈥檒l unsubscribe and resubscribe through Apple which just reflows where the fees go in cases where Apple is not involved as a middle man.Make Apple TV+ free for subscribers of [a set number] of Apple Channels. Same benefits as above, but a different way to frame it.Sell Apple TV+ with a set number of movie rentals per month, or with selected rentals from specific partners 鈥?like how airlines and movie studios arrange for movies that get screened on an airplane flight. That鈥檚 not a long-term thing on the service, like when Netflix buys rights for months, instead it鈥檚 a short window to increase the viewership of titles that consumers could purchase. This is far more complicated than making a deal with Channels, but allows for nimble access to certain things and to more freely shape a month-to-month reason to entice people in.Of the above, the first is the most likely, and the last is the least likely, but any combination is possible. I truly think Apple wants to retrain consumers to spend money subscribing to a variety of services. It鈥檚 a hard task, because Netflix has trained people to pay for Netflix and just watch what鈥檚 on Netflix.Tomorrow, at the Apple event, I鈥檓 sure they鈥檒l announce something about this, and I鈥檒l be interested to see what path they choose. Hell, they might do something absolutely bananas and buy a studio, or make an exclusive deal for a studio鈥檚 catalog. Those scamps.2019-09-09 09:00:00Category: textSome Pluses Some MinusesLast December I was very excited for Apple s media event, which I guessed would be in the Spring. I even guessed the month right. However, I had figured that it would be an event solely about Apple s TV efforts, and conducted in the LA area to show the focus, and importance, of Hollywood on what Apple is doing. (Apple s video efforts are headquartered in Culver City, along with Sony Pictures on the former MGM lot, and Amazon s rented space on the Culver Studios lot most famous for the Gone With the Wind mansion that s used for office space.) Apple had even purchased an old theatre in downtown Los Angeles to revitalize as an Apple Store 鈥?which is a weird place to put one unless you wanted to capitalize on that historical connection to entertainment.Instead I grew increasingly concerned as the focus of the event seemed to shift from video to a variety of other services. When I heard Apple News would be relaunching Texture as part of an expanded all-you-can-eat magazine service I knew that this was no longer an event about video, it was an event about having services. Sure enough, a rumor about a games service appeared, as did a rumor about a credit card. All of that turned out to be true. I will reserve judgement on those because they aren t specifically interesting to me. In aggregate it s interesting the way Apple emphasizes them, as financial growth that will also reshape the world to be a better place. That s also how they re framing their TV efforts.Although, let s talk about consistency:Apple News+Apple CardApple ArcadeApple ChannelsApple TV+I don t know how many other names were in the hat that they picked these out of but some of them had to be better than this. Especially when you line them all up.Apple s homepage is even weirder:铮縯v+ 铮縉ews+ 铮緼rcade 铮緾ardSo all of them are capitalized, except TV. In the top navigation menu bar on Apple.com it s TV and the hardware products use all-caps too. The service is lowercase, unless you go to the page that describes it where it is presented as both Apple TV+ and 铮縯v+ .Sigh.Let s look at everything with TV in the name:Apple TV HD (HD-only hardware)Apple TV 4K (UHD-capable hardware)TV (an app)Apple TV+ (a service in TV the app)Apple Channels doesn t have TV in the name, but it s also in TV the app and while the channels are additive to TV the app the only thing with + is the service that carries on Apple-produced material.Sigh.The Future of TV is AppOne of the various things I ll never stop mocking Tim Cook for is his unsubstantiated assertion that the future of TV is apps. Never get tired of it. This wasn t correct at the time, and I m fairly certain Tim also knew it, but all Apple had to exert to shape the space was the power of the iOS App Store. Their plans to launch a skinny bundle had all collapsed and they had a piece of hardware that was collecting dust.A curious thing this presentation highlighted as it s first prominent feature was that your TV and Movie purchases would be in TV the app. They sort of are already. I m assuming this is a much more streamlined experience where you re not bounced out to the video library apps for the viewing experience any longer? We ll see in practice, but this seems harmless if uninspired.Hilariously, this decision has actually hurt them in a few ways because they ve been trying to course-correct for a couple years and get third parties to integrate with a TV app to discover, browse, and launch content. To replace the app-centric experience that originally shipped. They can t do that though because there are some big holdouts, and even the companies that did participate participated to varying degrees. Now that there s a new program for mixed support, Apple Channels, the permutations increase again. Apple Channels are just like Amazon Channels, where content the end-user sees is piped through Apple s service and appears as if it was something the user had through Apple. They re not kicked out to CBS All Access dreadful app, or anything else. No, this doesn t mean that Amazon Channels you ve subscribed to will show up as if they were Apple Channels, you ll still see those in Amazon s Prime Video app. In fact, depending on how thorough Apple is, you might see sales pitches for Amazon Channels you subscribe to littered in your TV app as possible Apple Channels you should get a free trial for. Rates for this are unannounced but I would be surprised it if was priced differently from Amazon Channels. Amazon Channels is a huge source of revenue for Amazon too, so this makes sense if you re hungry for sweet, sweet revenue growth.The jury is out on the specifics because if the app presents it like it was an iTunes purchase, and you have to use the navigation and browsing features available to you from that, you might not see much of an improvement in your experience, general wellbeing, or temper.The big omission continues to be the Netflix juggernaut. Netflix has no interest in being a pool of content for Apple, they want to be the place where people go so Netflix can control the experience and to shape what Netflix as a brand is worth to a consumer. They never joined TV the app and they pulled out of offering new subscriptions through Apple, assuming that they re in demand enough that users will seek out Netflix s web site to sign up. I imagine that one of the things that will sink in when TV the new app ships is that they re still going out of it to get to Netflix content. If the primary venue for viewing material for someone is Netflix then they re going to have very little interest in participating in this TV the app ecosystem of Apple Channels and subscriptions.At some point soon Apple is change tvOS App Store rules, or restrict homescreen access in such a way that all video services will have to go through TV the app as the new homescreen. That was clear from it s introduction. It ll be interesting to see when Apple thinks it can jettison Netflix.Hulu is also a provider for single sign-on OTT content, but they ve elected to not be a channel even though they make Hulu originals and do already offer an advertising free tier. They re much more friendly with Apple, but not completely interested in all of Apple s campaigns.Every demo of TV the app, even the new one, only underscores the fragmented, under-supported nature of it. Imagine an obstacle course. You see the Apple employee navigate it to what they want on stage and then they try to repeat this process in their own home, in their own region, with their own services and providers, and they fall through a trap door on the second or third step of the obstacle course. It s more common to hit one of these pitfalls than to be someone who traipses through without impediment.Solving the $150 ProblemSince the 4th-generation Apple TV was introduced in 2015, Apple has had an issue with how expensive their streamer was when compared to competitive products. Everyone might select different things as important, like they prefer Apple s UI, or they prefer iTunes services, but there s no denying that those are not important things to all people. That Apple s emphasis on content providers providing their own apps has meant that those providers build apps for Roku, Fire TV, and whatever Google is doing at any given time. As several years have passed since the introduction of that Apple TV revision, the price hasn t dropped one cent. Meanwhile, Roku and Fire TV vie for the top-dog spot on streamer sales charts, and TVs are bundled with software that obviates the need for those boxes and sticks.The solution to Apple s self-imposed problem is that they re going to offer the Apple TV app on Samsung, Sony, Vizio, and LG TV sets, in addition to Roku and Fire TV. That covers an enormous swath of the market. Nothing about that experience was demonstrated, and these announcements are mostly a logical continuation of what Apple had worked out during CES. I m sure it s going to more than a little inferior to the Apple TV box experience, but we ll have to wait and find out.This means that Apple didn t have to drop their prices at all, so they re still selling the same box they introduced in 2015 for exactly the same amount of money, but they did swap the remote when the 4K was introduced and now they ve changed the name to the Apple TV HD. I m not sure what I ll choose to refer to that model in the style guide, but I might just call it the Apple TV Rip-Off.Story Tele-ersI had a little concern, from when Apple did an Apple Music event, and it was a long, rambling thing with Drake, that Apple would do a similar thing for their televised efforts. That would be cynical, and would mean that Apple didn t learn from prior mistakes about the way that they showcase their work.Turns out they didn t learn anything from their mistakes about how they showcase their work. It s hard work too, I really do empathize with the people putting in long hours right now in an effort to make it, but that doesn t absolve the presentation of that work from falling short. Apple saved this until last, they started with a pretentious black and white video about making films and television. Recognizable producers, directors, and actors explosively emoted directly into camera about the difficulties of the process of making motion picture media. None of it was anything specific to Apple, nor to history of the medium, but instead seemed to say, these are professionals that are challenged by the work they do, and they re doing that for us. That s not nothing, but any other studio could put that material together, and they do for up-fronts and Television Critics Association events. They might not have a piano piece though.What followed was a parade of people we saw in those videos performing very rehearsed sales pitches. If you ve seen these stars at award shows, their performance on stage here would be very familiar to you. The standout was Kumail Nanjiani, but his pitch grafted in an almost stand-up-routine approach to it to get those laughs from the audience at key moments and it worked. Unfortunately, a decision was made to transition these stars on and off the stage in the dark which resulted in enormous dead air while Big Bird and a podium were set up, and then removed. If this had been one of those self-congratulatory award show presentations there would have been video between, or music and location shifts to transition across stage. Lingering dead air doesn t help when you re already over an hour into this event, and the lack of material to show, even as a transitional element, is purposefully negligent of the events duty to entertain and inform. The sales pitches were all we had to go on. While they may be charismatic stars, they re not enchanting enough for me to buy something based on their words alone.Eventually, at the very end of the procession of celebrity sales pitches, was a sizzle reel, but it was all of the shows, cut together, in no order at all. This is akin to promotional materials HBO puts together where they show clips of Game of Thrones, Westworld, Sharp Objects, and True Detective, but that network reel only works because viewers can identify elements of what they are seeing depicted before them. The audience for this reel has nothing to anchor them other than seeing actors they just saw on stage, and seeing what could be a rocket, or a post-apocalypse. The majority of the shots were also either retimed to be in slow motion for this reel, or are coincidentally a lot of slow motion shots that were assembled for the reel, and several shots of characters staring into the middle distance. The material could have even been cut together based on show so that there was some sense of several shots composing something about the content or flavor of the production. It was the 52 pickup of network material.If you go to about 1:35 into the keynote video, you ll see the video as presented, but if you go to the Apple TV+ page, and watch the video that appears there, you ll see that text has been added to some of the shots to say what the show is that s being shown. I assume that someone thought the text was distracting for the presentation so it was omitted, rather than it being hastily added to the version show on the site. It s better than nothing, even if it s not aesthetically pleasing.I do judge this harshly because first impressions do matter, to what extent first impressions matter for Apple is debatable, but why throw away an opportunity to show some of a show?Oprah More Thing鈥?/a>Oprah appeared with her magical shirttail cape and used a lot of flowery language about potential, desire, importance, and connection, but 鈥?um 鈥?she announced something with a working title, and something without. Then a book club. How the book club integrates into anything is anyone s guess. Maybe a link to buy the book appears in the app and sends you to Books? Then the conversation about books will happen in 鈥?umm.. well Ping s not there 鈥?and Connect is 鈥?nope. Maybe it ll just be a big group iMessage?The Long Wait ResumesI debated the impact of this presentation with Jason Snell and Dan Moren a little on Twitter and Slack. They re more of the mindset that this is important for Apple to put a stake in the ground and publicly communicate that they re working on these things. That s certainly important, but in terms of using this event time to do this thing in particular? There was nothing about this that could not have been ceded to news outlets, or put in a press release. Showing stars on stage gets nothing from me, but it ll get a cycle out of Entertainment Tonight, or 3 hours on Deadline s front page, or something. I feel like the presentation should have been reserved for a time when Apple was prepared for a more defined announcement. Let s not forget there s no pricing details, or any other specifics. There s no clarity at all on how the A24 film projects, and other acquisitions, will be recognized and promoted either.A curiosity is Spielberg s prominence. Spielberg is primarily know as a film director, and film producer, but he s done a lot of other work, like make TV shows that NBC canceled. Steven s also been in the news recently for lobbying to increase the minimum time that a film must be screened in a theater to be considered for an Academy Award. He feels very strongly that material that is displayed on a television screen day-and-date with a film screen deserves TV awards, like Emmys. Apple bought Hala at Sundance two months ago. There s at least one shot of it in the material Apple displayed later in the presentation. What awards will Apple be launching for your consideration campaigns for? Will Hala see a theater screen? Will the amount of time it screens for happen to be the number that Steven Spielberg is lobbying for? I don t think Steven Spielberg would stoop to lobbying harsh rules on Apple s behalf, and I don t think Apple would want to alienate Spielberg by agreeing with Netflix on shorter theatrical windows, so it seems likely it would either be exactly what Steven wants, or they don t do any theatrical window for Hala and only put it up for TV awards. Something Apple buys or produces will eventually be a movie they want Oscar consideration for, because otherwise what s the point of making recognition-less films? These aren t the kinds of questions that will be answered shortly, or in iOS release notes.There are likely to be tvOS updates at WWDC shortly, but I don t know if any of the big questions will be fleshed out. Maybe we ll get some answer as to why they keep saying games and Apple TV in the same sentence without including some sort of negative, or prohibitive warning? I do still have high hopes for the shows that end up being available, but I have no more or less faith in them today than I did last week.2019-03-27 07:00:00Category: textApple Marches to April LaunchThe Information has sources that claim Apple will launch their video service in mid-April. There s a good summary of recent rumored activity in Sarah Perez s TechCrunch piece, where she goes over several recent news items, including Apple acquiring a film at Sundance.Peter Kafka has a piece at Recode where he carefully parses what Tim Cook said during the Q A on the investor call today.But here鈥檚 a shorter version of the important stuff:Apple is going to make it easy/possible to consume the video Apple makes and sells on other people鈥檚 hardware, like Samsung TV sets.Apple already lets people buy subscriptions to TV services like Hulu via its iTunes store. It鈥檚 going to do more of that, and Apple believes it will end up selling a bundle of those that will compete with traditional pay TV bundles 鈥?a goal Apple has been trying to achieve for more than a decade.Apple is buying a lot of TV shows, and now movies, and also deals for stuff with people like Oprah Winfrey.Again. Apple has either said this some of this before, out loud, or hasn鈥檛 protested when people have reported it.But put it all in one place, speed it up, and what you get is: 鈥淲e are going to sell a bundle of other people鈥檚 TV shows and movies, and add our own, and make sure you can watch it anywhere you want.鈥?/p>A spring launch has been speculated about for a bit by a few people, including myself, but this is the first rumor about a launch window. I personally think an event in March is likely, even with the news of stuff launching in mid-April, because I feel like there s a big story to get out there before the product is available. Also, this isn t the kind of product that launches when it s ready to ship. It s an entertainment content trough. It needs constant replenishing. Apple is going to host an event, say every episode is available on day one, and then disappear for 12-18 months. Having said that, be prepared for some regional restrictions, particularly on things like channels.Here s the start of the roll-out:Apple books a theatre in Los Angeles.Apple sends out coy invitations to both tech press and entertainment trades. Some curtains, film reels, or the Hollywood hills, etc.Announce the service on stage, with the channels that tie in, 鈥渟ame great blah blah you know and love. Then announce the original content by saying something like, 鈥渟tarting (day) these shows will be available here鈥檚 a preview.鈥?Lights dim, sizzle reel goes on, lights up, then, 鈥渕ore great shows rolling out in summer and fall all year blah blah. Apple buys ads on TV, and online, like Apple does for any hardware product or Apple Music. Most spots will be for specific shows that wraps with an Available on Apple (Horrible Name) but some spots will just be for the service, showing how it bundles everything together.Vulture recaps every episode every week, and there are at least 10 podcasts recapping each episode of each show, all promoted in Podcasts dot app.Now flash forward a couple months for Apple bloggers to freak out about the number of shows that aren t ready at launch time or some such bologna.2019-02-02 14:45:00Category: textPremiere PossibilitiesOne thing I ve been musing about is the venue where Apple will announce their video subscription service to the world. Everyone needs a hobby, don t judge.It seems unlikely that Apple will premiere it at this year s World Wide Developer Conference, or at their annual iPhone event. A Los Angeles event seems like a given, considering Apple wants to send a signal not just to the public that will subscribe, but to talent that may choose to work with them. I really think it ll be a Spring event, but it could be as early as January, but March seems like a likely candidate, because it will be just after Southern California s Awards Season, when the billboards change to FYC . Apple s no stranger to a March event. An event concurrent with, or very near to, an awards ceremony might be kind of tacky and awkward if Apple is trying to demonstrate a connection to filmmaking.That is really the reason to hold an event in LA, of course, just like Apple has held events at prestigious institutions. Apple isn t playing off of nostalgia, like Disney does, but they do seek to establish a historical through line that connects an established past to a future product they are premiering. That s why I ve further narrowed it down from Los Angeles 鈥?which is 502 square miles (1,302 square kilometers) to historical locations that have a direct connection to the experience of watching media. Since Apple doesn t have a historic studio lot, there s no reason to shove a bunch of journalists into a space in Culver City near the Apple offices. Zero chance that popular beach city Santa Monica would be used either.Hooray for HollywoodHollywood isn t a real place. There s this imaginary world that exists spread all over LA, and beyond, is a glamorous fiction with a mythic past. There is, however, the geographical Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. It s mostly tourist traps and dirty walk of fame sidewalk stars. It s not quite what anyone expects when they first arrive. The main drag, Hollywood Blvd., is still dotted with theatres used for movie premieres and special events.Grauman s Egyptian Theatre (1922)El Capitan Theatre (1926)TCL Chinese Theatre (1927)Pantages Theatre (1930)Dolby Theatre (2001)The TCL Chinese Theatre was originally Grauman s Chinese Theatre, and Mann s Chinese Theatre for a period of time. It s probably the most iconic on the list, and replicas have been built in various places. It certainly overshadows its less famous predecessor, Grauman s Egyptian Theatre. International themes were very big, which is why a firm from the American Midwest made these sort of caricature buildings. One of Sid s business partner s on Grauman s Egyptian Theatre was Charles E. Toberman, who went on to make El Capitan Theatre. Pantages, while being in the same era, and a similar ornateness level, was not directly related. It was owned for a period by Howard Hughes RKO Pictures. The Dolby Theatre doesn t have a strong historical pedigree, but since it s inception as the Kodak Theatre it s hosted major events like the annual Academy Awards.All of these would be perfectly justifiable venues except for a few obvious flaws. TCL owns the naming rights for the Chinese Theatre, so unless people can envision Tim Cook getting on stage and saying TCL 鈥?a company that exclusively uses Roku embedded software for its smart TVs 鈥?then I think we can write it off. Even if Apple announces a TV app for competing platforms like Roku, it seems unlikely they d want to do it on TCL s turf.El Capitan Theatre hosts many events, and premieres, like TCL Chinese Theatre does, but it s unfortunately owned by Disney. Apple doesn t currently have a deal with Disney to sell UHD HDR content on iTunes, and Disney is going to be launching a streaming service next year. I don t think Apple is so cozy with Disney that they would want to use their facilities to premiere a video product and talk about all the great content on Apple TV.Apple is buddy-buddy with Dolby, so it s possible they d host an event in the Dolby Theatre, but I still think the lack of historical character might not be what Apple event planners would look for.Grauman s Egyptian Theatre is owned by the non-profit American Cinematheque, and Pantages is owned by the Nederlander Organization (they own a lot of theatres). Either would be neutral choices, and full of historical connection.One thing is absolutely certain, if Apple hosts an event on Hollywood Blvd. the street will probably close down like a red carpet movie premiere so morning traffic is going to suuuuuuuuuck if you need to drive through.There are certainly other locations that are capable of hosting events in the immediate area, but these are the candidates I think make the most sense, with Egyptian and Pantages weighted the strongest.DowntownDowntown is also unpleasant, but it wasn t always that way. Before most people fled for the suburbs, enabled by the LA freeway system, it was a bustling city like its contemporaries in the 1920s and 1930s. Efforts are being made to revitalize (gentrify) areas, like historically important Broadway. It never ceased to be a place for performances, and film exhibition, but many theatres fell into disrepair, and some closed. Newer theatre spaces opened a couple miles away at The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall, but the former is blah, and the latter is Disney s, obviously.Apple made waves when they announced that they had leased the Tower Theatre on Broadway with plans to renovate and restore it as a new Apple Store. It s a very peculiar location for an Apple Store, if you ask me, but when it s done it s going to be one of the most thoughtfully considered Apple Stores in LA (the rest of them are sad boxes, even the recent ones).Part of Apple s renovation plan will make Tower an event space in addition to a store. I don t know if renovation has even started inside the property, but the renderings lead me to believe that it wouldn t be an ideal space to host a large media event once reno is complete. I also can t picture Tim Cook saying, Yeah, we re gonna gut this place after this event. and then proceeding to conduct the construction.Why go to all of the trouble of building a store in a remote, downtown, historical, theatre location if it s not going to be a part of Apple s video service narrative? That would be like purchasing a historic watch store and only selling iPads in it.Apple could turn to another theatre on Broadway to host a large event, and have some part of the press-handling conducted at Tower.Palace Theatre (1911)Orpheum Theatre (1926)Los Angeles Theatre (1931)If you look at the area on a map you ll see a lot more theatres that what I have listed, but many of them are in severe disrepair, or have been converted to other uses like retail, or religious worship.Palace and Los Angeles are both owned by the same company that Apple leases Tower from. It s conceivable that Apple would make arrangements with them for the use of one of those nearby locations.The Orpheum is mostly known as a live performance venue, with music, stand-up comedy, but could host nearly anything in the structure.The Orpheum also has a pipe organ. How sweet would it be if the music prior to he Apple event was all old film scores played on a pipe organ? Sure, it would drive the journalists into a frenzy, but I would be very entertained.Ready for My Close-Up, Mr. CookThere s no doubt the service is going to launch soon in 2019, and I m very certain that Apple wants to connect to the traditions of Hollywood, to insert itself as a powerful force that feels like it has an association with the language, and trappings, of that industry. I wouldn t be at all surprised to see stars in attendance, observing as the journalists and Apple employees do at these events, in addition to more on stage pitching the Apple shows they re starring, producing, or directing. I m looking forward to seeing what Apple is considering in terms of films, like their recent deal with A24. There s just so much to present to consumers, and to future industry peers.It would be pretty bizarre if Apple rented out any old auditorium, or convention space, and presented their video service like Eddy Cue presented the Music service at WWDC 2015. I believe some lessons have been learned.2018-12-07 09:00:00Category: textOn Every TV in Dongle TownAccording to The Information, Apple has considered launching a low-cost Apple TV dongle, similar to what Amazon offers with the Fire TV Stick models, Google s Chromecast, or what Roku offers with some of their lower-end streaming devices. Those dongles offer inexpensive hardware, sold either at a loss or with low margins, in order to expand a services ecosystem where recurring subscriptions are the name of the game. Apple has looked toward service revenue for growth, with a new TV service around the corner, it makes sense that Apple should reconsider what they charge for their TV streamers.$149.99 - An HD-only streaming box first introduced in 2015.$179.99 - A 4K streaming box introduced in 2017.$199.99 - A fantastic way to rip people off.I was critical of this pricing when the fourth generation Apple TV was introduced because $150 was not only more expensive than all of their competitors, but it was more than twice as expensive as the third generation Apple TV that it was replacing. That antique device lingered another year on Apple s site, with a helpful link to take people to the more expensive fourth generation model. When the fifth generation, the Apple TV 4K, was announced I had assumed that Apple would cut the price of the previous model, and place the new one at the old model s pricepoint. To my chagrin, Apple cranked up the price and put it $30 above the old model resulting in the pricing we still have to this day.Jason Snell wrote a great column for Macworld about the importance of Apple growing this streaming service, using The Information s stick rumor as a jumping off point.Before we even get to fun, wish-casting, imaginary hardware let s just get the simplest solution out of the way:Sell these devices for less money.Revolutionary idea, I know. It could be accomplished by slashing the margins on the hardware with the expectation that the video service would offset the profit lost, and then some. It s not even brand new hardware we re talking about discounting here. It wouldn t even be the first time Apple TV hardware has been discounted. When the third generation Apple TV was exceptionally long in the tooth, Apple cut its price to $70. I would argue the fourth generation s tooth has past that point.Another financial-only option is to subsidize the cost of the device if a customer signs up for X number of months of service. Many over-the-top streaming television providers offer these kinds of deals. A free Apple TV. You can also reverse this and offer X months of free service with the purchase of an Apple TV - but since customers don t know what they re getting with Apple s service, this doesn t seem like it would help grow the service as much as free devices would.Stick With MeSo what would a trimmed down stick device include? My ILM bro, Todd Vaziri, thinks that an AirPlay-only stick makes sense, because it s a way to rely on the phone, a device Apple does make money on, to drive the video being displayed. This seems like a stretch because AirPlay for long form video is not very good. AirPlay is great in a pinch, when you have a short video, presentation, or some photos, but no one really wants to commit their iPhone 鈥?the most important thing in their life 鈥?to being tied up for streaming video for extended periods. You run into issues like wanting to use social media while you watch something, or even looking at Photos will interrupt your video stream to mirror the Photos app on the screen. The controls for it are also pretty terrible 鈥?like that weird rainbow arch thing over the media player widget in control center. Also it ll chew up your battery, so you need to charge your iPhone which makes it inaccessible. I don t know how Apple gracefully remedies any of that.A more likely possibility for a stick was suggested by Jason Snell:Then there are the more radical possibilities: What about a TV stick that only runs the TV app? You could still subscribe to third-party streaming services, but only by using Apple as a reseller. (This feels too restrictive to me.)A big strike against it, as Jason points out, is that Apple has not won over everyone making TV streaming apps for the Apple TV to also integrate support for TV the app that Apple uses as a unified interface. Notably, Netflix is still absent. I can t imagine Apple marketing a streaming media device in 2019 that doesn t support Netflix. Maybe they work something out with Netflix and get them into TV the app or do something super weird and make a launcher just to open Netflix but 鈥?c mon. No.A possibility I ve considered is something like CarPlay, where an iPhone drives what s displayed on the screen, and can accept inputs from sources other than the iPhone itself. That wouldn t have the same issues as AirPlay, which leaves control of the media up to the iPhone, but it does have the same issues when it comes to powering the iPhone to do this, and what happens when the person that s been connected to the TV needs to go to the store. There s no way to gracefully handoff things to people staying in the living room, or resume playback on a device under a different Apple ID and subscription service profile for that matter.For me, the most expensive part of the Apple TV hardware has always been the remote, and I think any economized Apple TV offering is unlikely to include it. Apple charges $70 for the thing by itself. I don t think they have high margins on replacement remotes, which leads me to believe the thing costs a great deal to produce. Imagine taking $50-ish off the price of the Apple TV by forgoing that particular remote.It is possible that since it s been over a year since the last remote revision, and minor price reduction, that there might be further savings to be had just from sourcing different parts or switching suppliers, thus keeping the same spiteful glass shard going but being able to sell it bundled with the Apple TV at a lower cost.I am of the opinion that a hardware remote is still an essential component of the TV viewing experience, so I wouldn t forgo it completely, even though voice assistants mitigate many laborious things in regards to searching for something specific you have in mind, they do not replace browsing, or channel surfing . The Remote app Apple makes is too fiddly to quickly get in and out of for TV controls, and you have to look at the iPhone the entire time you re using the Remote app. I think there s a path forward with a pragmatic hardware remote that replaces the touchpad with a directional pad and loses the accelerometers.Sadly, that means loosing out on parallax icons. Here is an appropriate violin to express my sorrow:馃幓 But What About Games?What about them? Apple has had no serious commitment to gaming on the Apple TV since the platform was launched. There were two course corrections designed to accommodate developers:Games could require a third party controller instead of the remote.Games could fill up more space on the device so that assets would not have to be downloaded and purged as often.These changes have resulted in 鈥?basically nothing. Apple still doesn t make a first party controller. The asset cap seemed to be a way to finally justify the 64 GB storage tier, but no developers have really capitalized on it in a way that would make a 32 GB device owner jelly. The games are typically marginal ports of existing games for iOS, which aren t usually that large anyway, and the controls don t seem to ever translate well to a TV screen experience. There are a few exceptions, but they re typically party games. There is no need to have graphical horsepower and storage tiers.Unless Apple has an entirely new high-end Apple TV revision waiting in the wings that takes gaming seriously then who cares if storage on a stick, or small box, would be restricted, let alone the horsepower? Even then, there s nothing attractive about Apple s business model for the developers of console games.If we all agree that gaming isn t a thing, and won t be a thing, then we have no reason to support it on a lower-priced device. However, a less expensive stick, or box, would still face an uphill battle in global markets where these cost saving measures are negated by import tariffs, and other issues. It s not going to be just the elimination of gaming, or just a simpler remote, Apple would really need to get more creative.This is USThe Apple TV has always had a heavy US-centric set of features, but Apple has been trying to be more thoughtful about regional providers and consumption habits. Apple has been struggling to expand into India, with three executives departing in July, so let s take a look at the Apple TV page for India and it s prices. Hilariously, Apple reuses their MLB viewing photo with the San Francisco Giants, but they do mention regional services that they support and work with. The prices are worse than they are for a US consumer, with the 2015 fourth generation Apple TV for sale at 14,100 rupees, which is about $202. According to The Economic Times, smart TV sales have just passed sales of regular TVs for the first time in September. With the Apple TV being a third, or a quarter of the price of a TV set for the 2015 HD-only model, it s hard to see how Apple could produce a video service with regional appeal that would be worth a barrier to entry that s even higher than it is in the US.The Smart SolutionMost TV s have streaming media software embedded in them for major services, like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. If a customer wants more than that they might shop for a media streamer, or use what s in a video game console which they also play video games on (no, not the Apple TV). Customers might be willing to spend more for the Apple brand when it comes to phones, but according to data from Parks Associates in this article from Variety Apple s share of the media player market in the US is stagnant, while Amazon and Roku growth has incremented up. Part of that growth can be attributed not just to low prices on streaming sticks and boxes, but on Roku and Amazon s aggressive dealmaking with the people peddling these panels to get their software embedded.If a TV comes with Amazon, Roku, or some Android flavor, then what drives the customer to purchase a box, or a stick to plug in at all? The embedded Samsung interface and apps in my 2012 plasma TV makes me physically ill, but I could get by with an Amazon interface. I suspect many shoppers can too.One route around this is to make the Apple TV service available as an app on these competing platforms, as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video do. That might sound insane, but Apple already makes an Apple Music app for Android phones, and on December 17th Apple Music will be on Amazon Echo devices. Services revenue obviously won out in the conversation over hardware revenue when it comes to Apple Music, so why would video streaming be different? Apple could still make the case that their hardware showcases the services the best, while also allowing them access to global markets where they can t come close to competing on price.In Jason Snell s piece for Macworld, he mentions his TCL TV set which comes with Roku on it, and suggests that Apple could do the same. I think that s less likely than Apple creating an app for Roku, or Fire OS, because Apple would need to either tailor their software to the hardware that the manufacturers use, or sell their A series chips to TV manufacturers. They would also need to include software controls for parts of the TV experience that Apple has had no interest in colonizing, like over the air TV. What remote would these licensed sets ship with? An Apple TV remote? None of these are permanent road blocks, but it would require a series of extensive changes to their approach. It kind of reminds me of Apple with the clones in the 1990s. Apple owns the Power Computing brand, maybe they could license that back out to a low-end TV set manufacturer for some thick, boring, plastic cases with a lot of flex.Of course cutting out the TV manufacturers and making their own TV sets is a possibility. Gene Munster, an analyst, was infamous for his theory that Apple needed to make it, but he gave up when he realized the margins just aren t there for it to make sense. I agree. The deeply discounted sales, variety of TV sizes, and razor-thin margins seem like a headache for what Apple would get out of it.TV on iOSIt might be pretty easy to discount the living room, and television sets, as relics of a bygone era, but the reality is that a lot of people want to watch long form video content on a large display that takes up a large portion of a wall. Small, personal TV sets that kids might have had in their bedrooms can be supplanted by phones and tablets, but when those kids grow up, they want a TV set in a living room.On top of that, the people making content for Apple want their work to be seen by people in the living room, and eligible for awards alongside all the other stuff displayed in a living room.I don t doubt that filmmakers that work with A24 on content for Apple s service will also want their films screened in theaters, and eligible for those awards. That s a fight that Netflix has been losing for years. Even if Apple follows Netflix s path and makes the films available day and date on their video service, those filmmakers aren t going to be thrilled that the majority of people will be watching their work on iPhones because they won t buy a $180 box for a movie, and a couple shows.It would be very difficult to retain talent if Apple doesn t take showcasing their hard work seriously.TL;DRApple s desire to grow services revenue stands in direct opposition to whatever passes for a TV hardware strategy in Cupertino. To grow subscribers they need to lower the cost of the devices required to view video service content, subsidize their sale, or make the service available on the platforms they compete with. If they don t, then this is over a billion that they wouldn t be able to make back as a niche, premium content provider.2018-12-03 09:00:00Category: textFirst Time Tooter, Long Time TweeterIn conversations I ve had over the past week, it s become clear that there s nothing very self-explanatory about Mastodon as a social network, and that in many ways Twitter users are both prepared and unprepared for the experience. There are a lot of things that are similar in concept, but there s more to it when it comes to how it s a service that can really throw people for a loop.Too Long; Didn t MastodonThe short version is that Mastodon clones features of Twitter with open source software that can be run on any server. Those servers talk to each other and form a larger world than any one server could. The default place most people land is mastodon.social but they have halted admissions because of the large influx of people leaving Twitter at the same time. You can join mastodon.cloud or any other server. Since your server can talk to the others, and you can move your account to another one, there s no immediate pressure. There s a timeline which is functionally like Twitter - or at least how it was back when it was chronological. You can mute, block, follow, etc.The longer version A Hive of MastodonMastodon is distributed across many instances that talk to each other. The instances are servers, or virtual private servers. There are unique domain names attached to them. If you use Google, or Duck Duck Go, you ll wind up at mastodon.social. This is the de facto instance, headed up by the guy who came up with Mastodon. Thus, it becomes the most likely instance people will join. They have been overwhelmed recently by people leaving Twitter, so it s all the more reason to investigate the other instances. Mastodon.cloud is another very prominent instance. Then there are a bunch of instances that range from general topics, to very specific topics. For new users it is overwhelming, and we naturally want to go to instances that have the most people. It s counterintuitive though, because of how Mastodon works. You want to be with a group that shares similar interests to you, but has enough variety that certain features are useful. If you join an instance that has a lot of people interested in everything, then their interests will affect your experience with certain features.Honestly, joining one of these massive instances is fine if you don t know what to do. You can feel it out for a week or so and move. I will discuss that process later on.From the Mastodon blog:I might be biased, but I find that following admins of other servers is usually a good choice. Usually, they share a lot of content from their users, so you get some insight into their entire community. You might feel compelled to do the same when you get your own users, too.TimelinesThere s the Home timeline, the Local timeline, and the Federated timeline. As a user, on any instance, you see those three options. However, what you see under Local and under Federated is shaped by the other people on your own instance.Some general terms for what s in a timeline:Toot - A post, or status update. This is just another word for Tweet. Confusingly, in some parts of the interface, you will see it referred to as a status and not a toot .Boost - The Mastodon term for a retweet.CW (Content Warning) - This is a mechanism to hide your text and images behind a show more button. This is intended for spoilers, or sensitive material. There s a field to enter descriptive text about what you re hiding behind the content warning. Images can also be hidden.The Birdsite - This is a derogatory term used by longtime Mastodon users to passive-aggressively sneer at Twitter. I think you should just call it Twitter, it s not Voldemort. If anything it s off-putting to people from Twitter seeking to transition to Mastodon.500 Characters - Toots are much longer than they are on Twitter. Not oppressively so, you re not going to read Moby Dick in a toot.No Quote Toots - I m refreshed by this. As much as I found quote tweets preferable to Here s what I think RT @schmoop whoa RT @doop text retweets they invented a new problem. In many cases it was easy for people to quote, and not add much, if anything, and it would just make that quoted tweet surface more often in your timeline. This wasn t a lot of fun when a public figure would say something that might provoke disagreement. Twitter recently tried to algorithmically fold some of these into a single structure around the quoted tweet, but it didn t do much to cut down on noise. You do need to clink on links to things on Mastodon, you re not going to get that quick burst of the original post to roll with.Delete Redraft - This is Mastodon s answer to editable tweets. I, personally, am not satisfied as I would like a system that maintains history, in-place. This is better than absolutely nothing though. Especially when you quickly realize you made an error. The original is deleted, but copied to a new composition view, along with any media you had uploaded. You can make what changes you need to and post again. (I want history.)Friend Finding - Mastodon will connect your Mastodon account to your Twitter account and find any Twitter accounts that Mastodon knows have associated Mastodon accounts. This won t find accounts that eschewed this step, but you can get a healthy swath of people.Eugen Rochko @Gargron@mastodon.social - The founder of Mastodon and primary developer overseeing its open software evolution. Don t want to be compared to Jack Dorsey, don t want want prominence, specifically don t want to be idolized. Just doing my thing [sic] I provide that for context, not as some sort of ironic idolatry performance.HomeThis is the timeline that s the most like Twitter. Specifically, Twitter s old, chronological timeline. You can follow people, and unfollow people, and that s what you will see here in Home. You ll see boosts the Mastodon term for retweets here from users you follow.Unfortunately, you also see Direct Messages here. Threading them in is very disconcerting for longtime Twitter users who are used to seeing a separate tab for DMs. Don t worry, it s still correspondence intended for you, and the person(s) you re speaking with. You can tell by the envelope icon under the post.LocalThis timeline view is of what all people on your instance are publicly communicating. It can be interesting if you know the people on the instance, or you re just generally bored and want to see if there s someone else with similar interests there. It s not, in any way, a necessary thing for you to look at.FederatedMastodon is a federation of instances that talk to one another, sometimes referred to as a federverse . In this view you re seeing everyone that interacts with your instances, via the people on your instance. If I follow person A, and you follow person B, then when we go to the Federated timeline we see persons A and B. This, of course, is along with anything that they boost (retweet). On a small instance, this is great because it s friends-of-friends, or based around a topic. On the large instances, like mastodon.social, this creates a firehose of posts that are very unlikely to appeal to you. Since mastodon.social has so many people, connected to so many instances, it s almost like you re looking at the entire universe of all of the posts that are happening.This can be incredibly overwhelming, particularly when you re just started. Do not feel any pressure to even look at the Local or Federated views until you re set up and comfortable with your Home view. The Home View is Twitter Classic. The rest is more ways of looking at things.AppsMany users leaving Twitter right now might be doing it because of the near-death of the Twitter clients that they use. Many people are accustomed to a very polished Twitter client experience with Tweetbot, or Twitterrific. Unfortunately, there aren t polished apps like that for Mastodon. The majority of apps are wrappers around a webview - fancy browsers. They have certain features, or present user-facing data in a way that is more appealing that the web site. Unfortunately, none of them are much better than the website. I would really suggest getting started on the website just because options for things will be in places you can google or ask any other user about. Pro tip: if you hit Command + on your keyboard it will zoom in by scaling the text and columns of the website. I find the default settings assume I have a much smaller screen than I do and I would rather read the posts than have an extra bar of dark gray on the side.Common iPhone apps:AmaroqTootdonToot!.app (beta)Common iPad apps:No don t, just use the browser.Common Mac apps:WhalebirdFluid (a Mac app that lets you create an app container for a web site. Robb Lewis has some customizations for it.)I d really say that the web experience, with notifications enabled, is not the worst but it s not what the users of third party Twitter clients are accustomed to. There are even command line python clients if you want to do some real shenanigans.You might remember that the last time a lot of people left Twitter in a huff they went to App Dot Net (that name) ADN provided funding to developers to incentivize third party clients. There was even a twin to Tweetbot called Netbot. This time around, those developers aren t going to jump right in. I don t blame them for that. Twitter put them through a bunch of mind games, and the other promised platforms never worked out. The developers are on Mastodon though. Paul Haddad, who develops Tweetbot, has solicited feedback on creating a paid Mastodon client in his free time via a Patreon. Sean Heber, of Twitterific, has teased a screenshot of a very barebones client.I don t think that anyone should make long term Mastodon plans on this information. You might be using these very webby clients for a while. If that s intolerable to you (it s tolerable to me) then there s not going to be much satisfaction for you in sticking around.Whether you preferred Tweetbot, or you preferred Twitterific, I don t think there s any debate that they had an experience that felt like it was on the platform and not of a web platform.Custom InstancesSince this is a federated experience, anyone can start their own instance. A prominent company to go to for instances is Masto.host. I started a Mastodon account on mastodon.social, but was encouraged to move to an instance started by friends using Masto.host. The advantages of your own instance are that you get to manage everything about it. It s your own private Twitter. It associates with other Twitters, but it can also block them.This is similar to email, where anyone can start an email server, send and receive email from other servers, or block a server from reaching it. There s more to it than that because of the nature of microblogging and nearly real time communication, but on a functional level you own something that talks to other things on the same playing field.People find this attractive for community building reasons, because of the timelines, data ownership, or because you can pick a really sweet domain name. Seriously, there are so many domain names now to choose from that you re very likely to find something that is either functional or incredibly entertaining to you and your friends. Also, when I say community building I also mean that bad people and entire instances can be kept completely separate from your instance to not only protect you, and your users, but reduce the influence and reach of bad actors in the Federverse by omitting that connection. That level of control might be too much for some people, but other people were just born to be bulletin board moderators so let them do it.Yes, that does mean that there are bad actors that have mastodon instances, and their goal is to interface with others and provide that same corrupting influence.You can also make an instance for just one person. You re not going to see any utility in the Local or Federated timelines, but you ll be on your own little plot of land and can correspond with everyone you choose to.VerificationTwitter has a truly awful verification system in place. It provides little public benefit because it promotes bad actors as well as good actors while also distorting the things people see based on verification. None of that exists on Mastodon. Anyone could be anyone on any instance. Naturally, that means that you should not trust that an account you see on Mastodon is the account of a person you might know from elsewhere. Just like before the verification system on Twitter existed, you ll have to look at that person s website, and other things to see if that mastodon account is associated with the person.Frankly, I think this is a good thing. The verification system on twitter was easily gamed. By the decentralized nature of mastodon, instances would have to verify people, which seems silly because why would anyone else accept their word? They would be an instance of one. The solution is to just not have any verification and to have to confirm that the account belongs to someone through other reasonable sources.Privacy SecurityOne thing I ve noticed on Mastodon is that there are quite a few Twitter users that joined around the time I did freaking out about privacy. That DM s aren t end-to-end-encrypted, and that instance administrators, or server administrators, could snoop on all their stuff. That is, of course, unlikely, but no social network should be used to share sensitive data. Facebook Messenger isn t encrypted, Twitter isn t encrypted, etc. If you need to tell someone something private do that for real. There is a level of trust that we have with large corporations, something that America is very good at instilling in its citizens from when they are kids, but you shouldn t be passing sensitive data on Twitter or Mastodon. The privacy you have on Mastodon is even more in your control than it was on Twitter. Follow and following lists can be hidden. People were totally fine using Tweetbot to send DMs before, which requires a circle of trust. Suddenly suspecting that everyone is compromised or snooping seems misplaced. If anything, it feels like an excuse you d use if you really wanted to stay on Twitter. Also, no one is scraping your messages for things to sell ads against. The incentive is for you to stay on an instance and be a valuable member of the community.There are also settings for the security of your account. Two-factor authorization is an option, and you do have a list of all the authorized apps, their IP addresses, and the last time they accessed your account. That authorization can also be revoked.Moving AccountsOne thing that seems very onerous is moving accounts. We ve been trained by businesses that are disincentivized to let us leave, that we re fucked if we ever want to go. This isn t the case with Mastodon.Whatever instance you signed up for is one that you can move away from and leave a redirect behind. There s no system that just picks up all of your stuff and moves it, but it is comparatively stress free next to Twitter.Go to the instance you want to join and create an account. Once you ve made the account go back to the instance you want to move from (preferably in a separate browser tab, or separate browser.)Go to Settings, then to Data Export. You ll see a little spreadsheet of You follow , You block , and You mute each with numbers, and a CSV download button. Those lists can be uploaded to the instance you re moving to and you ll follow the same people, block the same people, and mute the same people. There s also an option to request an archive. This takes a bit to process, and you ll get an email at the email address you used to sign up for the account with all the data to download. (In some cases you can refresh the page and there s also a download link.)The archive is functionally useless for your Mastodon move, but it s just nice to save things, ya know?Once you ve exported all that, go to the Edit profile section and scroll to the bottom. There s a link to move to a different account and leave a redirect. You can leave a toot that you re moving to your new account, and provide a link, or mention the instance.On your new account, go to Settings, and Import. There are radio buttons for each of the lists and a choose file button. (Personally I would have made this look like the same spreadsheet you use for the export process and not like radio buttons that need to be toggled for what to do with the uploaded file.)Once you go through each toggle, and upload each list, you ll have all that in there. Go back to Edit Profile and set your avatar, head image, and bio manually. Unfortunately the migration process does not carry those over.That s it. You ve moved instances. Your old account stays up with a redirect at the old instance, and if you needed to you could move back there just as easily.CrosspostingA lot of people can t leave their Twitter presence behind completely. They may not want to be there, immersed in the misery-outrage-panic machine but they have a business reason to maintain a tether. There are ways to do that. Any mastodon profile is an RSS feed, just add .rss to the profile URL, and then you can use that do all kinds of automated stuff. There are also crossposting apps to help you out like the open source project moa.party. You can use it through moa.party, or you can download the code and do it yourself. It can take Mastodon posts and put them on Twitter, or Twitter posts and put them on Mastodon, or even throw Instagram into the mix.Masto-Go-OnThis is all the information I ve gleaned that I feel is important to disaffected Twitter users using iOS/macOS that would read this blog. There s way more information out there2018-08-20 08:25:00Category: textSocial Technical-DebtTwitter recently deactivated the services that third-party Twitter clients rely on for streaming timeline updates, mention notifications, direct message notifications (which never worked for group DMs), likes, and retweets. Twitter鈥檚 Senior Director of Data Enterprise Solutions Rob Johnson sent out an internal company email, which he uploaded screenshots of and attached to some tweets.It is now time to make the hard decision to end support for these legacy APIs 鈥?acknowledging that some aspects of these apps would be degraded as a result. Today, we are facing technical and business constraints we can鈥檛 ignore. The User Streams and Site Streams APIs that serve core functions of many of these clients have been in a 鈥渂eta鈥?state for more than 9 years, and are built on a technology stack we no longer support. We鈥檙e not changing our rules, or setting out to 鈥渒ill鈥?3rd party clients; but we are killing, out of operational necessity, some of the legacy APIs that power some features of those clients. And it has not been a realistic option for us today to invest in building a totally new service to replace these APIs, which are used by less than 1% of Twitter developers.Rob also posted on Twitter鈥檚 blog a very disingenuous, and condescending version of this where he outlined all the features that Twitter offers, while not mentioning that Twitter fully controls the experience in third party apps, including what features they have elected to withhold from third parties over the years.Basically, he鈥檚 saying that this is technical debt something that was quickly implemented, not revisited, and now it has them in a position where it would require significant investment.This is, of course, going on concurrently with all of the other issues that Twitter is having. They were in the headlines a couple weeks ago because of their stance on allowing their platform to be used by a conspiracy theorist. Twitter CEO, and co-founder, Jack Dorsey is hiding behind his own rules as reasons why he can鈥檛 do anything. The same rules that have a clause for 鈥渘oteworthiness鈥?which is used as an excuse to leave other bad actors on the platform.Those bad actors all have accounts emblazoned with the puffy, blue checkmark which serves as an exclusive verification. Intended as identity confirmation, but selectively handed out in a way that makes it look like Twitter imparts some degree of worthiness to the person. From Tony Romm鈥檚 Washington Post piece with Jack:Twitter鈥檚 new policies are being tested at the highest level 鈥?including by President Trump, whose tweets are a direct challenge. On Tuesday, Trump called former aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who recently published a tell-all about her time at the White House, a 鈥渄og.鈥?He also attacked Harley-Davidson on Sunday for moving jobs overseas 鈥?a move that precipitated a 2 percent drop in the company鈥檚 stock price.Dorsey stuck to his long-held view that an exception generally would be granted to Trump because his comments are newsworthy and give users crucial insights as to how 鈥済lobal leaders think and treat the people around them.鈥?/p>Functionally, it also makes accounts behave differently, with verified users having tweets surfaced in places they otherwise would not be. The overhaul of that verification system has been put on hold to focus on election integrity.Last November, Twitter paused its account verifications as it tried to figure out a way to address confusion around what it means to be verified. That decision came shortly after people criticized Twitter for having verified the account of Jason Keller, the person who organized the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va.This is also a problem for Twitter鈥檚 other products, like Periscope, where it categorizes Alex Jones as 鈥淣ews鈥?/a>. One of his videos on Periscope was where he incited his fans to get their 鈥渂attle riffles鈥?and his personal account, and Info Wars鈥?account were put in read only mode. Twitter doesn鈥檛 answer why it would have ever classified Info Wars as 鈥淣ews鈥?at all.Every interview with Jack, every tweetstorm of business-speak, just makes it seem like he鈥檚 trapped inside of his own creation and he doesn鈥檛 know what to do.Twitter has so much on it鈥檚 plate that it continually says it will address, and that once it does it will improve discourse on its site, and safety of people in the world. The longer they take to move on these problems the worse these problems become. When Twitter allows a user to be a bad actor, to gather a following, to get verified, and then be too important to ban, then they create a kind of social technical-debt.Conversely, when I continue to use Twitter, surrounded by misery and panic over these bad actors, because I鈥檝e invested too much time there, that鈥檚 also a kind of debt. Realizing that my retweets of troubling articles mean nothing, and that the caustic, high-speed flow of minor news-fluctuations pumped into my veins doesn鈥檛 improve the world.Other platforms exist, but they aren鈥檛 as popular, 鈥渢hey don鈥檛 have critical mass鈥? but whatever. I鈥檓 transitioning from Twitter to Mastodon for all my microblogging needs. If I get bored I鈥檒l chat on Slack, or pen a letter. The benefit of Mastodon is that it鈥檚 not a company, but a series of instances all run by different people. Think of it more like email. Anyone can host an email server (but why), and they can send emails to other people not on their email server. Just in this case it鈥檚 an 鈥渋nstance鈥? I can block instances I don鈥檛 like, and I can still communicate with others that I do. There鈥檚 an admin for each instance to moderate and shape the kind of conduct that鈥檚 allowed on the instance. I鈥檓 on a private instance with a few friends, after having an account on the large 鈥渕astodon.social鈥?instance which is the default place most people start. You can redirect followers if you move to another instance. All your data can be exported, including follow, block, and mute lists. I can take my stuff anywhere I would like to go. A 鈥渇ederated鈥?timeline view exists, which shows all the stuff people on your instance are interacting with and saying. I found it unusable on mastodon.social, but on a smaller, more focused instance it鈥檚 worth looking at. App support is rough, but since third party app support is a real thing, maybe that will improve over time.Fleeing to Mastodon is not a solution I would recommend to everyone, but the thought of being on Twitter is unpalatable to me at present. Perhaps, if Twitter ever gets around to all that they intend to get around to, they will have a more pleasant experience, but I don鈥檛 need to take that journey with them. They have had enough of my time.My Mastodon Account2018-08-19 08:00:00Category: textWWDC 2018 Wish List: tvOSHere, let me just reuse my opening paragraph from last year鈥檚 post.Here, let me just reuse my opening paragraph from last year s post:As we get closer to WWDC, I notice that there鈥檚 a dearth of excitement, interest, or rumors in anything involving the Apple TV. It鈥檚 hard to blame anyone for the disinterest since the platform hasn鈥檛 really wowed anyone since its premiere and no major rumors have circulated in advance of Monday鈥檚 event. I鈥檒l run through a list of things I would like to see, though I myself am skeptical any of them will materialize in a few days.That was easy.That was easy.The only thing from my original list that was knocked off last year was backup and restore which was addressed by storing your home screen and settings in iCloud to use on other Apple TV devices. That approach negates the need to use backups like an iOS device does. Another oddity is AirPlay 2 which magically appeared last week after a year of delays so the jury is still out on how 鈥渟hipped that is.Apple also shipped a UHD HDR capable box last fall, which was a big deal. They even came around on whether they should convert all media to 60 FPS HDR (very bad) or switch modes (not bad). They have had to make refinements to this at several stages but it does seem to be improving. When they announced UHD they also announced that all movies would get UHD for free when available from most studios. The big exception was Disney. Any Disney news coming, I hope?I still would like to see Apple tackle:Picture in Picture - This is just a silly omission of a television technology when they have it for other platforms.Interactive Programming Guide - With an increasing emphasis on live TV provided by multiple sources there needs to be a mechanism to expose what s available to the user from the disparate silos. (Especially because the programming guide some of these bundlers provide in their own apps is shit.)A New Multitasking View - The rolodex card thing has got to go.Streamlined Apple ID and Apple ID Switching - A lot of people live with other people. Who knew?Siri - Google demonstrated Google Home and a Chromecast working together over a year ago now.Last year I called out tvOS for having huge shortcomings (regionally, and in terms of applicable services even if it was working in your region). Apple has made incremental moves to address these things but there are still huge potholes for a user if they happen to fall into a service, or use a provider, that doesn鈥檛 provide support. There is also a huge service missing from tvOS still, Netflix. A service that is far and away the number one service people subscribe to if they subscribe to online services.There鈥檚 even a technical grossness to the way that TV the app redirects you to why you watch. This is true of Siri鈥檚 search as well. you get bounced around redirects that change what you see on the screen at each step. Why doesn鈥檛 tvOS resolve these links to a final destination and perform one change of the visible interface?Expensive BoxThe price situation is worse this year than it was the year prior. The 2015 4th Generation Apple TV costs $150. The same as it did when it was introduced. That is isnane. The 5th Generation Apple TV 4K added last year is even more expensive at $180 for 32 GB, and $200 for 64 GB.There is no reason to buy a 64 GB Apple TV.None.Apple has had three years to justify 64 GB and they haven鈥檛. Even after the storage caps were increased. Right now the pricing structure seems to exist only to drive people to spend a little more money to get the next level.Third Party PlayersMany of the services have made their own playback controls, which is bad, because then different apps behave differently. The Siri playback controls don鈥檛 work in certain apps, and the same goes for hand gestures. The other week I had to watch Westworld in the DirecTV Now app because HBO Go doesn鈥檛 recognize my free HBO subscription from AT T via DirecTV Now. DirecTV Now doesn鈥檛 behave like a normal playback system on the platform.Games, lolGaming is a hilarious joke on the Apple TV. When it was first teased, people thought that they would have console level games on Apple hardware on a big screen in their living room. Apple undermined everything about that starting with input methods. It鈥檚 still bizarre that Apple demos the Apple TV in stores with a third party game controller.If Apple demos an upgrade to Metal and shows how many polygons they can push now I will make a very impolite gesture with with my hand because those polygons will not matter.I would argue that they should strip out any gaming aspirations and make a more economical streaming device. More to ComeThere鈥檚 still so much more to do with this platform. Especially with the Apple streaming service on the horizon. Let鈥檚 see how much progress Apple thinks they need to make 2018-06-03 23:59:00Category: textOlder PostsSubscribeAbout

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