Unauthoritative Pronouncements

I came across this video from Kyle Erickson on YouTube. The video follows the general YouTube tech video template, and Kyle has some Canadian flare so you’ll see him use apps for services like Crave.

The premise of his video is that he’s fed up with the embedded software in his TVs, specifically Roku and Tizen (Samsung) — though he does briefly mention Fire TV. His solution was to add an Apple TV to those HDMI inputs in his home. You can’t argue with that logic in this day and age.

However, he skips over the TV app in a way that serves the premise of the video, but not potential Apple TV buyers.

He uses the home screen (as I do, and I recommend for everyone) but he doesn’t point out in the video that he’s changed the default behavior of his remote to use the home screen over the TV app.

It would be better, maybe, to detail the steps to go through to get Watch Now to appear on the home screen, for example. When he bemoans the apps in the interfaces of the embedded software systems, he doesn’t mention that the TV app is a billboard for Apple TV+ first and foremost.

He also highlights that Apple supports older hardware with new versions of the OS and that a new version of the OS will be coming at this year’s WWDC. That needs a qualifier that Apple might finally pull the trigger on the TV app being the new home screen, and with the TV apps heavy emphasis on Apple TV+ we might all be in for a rude awakening.

Having said that, I completely agree with Kyle that people should buy an Apple TV these days if they can afford it. Apple TVs are better in a lot of ways thanks mostly to competitors worsening their products, not because of improvements Apple is making. Apple should be doing a better job here, even when, as Kyle notes, the competition is so awful.