Apple TV

Number 1: No ability to disable the Siri/Search button. When my children press it, they’re suddenly staring at offensive movie/TV covers of Stephen King's IT, American Horror Story, or Baywatch. Seriously? My children have to see all of these pictures because they simply hit a menu button? There's no way to disable the search screen. This is unacceptable.

Number 2: I cannot delete certain Apps - if I place them inside a folder, there is no way to password protect the folder. Essentially, kids can go anywhere on the Apple TV and explore anything on the device. Yes, they're prevented from 'buying' anything, but they can still *see* everything. So much for guarding the innocence of children.

Please, Apple. Give moms and dads the power to protect the eyes and innocence of their children. Thank you for listening. In the meantime, I have returned my Apple TV 4K to the store and I have gone back to my Jailbreak 3rd generation device that allows me to fully control the menu.

They took advantage of the minor scratches to render any form of meaningful assistance. I strongly suggest that anyone purchasing an Apple product should think twice as they are qualified skelems hell bent on ripping off anybody using stupid means necessary to void warranty of their products. The store receipt does not contain any of these nonsensical terms and conditions.

The touch part of the remote has improved but there's the issue that the slightest accidental touch of the remote can cause an unwanted pause or rewind of what you're currently watching. Remotes get tossed around, in the dark, so any kind of trackpad will have this issue compared to a traditional hard-press button kind of remote. Although the Siri touch remote has more functionality, the older aluminum remote (which we use in tandem since those can be paired with any Apple TV) could slide down the sofa cushion crack and not be accidentally activated. It's nice having dual remotes anyway when there are multiple viewers. I like that the Siri remote is rechargeable and a charge lasts a really long time.

Apple TV can be utilized as the base station for HomeKit. Being able to control a plethora of HomeKit accessories from anywhere in the world using an iPhone is an awesome piece of power that I don't think many Apple users are aware of. I started with the Philips Hue lights and now have in-wall switches, cameras, thermostats, etc. It allows you to schedule things to go on and off at desired times or related to the sunrise/sunset. Or turn lights down, on, off, with your voice or through the HomeKit app. It's easy to get it set up and little to no bugs in my experience. Highly recommend getting a few accessories and experiencing the automation and smart home features that are possible with HomeKit. Apple should advertise these capabilities.

Back to the Apple TV. From HBO, Hulu, Showtime, PBS, Amazon Prime, YouTube, SlingTV, Netflix, etc. All the major content providers can be found on Apple TV. You can subscribe to them a la carte, or use your cable subscription info if you haven’t cut the cable. Amazon Prime content is included with a Prime membership, just plug in the username/PW. And of course there are movies & music through iTunes. And you can stream podcasts (picking up where you left off listening on your iPhone), listen to your iTunes music library, stream Apple Music, browse your photos library, use Airplay to beam photos/videos to the Apple TV from your phone or laptop, mirror the screen on your iPhone, laptop, iMac, etc. so people can view the screen as if they were looking at your desktop with you. And then there is a world of games, other APPs, there is just a ton of stuff. Very versatile piece of kit.

Smart TVs have similar content and apps, but what makes Apple TV really shine is the TV APP. It keeps tabs on everything you're watching in one place and syncs it between multiple Apple TVs if you have more than one. It also lets you browse content across multiple providers. Watch half a movie downstairs, finish watching it upstairs and it knows right where you were. Other apps do this by themselves, but the TV APP will collect these things from multiple sources. You will see the HBO series you're watching right next to the movie or Amazon Prime show you are also watching. It's not flawless and there are times when the updating and syncing aren't perfectly executed. But I would imagine it will only get better as time goes on and the TV system is updated. The groundwork and thinking are solid and it does work well a majority of the time.

When there's a show you want to watch but don't want to subscribe to the provider for just that one show, you can usually find it on iTunes and buy a season pass there. For instance, if you want to see "The Handmaid's Tale" you can either subscribe to Hulu, or you can buy a season pass on iTunes for just that one show. Or utilize the free trial many providers offer and binge watch the entire series, then exit the service.

When cutting the cable, I wired an antenna in the attic and ran it to the TVs. Fairly easy because you can use the coax that used to bring the cable to the various TVs. I don’t watch much over-the-air programming, but there is the occasional football game or newscast that makes this a handy thing to have. And the new TVs have built-in OTA guides so it’s very similar to the old cable days where you can look what’s on, what’s coming up, etc. with ease.

Apple TV made cutting the cable (DirecTV in my case) very enjoyable. And even with subscriptions to HBONOW, Amazon Prime, Netflix and renting a few movies, it saved close to $100 per month. And I prefer watching everything on demand. I don’t miss flipping through the endless channels of a satellite subscription scrolling through so many things I would never watch anyway.

I like that there's no advertising in the Apple TV interface. You see the APPs, or hit the home button to go to the TV app, browse the shows you're currently watching, or browse new things you haven't seen, all without any popups, ads, noise, or anything. It's clean, well designed, and it just works. And behind the scenes, it's vital to know that Apple does not collect browsing history or other personal data in order to sell this info to advertisers or other companies.