Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude. (c) Ruffin Bailey 2001-2021

From theverge.com:

Apple’s new TV app is supposed to solve all that complexity by unifying all these fragmented services into a single, searchable system. It even gets mapped to the TV button the Apple TV remote.

I mean, honestly, we can call this courageous, but this is two straight recent hardware introductions that have made major changes to their UI after the fact. The watch's UI was fundamentally changed for watchOS 3. Don't believe me?

From imore.com:

The app carousel, heavily promoted in the first release of watchOS, is all but gone. It still exists — there's been no Home screen reinvention on any of Apple's mobile platforms — but the likelihood of ever seeing it on your Apple Watch has diminished to near-zero with watchOS 3.

Instead of the Carousel, you now launch apps from complications and the new Dock, which replaces the Friends screen and Glances in one fell swoop. ...

Apple, too, has embraced the idea that users should have more than one watch face: You can now swipe edge-to-edge between your saved watch faces, each with their own custom complications...

And now you've changed how my Apple TV home button works? What could be more fundamental? That's two swings and misses at UIs. When you're shoehorning a new paradigm into the same hardware that quickly, you missed, man, you missed. (Not saying don't change them, but this isn't like app icons and the iOS home screen.)

It's the broadcast, stupid.

The article at The Verge also does a good job showing why Apple is missing the TV boat:

In the transition from CDs to downloads, Apple led the way and was always two steps ahead of its competitors. In the new streaming media world, Apple always seems like it’s two steps behind. iTunes, once a centerpiece of our media libraries, is now either ignored or openly disliked. And Amazon has popped up as a more capable replacement for movie and TV show rentals. Sling, Sony, and AT&T have figured out ways to release “skinny bundles” of TV channels over the internet.

(I'd argue with the claim that Amazon is better for rentals. I'm not sure that either has a markedly better interface there. But I'm not sure replacing Blockbuster is really key here.)

Look, what Apple did so well for music was to produce better hardware. They mopped Sony's floor with the iPod and iTunes. Would you rather deal with carrying around CDs and tapes, or one miniature hard drive? Would you rather push CDs in and out of your computer's CD tray, or have it all as mp3s on your drive?

iTunes was a quantum leap better than what came before when you were at a computer or on the [pedestrian] go, listing to music. Apple TV is not.

And it really can't be. What Apple's trying to reinvent with Apple TV isn't really hardware. What they're reinventing is broadcast media.

The iPod didn't smash radio (the seemingly increasing popularity of podcasts excepted, though even that took a decade). The iPod smashed Walkmen. What iTunes smashed wasn't and isn't radio and TV. iTunes smashed physical media.

The iPhone simply continued the lineage, and, what's more important, made the computer in your pocket personal. That is, the iPhone again reinvented hardware -- the personal computer -- never broadcast media. Jobs' belief that people wanted to own content worked when we were talking records. It didn't work so well when we were talking broadcast media. You can't buy live sporting events (or any live content) from Apple or Amazon. And that's why cable provider "skinny bundles" work.

Aside: You could also extend this to Apple's News app. I'd argue newspapers are a form of broadcast media. The web has taken that over. Apple's hardware advantages haven't done a lot to change the dominance of the usual players on the web with written news, though the move from paper to the web has -- physical media is losing (duh). The means by which we get and consume digital media? That's an easier area for content providers to protect, and a tougher arena for Apple et al to monetize.

The real war for the television screen is for live events. Apple doesn't have a good disruptive strategy there yet. I'm not sure they will.

PS -- TIL (or remembered) that the Apple TV came out the same year as, but months before, the iPhone. It's been a while.

Labels: appletv, broadcast, media, news

I'm an idiot. I got the new Apple TV as soon as it was announced. I was ready for a better TV experience, and I thought, in part because of the famous Issacson quote of Jobs saying they'd finally "cracked" TV or whatever it was.

They haven't. The problem with counting on apps to fix TV is that the apps have to be good, and everything we're watching is still at best a beta, it seems. I can't stop getting, "This account has started playback on another device. You have reached the maximum number of concurrent streams," with the ESPN app, for instance, when I'm definitely not watching anywhere else. It seems to happen when I change ESPN streams... watching ESPN2 after ESPN or vice versa. It even made me reactivate my account a few minutes ago by logging in online on my laptop, but a few minutes of SportCenter later, I'm right back to "Playback Stopped. This account has started playback..." No it hasn't dang it! Strangely, I can plug back in my Amazon Fire Stick, open SlingTV, and start watching ESPN, no problems (other than the slowness from using an age old Fire Stick).

And the Showtime app has had serious trouble. If I navigated around too much, it'd stop playing. Not stopped working completely; I just couldn't watch any shows. Hitting the Play buttons would make the button look depressed and released, but no show. The only way to get things working was to reboot -- by unplugging the Apple TV and plugging it back in.

To be clear, after nearly forcing myself to give the Apple TV a chance for a few months, I'm back to using my Fire Stick as much or more for the services where there's overlap, namely the two above: ESPN and Showtime. Though the hardware is worse, and the interface is mostly worse[1], ultimately it does a better job, with less goofy bugs and random feed pixelation.

The Apple TV might be a great platform, but if it is, I can't tell. The apps are letting it down.

[1] I enjoy the Apple TV scrubber more than the fast-forward buttons in Showtime, for example. When you fast forward a show on the Fire, you see the time change, but don't get to see the screen "scrub" at all. VHS beat that, for heaven's sake.

Labels: apple, apple fail, appletv

title: Put the knife down and take a green herb, dude.	descrip: One feller's views on the state of everyday computer science & its application (and now, OTHER STUFF) who isn't rich enough to shell out for www.myfreakinfirst-andlast-name.com Using 89% of the same design the blog had in 2001.
FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY!!! Back-up your data and, when you bike, always wear white. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Affiliate links in green.
x MarkUpDown is the best Markdown editor for professionals on Windows 10. It includes two-pane live preview, in-app uploads to imgur for image hosting, and MultiMarkdown table support. Features you won't find anywhere else include... MarkUpDown Multiline Table & Bootstrap Grid support. Beautiful Easy Actions that keep the Markdown flowing. HTML paste to paste HTML source into your documents. You've wasted more than $15 of your time looking for a great Markdown editor. Stop looking. MarkUpDown is the app you're looking for. Learn more or head over to the 'Store now!

Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Hey Apple, can I hold a dollar? MacRumors again: Apple has spent over $6 billion for original TV shows and movies for its upcoming Apple TV+ streaming service, set to launch later this year. They could've done this -- or given nearly everyone in the world a dollar. That's just to say this is a sizable amount. And $10/month is too much to expect anyone to pay without a killer set of shows. I don't think Apple has a killer set of shows. If this does goes badly, my stock is going to take a sizable hit. Labels: apple, appletv, TV posted by Jalindrine at 8/20/2019 03:31:00 PM

Wednesday, December 14, 2016
*AppleTV fails at broadcast, and that's why it's failing* From theverge.com: Apple’s new TV app is supposed to solve all that complexity by unifying all these fragmented services into a single, searchable system. It even gets mapped to the TV button the Apple TV remote. I mean, honestly, we can call this courageous, but this is two straight recent hardware introductions that have made major changes to their UI after the fact. The watch's UI was fundamentally changed for watchOS 3. Don't believe me? From imore.com: The app carousel, heavily promoted in the first release of watchOS, is all but gone. It still exists — there's been no Home screen reinvention on any of Apple's mobile platforms — but the likelihood of ever seeing it on your Apple Watch has diminished to near-zero with watchOS 3. Instead of the Carousel, you now launch apps from complications and the new Dock, which replaces the Friends screen and Glances in one fell swoop. ... Apple, too, has embraced the idea that users should have more than one watch face: You can now swipe edge-to-edge between your saved watch faces, each with their own custom complications... And now you've changed how my Apple TV home button works? What could be more fundamental? That's two swings and misses at UIs. When you're shoehorning a new paradigm into the same hardware that quickly, you missed, man, you missed. (Not saying don't change them, but this isn't like app icons and the iOS home screen.) It's the broadcast, stupid. The article at The Verge also does a good job showing why Apple is missing the TV boat: In the transition from CDs to downloads, Apple led the way and was always two steps ahead of its competitors. In the new streaming media world, Apple always seems like it’s two steps behind. iTunes, once a centerpiece of our media libraries, is now either ignored or openly disliked. And Amazon has popped up as a more capable replacement for movie and TV show rentals. Sling, Sony, and AT&T have figured out ways to release “skinny bundles” of TV channels over the internet. (I'd argue with the claim that Amazon is better for rentals. I'm not sure that either has a markedly better interface there. But I'm not sure replacing Blockbuster is really key here.) Look, what Apple did so well for music was to produce better hardware. They mopped Sony's floor with the iPod and iTunes. Would you rather deal with carrying around CDs and tapes, or one miniature hard drive? Would you rather push CDs in and out of your computer's CD tray, or have it all as mp3s on your drive? iTunes was a quantum leap better than what came before when you were at a computer or on the [pedestrian] go, listing to music. Apple TV is not. And it really can't be. *What Apple's trying to reinvent with Apple TV isn't really hardware. What they're reinventing is broadcast media.* The iPod didn't smash radio (the seemingly increasing popularity of podcasts excepted, though even that took a decade). The iPod smashed Walkmen. What iTunes smashed wasn't and isn't radio and TV. iTunes smashed physical media. The iPhone simply continued the lineage, and, what's more important, made the computer in your pocket personal. That is, the iPhone again reinvented hardware -- the personal computer -- never broadcast media. Jobs' belief that people wanted to own content worked when we were talking records. It didn't work so well when we were talking broadcast media. You can't buy live sporting events (or any live content) from Apple or Amazon. And that's why cable provider "skinny bundles" work. Aside: You could also extend this to Apple's News app. I'd argue newspapers are a form of broadcast media. The web has taken that over. Apple's hardware advantages haven't done a lot to change the dominance of the usual players on the web with written news, though the move from paper to the web has -- physical media is losing (duh). The means by which we get and consume digital media? That's an easier area for content providers to protect, and a tougher arena for Apple et al to monetize. The real war for the television screen is for live events. Apple doesn't have a good disruptive strategy there yet. I'm not sure they will. PS -- TIL (or remembered) that the Apple TV came out the same year as, but months before, the iPhone. It's been a while. Labels: appletv, broadcast, media, news posted by ruffin at 12/14/2016 11:19:00 AM

Tuesday, January 19, 2016
AppleTV, let down by its apps I'm an idiot. I got the new Apple TV as soon as it was announced. I was ready for a better TV experience, and I thought, in part because of the famous Issacson quote of Jobs saying they'd finally "cracked" TV or whatever it was. They haven't. The problem with counting on apps to fix TV is that the apps have to be good, and everything we're watching is still at best a beta, it seems. I can't stop getting, "This account has started playback on another device. You have reached the maximum number of concurrent streams," with the ESPN app, for instance, when I'm definitely not watching anywhere else. It seems to happen when I change ESPN streams... watching ESPN2 after ESPN or vice versa. It even made me reactivate my account a few minutes ago by logging in online on my laptop, but a few minutes of SportCenter later, I'm right back to "Playback Stopped. This account has started playback..." No it hasn't dang it! Strangely, I can plug back in my Amazon Fire Stick, open SlingTV, and start watching ESPN, no problems (other than the slowness from using an age old Fire Stick). And the Showtime app has had serious trouble. If I navigated around too much, it'd stop playing. Not stopped working completely; I just couldn't watch any shows. Hitting the Play buttons would make the button look depressed and released, but no show. The only way to get things working was to reboot -- by unplugging the Apple TV and plugging it back in. To be clear, after nearly forcing myself to give the Apple TV a chance for a few months, I'm back to using my Fire Stick as much or more for the services where there's overlap, namely the two above: ESPN and Showtime. Though the hardware is worse, and the interface is mostly worse[1], ultimately it does a better job, with less goofy bugs and random feed pixelation. The Apple TV might be a great platform, but if it is, I can't tell. The apps are letting it down. [1] I enjoy the Apple TV scrubber more than the fast-forward buttons in Showtime, for example. When you fast forward a show on the Fire, you see the time change, but don't get to see the screen "scrub" at all. VHS beat that, for heaven's sake. Labels: apple, apple fail, appletv posted by ruffin at 1/19/2016 11:20:00 PM

<< Older \| Newer >>