Apple’s October TV Surprise
Last year I argued that Apple was in no rush, and it wasn’t logical to lambast them for not including the feature. This year, however, as devices push more toward UHD, and HDR, the lack of any model in their lineup that supports it is slightly less excusable at the price point they’re in. […] The only company selling an HD-only streaming media device above $50 is Apple. The only company selling a steaming media device without HDR above $90 is Apple.
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Apple announced tvOS 10 this summer, at WWDC and Eddy Cue made a big deal out of Single Sign On. Single Sign On would do away with one of the biggest pain points for cable-subscribers using Apple TVs by providing a one-time authorization. It was billed as part of tvOS 10, and tvOS 10 was billed as coming in September. It never shipped, but it remained at the top of Apple’s product page for the Apple TV until yesterday with a “Coming soon” button under it. No timeline whatsoever.
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So Apple made the Fire TV home screen, as an app, except they couldn’t get Netflix onboard, while Amazon could.
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There’s a total lack of understanding about TV in homes, which has plagued the product since it shipped last year, and seems guaranteed to persist another year.
Update (2016-11-02): See also: Hacker News.
Update (2016-11-05): Jared Newman:
The Apple TV’s lack of conviction isn’t just about words, it's about action. On that count, the upcoming TV guide will be a half-hearted solution for as long as Apple relegates it to a separate app, rather than making it a core element of the Apple TV interface.
