Ars Technica:
I wanted to love the Apple TV remote. It was sleek and futuristic. Plus, it had an accelerometer and its own little trackpad. Besides which, I didn’t think I’d really need the remote, anyway, since I could simply tell the TV what I wanted to watch. What wasn’t to love? Turns out, pretty much everything.
Thankfully, though, this interaction travesty provides some good insight into what makes or breaks the user experience.
I hate the Apple TV remote as well. Anyone else have strong opinions about it one way or the other?
The current AppleTV remote is for me the worst design Apple has produced (closely followed by the Magic Mouse).
It is ergonomically malformed, hard to use accurately, highly susceptible to mistaken input, easy to lose, not intuitive to orient correctly. The only really pluses are the Siri control button and the fact that is Bluetooth (and I suppose for Apple that it is small and easy to include in the AppleTV box with minimal additional packaging).
It never gives me much problems, but my dad and my brother both hate it.
Yeah. A lot of the time I’ll have it pointed the wrong way since there’s no affordance to tell you which way is forward. Honestly, the frustrating thing is that fixing its issues wouldn’t be that hard. Mostly it’s “give me a way to orient it by touch”. Fix that and we’re most of thew way there.
Interesting. I love the Magic ?.
Me too. Hope they figure out inductive charging for it soon, the current setup is ridiculous.
I use the Remote app on my iPhone or iPad more than the remote. It’s super twitchy.
My wife uses very “descriptive” language when she handles it.
Oh, the hyperbole.
It’s not that bad. You press on the non-shiny end.
I don’t care that it’s thin, or that it’s too symmetrical. The gestures to actually control it are terrible.
To navigate the home screen, discrete directional buttons work much better. The same for switching to the next track, chapter, etc. In fact, the only thing the pad is really good for is scrubbing, which I rarely do.
The previous remotes were much more intuitive.
How do you see non-shiny in the dark?
I love the Apple TV remote. What I hate are the apps that don’t use the built in Apple APIs like YouTube and PrimeNow. BTW Shawn you sure do hate a lot of Apple products. I’m surprised you write for an Apple blog.
Not being able to use the mouse while it is charging is a pretty big fault and at least for me the ergonomics are horrible.
Hate is a pretty strong word for a remote. If you feel that strongly about it, maybe you (and others that hate it) shouldn’t use it?
I tolerate it, only because I hardly ever use it. I’ve moved to the Roku system in my TCL for nearly all uses. I put the Apple TV remote in a soft plastic case of sorts, and that helps. The only thing the Siri part is useful for is asking “what did s/he say?” during a movie.
On the contrary. Writing for an Apple blog should mean one calls Apple on their shortcomings without apologizing for them. That’s why I read and listen to your work.
I don’t hate it at all. In fact, compared to my horrific TV remotes with 50 buttons I’ll never use and their terrible IR performance, it’s an absolute dream. The only thing I dislike about the Apple remote is that’s it’s really hard to orient it by feel alone. Other than that, I love its simplicity and its performance.
Now, what I do hate is that every single non Apple app has it’s own navigation scheme and that drives me freaking bonkers. But that’s another discussion.
I’m not a fan of it. I’ve considered modding it to alleviate some of the issues the article describes but haven’t yet.
I hate it so much I bought a 3rd party remote that supports Apple TV and Apple’s POS remote has been relegated to the junk drawer. The arrow keys are way more accurate to navigate with.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0742BNX4G/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It needs a bit more to distinguish one end from the other by feel w/o activating the touch pad. This is super annoying at times for sure. But once you have got ahold of it and are actually using it? It’s way, way better than a typical remote.
I’m still unclear how anyone thinks the monstrosities that pass for ‘good’ remotes are, well, um, good. Twenty or thirty buttons? A D pad mixed in with and ‘enter’ button and a ‘back’ button? Current remotes are a travesty that only gadget nerds think are decent UI because they grew up with them.
Really? What other Apple products do you think I hate? Do you know which ones I love?
And writing for an Apple blog doesn’t mean you have to love everything Apple does.
One thing about Shawn, he really hates Apple products.
OK, two things. He really hates Apple products and he has no opinions.
Three! Three main weapons. He really hates Apple products, he has no opinions, and he has a fanatical devotion to the Pope.
Four main weapons! Fear, a fanatical devotion to the Pope…
LMAO “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”
I like the way you think.
The ergonomics for me have always been excellent, but you’ll run into problems if you try to use it like a run of the mill mouse, with your hand actually resting on it. I actually find it lighter and quicker to move around. At the end of the day, though, I’m a trackpad man.
It’s the age of the internet, sadly. People no longer have measured responses. For too many, it’s either 1 star or 5.
Going through lists, the touch service is far better than anything with buttons. You can go slowly or quickly. With a very slight movement, you can wiggle a highlighted movie. Swiping along an edge you can scroll the index (ie move very fast down the list, rather than line by line).
So you’re completely wrong about the only thing the pad is good for.
Also, did you realize that the touch surface can be used as if it has buttons? Tap lightly on the top, left, right, or bottom edge of the track pad, and it’ll be like a directional arrow button press.
Forgive me for repeating a reply I made to one of the other posters. But I think a lot of people don’t realize how excellent the touch surface on the remote actually is.
Going through lists, the touch service is far better than anything with buttons. You can go slowly or quickly. With a very slight movement, you can wiggle a highlighted movie. Swiping along an edge you can scroll the index (ie move very fast down the list, rather than line by line).
Also, the touch surface can be used as if it has buttons. Tap lightly on the top, left, right, or bottom edge of the track pad, and it’ll be like a directional arrow button press. I discovered this by accident but my fondness for the remote improved a lot after I discovered it. Previously I was lukewarm.
I agree with others that its design suffers WRT orientation. It should be easier to pick it up in the dark and tell by touch which is the business end without actually rubbing it.
I can’t have the thing anywhere near me, like on the arm of my sofa. God forbid I accidentally touch it and it brings up a menu or does something unexpected. I’m with the majority of my Apple friends on this: it has good ideas but horrible execution. Jony Ive apologists need to accept the fact that he often makes mistakes in putting form over function. His obsessive drive for thin/simple has brought us the end of MagSafe and headphone jacks; caused iPads to ship bent; forces everybody to live in dongle town because… no useful ports; butterfly keys with a crappy feel and a failure rate that’s through the roof. And that’s just off the top of my head. Anyhow, the remote is unpleasant in its current form.
Reflection from the light of the tv.
Orientation is never clear, it’s a 50/50 when I pick it up.
Would like a better way to select bluetooth speakers/headphones. Forcing one to go back to the main screen to select an output speaker is annoying.
TV Button is rather a waste for me. I use it mainly as an on/off button.
No it isn’t. Do you actually have one? I only have to charge it every month and it tells me when so I can plug it in between computing sessions. Complete non-issue.
It’s not a fault, as there is no need to use it while charging — if you forgot to charge it (for the month!) a 2-min quick charge gets your all-day use. Do you not pee or get water?
Not always present, and silly to boot. A good design tells your hand which side is up.
Disagree – the gestures are easy and better than directional buttons. So ’90s, ew.
non-native apps like YouTube and Amazon Prime (ports of their Sony apps) do indeed suck. They are an embarrassment for shops supposed so good at software.
I absolutely hate it! How many times do I have to swipe on an item for it to just wiggle and not go to the next item. Then I try again.. it still just wiggles. A third time and the cursor scrolls down about 5 items. Or I try to hit the next item, and it scrolls past it one item. Then back up and it goes over it by one item again. I have cursed this remote more times than I care to think about. I don’t know who actually approved this piece of garbage, but they should be fired! (ok, not fired, but they should be really embarrassed about it.)
Seriously. This is cheap, but it’s a game changer: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B5RF470/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
No more falling into the couch. Easy to know which end to hold. Agree with the original author that there is no advantage to minimalism when it comes to a remote.
Having pause work while waiting for it to charge when there are other wireless mice that can be used while charging is a fault in my book. If it’s not a problem for that nice.
Hate’s a bit strong, but I don’t think it’s Apple-level design, for sure.
(I don’t like the way just trying to move the thing ends up turning on the AppleTV…)
Yeah, apart from the charging story, I love everything about the MM2.
2 minutes does not get me “all day” use, and then I have “remember to change it for real” anxiety.
Me, I always get the notice when I sit down to use it, not when I’m leaving.
It’s an intermittent but repeating annoyance … that would be solved by putting the charge port at the nose like EVERY OTHER DAMNED MOUSE.
I also am not a fan of the remote’s shape and design (fails in the dark, I have to use a rubber band or third-party case in oder to feel which side is up), tho I do love the trackpad which is excellent for scrubbing video.
The better developed apps allow you to switch audio outputs during playback, via the top-pulldown menu. Netflix does. YouTube, which still doesn’t even support the “Play” button while focused on a video, doesn’t.
It’s on the list list too (most Apple mice have been problematic).
If you’re still using the rubber band you might like this case, I think it’s the one I got: https://www.amazon.com/Fintie-Protective-Case-Apple-Remote/dp/B01LXI592F
Despite being “glow in the dark” I’ve never noticed it glowing that much so you might like one of the other colours better.
There’s always at least some light to see the shiny/dull side, it helps me, and I thought it may help others. That, and feeling for the ring on the menu button, or the oblong shape of the volume buttons. Once I became more familiar with the remote, my gripes faded away.
My reply is not to the design of the remote, yes it could be much better, but one of simply stating what I do to use it more easily.
Good thing Apple gives you the option to use the touch surface as a directional pad.
Imagine the touch surface has directional arrows. TAP the corresponding area of the touch surface, and it will behave like directional buttons.
Physically it has some flaws. Mostly, it’s hard to tell which way is up. I found a silicone wrapper for it that fixes ithat. Otherwise, I think I’d appreciate pressure sensitivity on the trackpad part: a little more pressure being required to interrupt a video would be nice.
The actual controls make it my favourite remote. The gesture-based jump (slide, tap-tap-tap-tap) is my preferred approach now.
I suppose on whole. I neither love it nor hate it, but I can see a path to a device I would love. I hope Apple follows that path.
“(closely followed by the Magic Mouse)”
What, no hate for the hockey puck mouse?
Give him…the soft cushions!!!
And make sure the stuffing is up one end…
I use the Logitech Harmony remote with my AppleTV.