The New Apple TV Will Change Television Forever (Maybe)

Dan Tynan
Updated
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“The future of TV is apps,” Apple CEO Tim Cook proclaimed from the stage at its big fall event in San Francisco. If he said it, then it must be so.

Today, Apple unveiled a redesigned streaming media device that’s a lot more like an iPhone than a Roku. The big news is that the new hockey-puck-sized Apple TV will respond to Siri voice commands and run custom apps designed for the big screen.

Imagine your television as a really large iPad and you’ll get the idea. In this way, Apple is positioning its once neglected set-top as the hub for your home- entertainment system — and possibly a lot more.

Still, at $149 (for 32 GB of storage) and $199 (64 GB), Apple TV is significantly more expensive than the previous incarnation ($69) or any of its nearest competitors, which top out around $100. What will you get for your money? Read on.

Voice search using Siri

As expected, Apple has integrated the Siri voice assistant into the new Apple TV box. It has also expanded search across different apps (essentially catching up with Roku and Amazon Fire TV). So you can say, “Show me family-friendly movies” or “Show me every movie starring Pauly Shore,” and then decide if you’d rather watch them on Netflix or Hulu. (Or, in the case of Pauly Shore, not at all.)

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You can use Siri to tell Apple TV what to show you (Photo: Apple).

But that’s only the beginning. You can also search inside programs while watching them. You can call up information about the show, including cast members. Miss some key dialogue because your noisy roommate was talking? Ask: “What did he (or she) say?” and Siri will automatically rewind 7 seconds and replay the scene you missed. Or you can say, “Fast forward 7 minutes” and it will do that.

If this works as well in real life as well as it did on stage, it will be awesome.

A slick new remote

Apple has replaced its limited, wafer-thin, so-tiny-you’re-sure-to-lose-it-in-between-the-cushions-of-your-couch remote with a slightly larger but far more functional one. The biggest change is the touchpad at the top of the remote, which makes it easier to navigate forward and back through programs.

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The new Apple TV remote, demonstrated by Eddy Cue, wearing yet another in a series of subtlely hued “Dad-shirts.” (Photo: Apple).

It also features an accelerometer, allowing you to play the Wii games that are coming to Apple TV. You’ll also press a button on the remote to active Siri voice commands.

New TV apps

You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows, because you can now ask Apple TV, which will run a weather app identical to the one that comes on the iPhone. You can get sports results with equal ease — simply ask: “Who won last night’s Giants game?” to get box scores displayed on screen. And you can access your Apple Music account to play tunes.

But that’s not all. If Apple has its way, a slew of new apps will soon be coming to your boob tube.

For example, a new Major League Baseball app will let you call up scores and stats while you’re watching a game — or even watch two games side by side, both of them in HD. (Of course, you’ll also need to pony up some pretty hefty coin for a full MLB season package.)

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Who won last night’s game? Just ask the MLB app on your Apple TV (photo: Apple).

When you’re not root-root-rooting for the home team, you can shop from the comfort of your couch. At today’s event, Apple demo’d the Gilt app, which lets you cruise a virtual mall and order clothes, gear, and more with just a few taps on the remote.

In fact, Apple has created yet another operating system developers can build new apps for — called tvOS — so you can expect a whole lot more apps to show up soon.

Games

Apple also demonstrated some Wii-like games using the Apple TV and the remote, such as Hipster Whale’s iOS hit, Crossy Road. Harmonix also announced a new series of Beat Sports games that use the remote’s built-in accelerometer.

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Beat Sports on Apple TV, aka the Wii 2 (Photo: Apple).

Note that Amazon also introduced lightweight gaming with its Fire TV console last year, which didn’t exactly burn up the marketplace. Maybe the Apple brand will spark more of a fire than Fire.

Related: Here’s What the New Apple TV Offers Gamers

What’s missing?

There has been much speculation about Apple offering its own streaming equivalent to SlingTV — a bundle of “cable stations” delivered directly to the Apple TV for a monthly fee. No word of confirmation passed the lips of an Apple employee at this event.

Similarly, there was no mention of Apple HomeKit, its platform for weaving together smart-home devices. An Apple TV box using Siri would be a natural interface for such things, as Amazon is hoping Echo may one day become. For news on that, we’ll probably have to wait until the next big Apple extravaganza.

Even more about Apple’s 9/9 event:

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