Apple TV 3.0 review

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When Apple released version 3.0 of the Apple TV software this week I didn’t rush straightaway to install after the company’s recent spew of absolutely appalling updates to the iPhone. I waited until the support forums had other people posting about their experiences with the upgrade, and until reviews had started to pop up around the net. I reasoned that if the update was a disaster, the web would soon fill up with complaints. The reviews so far, though, have been very positive and the forums, while they do have people posting about things going wrong, don’t have anywhere near the same flood of angry upgraders that the recent iPhone updates provoked. So I took the plunge and I’m glad I did.

Apple’s almost got it right at long last. The Apple TV 3.0 update has turned the unit into a faster, much more reliable media playback device. The menu interface is radically different and now lists your own content above iTunes Store links for films and music. Before, Apple gave those of us who bought the ATV the irksome impression that it was primarily a vehicle for selling us stuff. And maybe it was. Your own content was buried at the bottom of every menu listing, whereas with 3.0 the reverse is true.

Instead of having to scroll up and down a clumsy, ugly menu interface you now move from side to side to access photos, music, video—and Internet radio. Why it’s taken Apple so long to provide radio, who can guess, because iTunes has offered this since day one. Sadly, it seems Apple and the BBC have yet to talk because you won’t find any BBC stations listed—or any known UK ones for that matter. Still, it’s easy to find a station that plays stuff you like and through our own home cinema system the sound was incredibly good and playback was without stutter or delays. A nice touch is that Internet radio playback doesn’t stop when you leave that part of the menu system and browse other areas, not until you click to play another station, or a film, or a music track—so you can have the radio playing while you view your photos if you like (though we’ve discovered the slideshow function isn’t working on our ATV, which is the only annoying bug so far, and means we have to use the remote to manually move from one photo to the next). You can now make use of Genius Mixes via your ATV as well, though anyone who’s used these in iTunes would probably agree that, while they’re useful under some circumstances, they’re hardly revolutionary.

The fact that there’s now an Internet menu under which you’ll find radio and YouTube (before YouTube had a menu item all to itself) suggests that Apple is planning to add more Internet functionality to the device. It’s about time, though we in the UK can but hope to see the BBC’s iPlayer service appearing before too long (I see no reason why not, given the deals the BBC already has in place with the likes of Microsoft and Nintendo) along with other TV catch-up services. I for one will be very annoyed if all we get are links to Netflix and Hulu that will be useless in countries where those services are unavailable.

It remains the case that ATV is held back by software that could provide more, but for reasons known only to Steve Jobs, does not. Why no web browser? If you can browse the Web on a mobile phone, why not on your TV? Other media playback devices on the market offer this. Why no ability to use Facebook to post or Twitter to tweet what you’re watching or listening to?

Every ATV software update locks up the unit again if you’ve unlocked it using a USB Patchstick to bring more services and functionality to the hardware, so Apple is obviously well aware of the likes of Boxee and NitoTV with their more comprehensive offerings, albeit with comparatively ugly and at times flaky interfaces. Maybe if Apple played catch-up, instead of obsessively seeking to punish those users who hack their boxes to get more use out of them, we’d see the ATV fully made use of, marketed as a much more versatile product, by the company that makes it. It’s a ridiculous state of affairs that has, in part, contributed to the ATV being seen as something of a joke since it first came to market (with Jobs’ infamous reference to it as being a ‘hobby’ not helping at all).

Some argue that the ATV needs a hardware upgrade, perhaps incorporating a Blu-Ray player and a TV tuner, and they describe the unit as ‘outdated’. I don’t agree. Yes, I bought the ATV in 2007 but I bought my iMac and MacBook Pro that year as well and they’re just as useful today. The ATV, on the other hand, has become more useful thanks to Apple improving the software functionality, albeit at a frustratingly slow snail’s pace. The 3.0 software has some obvious missed opportunities, but far less than previous versions, and there are some bugs, though nowhere near as many as the 2.0+ range of updates. But ultimately, the ATV is an attractive little silver, white and grey box that sits next to your telly and allows you to stream and play your digital media through it. Classic Apple simplicity.

If people want something more complicated and hefty, there are other devices on the market—but hell, we had complexity with the Windows Media Center years ago, and my memories of that one are not good at all. I don’t need my ATV to have a TV tuner—I already have Sky+ HD. Most if not all of us have some kind of digital TV tuner already. I don’t need the ATV to play Blu-Ray discs either—there are many Blu-Ray players on the market, I have one already. Please, Apple—don’t listen to those who want to turn the ATV into a giant hi-fi stack suited to a 1985 living room, just make the ATV better at what it does already while adding functions we won’t find on Blu-Ray players or set-top tuners.

The ATV doesn’t need a faster processor if the software works, and the menus are now quick to access—though yes, some new models with 1TB or 2TB drives would be good after the 40Gb model was recently discontinued leaving only the 160Gb one available. But this isn’t the Mac Mini, people. All the things it needs to do more of, or should have added, don’t require loads more horsepower—just a bit of bravery and imagination on the part of Apple. The company’s unusually coy approach to the ATV undoubtedly has something to do with its relationships with media giants needing to be sweet and not antagonistic but I don’t see any reasons for delaying or not even considering bringing BBC radio and iPlayer, other catch-up services, Twitter and Facebook to the device.

If you’ve got an ATV I would say to you, do consider updating to 3.0 but read up first so’s you make a fully informed decision before taking the risk. If you don’t have one, but have long thought about the device, now is the time to seriously consider buying. The ATV has almost, but not quite, come of age and, for the first time ever, I’m confident it will get there. How many other pieces of hardware are updated at least once a year to such an extent as to essentially bring a whole new system into your home, with new features to discover?

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