Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Hardware, Features, Apple TV
How Apple's Remote app ruined remote controls for me
Way back in what we called "the 80s," my father bought a VCR. Its magic let us record TV shows for later viewing, and we loved it. In fact, VCRs did 4 things:
- Record the show you were watching
- Record a show that was airing on a channel other than the one you were watching
- Watch videos previously recorded (your own or commercial movies)
- Record shows all on its own
Eventually we upgraded to a model with a wired remote control that was the size of a baby manatee and had more buttons than a scientific calculator. Twenty-eight years later, the DVR has made recording easier but remotes (or "clickers" as we call them) are still stuck in the 80s. To the max.
Eight years ago, I stood before God and my family and I took a vow with my wife. I swore that I'd love her, honor her and not become that husband with a drawer full of remote controls. I've failed on the latter. Above is a photo of our current collection. From left to right:
- The television remote. This is used to tell the TV where to look for input. That's it. It's got 49 buttons, and we only ever use 3.
- The Comcast remote. Our TV's sidekick is the Comcast box. Its clicker sports 53 buttons and, in an emergency, could subdue an intruder. Not by bludgeoning him into submission, but by asking him how to gracefully exit the Menu screen once it's been called forth. That'll certainly keep him busy until the authorities arrive.
- The TiVo remote. Utterly useless as our Series 2 TiVo does not support HD.
- The Apple TV remote. The runt of the litter, which we'll discuss now.
The Apple remote does its job well: simple navigation; play, pause, stop and rewind; volume. But the plastic feels cheap and, like all IR devices, if it isn't pointed directly at its target extra clicking is required.
Now, think back to Steve's original iPhone demo. What struck me as inspired and brilliant was the keyboard. When you need it, it appears. When you don't, it's gone.
Wow.
The same is true of the number pad and just about every other UI element. Now look at the remotes above. Fifty-three buttons on my friend from Comcast. I use the channel and volume buttons 99% of the time. If only we could ditch the rest and eliminate the visual noise. The "Last" button on the TiVo remote, which lets me hop between the current and previous channel, is at the bottom, which makes me hold the remote in an awkward position that makes it easy to drop. Like I said about the TV remote, the vast majority of its buttons have never been pressed.
Recently, Apple updated its Remote app [App Store link] to support gestures when working with the Apple TV, and it's the greatest thing to happen in the history of couch-bound laziness. Just look at that UI. When in navigation mode, everything else disappears. Swipe up, down, left and right. Tap to select. When I want to change the volume, I click "Now Playing" and a slider appears. The same goes for fast forward and rewind. When I'm done, they're gone. At the bottom you'll see options to browse iTunes playlists, artists and albums. Pop them up when you want them, put them away when you don't.
Click More to browse podcasts, music videos and a handy search feature. Plus, the iPhone and Apple TV communicate via my Wi-Fi network, so there's no IR aiming to worry about.
Now I'm not suggesting that Apple get into the remote control business. I am saying that the Remote app gives a glimpse of what could be. Here's hoping that manufacturers will take a huge hint from Apple and hide the unnecessary, simplify and make day-to-day television navigation as pleasant as it is with the Apple TV.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
brit67 said 9:07AM on 7-07-2009
I would love it if I could control my regular comcast TV with an iApp. I abore my comcast remote.
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bosduif said 9:13AM on 7-07-2009
A universal remote app ... would really love it!
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DerekJ said 9:13AM on 7-07-2009
It wouldn't be a bad move to get an entry-level Harmony...
But what you say about the Apple remote software seems enticing. If all TV's began having either a wifi chip or bluetooth (Which seems likely given the direction that manufacturers are taking TV streaming), then the manufacturers could publish remote apps or at least access instructions for remote app devs to the App store. Maybe Logitech would take the hint and start doing this.
Obviously this wouldn't be feasible until wifi/bluetooth TV's became more ubiquitous, but it's a fun idea for now, and definitely something we can prepare for right now.
Thanks for the idea! (Starting own remote app biz...)
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JoshK said 9:14AM on 7-07-2009
Amen! This remote app is what it should have always been. Before you couldn't even control all of the AppleTV with the remote app and still had to keep that cheap tiny remote nearby for back up. But this one is beautiful and intelligent. My iPhone is easiest my favorite remote in the home.
My Logitech Harmony isn't going anywhere soon. It has button overload too but at least it's just one remote and I can customize it to feel smaller and ignore all the visually noisy clutter buttons.
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Snap said 9:26AM on 7-07-2009
What about a small IR emitter attached to the iphone's dock connector? Sure, you'd need to build the interface for your universal remote app upside down, and it doesn't resolve the issue that IR needs to be pointed directly at the receiver, but it shouldn't be too difficult for someone with the know-how to knock something up.
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SpinThis! said 10:43AM on 7-07-2009
Dongles suck especially to control an ancient and directionally limited technology like IR. I think you'd get better mileage out of controlling a bluetooth or wifi IR blaster connected via a Mac mini.
tidymaze said 9:32AM on 7-07-2009
Ha! Love this idea! I walked into my living room this morning, iPhone in hand, and tried to turn on my tv with it. It wouldn't be difficult for manufacturers to include a wifi antenna, I'm surprised that I haven't heard of one doing that.
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Dan Woods said 9:37AM on 7-07-2009
TiVos can be controlled via Ethernet. PS3's and Wii's can be controlled via Bluetooth. Some Cable DVRs can be controlled by Firewire.
Someone needs to design a Media-Centre Ethernet Switch with iR leads that tape over the front of Legacy iR-controlled devices. Then allow an iPhone or Bluetooth/WiFi device to control Multiple Devices at Once.
Need to Set the TV to HDMI 2 and the Amp to Video 2 to Watch TV? Press the TV Button, Inputs will be set and the Apple Remote.App will Launch
Need to Set the TV to HDMI 1 and the Amp to Video 1 to play PS3 Games and BluRay? Press the PS3 Button, Inputs will change again and the App will emulate a Bluetooth PS3 Remote.
Press the Wii Button, Component 1 and Video 3 will enable magically and the iPhone, with accelerometer will function as a makeshift WiiMote until you fish the real ones out from the couch cushions.
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Beth said 11:43AM on 7-07-2009
For the most part, you're describing a Harmony remote. Our Harmony does all those things (well, it doesn't emulate a Wiimote), including fully controlling the PS3 with the addition of the new adapter from Logitech. Plus, I'd rather have a "real" remote with buttons that I can feel in the dark as opposed to using my iPhone that I have to look at in order to use.
hmlong said 1:16PM on 7-07-2009
You don't need "real" buttons when all you need for the most common functions are gestures. Slide up/down, left/right, flick left/right, two fingers, two-finger-tap to bring up the menu, flick to scroll through it, etc..
All easy to do in the dark, without looking, unlike most remotes where you're trying to remember if the left little square button is menu and the right little square button is guide, or vice-versa.
And my friend has a rather curvy Harmony with a color screen and, quite frankly, it sucks. The screen functions are mostly illegible, and you need a magnifying glass to attempt to read the miniscule text on most of the buttons. Grouping is terrible, placement is terrible, all in all, it's... well, you get the idea.
Ethan said 9:39AM on 7-07-2009
How about they put a tuner in that Apple TV and make it into a PVR.
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SpinThis! said 10:09AM on 7-07-2009
I had EyeTV on the ATV for awhile and the Apple TV as a DVR is pretty underpowered. You can record no problem but the box struggles playing back HD content.
jonwil2002 said 8:36AM on 7-08-2009
Apple will NEVER do a PVR. The moment they even talk about doing any kind of recorder that can record stuff from OTA/cable/sat/etc, the media companies will threaten to pull their content from the iTunes store. Well MAYBE they would be ok if it was locked down so you cant skip ads somehow and so that you can't copy the recorded material permanently/cant share it with other people.
orntwo said 9:39AM on 7-07-2009
Now, if only Apple would add a way to turn off the Apple TV with the remote app. I use a Harmony One, which is fairly good, but, even it can't know how many menus to back out of to turn the Apple TV off. Perhaps, it is a tragic flaw in the genius that created such elegance, but, it is a huge one. Until then, I think I will use it to heat my family room in the winter. Say what you will about awful interfaces from other companies, but no product I have ever owned is as difficult to turn off as the Apple TV.
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DJFriar said 9:56AM on 7-07-2009
If I recall, press and hold Menu to turn off the Apple TV. This can be programmed into the Harmony as well.
Grant said 10:18AM on 7-07-2009
Isn't it supposed to be an always-on device? That's always how I've used it.
orntwo said 10:52AM on 7-07-2009
Holding down Menu while music is playing no longer turns off Apple TV, it activates Genius. I could turn Genius off, but eliminating a great feature in order to get an off button seems like a bad choice. You can hold down the Menu button to turn it off when you are out in the main screen, but the Harmony can't know which menu screen Apple TV is in at any given moment. As for leaving it on all the time, mine is in a cabinet and gets very hot, plus, what a waste of energy. I also guess that leaving it on all the time increases the risk of a shorter hard drive life, especially given the heat.
Tom said 1:07PM on 7-07-2009
You can't turn the AppleTV off. It was designed to stay on. That's why there's no off button. The function that you're referring to as difficult to perform is called standby mode, which doesn't do anything other than turn off the LED on the front of the device, and cut off the video transmission so you only see a black screen on your TV. Otherwise the device stays on. This is to ensure it can still download content and sync with your computers. The only way to truly turn the device completely off is to pull the power cord out.
At my house I don't even bother putting it on standby since that mode doesn't do anything. It gets warm but I ignore that, since I'm not an engineer and it's not my job to worry about the temperature of a device that was meant to stay on all the time.
Yoshi1080 said 9:42AM on 7-07-2009
I couldn't DISagree more. Just because most classic remotes are layouted horribly doesn't make them bad in general. I like to have real buttons, I like to navigate my remote control blindly in the dark, I like to use dedicated buttons instead of navigating to sub-sub-sub-sub menus. On a good remote, similar functions are grouped and each group is placed by its importance. My parents still have a HIFI system from the 80ies and oh boy, its monstrosity of remote control barely resembles the elegance and ease of use of good, modern remote controls.
The Apple remote is simply a joke, and the app for the iPhone is too limiting for me. For example, I want to be able to change the gorram volume whenever I want to and not only when I am playing anything. And I want to be able to control everything directly and not just after navigating to the "more" menu point and selecting what I would like to be allowed to do. To me, a good remote control gives my complete control over my gears, but Apple limits me in that.
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Rafe H. said 9:43AM on 7-07-2009
OK, here's how to only use 1 of the 4 remotes with all the functionality. Buy Tivo HD. Get cable cards from Comcast and insert into Tivo. Boom, Comcast remote gone. Program Tivo remote to control TV volume and input. Boom, TV remote gone. Tivo remote has a switch on it: DVR 1 and DVR 2. Tell new Tivo HD to ignore signals when switch is on DVR 2. Move switch to DVR 2 and train AppleTV to respond to Tivo remote. Boom, AppleTV remote gone.
That's my setup, and I love it.
(Actually, I finally ditched Comcast for over-the-air HD, which I love.)
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