The fourth-gen Apple TV has already arrived in the market. There are a lot of new additions made to Apple’s one of premier hardware available these days including Siri, game controllers and third-party applications, Apple Music, all-new Home Screen, and a lot more along the list. Let’s get you started with the latest TV from Apple. This guide contains some quick walkthroughs for you to setup your Apple Box either manually or with some iOS device.
Jump To Section:
- Introducing You To New Apple TV
- Introducing You To New Apple TV Apps
Introducing You To New Apple TV
The latest set-top box from Apple retains its sleek black appearance from the predecessor – however, it still comes with few changes. The box has grown taller and thicker now and the digital audio out port has now been replaced by the HDMI port, Ethernet port, USB-C service port and power cable.
Inside the box, you will find impressive Apple TV hardware alongside a neat remote and some wonderful software. Let’s take you through each of them one by one.
Hardware
There has been a major upgrade that Apple TV has received internally, since the last update back in 2012. Now, it offers support for A8 64-bit processor and comes with 2GB RAM, 32GB / 64GB storage, and Wi-Fi 802.11 ac.
Though we don’t have that Retina revolution on Apple TV as of now and you still have to stick to 1080p resolution with fourth-gen Apple TV. However, it can now be viewed at 30 or 60 frames per second.
Siri Remote
There is a completely-redesigned Siri Remote that comes along with your latest Apple TV. Even though there are those same Play/Pause buttons and the Menu that we had in previous models of Apple TV, but there is also a new Home button that lets users return to main screen with just a press of a button. There are volume controls, touchpad and the embedded click. Also, if you are from Australia, France, Canada, Japan, Germany, United States, United Kingdom or Spain, there is Siri functionality available to you as well.
The newly designed Siri Remote allows you to easily navigate through the interface, apps and keyboard of your Apple TV. However, it can also be used quite effectively as you motion-sensitive gaming controller. You can even give it a horizontal tilt for other app or game uses.
Navigate through your Apple TV with the help of touchpad that is available right on top of your remote; in order to select something, press firmly or tap to click touchpad.
As far as new Home button is concerned, it appears as a TV and takes you automatically to Home Screen regardless of your current position inside an app. It can be double-pressed for displaying all the apps that are running currently as title cards, allowing you to switch between them in iOS style.
For those lucky residents of designated countries having access to the latest Siri feature, you can talk to the new Apple TV and instruct it to search anything for you as you may like. You can search for the latest weather updates and sports scores, play music, open apps, check stocks, and do a whole lot more with your Siri Remote on Apple TV. (If you are not living in a country where Siri functionality is available, pressing Siri button takes you to Search app automatically.)
Lightning port is incorporated in Siri Remote for charging purposes which can be plugged into an existing lightning dock or cable that you already have, and it will start charging quickly. The remotes that have been fully charged tend to last for almost 3 months before you need to power them up once again.
As of now, just a single Siri Remote can be connected at one time. However, third-party controllers, previous-generation remotes for Apple TV, or universal remotes can also be used simultaneously.
Third-Party Controllers & Accessories
In case, if Siri Remote is not doing the job for you, the Apple TV can be augmented with quite a few different accessories available in the market.
The universal remotes usually work fine with latest Apple TV and same is the case for third-party MFi gaming controllers. In fact, even Bluetooth headphones can be connected to the Apple TV to enjoy a personalized experience while listening to anything you like. There are Bluetooth keyboards available as well to offer greater control over typing.
A couple of Bluetooth devices can be connected simultaneously to Apple TV in one go. So, what this means is that you can either choose to go with a couple of third-party gaming controllers, or one gaming controller along with Bluetooth headphones.
If supported by certain Apple TV apps, you can even be able to connect iPhone, iPad and iPod to the Apple TV as well for using the device as auxiliary controller. However, other than that, there may not be any possible options available for controlling the Apple TV using iPhones. In fact, there is only limited support available in Remote app of the company.
The Interface
tvOSpowers your fourth-gen Apple TV. It is actually the set-top iOS version from Apple. Quite dissimilar to its predecessor, the interface in new tvOS is mostly off-white, and there are big and colorful icons in rectangular shape that are displayed in parallax when selected. They also slightly shimmy when your finger moves on touchpad.
Top row on Home Screen of your tvOS is referred to as Top Shelf; and same like your iOS Dock, there can be six apps that you can choose to be placed in this top shelf. When selected, the apps in the top shelf show some additional content in preview along top of your TV screen. For instance, Hulu shows you a list containing all the shows that are getting popular currently.
All the rest of the apps reside below that Top Shelf and are arranged in the form of rows containing six apps each. The apps can also be moved and for that you will first have to select them with touchpad and then click and hold them; now release click and simply swipe the selected app to move it anywhere on the Home Screen.
Introducing You To New Apple TV Apps
Even though you can install new apps to your Apple TV, it comes with some default apps as well. Here is a list of apps that you get with your Apple TV as it ships to you.
- iTunes Movies: It gives you access to movies from iTunes Store and also contains anything that you might have purchased/rented before.
- iTunes TV Shows: It gives you access to TV shows available on iTunes Store and also contains anything that you might have purchased/rented before.
- App Store: It is your Apple TV store that gives you access to any third-party applications available for your Apple TV.
- Photos: It allows you to view the iCloud Photo Library, Shared Photo Streams, and the regular Photo Stream.
- Music: It gives you access to your music collection and allows you to access Apple Music Library as well as music videos.
- Computers: It gives you access to all the video and music libraries that you might have added to the Home Sharing.
- Search: It’s the universal search bar for your Apple TV.
- Settings: It allows you to change the different settings of the Apple TV.
Besides the stock apps mentioned above, your latest Apple TV comes equipped with the App Store which gives you access to a whole lot of third-party applications and games that you can enjoy on your Apple TV.
Even though the apps designed for iOS and tvOShave different coding at the back-end, Apple is now encouraging to develop “Universal” app bundles. It means that if you have purchased an iOS app then you’ll automatically have access to its tvOS version as well. If you want to check out whether or not there are any tvOS applications available to be downloaded then you can go to App Store and click the Purchased tab.
After downloading and installing a few applications, they can be launched by selecting and clicking them. If you want to exit some app at a given instant, you can click Home Button. Alternatively, you can do repeated clicking on Menu button for exiting from Settings.
Note: The Apps Do Not Eat Too Much Of Your Storage
The tvOS applications on Apple TV make use of on-demand resources for making sure that the size of local files is kept to minimum. It simply means that more apps & games can be installed without having to worry that they will consume all your storage space whether it is 32 GB or 64 GB.
It is also possible to control the storage space on per-app basis as well. For this, you can simply go to the Settings on your Apple TV and browse the General tab. Manage your app storage through Manage Storage option under Usage tab.
So, that’s quite an introduction and we hope that you’ll enjoy using your Apple TV. In fact, all the information presented above gives you quite a lot of insights into your new Apple TV. If there are any questions that might pop up in your mind then simply post them to us in comments.