Did they really need to put CAPS LOCK on a remote?
Handy if you're going to email, message, chat, or enter a password.
The difference between Apple and everyone else
61–70 of 75 posts
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#62>"I can see the Apple designers starting from scratch, sitting down on their couches in their living rooms and imagining what they would want to use"
The result of imagining rather than testing is a tiny remote that easily falls between the cushions of said couch or gets buried under a magazine on the end table.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#63I have to wonder how many people proclaiming that "Apple just gets it" have actually used the remote in question rather than looking at its (admittedly gorgeous) picture. We have one of the previous generation Apple TV's with a very similar remote. It currently sits unplugged next to the television on top of an upturned yogurt container. It's on the yogurt container because its lack of vents causes it to overheat if…
> Using the remote to enter search terms for Youtube is possible, but is a dreaded chore.
This is exactly what Apple is trying to tell: searching on TV is not what consumers want. If you ask me as a consumer, searching on TV just does not makes sense. I would search on my ipod and just tell my TV to show things I found.
This reminds me of reviews when first iPhone was released. One the problems reported was that it does not have all kind of ring levels as Nokia ("meeting", "silence", "vibrate and ring", etc.). And what actually people like me want is just silence and not.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except that Search _is_ the answer to what we need on a TV right now. Whenever I fire mine up right now, I either want to go to a specific channel, find if a particular program is playing right now, browse a category of programs, or access my existing digital library. Existing remotes, including Apple's minimalistic design, are worthless for doing this. It might look sleek and thin, but it's probably the worst user e…
Its funny you say the answer is "Search" but of the 4 things you want to do when you fire up your tv, none of them are "Do a text based search for content". 1. Go to specific channel 2. Find if a program is playing right now 3. Browse a category of programs 4. Access an existing digital library. Existing remotes actually do many of these pretty well. A keyboard based search only really helps with 2 and 4 and even the…
No, existing remotes do this horribly. Modern Cable subscriptions come with 300+ channels. I don't want to have to hold down an arrow key for minutes looking for something. I don't want to have to memorize what damn channel is AMC HD.
GoogleTV lets me type-in three letters: AMC. I get the channel. I get YouTube videos for snippets from their latest shows. I can type in House and immediately see if it's playing on any of the two dozen channels it's syndicated on, grab some episodes from my network, watch videos online of it, and read the Wikipedia page.
Try using a computer without being able to type actual words. You're only allowed to use the on-screen keyboard provided by your OS and the arrow keys to move around and confirm keys to press. I'll check back in when you're pulling your hair out trying to do anything in 5 minutes. The common computer experiences are merging with your TV. Apple's remote doesn't do anything to solve it. It's simple for the sake of being simple, and it's worthless as a modern computing remote because of it.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#65Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#66I have to wonder how many people proclaiming that "Apple just gets it" have actually used the remote in question rather than looking at its (admittedly gorgeous) picture. We have one of the previous generation Apple TV's with a very similar remote. It currently sits unplugged next to the television on top of an upturned yogurt container. It's on the yogurt container because its lack of vents causes it to overheat if…
> Using the remote to enter search terms for Youtube is possible, but is a dreaded chore. This is exactly what Apple is trying to tell: searching on TV is not what consumers want. If you ask me as a consumer, searching on TV just does not makes sense. I would search on my ipod and just tell my TV to show things I found. This reminds me of reviews when first iPhone was released. One the problems reported was that it d…
But how would you tell your TV what to show you? I'm not talking about spending the evening lounging around searching for interesting things on the web. I'm talking about the 2 minutes to enter "Vienna Vegetable Orchestra" so you can find the video that you already know about.
Do you have one of these that you happily use? Are you referring to using the iPod as a remote to directly control it instead of the included remote? If so, and if you've got this working, I can agree with you that this is a much better model for operation.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#67The article misses the point - Apple is aiming for a particular niche market, and it achieves that very successfully. Its niche market will pay through the roof for devices which look nice and make it easy to do the most common things but very hard or difficult to do something outside a particular square.
However, this is only a small (albeit high paying) niche, and to suggest that other companies are making poor business decisions because they aren't targeting the same niche that Apple does is simply wrong. I'm sure entering a URL, for example, on the Sony-Google remote would be far easier and more obvious than on the Apple one - and so I'm sure the majority of consumers would prefer that one over the Apple one.
In summary, all the designs on the page are appropriate for a market segment the brands they are being marketed under target.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Using the remote to enter search terms for Youtube is possible, but is a dreaded chore. This is exactly what Apple is trying to tell: searching on TV is not what consumers want. If you ask me as a consumer, searching on TV just does not makes sense. I would search on my ipod and just tell my TV to show things I found. This reminds me of reviews when first iPhone was released. One the problems reported was that it d…
But how would you tell your TV what to show you? I'm not talking about spending the evening lounging around searching for interesting things on the web. I'm talking about the 2 minutes to enter "Vienna Vegetable Orchestra" so you can find the video that you already know about. Do you have one of these that you happily use? Are you referring to using the iPod as a remote to directly control it instead of the included…
I generally use the aluminum remote to control my Apple TV, and the Remote app on my iPhone to type stuff, because typing is ridiculously tedious with the remote. But I don't need to type all that often, so it's an OK tradeoff. Most of the things I want to do on my ATV don't involve typing.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Its funny you say the answer is "Search" but of the 4 things you want to do when you fire up your tv, none of them are "Do a text based search for content". 1. Go to specific channel 2. Find if a program is playing right now 3. Browse a category of programs 4. Access an existing digital library. Existing remotes actually do many of these pretty well. A keyboard based search only really helps with 2 and 4 and even the…
No, existing remotes do this horribly. Modern Cable subscriptions come with 300+ channels. I don't want to have to hold down an arrow key for minutes looking for something. I don't want to have to memorize what damn channel is AMC HD. GoogleTV lets me type-in three letters: AMC. I get the channel. I get YouTube videos for snippets from their latest shows. I can type in House and immediately see if it's playing on any…
I've already conceded that if you know what you're looking for (A&E, House) a keyboard helps. I just don't think that's the primary issue which people have with their TV. 99% of the time I don't need Google on TV - I want reddit and I never use my keyboard on Reddit.
Re: The difference between Apple and everyone else
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Handy if you're going to email, message, chat, or enter a password.
Are you joking? Do you know what shift is? Why would you write all caps emails or anything else?
IMO, leaving a caps lock off makes a device more cumbersome to use - particularly for NFL, MLB, and NASCAR fans.
AFIK, most phones offer capslock to improve communications efficiency, but YMMV.