Apple TV Review

To fans of Apple's devices everywhere, the day Apple announced their new iPad was the biggest day ever. While the iPad and the iPhone are major franchises to Apple though, they don't represent what the company is totally excited that right now. To Apple, a good part of their future rests on how their new Apple TV turns out. It's that important to them. My Apple TV order arrived in the mail in the second week of March. As you'll see in this Apple TV review, for the most part, their new and reworked model almost totally delivers.

People always complain that Apple's products are not the best value for money. They feel that they can always get better bang for their buck buying a Windows or Android device or anything else. Not so with Apple TV though. At $99, Apple TV is the company's cheapest product - just about. But they don't skimp on the features for the money.

Basically, people buy products like Apple TV just for a few simple things that they wish to do with it. They want to see YouTube on it, they want to download and watch movies from Netflix, and they want to buy stuff from iTunes and watch them. Looking closely at the product for this Apple TV review though, I found that  Apple TV has many more useful tricks up its sleeve. The home screen has NHL Game Center, MLB TV, Flickr, Wall Street Journal Live, Vimeo - and a whole lot more to help you waste your time in a very pleasurable way.

Most people don't even need to be told an Apple product is easy to use. But you know - an Apple TV review does have to include that information. It'll take you two minutes from the time you get your product in the mail, to get it connected to the TV or to your computer, and then to get it running.

They have this new feature on Apple TV called Home Sharing. Whatever stuff you've got on your computer and your phone and other devices, you'll get it on your television screen through Apple TV in just a couple of minutes. You don't even need an Apple Match subscription for this.

If there's anything to complain about in the way Apple TV connects your iPhone, it's just that the iPhone app that promises to be a remote control for your Apple TV, never really gets its act together.

Apple is really good at completely integrating everything they make, for a completely flawless and seamless experience. Since your Apple TV is not an all-in-one device though (that will probably come day one day soon), the experience is not that seamless. The remote causes one problem. The other is that you can't control the volume without looking for your TV remote. That's a decided oversight.

The last problem is not actually a design flaw. It is a lost opportunity. Have you ever thought about how there is no App Store for Apple TV?