If you are unhappy with new Apple TV, tell them...

[TrackZ]

If you are having trouble and/or want to see features added to the new Apple TV, I strongly suggest going to the Apple feedback site and telling them. I recommend doing one submission per feedback item. I've made 20+ suggestions already. The more feedback we can drive, the more likely they are to listen.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[johnpurlia]

Exactly! There are clearly all kinds of problems with the new device, and Apple does monitor the feedback pages.

Not to push my own agenda, but... It's very clear that there are problems with Apple's implementation of HDMI 1.4 in the areas of CEC, ARC, and backwards compatibility with other HDMI devices, whether that may be an A/V Receiver, projector, HDMI switch, or another component that uses HDMI.

Off my HDMI soapbox now...

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Do Apple have a particularly grand track-record of responding to customer feedback? It's my experience of buying and following their hardware for the past five or six years that they tend to do what they want to do - sometimes despite feedback, rather than because of it.

Not that I'm shouting you down. Go for it. I hope it gets you what you want.

 

[aneftp]

Do Apple have a particularly grand track-record of responding to customer feedback? It's my experience of buying and following their hardware for the past five or six years that they tend to do what they want to do - sometimes despite feedback, rather than because of it.

Not that I'm shouting you down. Go for it. I hope it gets you what you want.

They respond to iPhone feedback big time

1. Antenna issue with iPhone 4 was FIXED in 6 months with Verizon iPhone 4 model in January 2011.

2. Antenna issue with original iPhone 2007 was FIXED with plastic back to let radio signal go further with iPhone 3G

3. Bending of iPhone 6 Plus the WAS FIXED with iPhone 6s with strong alum 7000 series.

Of course Apple fix requires you to spend more money on a new product!! Just the Apple way of making more money.

 

[johnpurlia]

Do Apple have a particularly grand track-record of responding to customer feedback? It's my experience of buying and following their hardware for the past five or six years that they tend to do what they want to do - sometimes despite feedback, rather than because of it.

Not that I'm shouting you down. Go for it. I hope it gets you what you want.

Apple's responsiveness generally depends on several factors: the product, the seriousness of the problem, and how well someone is able to describe what's happening. I've been directly contacted, on occasion, to provide additional information and test specific configuration on a whole range of products ranging from home sharing, to wifi, to Aperture.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

They respond to iPhone feedback big time

1. Antenna issue with iPhone 4 was FIXED in 6 months with Verizon iPhone 4 model in January 2011.

2. Antenna issue with original iPhone 2007 was FIXED with plastic back to let radio signal go further with iPhone 3G

3. Bending of iPhone 6 Plus the WAS FIXED with iPhone 6s with strong alum 7000 series.

Of course Apple fix requires you to spend more money on a new product!! Just the Apple way of making more money.

Okay, I didn't quite mean it in that way. Though your points are valid.

I meant that, when it comes to functionality that we might want our Apple products to give us, all the begging in the world is for nothing if it doesn't tally with Apple's worldview. For instance:


There are lots of us who'd like local storage for movies and TV shows on the Apple TV. Nope, can't have it...

... every time the Mac mini comes around for a refresh, people ask for a pocket-rocket version with a high-end mobile graphics system for gaming. Nope...

... for how long were people asking for a new Mac Pro? Must've been four years...

... and don't even get me started on iTunes. I feel like I'd need to give up work and dedicate myself to complaining about it, it's so bloody hopeless.


Personal gripes aside, what I'm getting at is that Apple have done, and will always do, what they think is right. They won't be led by anybody. They have a very firm idea of what they want to achieve, looking way, way down the road at a vision of the future that they don't necessarily talk about in public - and soothing a few dozen moaners on the internet on any given day isn't on their radar.

In my opinion.

 

[TrueBlou]

Do Apple have a particularly grand track-record of responding to customer feedback? It's my experience of buying and following their hardware for the past five or six years that they tend to do what they want to do - sometimes despite feedback, rather than because of it.

Not that I'm shouting you down. Go for it. I hope it gets you what you want.

They do take feedback very seriously. Over the past year I've had 4 calls, 2 of which were lengthy and in depth, another one which resulted in two weeks of testing and reporting results back to them, from Apple regarding feedback I've sent them. So they definitely listen, unlike a lot of companies.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

They do take feedback very seriously. Over the past year I've had 4 calls, 2 of which were lengthy and in depth, another one which resulted in two weeks of testing and reporting results back to them, from Apple regarding feedback I've sent them. So they definitely listen, unlike a lot of companies.

Sure, and I accepted the point of the person who first corrected me. I don't doubt that they're serious about making things that they want to work properly, work properly - but they won't just succumb to pressure from the users of the MacRumors forum to do anything that they don't want to do.

I think that I might be talking at cross-purposes with the rest of the thread.


EDIT: Maybe I'd be clearer if I illustrated what I mean...

... Apple clearly have no interest in providing 1080p24 playback. This is the fourth generation of the Apple TV, and they've never provided it - notwithstanding that most HD iTunes content runs at 24fps. They clearly don't think it's important, and I don't believe it will matter one jot if I send them feedback about it. They don't care today, and they're not going to care tomorrow.

Again, in my opinion.

 

[TrueBlou]

Sure, and I accepted the point of the person who first corrected me. I don't doubt that they're serious about making things that they want to work properly, work properly - but they won't just succumb to pressure from the users of the MacRumors forum to do anything that they don't want to do.

I think that I might be talking at cross-purposes with the rest of the thread.

Oh definitely. What Apple really doesn't want will never happen, there's more chance of me being the next pope than them implementing anything they don't want to.

But at the same time, it's not unheard of for them to introduce, or re-introduce features if there are sufficient requests (or whinging and moaning depending on your view) for something. Provided it doesn't affect their long term goals.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Provided it doesn't affect their long term goals.

Precisely my point. I hope I have achieved clarity at last...!!!!

The one that gets me is the playing of media from local storage on the Apple TV. I see no justification for this restriction. If anyone does, please enlighten me - so that I can at least understand it better.

 

[TrueBlou]

Precisely my point. I hope I have achieved clarity at last...!!!!

The one that gets me is the playing of media from local storage on the Apple TV. I see no justification for this restriction. If anyone does, please enlighten me - so that I can at least understand it better.

Honestly, there is no particularly good reason. My belief is that because of the way TVos is designed, the available storage space is constantly in flux. Despite there being ample storage for at least a few videos at a time, it's actually nigh on impossible to determine the actual state of available storage.

I know that probably sounds a bit backward but, as were probably all aware, beyond the initial install of an app, additional assets and this is particularly an issue for games. Once downloaded are still marked as potential available space.

So just for example, if you downloaded 20GB worth of apps on a 32GB Apple TV. The logical thinking is that you have, let's say 11GB of free space left (accounting for the OS.) But actually, as far as TVos is concerned, there is still 31GB of available space of it needs it.

Ultimately I think it's down to Apple positioning the Apple TV as a streaming device and they have been moving away from local storage for everything more and more.

And I'm really beginning to ramble now, I'll get me coat 😀

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Honestly, there is no particularly good reason. My belief is that because of the way TVos is designed, the available storage space is constantly in flux. Despite there being ample storage for at least a few videos at a time, it's actually nigh on impossible to determine the actual state of available storage.

I know that probably sounds a bit backward but, as were probably all aware, beyond the initial install of an app, additional assets and this is particularly an issue for games. Once downloaded are still marked as potential available space.

So just for example, if you downloaded 20GB worth of apps on a 32GB Apple TV. The logical thinking is that you have, let's say 11GB of free space left (accounting for the OS.) But actually, as far as TVos is concerned, there is still 31GB of available space of it needs it.

Ultimately I think it's down to Apple positioning the Apple TV as a streaming device and they have been moving away from local storage for everything more and more.

And I'm really beginning to ramble now, I'll get me coat 😀

All very well explained. Thank you.

My view is that it's part of not only Apple's, but f***ing everybody's, plan to prevent the end user from having physical possession of any media content - because if we have it, we can copy it. The trouble with forced streaming (aside from the fact that I feel my civil liberties are being infringed...) is that many people can't execute it satisfactorily, and Apple are alienating a significant number of potential users who happen to suffer with crap bandwidth and/or (in my case) WiFi-hostile housing.

Particularly when they still allow streaming to an Apple TV from a Mac, it's just cretinous. I have the knowledge to steal movies and TV shows if I want to, and watch them from my Mac - whether or not they're stored on the Apple TV is neither here nor there, ideologically.

 

[TrackZ]

Well IMO if you can come to a web forum to post a complaint about something you might as well spend another whole 2 minutes of your time actually communicating that feedback to the company directly.

I work in software development at prominent large company. Surely customers ask for things that are not delivered all the time. But in our organization requests are logged, tagged and kept tracked and reviewed every development cycle. The more requests something gets the higher it bubbles up into team review.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Well IMO if you can come to a web forum to post a complaint about something you might as well spend another whole 2 minutes of your time actually communicating that feedback to the company directly.

I work in software development at prominent large company. Surely customers ask for things that are not delivered all the time. But in our organization requests are logged, tagged and kept tracked and reviewed every development cycle. The more requests something gets the higher it bubbles up into team review.

I don't dispute that. Again, I think I've already explained that I'm talking about asking for things that Apple have consistently demonstrated they are not interested in providing - rather than giving feedback on features that Apple want to work, but that currently don't.

 

[TrueBlou]

All very well explained. Thank you.

My view is that it's part of not only Apple's, but f***ing everybody's, plan to prevent the end user from having physical possession of any media content - because if we have it, we can copy it. The trouble with forced streaming (aside from the fact that I feel my civil liberties are being infringed...) is that many people can't execute it satisfactorily, and Apple are alienating a significant number of potential users who happen to suffer with crap bandwidth and/or (in my case) WiFi-hostile housing.

Particularly when they still allow streaming to an Apple TV from a Mac, it's just cretinous. I have the knowledge to steal movies and TV shows if I want to, and watch them from my Mac - whether or not they're stored on the Apple TV is neither here nor there, ideologically.

Oh don't get me started on the whole physical ownership debate. Don't get me wrong, I love that there is so much media of many different types on hand 24/7, it's great.

But, if I may veer slightly from this device to use an example. Recently Sony decided to shut down their mobile gaming effort. Fair enough, it was losing money. But, for those who did purchase games over the course of its existence, their option to keep ownership of games they had paid for was to download all of them to their device before the shut down.

Beyond that, if something were to happen and they lost those games. Then that's it, nada, no way to ever get them again.

I guess what I'm getting at is, it's all very well having all of this media on hand. But if I'm going to spent thousands of pounds building a collection of music/games/video I want to make damn sure that if the company goes belly up, or changes strategy, I still have access to my media.

Unfortunately, buried in the terms and conditions of many of these services over the years have been clauses to safeguard the company from responsibility should anything like that happen. Essentially, the consumer gets shafted.

I'm not saying I don't buy digital, but what I do buy digitally is nothing compared to what I purchase in physical form. God help us if that ever gets taken away.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Oh don't get me started on the whole physical ownership debate. Don't get me wrong, I love that there is so much media of many different types on hand 24/7, it's great.

But, if I may veer slightly from this device to use an example. Recently Sony decided to shut down their mobile gaming effort. Fair enough, it was losing money. But, for those who did purchase games over the course of its existence, their option to keep ownership of games they had paid for was to download all of them to their device before the shut down.

Beyond that, if something were to happen and they lost those games. Then that's it, nada, no way to ever get them again.

I guess what I'm getting at is, it's all very well having all of this media on hand. But if I'm going to spent thousands of pounds building a collection of music/games/video I want to make damn sure that if the company goes belly up, or changes strategy, I still have access to my media.

Unfortunately, buried in the terms and conditions of many of these services over the years have been clauses to safeguard the company from responsibility should anything like that happen. Essentially, the consumer gets shafted.

I'm not saying I don't buy digital, but what I do buy digitally is nothing compared to what I purchase in physical form. God help us if that ever gets taken away.

Awww, man. It's like having a conversation with myself...

... the digital service to which I stand to lose the most is Steam. I have 169 games (most of them bought in sales, admittedly...), and if Steam went *bang* and I didn't get the release codes for the DRM, I have no idea how much money I'd stand to lose. I'll take a rough stab at two or three grand.

I was moaning about the Wii U a couple of nights ago - don't know whether you read it - and that's even worse. I don't even need for Nintendo to go belly-up to lose the eighty or ninety games I've bought from the eShop - because Nintendo keep no records of what you buy, so if my Wii U were to die, that would be that. Gone. Smell yer later.

Cheers...

 

[TrueBlou]

Awww, man. It's like having a conversation with myself...

... the digital service to which I stand to lose the most is Steam. I have 169 games (most of them bought in sales, admittedly...), and if Steam went *bang* and I didn't get the release codes for the DRM, I have no idea how much money I'd stand to lose. I'll take a rough stab at two or three grand.

I was moaning about the Wii U a couple of nights ago - don't know whether you read it - and that's even worse. I don't even need for Nintendo to go belly-up to lose the eighty or ninety games I've bought from the eShop - because Nintendo keep no records of what you buy, so if my Wii U were to die, that would be that. Gone. Smell yer later.

Cheers...

It's nice to meet someone who shares my passion for a good old rant about the ridiculousness of modern policy on content ownership 😉

Oh I could rant something terrible about Nintendo and their bloody ridiculous policy of tying purchases to a machine. I've already been the victim of that policy, my first WiiU died on me and being outside of warranty I purchased another one. Let me tell you, no amount of complaining or rationalisation with any of Nintendos support lines got my purchases back.

I simply do not purchase from their digital stores anymore. Maybe when the policy changes next year, but that's a big maybe.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

It's nice to meet someone who shares my passion for a good old rant about the ridiculousness of modern policy on content ownership 😉

Oh I could rant something terrible about Nintendo and their bloody ridiculous policy of tying purchases to a machine. I've already been the victim of that policy, my first WiiU died on me and being outside of warranty I purchased another one. Let me tell you, no amount of complaining or rationalisation with any of Nintendos support lines got my purchases back.

I simply do not purchase from their digital stores anymore. Maybe when the policy changes next year, but that's a big maybe.

Awww, mate. I'm so sorry...

... yeah, apparently, Nintendo's change of heart is under construction. But if my Wii U dies and I lose all these games, no more Mr. Compliant - I'll buy a new 8GB Wii U, Homebrew it, and steal whatever I can get my hands on. And that'll be the last money they ever get from me.

 

[TrueBlou]

Awww, mate. I'm so sorry...

... yeah, apparently, Nintendo's change of heart is under construction. But if my Wii U dies and I lose all these games, no more Mr. Compliant - I'll buy a new 8GB Wii U, Homebrew it, and steal whatever I can get my hands on. And that'll be the last money they ever get from me.

Not that I would ever do such a thing of course, I wouldn't know where to even find out about such things. But if I did I would have discovered I'm knackered there anyway because I'm on 5.5 and there isn't a public exploit yet. Though apparently there working on it. I'd imaging that's the sort of thing I'd find out 🙄

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Not that I would ever do such a thing of course, I wouldn't know where to even find out about such things. But if I did I would have discovered I'm knackered there anyway because I'm on 5.5 and there isn't a public exploit yet. Though apparently there working on it. I'd imaging that's the sort of thing I'd find out 🙄

Bastards...

 

[loekf]

Like I wrote here in another thread, I sent them a long e-mail complaining about the shipping and the featureset.

Today I got a call from their "Executive Office", no really. Yes, they do read stuff. The shipping/logistics, so what happened between PRE-ORDER (yes it was pre-ordering) and the day it arrived or didn't arrive (like me) is of concern in the board room.

I was surprised they actually called me up.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Like I wrote here in another thread, I sent them a long e-mail complaining about the shipping and the featureset.

Today I got a call from their "Executive Office", no really. Yes, they do read stuff. The shipping/logistics, so what happened between PRE-ORDER (yes it was pre-ordering) and the day it arrived or didn't arrive (like me) is of concern in the board room.

I was surprised they actually called me up.

Okay, that's cool to know.

I feel like I'm still being misunderstood, though. I don't doubt that they take it seriously when delivery dates get missed - because that's something that they already want to get right.

 

[TrueBlou]

Okay, that's cool to know.

I feel like I'm still being misunderstood, though. I don't doubt that they take it seriously when delivery dates get missed - because that's something that they already want to get right.

Yeah, try telling them we'd be happy with a slightly thicker phone and a bigger battery.

 

[RhythmAndBlues]

Yeah, try telling them we'd be happy with a slightly thicker phone and a bigger battery.

Gladly.

I'd go further than that, mate. If I had their ear I'd tell them that, after two years, I probably want to upgrade to their new phone anyway - and so, they needn't deliberately engineer my current phone to start dicking about when it's eighteen months old.