Am I the only one who has found apps such as YouTube basically unusable? Text input is so god awful and siri is about as useful as my undergraduate degree. It's baffling I can't even connect my Apple Bluetooth keyboard.
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They absolutely need to allow for quicker text input...quickly.
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Text input is more difficult than using the Remote app, like I could on my ATV3, but it isn't "unusable" or "god awful." It's slightly annoying, at least for me.
Yeah, now that I'm used to it I can rattle through text entry pretty quick. I wouldn't complain at a remote app with keyboard, but I'm not exactly pulling my hair out at the lack of one.
I'm starting to think Apple rushed this new AppleTV to market for the holiday season. It's just baffling that the remote app wasn't updated at launch, and that features present on previous models, like BT keyboard support, are missing here.
Part of me thinks this was done on purpose (just as games must support the included remote).
Imagine if the remote app and BT keyboards were fully supported on day-one...
There would be absolutely no pressure to produce new interface mechanisms for the tvos. App developers would just throw up a simple text entry box whenever they needed a user to search a view of the app's content, etc. The ATV would be difficult to distinguish from a computer connected to your TV. It would become a platform of direct ports from the Mac/iOS app stores.
Right now, developers are *forced* to get creative. They're forced to build something cool you can do, not with a computer, or with a touch interface, but with a simple-controlled display. And where complicated text entry would seem to be absolutely required, developers might find a way to actually avoid it. Witness the code-based login that some apps are using instead of a username/pass combo.
Sure there are many ways a keyboard would make interfacing easier (and I think support will come), but I don't actually want to *always* need my keyboard handy.
Apple wants to build a new device category here. Not one you interact with a keyboard and trackpad (that's a mac), and not one that you interact with a touch-screen (iOS). Expecting it to do all the things those two device categories do now is missing the boat a bit (you can already do everything on both via your TV display with AirPlay). This is similar to why they're not allowing controller-only games, because then that's all you'd see developers investing in. Apple isn't looking to make a console, it's looking for something different.
Who knows how we're going to wind up interacting with the TV? Who knows what sort of apps will flourish from this non-touch/non-keyboard interaction screen?
In a way, I'm glad Apple's 'forcing' this adjustment. I won't be surprised if they back off on the Remote App and BT keyboards after a period of discovery (ditto for game-controller-only apps). But by holding off, they're forcing the community to explore a different way to interact with the TV than what's being tried by all the other TV devices.
I am curious to find out where it goes.
While that's certainly a possibility that could arise with some developers you have to consider the other side of the coin from our point of view.
When you are designing an app for any platform you have to cater to its lowest common denominator. There is no guarantee whatsoever that someone will have alternative input methods.
Some people would have no interest whatsoever in connecting a Bluetooth keyboard even if they could. A large portion of Apple TV buyers will never purchase a gamepad to go along with it either and there's every possibility that an Apple TV buyer might not own any iOS devices to serve as an alternative input albeit that's less likely but still a possibility.
When designing for Apple TV, with or without Apples restrictions, you are absolutely guaranteed one thing and one thing only. Your potential customers have a Siri remote. Any other form of input is by no means certain. So you have to design first and foremost with that controller in mind to do it any other way would be beyond foolish.
It's great to have the option of other control methods and by all means implement them. But only once you have nailed down the Siri remote input. If you didn't you are limiting your potential market and no one wants that.
You made a really good point, but you have to consider that many countries are missing Siri and you still have to enter password from time to time.
If they want to get rid of bluetooth keyboard I'm fine with that, as long as they provide a way to authenticate without using the on screen keyboard. It is really inconvenient and everyone is able to see your password. That's really bad user experience, and my proposal is to have a remote app able to authenticate via touchid on your iPhone or iPad, or prompt you for password on the device rather than on the ATV screen.
I'm pretty sure App developers have to use Apple's keyboard API, just like on iOS.
Not sure if it was a bug or whether they were testing, but in the search screen on the appstore app (and I sadly didn't think at the time to take a photo as evidence), I was able to see the A-Z AND numbers in a grid on the left of the screen with the featured apps shown to the right, where apps took up about 80% of the screen real estate and the letters and numbers took up the rest. I was very quickly able to enter the text search term compared to the scrolling single line at the top.
The version was 9.0 of TVoS and I have not been able to see the screen since.
The version was 9.0 of TVoS and I have not been able to see the screen since.
Actually, what you are seeing is something that I recently noticed. If the Siri remote is active or awake, the on-screen keyboard appears as the long horizontal format.
But, if the Siri remote has gone to sleep (it does after unknown number of minutes) then the on-screen keyboard will appear as the old grid format version which is what you saw.
If you want to prove it for yourself, turn off the ATV4 and let it sit for an hour or so (again, I'm not sure exactly how long it takes for the remote to sleep). Then, using a remote OTHER than the Siri remote (such as a Harmony remote or even an ATV3 remote), navigate to a search screen and you will see that the keyboard is a grid. Then, wake up the Siri remote by pressing any button. You will see a brief on-screen message that says "Remote Connected". At that point, the search screens will show the new horizontal keyboard.
This is using 9.0.1.
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Perfect! Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense too, just a shame that's not an option to keep as default text entry method