Universal Electronics Offers Alternative Apple TV Remote to Cable Companies

[actcyclist]

I have various family staying at my place while I’m not there. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to work out the Apple TV to play Netflix, etc, I just got my brother to put a Chromecast with Google in.
I’m just going to throw the Apple TV out

 

[HiRez]

Get rid of the touch pad, go back to directional buttons. Add a mute button, or let us reassign the Siri button to mute. Add a little speaker/beeper with Find My Remote function. Make it less symmetrical so you can feel up vs. down by feel. Backlight the buttons. Then it would be fine.

 

[MikeX]

the only thing i don't like on apple tv remote is the siri/mic button. for me that's totally unnecessary. siri listens anyways why do we need to press a button.

otherwise apple remote is super simple and usable.

universal's thing doesnt look good.

 

[Onelifenofear]

original remote is fine. people complaining are simply afraid of change. touch pad is far better than tapping directional buttons many times.

only thing Apple needs to do is to remove animations that block the remote input. i find it extremely idiotic i have to wait for the slow dumb fade-to-home animation or the multitasking animation to finish before my remote is usable.

The issue is using an iPhone as remote and then the physical remote is day and night. The physical remote is tricky as it is so small and no where near are slick or sensitive. What would solve it...
make it bigger.
shaped buttons
Lit!
also...
Stick it in the middle and have buttons that double as game controllers.

 

[chekie]

use volume controls. not that hard.

adding a button adds more complexity and user has to learn more. next you’ll be asking for a subtitle/CC button, a power button, a fast forward button, a rewind button.

LOL this level of fan boy thinking is eye opening really. Are you seriously suggesting using volume control to mute/unmute? And how hard is it to learn to how to use a mute button? And what is wrong with asking for a power button, ff/rewind buttons? To complex to learn how to use them?

 

[NikoBeaR]

What are the other 9?

Off the top of my head, here's 9 of them. Waiting for the 10th...

ITunes
Apple Stand ($1000... Seriously, apple?)
apple usb mouse (aka hockey puck)
Apple III
AirPower
Mighty Mouse
Butterfly Keyboard
AppleTV 4K remote
Apple's lightning cable

 

[sirozha]

Off the top of my head, here's 9 of them. Waiting for the 10th...

ITunes
Apple Stand ($1000... Seriously, apple?)
apple usb mouse (aka hockey puck)
Apple III
AirPower
Mighty Mouse
Butterfly Keyboard
AppleTV 4K remote
Apple's lightning cable

You forgot the “balls of steel” aka caster wheels for the Mac Pro.

 

[mpainesyd]

Several years ago, the Channels app (an Apple TV app that works with the Silicondust TV receivers) implemented an ingenious way to invoke the “Mute” feature by giving the Siri remote a quick and rigorous shake - no dedicated button required. This magical feature works 100% of the time and is very Applesque in its ingenuity, fluidity, and simplicity.

I asked the Channels app developers if they had patented the feature, and they said that they weren’t going to, inviting others, including Apple themselves to implement this idea system wide on the Apple TV. I then contacted Apple and encouraged them to implement this feature system-wide, which would solve 1/3 of all complaints about the Siri remote. Apple, in their infinite wisdom, completely ignored my suggestion as well as the appeals of the thousands of their users for a “Mute” feature to be implemented.

Apple think that they know better what we, their customers, need and what we don’t need. Accept this as a fact and make your future technology choices with this knowledge in hand.

Didn't know that about the Channels feature - I hope it still works with the latest tvOS. There are plenty of other apps where I need a mute button. My feedback to Apple a while ago was to make a double click of the "-" button a mute/unmute function. No need for an extra button. Won't hold my breath though!
Like others here I find the trackpad unreliable and tedious to use. When the only movement allowed by tvOS is up/down, left/right there is little point in having a trackpad. Fast scrolling could be achieved by the way the arrow button is pressed.
Update: Shaking the Remote does not mute the Channels app for my system, running the latest tvOS and Channels app
BTW - Bluetooth is essential for my system - the AppleTV is in a cupboard, out of sight. As far as I can tell all of the alternatives described here only work with infrared. The UEI device is Apple-certified for connecting to the ATV by Bluetooth.

 

[nt5672]

You all with problems with the Apple remote, are not thinking hard enough. Apple's build in mind reader is not as sensitive as it should be. Just think harder about what you want done and it'll work.

Eventually the remote will sit on the table without any workable buttons or touch surfaces. What a minute, thats what it does now. Never mind. Maybe try holding the remote to your forehead. Thats probably a better solutions for weak minds.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Wow, who knew I would be in such a small minority still loving the Apple TV remote. Don’t know how you guys hate it so much and can’t seem to figure out how it works. The slower you swipe the less it’ll jump. I’d much prefer it than having to repeatedly spam click a physical button if I’m trying to jump quickly to the bottom. With this touchpad I just do a bigger, fast swipe and it jumps to it.

Picking it up? Feel for the glass with your thumb. It’ll have more friction so you know which side it is. Or better yet if you have the 4K remote, feel for the raised menu button. Or do what I do and feel for the volume rocker, which is on the right instead of the single buttons on the left.

To each their own I guess, I for one hope they don’t change the remote design too drastically.

Don’t let a few (or few dozen) posters in MR forums throw you for a loop. Sure, no doubt the remote is not a universally loved. But you can’t take the sample of the the folks here and project them to population at large.

 

[PickUrPoison]

For anyone who actually has an AppleTV and hates the remote—and wants to try a remote they can actually buy—this has been available for many years at $24.99:

One for All Streamer Remote Black R117935A07-00001 - Best Buy

Shop One for All Streamer Remote Black products at Best Buy. Find low everyday prices and buy online for delivery or in-store pick-up. Price Match Guarantee.

www.bestbuy.com

 

[GermanSuplex]

This guy nailed it. The AppleTV 4K is a pile of pig crap. All design no function.

The remote is one thing, can’t say I agree with the rest though.mit does what I need it to in a clean, intuitive package. Not saying there isn’t room for improvement, but I spend tons of time watching content with the Apple TV and have few complaints.

 

[TVreporter]

I have various family staying at my place while I’m not there. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to work out the Apple TV to play Netflix, etc, I just got my brother to put a Chromecast with Google in.
I’m just going to throw the Apple TV out

I’ll take it!

I’m new to the remote - enjoying its simplicity and ease. Added a case and it makes a great difference.

 

[NikoBeaR]

The remote is one thing, can’t say I agree with the rest though.mit does what I need it to in a clean, intuitive package. Not saying there isn’t room for improvement, but I spend tons of time watching content with the Apple TV and have few complaints.

Apologies, I forgot to write "Apple TK REMOTE". I absolutely loooove my AppleTK, so I stand corrected.

 

[turbineseaplane]

God I hope we can buy these somehow at some point.

I’d buy 6 of them immediately

 

[farewelwilliams]

LOL this level of fan boy thinking is eye opening really. Are you seriously suggesting using volume control to mute/unmute? And how hard is it to learn to how to use a mute button? And what is wrong with asking for a power button, ff/rewind buttons? To complex to learn how to use them?

You're asking how hard is it to learn a mute button, but can't be bothered to learn how to turn off the Apple TV without a power button?

LOL you just contradicted yourself. What a stupid reply.

Have a good day. 👋

 

[farewelwilliams]

The issue is using an iPhone as remote and then the physical remote is day and night. The physical remote is tricky as it is so small and no where near are slick or sensitive. What would solve it...
make it bigger.
shaped buttons
Lit!
also...
Stick it in the middle and have buttons that double as game controllers.

Let's not try to make the remote into a game controller. If you want a game controller, use a Playstation controller. It's just not worth the trouble between Apple, game developers, and users.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Not even close. The Apple TV remote is atrocious. Whoever designed it clearly hated disabled people or anyone with fine motor control issues. Not only that, it's awful even for people without issues. You can't use it accurately and reliably. They need to go back to buttons, no question about it.

Disabled people use an iPhone to control their TV as it's much more accessible. There's no need to hinder the remote design when Apple knows handicapped users will use the iPhone.

100% disagreed. I can do most, if not, all things faster and more accurately than a standard remote. This is 100% objectively true especially when scrolling lists. 75% of my interactions with Apple TV involves scrolling lists and a swipe remote is one of the best ways of doing this action.

 

[topmounter]

100% disagree, the number of accidental movements using the touch pad is unreal, it moves up and down when you’re trying to move left to right and often over or under shoots when scrolling in any direction, it’s not the great user experience everyone expects from apple, you may not have this problem but that doesn’t mean you can extrapolate and theory that everyone else is just “afraid of change”

Yep, longest running worst remote ever. I either use the old style silver remote or the remote app.

 

[eyalben]

This is really getting to the root of the problem for me. It's that Apple doesn't enforce standard control behavior of the touch pad and apps are free to implement it however they want. Examples I just tried:

YouTube app: tap edges to ff/rewind with preview. clicking edges will ff/rw without preview.
Hulu app: click edges to ff/rw and touching the edge gives a clue that it will ff/rw 10 sec.
Peacock app: neither tap nor click edges does anything. Only way to scrub is to use inaccurate swipes.
Apple Music app: tap edges to skip to next song, no scrubbing other than jumping between lyrics.

The behavior in the Hulu app seems to be the most common but having outliers can be hugely frustrating.

Yep. The behaviour is inconsistent

The remote has several major issues in my opinion:
1. Too symmetrical - you can't tell if your'e holding is upside down
2. Not guest friendly - it requires time to adjust so any guests I have can't handle it
3. Terrible internationalization - voice search/global search are not available in my country so the 'mic' button acts as a 'whoops' button which takes you to a useless view... the main complaint in hear in my country is "how do I disable this button?"

 

[tgjorgoski]

For me, the Apple TV remote is OK, but has failings - 50% of the time I got it backwards - there is no tactile indication that you are "holding it wrong". Also, on the faster settings it is easy to make mistakes when scrolling - I changed it to the slowest one, and it seems it fits me now. Also it is hard to input text through keyboard (I mostly use the iphone for input). They should copy the LG's magic remote - it is much better solution.

 

[farewelwilliams]

That's actually an entirely different behavior.

Sometimes it is implemented as a short scroll, you are right about that,
but other times it will act as a 'scroll and tap'.

I'm using a local VOD provider whose 'edge tap' is actually switching between channels (like CH+).

i dont know what you mean, but that sounds more like a third party app problem than an Apple problem.

tap to step is perfect on Apple apps.

 

[eyalben]

i dont know what you mean, but that sounds more like a third party app problem than an Apple problem.

tap to step is perfect on Apple apps.

What I meant is that it not really a 'tap-to-step' button, it actually triggers a different function in the Apple TV.
The 'tap-to-step' triggers a 'up' keystroke (the same as the old apple remote) which is different than 'scrolling'.

So it might be kind of consistent with Apple apps, but by design, it is not the same functionality.

 

[farewelwilliams]

What I meant is that it not really a 'tap-to-step' button, it actually triggers a different function in the Apple TV.
The 'tap-to-step' triggers a 'up' keystroke (the same as the old apple remote) which is different than 'scrolling'.

So it might be kind of consistent with Apple apps, but by design, it is not the same functionality.

I still don't get what you're saying. Tap to step works fine for the most part. If this is regarding third party apps then it's really up to the developer to decide what to do. In Apple Photos, long press is a peek shortcut while Google Photos is a selection shortcut for example.

 

[Roadcrew]

For anyone who actually has an AppleTV and hates the remote—and wants to try a remote they can actually buy—this has been available for many years at $24.99:

This is completely missing the biggest reason that people drawn to this particular remote: that it has the Siri button and microphone.

For my part, I hate everything about the ATV remote except the Siri button. The trackpad is annoyingly fiddly for edge clicks and apps are wildly inconsistent about what clicks and touches actually fast-forward and rewind, it's too easy to hold upside-down, there's no mute button, so on and so forth.. I'd be really happy if I had some way to purchase this new UE remote.