Apple TV and tvOS 13 Review

Apple TV has been a great addition to my bedroom. The tvOS 13 is really easy to use and provides some fantastic features to your TV viewing experience. Apple TV is a small box or like a mini-mini-mac that you connect to your TV through HDMI cable. It is a small box that fits in nicely in compact spaces too. The back portion of the box has space for power connection, HDMI connection to your TV and a network cable port but I think it is not used much due to Wifi easily available. Apple TV comes with Wifi and Bluetooth to connect to other devices.

Remote

It comes with a slim remote that is minimalistic in nature and very convenient to use. The remote has huge space for a tracking pad which allows you to swipe apps right-left-up-down.  Down below is a vertical volume button that increases or decreases the volume of your TV. It also has a dedicated button for Siri voice typing. This comes in handy many times when typing becomes inconvenient. If you want to take a break in between watching your favourite movie, there is a dedicated button for pause and play. The Menu button takes you to the previous screen of the app that you are using. There is a button next to the Menu button – long pressing this button gives the option to put the box to sleep; double-clicking this button shows all the apps that are running in the background. You can either swipe up the app to close the app or you can select the app to run. The remote is charged with a USB lightning cable provided in the box and once charged, the remote battery lasts for more than 2 months.

App Store

Apple TV has an app store from where you download apps. Major apps that I use are Netflix, Youtube, Prime. There are also other apps installed like Spotify for listening to music and games like Alto’s Odyssey, Real Racing, 2048. I have also installed Udemy through which I watch courses. There are health apps for doing exercise and yoga at home. I am using the Yoga Studio app for doing half an hour of yoga from their collection. There are a lot of social media apps too like Facebook Watch, Twitch. There are educational apps like NASA, TED, food recipe apps, news channel apps and many much more apps made especially for tvOS.

Apple Apps

iTunes movies have a great collection of movies available for buying and renting. Any movie on iTunes is available at a rent of Rs. 150 which is a good option if you have missed it in theatres. You can, of course, buy them from Rs. 100 to Rs. 700. Apple TV comes with Apple apps for Music & Photos. You can use these apps by connecting your iCloud account to the box and then see your photos and listen to your Apple music. It also has a Podcast app to listen to your favourite podcasts on TV

I have a Mac mini and iPhone, so sometimes I connect the mac mini to Apple TV through Airplay and watch Quicktime videos on Apple TV.  I also screen mirror from my iPhone to TV. If you install the TV app on iPhone, you can type on Apple TV through your iPhone. Overall it has become an indispensable part of my TV.

Recommendation

Apple TV is available on Amazon and comes with 2 versions – 32 GB and 64 GB. Most of the times we stream music and videos so 32 GB version is more than enough. If you are not going to download movies through iTunes and not going to play many games, I suggest going for 32 GB version.