Apple TV (2015 Model)

degsie

StonyIron wrote: »

Even more infuriating given that they're pretty much based in Cork as European HQ.

Seems we're only good enough to avoid tax in. Still no stores or any of that and absolutely no sign of them coming either.

Lack of official Siri support is ridiculous too.

Another example of the perceived technology backwardness afforded to Ireland while basking in the benefits of tax breaks etc. Amazon - no prime video/music, Microsoft - no Cartana, Apple - no Siri, the list goes on...:mad:

DubDJ

degsie wrote: »

Another example of the perceived technology backwardness afforded to Ireland while basking in the benefits of tax breaks etc. Amazon - no prime video/music, Microsoft - no Cartana, Apple - no Siri, the list goes on...:mad:

We are a pretty small country with a small population in the grand scheme of things though. Although it is annoying not having a lot of these things in Ireland, from a business point of view it makes sense to focus on the bigger markets first. What does bother me is when the delay is annoyingly long or if they product/service doesn't actually make it to Ireland at all.

eeloe

8 years later and we still don't have visual voicemail sure....

FourFourRED

naasrd wrote: »

Yeah. It's hard to get the head round that one at times!

Having the European HQ in Cork has nothing to do with product launch strategy.

Don't see why everyone thinks we're entitled to the same treatment as major markets like the UK.

"Oh but we have the European HQ in Ireland so we should get this this & this." Silly argument.

mad muffin

If they can ship iDevices to Northern Ireland and have an Apple Store in Belfast, I can't see how hard it would be to include Ireland too.

FourFourRED

mad muffin wrote: »

If they can ship iDevices to Northern Ireland and have an Apple Store in Belfast, I can't see how hard it would be to include Ireland too.

It's not about being hard. NI is part of the U.K. as we all know, and there are clearly reasons why there isn't a store here and get things later than the UK do.

We don't get it that bad. Last year iPhone was just a week later. The only big thing was the watch but that still isn't available in a number of countries yet.

Regardless of what the business reasoning for it is, saying that we have the European HQ in Ireland is not a valid argument against not having the watch released here yet, the issue with Apple TV and Siri not being fully functional etc.

degsie

FourFourFM wrote: »

Regardless of what the business reasoning for it is, saying that we have the European HQ in Ireland is not a valid argument against not having the watch released here yet, the issue with Apple TV and Siri not being fully functional etc.

It's a complete slap in the face tbh.

banquo

I read somewhere – can't argue to the validity of the article though – that the reason we don't have an Apple Store is their tax status here. If they opened a store, they'd suddenly have to pay a whole lot more tax.

Graham

banquo wrote: »

I read somewhere – can't argue to the validity of the article though – that the reason we don't have an Apple Store is their tax status here. If they opened a store, they'd suddenly have to pay a whole lot more tax.

I've read that myth posted here a few times over the years. Never once seen anyone able to back it up though.

Blazer

Its simply because Ireland is a Tier 2 country and it makes no sense to open an Apple Store when there's one already in Belfast.
If Ireland was a Tier 1 we'd definitely have one either in Dublin or Cork and there wouldn't be a need for the one in Belfast. Hell they probably get more people from the Republic going there anyway.

Branoic

I'm not mad about Siri being tied to the remote. I had been hoping they'd be working on something ala Amazon Echo - an "always on" Siri, with the ability to just walk into the room and start speaking a command right away. But I can see how the audio from the TV would make that quite difficult.

Creamy Goodness

Confirmation on the hardware being the same regardless of country.

Naturally the link requires a dev account.

https://twitter.com/stroughtonsmith/status/643089809142120448

squonk

That's good anyway that it's a configuration issue per country rather than a hardware limitation i.e. shipping two different remotes.

I've been using Siri on my watch quite a bit now and it's excellent. I can set reminders, make calls, look up information and even respond to texts all from y wrist with very few issues. You do hit some problems due to the structure of Irish-english. We do have slang and verious ways of structuring sentences here that confuse Siri but that's because it's not localised for us I guess.

Siri localisation really should be on the 'coming soon...' list at this stage. It's been around for 4 years as an Apple product in the wild. Although localisation is continuing apace, it's very slow. Only 30 countries are supported so far. We're probably way down the list of upcoming countries. I suppose we should be happy enough it works for us at all, and it is getting better all the time.

My big question of the Apple TV is whether it will support passthrough for formats like DTS. If it does that then it'll be a must have device. If it can't, like the current Apple TVs, then it'll be fiarly pointless. It would totally hamstring applications like Plex or Kodi.

Tazium

VLC are discussing bringing their app to the new Apple TV. With this in mind and like previous posters have also mentioned, we may get additional format support. I expect it will depend on what can be achieved in software should the hardware limit native support.

I'm interested in Synology's DS Video app and hope they release one for Apple TV also.

Primarily MKV for video & DTS for audio is what would make it a launch purchase for me. I'm between a WD TV live (native support for just about everything) and a MINIX device (Kodi interface for locally stored files on the Synology) to have all the services I use.

DubDJ

Was watching this early unboxing and overview earlier. Some interesting stuff in it, especially the Bluetooth support for headphones and speakers. That's a pretty handy feature that I'm surprised Apple didn't focus on more.

The live video screen savers will also change regularly with new ones which is also nice to see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTDvSqoWKhc

Narcissus

New Apple TV available next week, although no mention of regions.

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/19/tim-cook-new-apple-tv-next-week/

There is now an Apple TV section on the Irish Apple website, hadn't seen this until today.

Anyone still interested in getting one?

jack presley

Narcissus wrote: »

New Apple TV available next week, although no mention of regions.

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/10/19/tim-cook-new-apple-tv-next-week/

There is now an Apple TV section on the Irish Apple website, hadn't seen this until today.

Anyone still interested in getting one?

Provided you can still fiddle with the DNS codes, I'm interested in getting it.

DubDJ

Yes, I'll be getting one. Unless there's some downside to it, like not including the new remote, which has been reported by a few websites.

I think they've priced it low enough that I'll pick one up to replace ATV 3, which is mainly just used as an AirPlay reciever right now.

Sad Professor

The remote is included and is the exact same. It's just called the Apple TV Remote instead of the Siri Remote because no Siri support. See the Irish Apple site.

naasrd

Sad Professor wrote: »

The remote is included and is the exact same. It's just called the Apple TV Remote instead of the Siri Remote because no Siri support. See the Irish Apple site.

Wonder how the Siri remote would work around the border areas?

jack presley

naasrd wrote: »

Wonder how the Siri remote would work around the border areas?

Would it be dependent on what iTunes account you're using, i.e. A UK or Irish one?

Or if you have an American account, would it work on that?

horgan_p

As long as I can play .mkv and decode DTS from shares on my nas box , then it'll be a day 1 purchase for me.

Sad Professor

jack presley wrote: »

Would it be dependent on what iTunes account you're using, i.e. A UK or Irish one?

Or if you have an American account, would it work on that?

That and possibly what region the TV is set to, I’d image.

degsie

naasrd wrote: »

Wonder how the Siri remote would work around the border areas?

Once again Apple, who are headquartered here, are leaving Irish customers scratching their heads and scrambling for workarounds to get their products working as they should :rolleyes:

jack presley

I was listening to the Cult of Mac podcast (and they're the biggest Apple fan boys ever) but the guy who had used the new Apple TV was't too impressed. He said using Siri on it was terrible.

Creamy Goodness

jack presley wrote: »

I was listening to the Cult of Mac podcast (and they're the biggest Apple fan boys ever) but the guy who had used the new Apple TV was't too impressed. He said using Siri on it was terrible.

IMO (having both the Apple TV gen 3 and the new Apple TV) I really only used my Apple TV for AirPlay and for Netflix. The new one can't do Netflix yet as there's no apps (bar ones you write yourself) installed on the box. It's really limited at the moment, the screen savers being the best part for far hopefully this will change when the App Store is launched and the device is actually released to the public

jack presley

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

IMO (having both the Apple TV gen 3 and the new Apple TV) I really only used my Apple TV for AirPlay and for Netflix. The new one can't do Netflix yet as there's no apps (bar ones you write yourself) installed on the box. It's really limited at the moment, the screen savers being the best part for far hopefully this will change when the App Store is launched and the device is actually released to the public

Is that right? There'll be no Netflix app at launch? Or any of the other apps like NFL, MLB etc. that I use?

Sad Professor

Netflix along with numerous other apps comes pre-installed on the US version of the new box, so I see no reason why they won’t be on the Irish version as well.

5uspect

I was very tempted by this but I've opted for a Steam Link instead. I can just configure my PC or Mac's browser to stream whatever service I want. I'll also get to work through my Stram backlog on the sofa!

Creamy Goodness

jack presley wrote: »

Is that right? There'll be no Netflix app at launch? Or any of the other apps like NFL, MLB etc. that I use?

Netflix will be there at launch. It's just it's not there now.