By Dan Moren

November 4, 2015 7:17 AM PT

Wishlist: Apple TV system-wide watchlist

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Having had the Apple TV for less than a week, I figured it was about time for the first of what are sure to be many thoughts about what I’d like to eventually see on the set-top box.

As I was navigating through app after app, entering my login credentials and cursing the lack of a better text input method, I found myself thinking about this app-based future Tim Cook has painted. By nature, it’s highly decentralized, and while I think that approach works well enough on a device like the iPhone or iPad, the Apple TV would seem to have a much narrower area of responsibility. Though it’s certainly capable of handling many different tasks, it seems clear that the Apple TV is mostly positioned as a way to consume streaming media.

As such, that decentralized approach is also a weakness. Apple’s tipped its hat to that problem with the addition of universal search, one of the very best features of the Apple TV, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Because it means that a lot of the apps end up reinventing the wheel, creating the same features over and over again.

Take, for example, the watchlist. Almost every video streaming app on the Apple TV has some form of this, and while implementation details differ, the premise is the same: a place where you can add videos you want to watch at some point. That’s great…but on a device that’s focused on video consumption it’s also hugely inefficient.

What I’d like to see is Apple offer a systemwide watchlist on the Apple TV. Let me add all the shows, movies, or videos that I want to watch, no matter which app I need to watch them. Break them down by those categories, so I can browse what I’m in the mood for, and let me subscribe to shows that I watch regularly, so I have a central clearing house to see what I want to watch next.¹

The way I imagine it, this list would, like universal search, give you the option of watching in whichever apps are available. So if I subscribed, for example, to Arrow, I would be notified when a new episode becomes available, and given the option to buy it on iTunes, stream it on Hulu, and so on.

An app accessible from the home screen (or Siri) would just list the shows I subscribe to, along with any videos or movies that I’d added. That’d certainly be an improvement over checking six different apps to see if there are new episodes to any of my shows.

One reason I’d guess that Apple hasn’t already implemented something like this is that we’re waiting for the other shoe to drop: the much-rumored Apple TV subscription service. I’m sure Apple would like to collect content from all these disparate apps and offer a unifying interface that is more elegant and easy-to-use than the fragmented approach available now, and I also imagine the company would be all too happy to use that as a selling point.

While it would be great to see Apple build a feature like this directly into the Apple TV, perhaps a third-party developer can create a solution that gets us most of the way there.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

November 3, 2015 12:24 PM PT

Setting up OS X Server VPN on El Capitan

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

A few months back I ran through using OS X Server on your Mac to set up a VPN, which allows you not only to access computers on your local network while you’re out and about, but also enables forwarding of all Internet traffic through the VPN connection. (Great if you want to make sure that you maintain a secure connection while on public Wi-Fi.)

My guide through that process was an excellent walkthrough hosted by Macminicolo and authored by Rusty Ross. Now the two have joined forces once again to update the guide for El Capitan.

I’d been having some minor problems with the VPN since updating to 10.11, so I walked back through these steps to see if I could isolate the problems. I found one specific issue–the /etc/pf.anchors/com.apple file had been returned to its default version–and also restarted the VPN service, and everything seems to be working well once again. If you’ve run into problems with VPNs since El Cap, I’d advise you to run a check and see if you’ve encountered the same problems.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Dan Moren

November 3, 2015 10:15 AM PT

Plex on the Apple TV at last

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

So far a lot of the Apple TV apps I’ve installed have been underwhelming: many of them are warmed-over versions of iOS apps or suitable only for bare-bones streaming. But the app that I’ve been waiting for perhaps longer than any other may actually be the best of the bunch, and that’s Plex.

If you’re not familiar with Plex, it’s a combination of software and service that lets you stream media from a server—generally your Mac, PC, or Network Attached Storage box—to a client device, including your iPhone, iPad, another Mac or PC, or some set-top boxes like the Fire TV. On the server, Plex catalogs and organizes your content, pulling down metadata where appropriate. You can also build playlists, search, and quickly filter for certain types of content. Plus a whole lot more. Honestly, it’s more or less a wholesale replacement for the media library features of iTunes.

I’ve been using the Plex server for years now. For a long time, I watched via a Mac mini hooked up to my HDTV, but the interface was often cumbersome, requiring the use of an iOS app to navigate the front-end on the Mac.¹ When I picked up an Amazon Fire TV last year, support for Plex was the number one reason my Apple TV ended up relegated to second-best.²

But the new Plex app for Apple TV has reversed that trend, possibly once and for all. Perhaps most importantly, the Apple TV version beats the Fire TV’s on interface and aesthetics hands down. Plex has done an admirable job of using the interface conventions laid out by Apple to provide an easy to navigate, very responsive application. Netflix and Hulu? You guys should be taking notes here.

In particular, I’d call out Plex’s Top Shelf option in its Settings. When you put an app on the Apple TV in the top row of the home screen, the top banner displays related media. On many of the other apps I’ve installed—like Hulu or Netflix—those titles seem to be more or less random. By default, Plex just shows a banner, but if you enable the Top Shelf option, it shows actual titles from your On Deck list (Plex’s version of a queue). This is what that space should be used for frankly, and I hope more apps follow suit.

Plex’s developers have used a mix of two different approaches in creating the app—the simpler TVML markup language that Apple provides along with some native code—and the result is an app that is fast, elegant, and powerful, without sacrificing on functionality. If you’re a longtime Plex user, you’ll want this for sure, and if you’re not, well, it still might be worth checking out.

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]

By Jason Snell

November 3, 2015 9:46 AM PT

Apple TV: Nice box, bad unboxing

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

I was really impressed with the very beginning of the new Apple TV setup process, where I was instructed to hold my iPhone near the Apple TV and enter my Apple ID and password. The device was paired with my account and hopped on my home wi-fi network without any trouble. “How great is it,” I thought to myself, “that Apple is taking advantage of the fact that most Apple TV users will have an iPhone?”

Oh, but then things didn’t go so well.

At Apple’s big media event back in September, I asked an Apple employee at one of the Apple TV demo stands if there would be an update to the iOS Remote app to support the new Apple TV. I expected him to either hedge, because he didn’t know, or give me a fun tidbit about how since the iPhone has all the same sensors that are in the new remote, the new Remote app can emulate it, plus do fun stuff like provide a keyboard so you can type in all your passwords and stuff.

Instead, this is what he said: “No.”

And he wasn’t wrong. The Remote app doesn’t work with this new Apple TV, not even a little bit. So when the Apple TV suddenly asked me for my iCloud user name and password—which it already knew, by the way, because of that fancy pairing feature at the start—I got to laboriously peck it out, character by character, including all those special characters that require toggling to the symbols keyboard¹.

I repeated this step for my Netflix user name and password. For other video services, the apps punted entirely, having me load a web page on a different device, authenticate with my cable TV provider, and then enter a code displayed on the screen to connect my device. This was actually less painful than entering my user name and password one character at a time, but sending me to another device doesn’t seem like the right approach. (And with so many apps these days requiring a cable TV user name and password, shouldn’t Apple have integrated that login information right into tvOS?)

Then I tried to download the Madefire digital comics app, and I was prompted for my iTunes user name and password again. I groaned, I might’ve said some inappropriate words (fortunately, my kids weren’t around and my dog didn’t seem to be offended by them), and I pecked out the same characters one at a time.

And that’s when the Apple TV said: To activate this device to make purchases, go to your account page in iTunes.

Now, it seems that most people haven’t seen this particular alert. I have no idea what it was about my account that required this, but I had to go to my Mac, open iTunes, and click on my account name to open the account page. At which point I spied this small line of text toward the top of the screen:

Before you can complete the purchase you started on your Apple TV, you must click Edit next to your Billing Address and verify your payment information.

Whenever I try to make a purchase on a new Apple device, I am forced to verify that it’s legit, usually by entering in the security code from the back of my credit card. I expected to need to do that on the Apple TV. But being forced to switch to my Mac, click into my account settings, click on my billing address, and re-enter the code there? That seems… a bit out of the way.

But I did it! And then I turned back around to the Apple TV, only to discover it was once again asking me to input my Apple ID and password.

Did you know the trackpad on the top of the new Apple TV remote is partially made of glass? It is. And that’s why I didn’t chuck it across the room at that moment.

Given the number of times I am asked to input my Apple ID password on my iPhone and iPad, it’s clear to me that Apple needs to do a better job of authorizing devices across all its services and then getting out of the way. But at least on my iPhone and iPad, I can type that password quickly.

On the Apple TV, there’s no recourse but to tap it out one character at a time. The device doesn’t support a Remote app to make it easier, nor does it support external Bluetooth keyboards! (Maybe the Siri Remote should have a password dictation mode so I can read my password out a character at a time.)

Once I got my Apple TV up and running, I was impressed with it. It’s fast, the new interface design is beautiful, and I’m excited about how native apps will improve the Apple TV experience. I’ll write more about all that in due time.

But as frustrated as I was in September by how many steps I needed to go through to upgrade to a new iPhone, I was even more frustrated by the Apple TV setup. When it comes to buying a new Apple product, Apple does so many things right. Apple’s packaging and out-of-box experience are second to none. The hardware design is beautiful.

Unfortunately, Apple’s hardware and packaging are being let down by its software and services. The unboxing experience doesn’t end when the device is pulled out of the box—it ends when it’s set up and running smoothly. There’s a lot more work that needs to be done.

By Jason Snell

October 30, 2015 3:10 PM PT

New life for an old MacBook Pro

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Late last year I brought my mother’s mid-2009 13-inch MacBook Pro back from Arizona. She’s switched to the iPad full time, so the laptop was just sitting there. When I tried to use it I was shocked at how incredibly slow it was, but that’s what 2GB of RAM and a 5400rpm spinning hard drive will get you.

When a friend called inquiring about buying a used laptop, I realized that my mom’s MacBook Pro was just sitting here, unused. But in its present state, I couldn’t inflict it on anyone. So I decided to get it in shape by upgrading its memory and storage.¹

As I usually do when I need to buy upgrades, I popped over to Other World Computing, which helpfully lists which upgrades work with which Mac models. In my case, with a MacBookPro5,5, that ended up being a 120GB SSD and 2x4GB RAM modules. $130 later, I had the parts, and after a very short upgrade process, the MacBook Pro was back up and running. (I booted it off of a FireWire external drive and installed El Capitan on the freshly formatted SSD.)

The result? Safari launched in a couple of Dock bounces, instead of 10 or 15 with the old RAM and hard drive set up. The computer was usable again. No, it’s not going to be incredibly fast, but for a lot of everyday uses for someone who is not a power user, it’s got new life. (I considered replacing the battery, too, but decided to let that one go for now.)

Let me state this point clearly in case you missed it: If you think your laptop is slow, and it uses a spinning hard drive, you can probably make it much, much faster by replacing it with flash storage. In almost every case, the storage is the bottleneck, not the processor (or even the RAM, though more RAM can help too).

(A reader asked me if I recommend OWC for any particular reason, especially since he feels he can find SSDs for less money elsewhere. If you research exactly what devices are compatible with your Mac and comparison shop around the Internet, you can absolutely find deals. I’ve decided I’d rather buy from a vendor I’ve dealt with (and who has stood by their warranties in the past) who has already done the work to verify device compatibility and provides installation guides on their site. If you are happy to put the work in to get a better deal, by all means, go for it! I used to do that. I just don’t anymore. I’d rather not do that dance where I order the thing that looks compatible, get it, find out it’s not compatible, request an RMA, and ship it back. Or stress about a great price from a seller with iffy ratings. And so on. Do what you’re comfortable with—there are lot of options.)

Anyway, my point is, if you’ve got an old laptop that seems unusable, it might be a hundred bucks away from being something you can hand down to a student with a clear conscience. And now my mother’s old MacBook Pro has a few more years of useful life.

By Dan Moren

October 29, 2015 11:12 AM PT

Marvel Unlimited: Friend or foe?!

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Rarely do I get into new services with the same fervor with which I’ve embraced Marvel Unlimited over the last few months.¹ As someone who hasn’t regularly read comics since his teenage years, Marvel Unlimited provides exactly what I’m looking for: a monthly subscription fee that covers pretty much all of my comic-reading needs (for Marvel titles, of course). I’m not likely to head down to my local comic book store and pick up single issues², and buying individual issues from Comixology, much as I like keeping up with the current releases, is just too pricey for my blood. So an all-you-can-eat service is just what the Doctor (Strange) ordered.

But, much as I love the service, the iOS app needs some serious work. Over the last few months, I’ve come across a few major improvements that I’d really love for Marvel to make to turn Unlimited from a service with great content and a crummy app into something that’s Fantastic (Four) all around.

Continue reading “Marvel Unlimited: Friend or foe?!”…

By Jason Snell

October 29, 2015 8:39 AM PT

Hedging the headwinds

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

I’m kind of fascinated about the fact that during Apple’s quarterly conference call with financial analysts, the company’s massive profits and solid growth took a backseat to discussions of… foreign currency exchange.

I went into this a bit for my piece on Macworld this week, but the current strength of the dollar can make Apple’s life difficult.¹

Basically, the stronger the dollar gets after a product launch, the more foreign sales eat into Apple’s product margins. Apple could respond by raising prices, but that would probably not make consumers in those countries very happy.

In general, Apple doesn’t want to re-price existing products. But as Apple CFO Luca Maestri said on the conference call, Apple does realign prices “particularly when we launch new products.” An American could cross over into Canada and buy a MacBook and save 132 American dollars. But the new Apple TV is priced dead-on with the current exchange rate, at CA$199.

More interesting is that Apple also hedges in the currency markets to protect itself from risk. If you know as much about complex financial instruments as I do, you may be wondering why Apple is using ornamental bushes to protect itself from fiscal harm. But in this context, Apple essentially has an ongoing program in which it invests in currency markets in ways that will profit the company if the dollar grows stronger. These investments allow Apple to have “some level of protection to foreign-exchange movements,” as Maestri said.

I think it’s sort of fascinating, but mostly in the sense that things are going so well for Apple right now that the biggest concern the analysts seem to have about their business is how global economic conditions will affect it. To appropriate the metaphor used a half-dozen times on the analyst call, the good ship Apple is in peak condition and there’s no other vessel on the oceans like her. Her only threat at the moment appears to be foreign-exchange “headwinds.”

And that’s this quarter’s report from the land of international topiaries and financial sailing ships.

By Dan Moren

October 29, 2015 7:43 AM PT

BBC iPlayer coming to the Apple TV

Note: This story has not been updated for several years.

Tweeteth the Beeb:

BBC iPlayer will be coming to the new Apple TV in the coming months…

— BBC iPlayer (@BBCiPlayer) October 29, 2015

About time. More to the point, a few months back, the BBC also said that it would be rolling out a U.S. version of iPlayer sometime in 2016. The caveat: it probably won’t include BBC shows that already have American homes, such as Dr. Who.

There are a number of British shows that I enjoy, most of which are difficult to find in the U.S.—and an increasing number of which come from BBC’s competitors, like ITV—but we still seem stuck in a 20th century mentality when it comes to international borders. There are licensing restrictions, sure enough, but with so much television shifting to an online medium—the app future of TV, as Tim Cook puts it—it seems anachronistic that we should be separated by mere borders.¹

[Dan Moren is the East Coast Bureau Chief of Six Colors, as well as an author, podcaster, and two-time Jeopardy! champion. You can find him on Mastodon at @dmoren@zeppelin.flights or reach him by email at dan@sixcolors.com. His next novel, the sci-fi adventure Eternity's Tomb, will be released in November 2026.]