And the new streamer doesn’t do much for me either.
Supercharged AI but to what end?
The delay of several products, from the TV 4K box to the HomeView, seemed to be dependent on Siri receiving an intelligence upgrade. If there’s anything that’s held Apple’s smart products back in the past, it’s that they’ve not been very smart, with Siri seemingly limited to fetching stuff within the limited playground she operates in.
With the assistance of Google, Apple’s AI Intelligence that powers Siri has received a substantial boost, but the examples of how to use Siri in the context of the TV 4K streamer seem quite… unexciting.
There seems to be a belief among those pushing AI that we want to have fully-fledged conversations with them, but speaking for myself, that would require a complete personality change for that happen. I’m not that fussed about knowing where Pluribus was filmed (it’s Albuquerque FYI) when I’m focusing on watching the TV series.
Everything about using AI in this context seems to speak to people not being engaged by what they’re watching and thinking about something else. I want immersion, which actually means silence, not chatting to an AI assistant every few minutes.
AI often feels like it makes what you’re watching (or listening to) an advert for something else, some other piece of trivia or fact that once I learn it I’m going to tell… who exactly about it?
I’m sure there will be those who love it, but if it’s anything like how it presents itself on TVs, then I feel confident in saying that no one will really know it’s there or make use of it much.
It’s hella expensive
There was a good reason Sonos didn’t enter the TV streaming game. The box it tried to make was too expensive. Clearly Apple didn’t subscribe to that thought.
The 128GB model has gone up from £169 / $149 to £299 / $299, which is quite the mark-up. I’d guess the price of RAM will have caused it to go up (ironically, because of AI), but who exactly would pay that much for a TV streamer? The more I think about it, the more absurd that price feels.
It doesn’t feel like a massive upgrade
There’s mention of this now being a fully hands-free experience but again, I’m not much of a conversationalist and I prefer to have something in my hand. And though Apple will tout its privacy and security measures, I think people are still hesitant about a device that’s always listening and waiting for your commands.
While I don’t know if the new silicon in the box supports Dolby Vision 2, the fact that there’s no mention of it is not a positive. Maybe it’ll come later down the line, but Dolby’s been making noise about it for over a year and devices that support it are still few. There’s now AV1 decoding support but take-up of that codec has not been particularly fast.