Reposted from a complaint formally registered on the internet (by me):
I’m throwing this out to both Apple and the user community – frankly, the idea that the “old” AppleTV is unable to stream Netflix is insulting, since the “old” AppleTV is without doubt a more powerful computer than the iPad.
I also understand the contention/theory that it’s a different OS on the new so that it would be two separate efforts to bring Netflix to the AppleTV.
Awesome. Fine.
Here’s my point: I bought an AppleTV on the hope/promise that it would be improved… at the time, it seemed like a good time to try the device… word on the street (and from Apple) was that the device wasn’t perfect, but updates were on the way.
Frankly, it hasn’t been very impressive. It’s kind of neat, but after Wii got the ability to stream Netflix the AppleTV seemed lackluster at it’s finest, and shoddy the rest of the time, which is mainly when I had to use the abysmal remote control. As a media device, it was definitely the slow kid in the house.
So we arrive at a new hardware & software version with the old one never having lived up to it’s real potential, and Apple deciding that it’s going to cut it’s losses and kill the old model, announcing to it’s user base that to enjoy the new features they must buy a new hardware box.
I’m going to reiterate: the new features do not depend on “faster” or “better” hardware (like when Snow Leopard didn’t support non-intel processors — that was reasonable and understandable), they just depend on Apple being willing to support the product that I bought no more than 18 months ago.
So, after not needing much thought I’ve concluded that this is an absurd and anti-user strategy on Apple’s part. For the same price as the old one (less, really), I can buy a competitor’s box that will play the same & more media types, have storage, play Netflix – and also flash video from websites. Plus other things, maybe.So, Apple. Thanks for convincing me I need a new set top box. That part of your pitch was really super convincing.
However, I’m sorry to report that it won’t be an AppleTV. Not just because your competitors’ products look better, but because in this case your product just *****.
On the bright side, I’m hoping I can get around to putting a real OS on the stupid thing, and using it for something else.
As a last aside, if you want to be amused by how spineless and ridiculous Apple is in it’s approach to shielding it’s users from objectionable content, consider the “expletive-deleted” ***** in the quoted passage. It’s the word “sucks.”
Oh Apple, if only you could come up with a way to not suck that wasn’t removing the word “suck” from the language. Actually, if you thought about that hard enough, it would solve about 30% of your problems.
