Is Apple TV+ a joke?
8Trick question. It is.
Thursday night I signed up for a 7-day free trial of Apple TV+. I just wanted to check in and see what it’s about.
In typical Apple modus operandi, big plans, huge investment, lack of execution.
The app on iOS is… well, I’d call it a joke if it wasn’t so pitiful.
The Roku app is pretty much identical to the iOS app.
No watch list, no filters to weed out paid content, heck, no filters to search by genres for that matter. The Apple TV+ app is the absolute bare minimum effort required to grant consumers access to Apple TV+ content.
Content? LMAO! Original programming? Also laughable. The most limited content library I’ve ever seen in a streaming service. My own personal library has more titles.
Reliability is also a major issue. Frequent interruptions in the middle of my streams. “Sorry, this content is unavailable. Please try again later.” This happens with TV+ content, as well as my owned titles when viewing via TV+. The functionality which should allow me to resume a episode or film where I let off is intermittent. Initially it wouldn’t work at all, but after resetting the apps, then deleting and reinstalling and reactivating, I’m seeing around 65% reliability. Once already it just stopped working at all, and I had to do the whole reset, delete, reinstall bit again. Mind you, I only signed up for the free trial on Thursday night. Less than 48 hours ago.
So… maybe there’s a super secret access code I need to enter somewhere so I can gain access to the real apps and content all the cool kids watching? If you know that code, please send it over!
PS: Disney+ is marginally better, but still starving for original content. One advantage there: no additional paid content constantly being shoved down your neck. I actually managed to entertain myself for a full month in Disney+. The Disney vault is pretty huge, and can be fun if you’re into animation films. Then there’s the Star Wars library of course. I can’t foresee maintaining a sub to Disney+, but hopping in for a month a few times a year is conceivable.
PPS: Loving the new UX in Hulu for Roku. Much needed and very welcome update there. Still quite a bit of room for improvement, but every bit helps.
- 12 comments, 29 replies
- Comment
Come on now
you’re obviously just really really prejudiced against Apple and you’re just trying to take them down
you know and I know and everybody knows that Apple is the greatest organization or company or anything in the history of all possible universes
And Apple is also the greatest entity in all possible futures
So, get with the program, buy the party line, take a bite of the Apple, and get over yourself
You know damn well that all these flaws, as you call them, are actually features; so it’s time to start being honest about them and praising them.
Personally I don’t subscribe because I’m simply not worthy
/giphy Not worthy
@f00l Dang. Somebody took a big ol’ tug a that Apple Kool Aid.
@ruouttaurmind
I’m tryin’. Ok?
Just pretend that you believe.
@f00l beer day was yesterday
@ELUNO
Then, time for the hard stuff.
/giphy hard stuff
Just going to leave this here…
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/snapdragon-chip-flaws-put-1-billion-android-phones-at-risk-of-data-theft/
@cinoclav
I also use android devices regularly.
Guess I’ll be uninstalling stuff
: (
When I hear about a new exploit somehow I’m not shocked.
@f00l I use an Android tablet and an iPhone. I have no need for jailbreaking things or delving too deeply into the OS. Between the two, my phone is consistently just a better product. I find it more intuitive to use 99% of the time. Sure, I wish Apple had a few features that Android offers but I get along just fine as it is. (And I’d imagine Android users would like some of what Apple offers too.) These security flaws in Android are a constant reminder that I prefer my most used item to be both, locked down better and updated much faster.
@cinoclav I shall match your Tit with my Tat: https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2020/05/15/new-apple-security-blow-if-you-have-an-iphone-look-away-now/amp/
Use whatever phone you like. They are all extremely vulnerable.
@cinoclav @elfunkman the linked article provides exactly zero information about the alleged glut of new iPhone exploits. It’s primarily thesis is that because Zerodium says that it’s not buying any new zero-day flaws related to certain functions in IOS, and the owner of Zerodium is smack-talking IOS, there must be scads of them and therefore… all your iPhones are belong to us.
Let’s just say that’s not what I would consider to be evidence, let alone convincing evidence. It’s not a demonstrated hack. It’s not a proof of concept. It’s not even a definitive claim that a hack exists accompanied by a refusal to provide any more details. It’s an implication in a statement by a highly interested party quoted in a article written by another interested party posted on a clickbait driven platform.
There may be serious flaws in there, but I wouldn’t come to that conclusion on the basis of the this article.
TL;DR It’s a Forbes “contributor network” article - clickbait containing dire warnings based on a single-sourced rumor.
@accumulator @elfunkman Exactly. Not to mention, even if those flaws did exist, I would trust Apple to attack them and push fixes as quickly as possible. You literally may never get the similar updates with your Android unless you’re using a Pixel.
@cinoclav Or maybe they’d do like before and say, our devices have no flaws, if your phone was hacked it was something you did, like they did with their computers and viruses.
I quite enjoy my complimentary year of Apple TV+ that came with my iPhone. The iOS app is indeed a bit messy, but once you work around that and figure out how to find the shows, it’s high quality content, and I’ve never had any streaming issues, whether watching on my desktop, iPad, iPhone, or Apple TV. Also, if you go to tv.apple.com on your desktop, it is a clean interface without promoting all the non Apple TV+ channels and content, so start the shows you want to watch there and then they will be in the up next at the top of the iOS apps.
My girlfriend and I both thought The Morning Show was awesome, and we both totally got into Dickinson - can’t wait for season two of both.
I’ve been enjoying Little America, as has she, although she does find it a bit too sappy at times.
She did not get into Central Park, so I’m watching that on my own, and it is musically brilliant, even if the plot is a bit thin and the animation is annoying.
We quite enjoyed See, which we started shortly after completing Game of Thrones, and it definitely filled the void of a different world with fighting and mysticism.
As of yesterday, we started Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. We loved the first episode, tolerated the second, and enjoyed the third.
We originally started Trying, but after the first episode, we haven’t gone back. It seems like it could be a good show, but we weren’t enjoying either of the main characters. She did suggest we give it another try soon, as it has been several months since we first watched it.
I still want to watch the new Little Voice show that was just released, and possibly the Russians winning the space race one.
We haven’t looked at any of the documentaries or the movies yet either, so that might be in our future - The Banker and Greyhound both look potentially good.
So, yeah, I’m sold on the whole Apple TV+ thing for now. Will I subscribe and pay when my year is up? Not sure yet - depends on what new content they continue to add to the service.
PANS! GLANDS! CRAYONS! AWESOME!
@curtise how do I get that year? I saw a notification on my phone, but now I can’t find it.
@curtise never mind. I opened the app, and there it is.
@craigthom woot! Let me know what you think of the shows!
@curtise So far I’ve watched the 5 episodes of Amazing Stories and the first few eps of For All Mankind. I haven’t tried any of the comedy stuff yet. Snoopy in Space works well as background while I’m doing other things.
I totally understand the reason, but it’s still a bit amusing how every character in Amazing Stories has an iPhone and Macbook. Even the military and police use iPhones and Macbooks in their official functions.
@curtise once I dug down to the Apple+ stuff I watched Amazing Stories. Two episodes in and I like it.
(It’s 4K Dolby Vision on both my Roku TV and my Fire Stick, but it’s only 5.1 on the latter but Atmos on the former.)
@curtise @ruouttaurmind As far as comedy on Apple TV+ goes, I highly recommend Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. It was such a funny and well executed show. Looking forward to season 2 now (even though I had no plans to keep Apple TV+ once my year-long free trial was up).
We pick the streaming service of the month, and rotate frequently. Avoids the staleness and avoids the ramp up of costs into a new cable bill.
Netflix keeps your profile for 9 months, so dropping the service for awhile doesn’t hurt.
I have Apple TV+ and I think it’s just peachy and works just fine even with our sluggo rural internet. All the streaming services/apps are crappy in their own way, I find Apple one of the more tolerable, and often better technical quality than others.
Nah you’re right. The Amazon Video app isn’t much better, imo. They’re both trying to be portals to buying channels, and both doing it poorly.
And I haven’t watched Greyhound yet or whatever, but even six months in to a free year of Apple TV, I haven’t watched a full season of anything.
As a stockholder, I kinda wonder what they’re doing. Not an Eddie Cue fan in the least, but they’ve got enough money they’ll probably figure it out by trial and error at some point.
But you’re 100% right. They ain’t figured it out yet.
@stinks Agreed. Amz is constantly shoving pay-to-watch stuff on me. Very inconvenient to see just the stuff which is included with Prime. I find double listings for UHD and HD originals a bit frustrating as well as listing various seasons separately. Just give me a listing for the program and let me select what season and HD or UHD when I choose an episode.
If + is such a shit show, why don’t you praise what you love instead of criticizing others? What do you love? I don’t gaf what you hate.
@irishbyblood As long as you ask… IMHO, best value in streaming svcs for me has been HBO Max. So. Much. Content. All the HBO originals, the HBO movie library, plus an astounding assortment non-HBO programming (digging Doom Patrol). Every bit of it is sans-commercials and not a drop of additional pay-to-watch content. Currently $12/mo for the first year (via intro offer) then $15.
Bad with the good: No native HBO Max app on Roku devices. I overcome this by casting from my tablet app or switching on the Xbox. App is adequate, room for improvement, but functional. Also not available on Fire devices.
Netflix would be my second choice as top streaming value.
@irishbyblood Addendum: You do realize this topic wasn’t created as a personal attack on your streaming habits, right? You seem to have taken it a little personally.
@ruouttaurmind You mean it wasn’t about ME??? Let me expand my idgaf to this entire thread. Move it along, no one to offend here.
Coming at this from the Apple TV hardware device, the app seems to want to be your first and last stop to watch anything, so they don’t privilege / segregate their own shows in a way that would be extremely useful given how fragmented everything is now.
I second the thing about watchlists and library management. Overall it’s kind of chaotic and disorganized.
The shows themselves seem good though. I’d think about paying for it probably, if I was more of a TV watcher, and if I wasn’t on the free year.
Haven’t had any streaming issues.
@InnocuousFarmer
What’s this free year thing? How does one get that offer?
Thx if you have time to reply. I’m lazy/busy, have not looked it up and won’t.
And if I got that deal I prob would not watch.
My bad.
I’ve gotten so accustomed to speeding up my audio spoken word content (usually about 1.8-2.0 adjustment) that it makes me crazy that I can’t speed up video in a similar fashion - even tho the vid experiences would no doubt be ruined that way.
And it’s not like there’s some shortage of great spoken word content.
And, if some book one wants to listen to isn’t recorded, a newish version stand-alone kindle e-book reader will do a fine job of reading the book aloud over a bluetooth speaker or headset connection - and will do the reading at a listener-adjusted speed setting.
And I been told that listening to spoken word is safer than watching vid, if one is driving. That’s what they say, anyway.
: )
So … I think of my vid content wishlist as belonging to some other, future life phase for me.
@f00l Any Apple hardware purchase (? Not sure how low that goes, includes earbuds, I think) comes with a free year subscription to Apple TV.
I guess the purchase gets associated with the same Apple account as the Apple TV app, and thataways you get an activate free trial kind of button. I’ve only watched part of the Morning Show and a couple episodes of that videogame company comedy Mythic Raven Shovel or whatever it is called. It did seem like modern television shows.
Basically I’m squandering the trial. Should at least look at Greyhound and that houses show. Then again, I wouldn’t mind getting into more books. Time’s short.
No system is for everyone. Apple users don’t like droids, and Android users don’t like iOS
I’ll just use my android and I like it. Apple soured me on their products back when the sued the crap out of Franklin and later when they created the Mac and rolled it out in such a way to screw over apple ][ users.
@Cerridwyn Don’t forget how they effed Motorola. Cancelled PowerPC contract, plus revoked Motorola’s license to build Mac clones. But only after Motorola invested hundreds of millions ramping up to production for chips and clones.
@ruouttaurmind
true dat
/giphy true
To be fair, it seemed like Moto was falling further and further behind in the CPU speed race of the late 90s/early 2000s. The G4 was competitive in some ways when it came out, but Moto just couldn’t crank the clock rate high enough, fast enough to compete with PIII and Athlons that crested 1Ghz before the G4 could break 500Mhz.
I love my old Macs, but if Moto wanted Apple’s business, they should’ve focused more on how to keep it.
I don’t like anything Apple, but am interested in That greyhound movie
I have Amazon Prime. I have Netflix.
I almost never watch vid. Unless I whine at self for stupidly getting sucked into to some youtube listicle nonsense.
I would prob cancel Netflix, except that I don’t pay for it.
I’m noticing that the available streaming content on is very fragmented according to which service. Annoying. All the more reason not to subscribe.
I guess people with kids will want at least the Disney+ thing, for all the child- and teenage-friendly content. As long as the pricing stays low anyway.
Also I notice that all the “cable competition” services like fubo and youtube tv and so forth are getting big price increases. Not bargains anymore.
I guess they wanna imitate cable and alienate/kill off their own customer bases?
Huh. I guess if I were watching vid content, I’d want possibly HBO and Disney as add-ins? Or Criterion?
/giphy Maybe/maybe not.
@f00l Ok, listicles are bad enough on BuzzFeeD, but how do you possibly make a listicle video? I can’t say I’ve ever seen one. Or at least one that I’ve recognized as a listicle. Moreover, how can you possibly manage to sit still through one.
PS: Attention students of today - Listicles are NOT journalism.
@ruouttaurmind
I shouldn’t even reply.
Because you should keep your innocence re addictive youtube listicle vids.
I’m completely evil for exposing anyone else.
But it’s pandemic season, we’re all already fucked.
So here goes:
Pointless and addictive! Beware!
Saddest GOT moments
Sat Night Live skits gone wrong
These two are from the v successful WatchMojo channel, which “listicles” pop culture. (They have a few other related channels such as MsMojo.)
Sometimes/often they are entertaining. Often they are awful. They are always wastes of time. People watching usually know that, but watch to the end anyway.
Also, the voiceover vid narration can tend to sound a bit plastic and preachy. But these are still a bit addictive.
Whatever you do, don’t subscribe!
Good! Don’t beware!
A quality listicle channel is Cinefix. You can actually learn something valuable about filmmaking and film composition from these:
Top historical epics
Top film scores
Top 50 movies of all time
Charming! Indulge!
And here’s my personal fav vid listicle channel. This one I indulge deliberately.
Non corporate. Unimportant. Filled with bad puns, self-deprecation, and unredeemable trivia.
A Brit (not an OxBridge or an overeducated-twit sort, just an ordinary person) married an American, and moved to the US as a adult, a little over a decade ago.
Now he makes vids for his channel, called Lost In The Pond.
About UK vs US trivia. Unimportant garbage facts. (Nothing culturally significant that would ever generate a Big Important Essay Or Book.)
And somehow, these vids can be wonderful.
Coping with winter
Washington DC reaction
@f00l
@f00l But here’s a good timewaster for ya.