While Apple’s fourth-generation Apple TV has received largely positive reviews, one black mark has been the lack of support for the company’s iOS Remote app. Fortunately, today’s Apple TV update fixes that.
If you’ve ever owned a second or third generation Apple TV smart TV box, the iOS Remote is kind of a life saver. Available to any iPhone or iPad user, the Remote app allows users to control networked iTunes libraries running on other computers on your local network and offers more robust controls for Apple TV.
It’s unknown why Apple left out compatibility for the Remote app when it launched the new Apple TV – but that’s likely due to Siri’s new voice integration and new physically The remote that comes with every Apple TV box. Older units featured a sleek, round-length aluminum with just a few buttons and a four-way directional pad. The new remote, by contrast, offers users a few buttons and a rather large (for a remote) trackpad – not unlike the trackpad you’d find on a MacBook.
But despite the new trackpad, entering text on Apple TV turns out to be a disappointing exercise. Complex passwords figuratively take forever when following any special characters or capital letters, something Siri’s voice control can’t help you with. The same goes for searching for anything in a foreign language or difficult to spell, or apps that Siri can’t help with.
The iOS Remote app fixes this by pairing your iPhone or iPad with your Apple TV. When you launch the Remote software, you can choose from any Apple TV or local iTunes library you’ve paired. If you choose an Apple TV, the screen changes to a simple representation of the physical remote; You can tap or swipe the arrows to move up, down, left or right. There’s also a menu/enter button.
With the Remote app open, you can select a text field on Apple TV – when you do this, a dialog box will appear on your iPhone and the onscreen keyboard will open. This allows you to add accounts or other information to your Apple TV more Faster.
The change in functionality only seems to be thanks to the Apple TV update; MacRumors It reports that the iOS version is unimportant – you don’t need to update to iOS 9.2 for it to work – but to do You need to update your Apple TV to tvOS 9.1. Unfortunately, while older Apple TVs offered users the ability to pair with a Bluetooth keyboard for text input, the new Apple TV doesn’t, and today’s update doesn’t seem to change that.
Support our work ❤️
If you enjoyed this article, consider leaving a tip to help us keep publishing great content.
