A little over a year ago, the Cupertino company renewed one of its most abandoned products, the Apple TV. Defined for a long time as the «company hobby», this device was without receiving updates for about three and a half years and the truth is that it was not missing much either, at least in countries like Spain where the offer of audiovisual content on demand and in streaming, at that time, was pretty poor.
But Apple TV was not really a "hobby", but a product that still endured in its long slumber until conditions were right to begin to fulfill the true purpose of the company. So, At the end of 2015, a renewed fourth-generation Apple TV emerged that was going to begin to change the way we watch television.
The transformation of the Apple TV
In November 2015, Apple put the fourth generation Apple TV on sale at a price that, in its most basic version, exceeded the previous version by one hundred euros. But still, we cannot say that it is an expensive product of the company (it is not cheap either, true), but it is a family product, and not as personal as an iPhone, an iPad or an Apple Watch. In other words, it is a product of which, in principle, there is usually only one per household.
Having said that, the fourth generation Apple TV brought with it huge news, which are still evolving and refining, and that are clearly changing the way we watch television. But beware, because this would not be possible if we found ourselves in the same situation in which we found ourselves just a month before its launch, that is, without content. Apple has put the medium, but others have put the content, still few, but already enough for many.
The Apple TV 4 came with its own operating system, tvOS, and its own app store, which it opened a whole universe of possibilities similar to the one we already had on our iPhone and iPad. The touch remote control or Siri Remote, the dictation function, the universal search and many other functions that have been implemented and increased over the months, have been the great improvement.
Two types of content consumers
I don't know how many of you have a fourth-generation Apple TV, but what I can assure you is that, in my circle of friends, there are now two types of audiovisual content consumers. On the one hand, The ones who stay on schedule and swallow endless advertising intermediates; On the other hand, those of us who see what we like, when we like it, and how we like it, without more interruptions than those that we wish to make (or those that nature forces us to do). That is how simple is the gigantic change that Apple TV 4 is causing in the way we watch television, a change that even today, a year after its launch, some media groups such as Mediaset, A3Media or Movistar refuse to accept, but which is a reality that, sooner or later, they will target.
Some apps that have contributed decisively to this change
The group Radio Televisión Española was the first to launch part of its content to the new Apple TV 4 with the applications RTVE Series y ClanTV, both of great simplicity of use and powerful performance.
As well Netflix, which arrived in Spain a little before the fourth generation Apple TV, and HBO, which has only been with us for a month. Both are excellent payment platforms starting at 7,99 euros per month.
Infuse, with which you can watch on your television all the series, movies, documentaries or programs that you have stored on your computer or on an external hard drive, or plex, a similar app, although for my taste, except for details, it is second.
VidLib, an app with which you can enjoy practically everything by simply adding the URL of popular websites such as Divxatope, HDFull, Pordede, TVVip, Series Danko….
And others many foreign channels which are also already present on Apple TV 4 such as Al Jazzeera, Bloomberg, NBC news, Canal Cocina, CNN, Arte, TED, Zattoo (which offers several channels), VEVO, etc.