Apple TV: Hands on with Apple's new television box

In one of the worst-kept secrets of recent times, Apple has finally revealedthe much-anticipated new and improved fourth-generation Apple TV, three long years since the last iteration.

The new box has a new focus on gaming and runs on new operating system tvOS, a souped-up version of the iPhone and iPad system iOS. Read on for my initial thoughts after spending a few minutes with it.

Design and remote

Physically, Apple TV has been through some changes. The box itself is a little bit taller than the third gen model, but otherwise looks more or less the same.

It’s the remote which has been given an entire makeover, morphing into a slimline wand with a glass touchpad at the top and volume rocker, menu, home and Siri buttons. It’s incredibly light and is Bluetooth 4.0 enabled, needing charging every three months or so through the lightning port on its bottom, though there is the option to use a Bluetooth-enabled keyboard should you feel the need.

Thankfully you don’t have to hold the remote to your mouth, as is sometimes the case with Amazon’s equivalent, to need to be heard.

Software

The user interface looks cleaner and is more pleasing to navigate than its predecessor, which I have found quite cluttered and a bit frustrating to wade through in the past.

One of the most welcome upgrades is the integration of digital assistant Siri to act as a deep voice-triggered search function, finally doing away with the frankly painful process of keying in the programme or film you’re looking for. It’s outdated, time-consuming and unnecessary.

Simply speaking your command aloud, such as “Find me comedies starring Andy Samberg” or “Show me the episode of New Girl with Prince in” is a far more intuitive method of search, and from what I saw the voice recognition seems to work pretty well, with no obvious failures to comprehend a command.

During the presentation, both Tim Cook and Eddy Cue placed much value on how Apple TV has the potential to be a revolutionary gaming device.

I watched an assistant zip through Asphalt 8 using the specialised gaming controller and the altogether gentler Rayman Adventures using the TV remote control itself, both of which seemed responsive and looked particularly impressive on the big screen.

The Apple TV app store is your new portal to a whole new world of possibilities you didn’t know you necessarily wanted on your TV screen.

Slightly leftfield uses were showcased through shopping app Gilt and property portal Zillow, which allow you to scroll through insanely expensive American homes and ludicrously-priced dresses. This is clever insofar as these are theoretically activities people want to share with others, hence the benefits of a the larger TV screen over, say, a phone, but it was a slightly odd aside during the presentation.