What you need to know
- Swiss TV company Salt gives an Apple TV 4K to its users.
- But so many complained about the Siri Remote that it had to build its own.
- The new remote can be bought for less than 20 Swiss francs.
Apple's Siri Remote has always been a bone of contention for Apple TV users. And with Swiss fiber TV company Salt giving Apple TV 4K boxes to its subscribers it was only a matter of time before they complained. And when they did, Salt made an alternative.
The new remote looks more like a "proper" remote than anything Apple has made and while it was reportedly designed in collaboration with Apple, it's clear this is something it wouldn't want to ship itself.
Because that collaboration was in place the remote works just like the Siri Remote does. There are no steps needed in order to pair the thing and it looks much easier to use without accidentally rewinding whatever you're watching, too.
Hopefully this is good news for everyone, though. It seems Apple is aware that the Siri Remote design is sub-optimal. And given its newfound fondness of listening to users and acting on their feedback we can reasonably hope – if not expect – that the next Apple TV will rectify things.
Maybe?
Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.
Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.
