
Swiping left and right to jump around is faster - and horizontal navigation works pretty much universally across all the streaming apps. The invocation process is simply too slow. After a month of owning the new remote, I can say that I never use this feature. You have to pause the current video, long-press on the outer edge of the ring and then perform the circular rotation gesture.
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This only works in compatible apps, like the TV app and HBO Max the apps that use Apple’s native video player UI. One of the marketed new features for this remote is the ability to use the trackpad as a jog dial, by sliding your finger in a circular motion around the outside of it. And the convenience of jumping around multiple items at a time is available just by swiping on that surface. It means the remote is much more familiar to people used to traditional TV remotes. Now, the remote has a clearly defined hardware D-Pad appearance with dot indicators on the top, left, right, and bottom edges of the outer circle. However, that interaction mode was non-obvious. The old remote could always act as a D-Pad you just had to click at the very extreme edges of the trackpad.

The trackpad circle is inset slightly from the edge of the aluminium chassis, which makes it practically impossible to inadvertently perform a swipe gesture while picking it up. This immediately makes the remote button’s layout clearly asymmetric, and you can feel the top just with your fingers.

The new remote features a circular trackpad/button at the top and the other buttons go below. What I am happy about is that Apple preserved the Siri Remote’s best idea - the swipe gesture trackpad - and remodeled it to make it intuitive and accessible to more Apple TV users, rather than scrapping a good idea altogether because of a bad implementation in the first attempt. As such, I didn’t hate it as much as other people, but I could recognize its flaws all the same.

I had trained myself to carefully pick it up by its side, in order not to brush against the trackpad surface.
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Personally, I had learned how to deal with the old remote. The new 2021 Apple TV Siri Remote addresses each of these issues. The main problems with the old Apple TV remote was that the trackpad was easy to touch accidentally, the layout was symmetrical so you didn’t know which way you were holding it, and the overall remote was small and easy to lose. It really does make everyone happy… or at least, my family doesn’t get angry every time they pick it up. The new remote is a combination of the best parts of the fourth-gen trackpad remote and the older silver Infrared button remote that came before it. Unlike with the keyboard situation though, Apple’s new Siri Remote is not merely a step backward into the past. The old Apple TV remote lived in the market about as long as the butterfly keyboard fiasco, garnering about as much frustration. It made people happy, but it was kind of boring.

When Apple retraced its steps on the butterfly key decision, it essentially reverted back to the tried-and-tested Magic Keyboard design with almost no tweaks or changes. It’s compatible with any Apple TV that runs tvOS … Everything about the Apple TV is expensive, but fortunately you can buy the remote separately. The differences between the 2017 Apple TV and the new 2021 Apple TV hardware are negligible, but the remote redesign stands on its own as bringing happiness and joy to the living room. After a month of having the new Apple TV in our household, I can firmly recommend that all Apple TV owners pick up the new generation of Apple TV Siri Remote.
