Quick review of ATV Siri 2nd gen Remote

[OtinG]

I received my ATV Siri 2nd gen Remote today.

Over all I have to say it is a major improvement over the 1st gen remote!

I find it is large enough to use even with my arthritic hand. It is about 3/8 inch thick and the surface area is metal but not that slippery. The 1st gen was like a sliver of a wet bar of soap and too thin. I definitely had to get a neoprene cover for the 1st gen remote, and it was still difficult to hold and use. I can use the 2nd gen remote right out of box, but it still needs a bit of help from a case to make it feel really comfortable. I have bad arthritis so need a thicker remote, but I suspect the 2nd gen remote is thick enough for most people.

The 2nd gen remote has new and welcomed buttons. They added a much needed Mute button.

They also added a new set of direction buttons in a circular configuration with Up, Down, Left, and Right arrows. It resembles the old iPods. You can also run your thumb around the perimeter of the circle and scroll through lists fairly quickly. There is still a trackpad but it is much smaller and is located in the center of the new circular direction buttons configuration. You can turn off the tracking feature and just use it as a selection button which you press, or you can adjust the tracking between Slow, Medium, and Fast. The trackpad actually works pretty well. Perhaps because it is smaller and less likely to be accidentally engaged, I don’t find myself accidently scrolling through things like I did on the 1st gen remote. I chose to leave trackpad feature turned On and set to Medium. I must say that the 4 direction buttons plus circular scroller plus trackpad all work extremely well and make navigation much easier and certainly more accurate than on the 1st gen remote.

They moved the Mic button to the right side (edge). I’m left handed, so that makes it less likely to accidentally press it for me. Right handed people will need to watch where they put their thumb though.

They changed the Menu button from the 1st gen remote to a back arrow (Back) button. Functionality is the same as the Menu button had been because it mostly just functioned as a Back button.

Everything else operates the same as it did on the 1st gen remote.

I will say it was worth the $59 to upgrade, especially once you consider that Apple still sells the 1st gen remote for $49. The remote took about 5 seconds to set up, literally! Just place the remote within 3 or 4 inches of your ATV then press and hold the Back button and + button until a message appears saying the remote is set up with your ATV. Really easy and quick to do. And it automatically worked with my TV without having to do anything. Just press and hold the Power button on the 2nd gen remote and the TV, soundbase, and ATV all turn On/Off. Since 90% of what I watch on TV is via my ATV, the new 2nd gen remote now becomes my primary remote.

My Improvised Cover/Case
Unfortunately, there are no covers/cases in stock for the 2nd gen remote. All the ones I found on Amazon had delivery dates of several weeks, which means they probably ship directly from China. I might get one once they are in stock in the US, but I don’t like having to get them all the way from China. So I improvised my own solution. See attached photos.

I had a few 6” x 6” neoprene rubber/foam mats with adhesive backing. These are non-slip, so I cut a strip out of one in the size and shape of the back of the 2nd gen remote and stuck onto it. This added about 1/4 inch of thickness bringing the total thickness of the remote to just over 5/8 inch and added a non-slip surface to the back side as well as a bit of padding. I’m not sure how long the material will stay attached, but it is really well attached at the moment. This makes the 2nd gen remote very comfortable in my hand, and I can easily work all the buttons and mini trackpad. I have bad arthritis so that is why I need a bulkier non-slippery remote. My improvised solution was certainly inexpensive and easy to make and seems to work very well.

[tomsem]

I would add that the ability to program the volume and mute buttons to operate audio equipment with IR means most of the time we can function with just the Siri remote at hand. I wish it would do power as well, however (we have to toggle power on the TV and audio by other means, seems an update could add this feature).

Some apps (HBO Max) don’t work with the circular scroll feature (it did at first, sort of, but then an update removed it, apparently it no longer uses tvOS media viewer).

[OtinG]

I lucked out because my TV can control my sound-base via HTML-CEC, and since the 2nd gen remote can control my TV volume it automatically controls my sound-base volume. When I hold down the power button it turns the TV on/off, which in turn turns the sound-base on/off, and it turns the ATV 4K on/off.

I discovered this evening that if you turn off Siri on the ATV 4K, then press the Siri button on the 2nd gen remote, it takes you to the Search screen where you can hold down the Siri button and ask for a search item. That is kind of cool. I don’t typically use Siri on any of my Apple devices, and after I accidentally pressed the button on the remote a couple of times, I decided to turn it off for the ATV 4K too. Then I accidentally triggered the Siri button again and that is when I discovered the shortcut to the Search feature via the Siri button. Unfortunately I learned that I can easily trigger the Siri button by mistake, so I need to work on not doing that! I don’t know if that worked the same on 1st gen remote because I never tried it.

Typically I use the ATV 4K for 90% of my TV watching. However I do use my Fire TV Cube to view recordings made with my Recast of OTA programming. The Recast requires a Fire TV to use it. So I can shift to the TV remote whenever I need to use the Fire TV Cube. Plus I’m a Prime member so occasionally I watch Prime Video shows, although just like Apple TV, they charge extra for most of their stuff.

[OtinG]

As mentioned in post #3 above, you have two options for using the Siri buttom located on the remote's right side. These two options do different tasks, and one of these options takes you out of whatever app you were in when you pressed it. So you need to keep that in mind.

You can set the option in Settings --> General --> Siri --> ON or OFF. Read on to understand what the options do.

Here is the breakdown.

Siri button default option Awakens Siri

1. Press Siri button to have Siri awaken and listen for your command.
2. Give a command to Siri.
3. Press the Siri button without giving a spoken command to close Siri and return to the app you were in.

In this option, if you accidentally press the Siri button, the colorful, animated Siri icon appears on your screen hovering above whatever was going on in the currently opened app. You can press the Siri button again and it closes, leaving you where you were inside whichever app you were running.

Siri button Search page option

1. Press Siri button to leave the currently open app and go to the Search page.
2. Hold down Siri button to speak a search phrase.
3. Pressing the Siri button again doesn't close the Search page, it merely keeps you on it. To leave the Search page either select a search item to view, or use the Left Arrow (Back) or the Home button to close it.

In this option, if you accidentally press the Siri button, you leave the app that was currently running and go to the Search page. Pressing the Siri button again won't take you back to the app that was running. Instead you will need to close the Search page, go to the Home or Apps page, reselect your app, then navigate back inside the app to where you were before you screwed up and accidentally pressed the Siri button.

Conclusion

If you want the easiest Siri button function to recover from after an accidental pressing of the Siri button, use the default setting which awakens Siri but keeps the current app running. You can easily ask Siri to take you to the Search page if you desire, or anything else you might want to ask, or quickly close Siri. If you select to use the Search page function, you will miss part of whatever was going on in the app that was running when you accidentally pressed the Siri button, and you will have to navigate back to the app and the place within the app you had been.

How to Set the Siri Button Options

1. Open Settings
2. Select General
3. Select Siri
4. Either select ON to use the default option, or select OFF to use the go to Search page option.

Personally, I find the default option to be the best. I wish they had a 3rd option to completely disable the button, but maybe they will add that later. Being left-handed, I thought I wouldn't accidentally press the Siri button, and I don't while I’m holding the remote, but sometimes I do press it when I reach over to pick up the remote. I'll just have to learn to avoid doing that when I pick it up. I suspect right-handed people will accidentally press it while holding the remote.