Thanks for pointing that out. I’m used to tapping the center button or clicking the trackpad to turn on the Apple TV, so I was taken aback a bit when it didn’t work. I’ll correct the article.
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I used Front Row on a Mac connected to a projector for many years, with its remote.
I suspect Front Row didn’t fit Apple’s plans to make money from streaming services. I did try Plex but it couldnt play DRM videos.
Now the Mac is relegated to being a server for an Apple TV, via Homesharing. I remain concerned that Homesharing also doesnt fit the $ model!
Look at the picture in the article. That Siri remote is the first version, without the white ring.
Aha! Official answers are always nice.
It’s not necessarily BS to lack a hardware/software feature. Suppose that it’s not ready yet, and still undergoing testing? You have to ship a product, right? With someone deciding what the cutoff is for the current product versus what to ship in its future iteration?
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! But I want it naaaaaaaaooooooooooowwwwwwwww!!!
AirTag was ready for some time. The packaging says 2020 all over it. One guy on MacRumors pointed out that his AirTag was manufactured in August 2020. Not sure why, but I’ll bet many people being stuck at home had something to do with it.
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Your point is apropos: there can be diverse reasons affecting the decision to ship a product. In this case, a deliberate delay of shipping. The latest OS versions just released have full support for AirTags right? That leads to the hypothesis that the hardware was ready before the software was stable/mature enough to go final … Or it could be the pandemic keeping people at home, as you said. I agree that’s a legit thought.
BTW, I was responding to a comment about it being BS that the new Siri Remote didn’t have Find My capability. It seems an obvious miss, right? As a guy who was in production once upon a time, I was speculating about a decision to ship this iteration of the Siri Remote as is with a possible future iteration not being ready to ship.
Of course it’s not BS to “lack a hardware/software feature”. But it’s complete BS to say they’re “making it a bit thicker so it won’t fall in your couch cushions as much”. That’s my point. Here, “so” can mean “so that”, which would imply that it was an intentional couch-busting feature. Or, “so” could mean “therefore”, which is arguably even more exasperating since it implies that they think being thicker is just as good as having Find My support built in. Either way, how stupid do they think we are?
Regardless of this BS comment, it’s still completely lame to not have supported Find My. Apple has been working on both AirTags and this remote for years. And you could argue that the raison d’être of Find My “device” technology would be helping people track down their Apple TV remotes; what better way to make a splash combining both products. But they didn’t.
If they support Find My on the new remote with a subsequent software update, I will reduce my “lame” critique to 20% 
Why don’t they just call it the Mute Remote, 1st generation? :-)
It isn’t worth getting irate or something over it…everybody knows that the remote belongs on the end table or in the wife’s possession…husbands aren’t allowed to drive it.
TTFN:
neil
Yeah, I couldn’t find my white ring remote for the picture 
I never owned a first-gen Apple TV, so it wouldn’t be a complete set in any case.
@dave1, I agree that Apple’s explanation is total BS. The lack of Find My support in the remote doesn’t tick me off, but the obviously untrue explanation does. Twerdahl said a lot of strange things in that interview I didn’t bother to call out. I have a feeling Apple has a very different sense of how people use their TVs than most people actually do.
I’m curious. For everyone who has gotten a second-generation Siri Remote, did the Mute button just work for you or did you have to do something? I ended up having to make the Apple TV “learn” my remote for audio. Before that, the volume buttons controlled my TV fine, but pressing Mute did nothing.
Does your TV support HDMI-CEC? Mine does, as does my soundbar, so Mute just worked. If your TV doesn’t do HDMI-CEC, yeah, you’ll have to program the volume buttons to the IR commands.
I’d have to check, but the TV is old enough that I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t support HDMI-CEC.
My 2nd gen remote automagically mutes and adjusts the volume of my Marantz NR1403 receiver, wired as follows: ATV–> TV via HDMI, TV<–>receiver via HDMI/ARC. The power switch turns all three on and off simultaneously.
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These HDMI linked features have puzzled me for years. Would make a good article topic @jcenters.
Can I have the power button turn off everything but the ATV, so I don’t have to wait for the latter to boot?
I have a 14 year old Yamaha sound bar that is connected to the TV (not the Apple TV), so, like the old Apple TV with Siri remote that the new 4K replaced, I had to learn the volume up, down, and mute commands.
Better Josh than me, for sure. And I think it’s just waking up—everything’s on & ready to go in about ten seconds.
What I now hope to figure out is how to use the new remote to switch the TV’s sources, and maybe channels too. I don’t have high hopes, but am going to check Apple’s online documentation.
Today is one of the greatest days ever in the history of our household. After years of the Siri Remote, torturing us with countless obnoxious commercial thrust upon us mercilessly by the TV Gods, today we unboxed our new Mute Remote. After zero setup, the nearly orgasmic response to the deafening silence when muting commercials was almost too much to bear.
Life will never be the same. Thank you, Apple, for giving our home this exquisite joy (which you took away years before, but I digress).
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