While detractors like to throw a lot of hate toward Apple’s ecosystem, the simple fact is that when everything you have is from Apple, it’s amazing just how seamlessly things work together. Nowhere was this more apparent than when I recently got a new Apple TV 4K.
Generally speaking, setting up a smart TV device is utter agony. Logging in to devices and apps with a simple 4-way direction pad and an on-screen keyboard is one of the worst experiences ever. If you’re lucky, you end up with apps that allow you to scan a QR code or go to a certain website and authenticate that way. If they don’t, however, you’re stuck slogging through a process of typing out a password and praying that you don’t make a mistake. As a security-minded individual, I typically have super long, complex passwords given that I’m never typing them in anyway; they’re being inserted into things by my password manager… except on a smart TV.
With the Apple TV, none of this was a problem. To log my Apple account into the device, I simply powered it on and then held my phone close to it. I approved a prompt and I was instantly logged into the device, no fumbling with credentials required. While that’s helpful for logging into the device itself, though, I’m still at the mercy of the app developers regarding whether or not they offer an ability to log in via a website rather than with my credentials on the screen. Once again, though, Apple comes to the rescue since I could easily use my phone as a keyboard for the Apple TV. For the truly evil apps that force username and password authentication, I could get around the problem by activating the keyboard on my phone and then simply pasting in the password that I copied out of my password manager.
While no tech company is perfect, and that certainly includes Apple, it’s hard not to appreciate the effort that goes into making a frequently terrible user experience something seamless.