I recently treated myself to one of the new AppleTVs. To be honest, I'm kicking myself for not signing up for the Developer pre-release lottery earlier in the year. I didn't because I knew I wouldn't be able to work on anything for launch day, so why risk taking a unit away from a dev who might. (This is also why it takes about half an hour each morning before I can squeeze my way onto a train.)
My initial impressions? I can't say I'm overly impressed. I've had an Amazon Fire TV box for the last year or so, which received a lot of use and which will be my main point of comparison.
The most obvious area where the AppleTV falls down in my opinion is the controller. The touch pad is too imprecise, making even simple navigation difficult. Selection veers off all over the place and trying to enter text becomes a major frustration. The Fire TV's controls are unimaginative but they're all the better for that. They work. When I click to the left or right I can be fairly certain where my selection in the UI will end up. With the AppleTV's touch pad it's a lottery.
Where the AppleTV will in future excel — and I've absolutely no doubt that it will quickly pass both Amazon's and Google's boxes in terms of units sold and users — is with apps. I should really start thinking up some ideas for it.
