MacLife UK – August 2019

BETTER LIVING THROUGH SMARTER TECHNOLOGY

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A NEW WAVE

OF SMART TVS

GET STARTED WITH...

The first age of smart TVs has been and gone. Get ready for

a significant second coming...

BY ALEX COX

ot so long ago — some time after the

explosion in HD TVs and somewhere

before the industry’s ľing with 3D–

capable TVs — the smart TV was

marketed as the thing to have. It was an exciting

time. Combining interactive applications and

streaming service connectivity directly into TV

hardware, all accessible from your remote control,

felt like a revelation. Until, that is, you settled down

to actually use one.

There were the usual problems of platform

inconsistency. There's not one "smart TV", and

most manufacturers run their own platform,

meaning not all streaming apps are available for all

TVs, and their appearance and functionality can

vary wildly depending on the TV they’re running

on. Most TVs, again at the beginning, were not able

to dedicate a huge amount of processing power

to smart functionality, making menu navigation

a syrupy and unpleasant experience. And some

manufacturers were so pleased with their smart

functions that they put them literally right in the

way, forcing you to wade through an initial menu

to actually get to a plugged–in source.

We can’t tell you for certain that these things are

going to change or improve. They probably won’t,

and the better options — three of which we’ve

looked at on the next page — will likely remain

better options. But we can tell you that the industry

has a renewed focus on smart TV, and it might have

something to do with a recent change in attitude

from Apple.

N

All 2019 Samsung smart TVs now come with the Apple TV app and

AirPlay 2, and will support Apple TV+ later in the year.

70 AUG 2019 maclife.com Image rights: Samsung, Apple.