This little Apple TV remote tweak with tvOS 13 was long overdue
- sep
- 27
What you need to know
- Apple made a small change to the Apple TV remote with tvOS 13 that is most welcome.
- You can't turn on the Apple TV by pressing the touchpad on the Apple TV remote anymore.
- The change eliminates accidentally turning on your Apple TV when you don't meant to.
No more accidentally turning on your Apple TV.
With the rollout of tvOS 13, besides adding new features software-wise, Apple also made one big change with the Apple TV remote. You can't turn on your Apple TV by pressing on the remote touchpad anymore.
This is an unexpected and long overdue change to the Apple TV remote.
The touchpad Apple TV remote has been polarizin to say the least. On the one hand, it looks really sleek with its aluminum and glass finish that is reminiscent of the iPhone. On the other, it's befuddling there's no dedicated power button. All in the sake of minimalism goes Apple's thinking.
Prior to tvOS 13, the "power button" was pressing on any button that wasn't the volume toggle including the touchpad. That means if you moved your Apple TV remote and accidentally pressed the touchpad, which isn't crazy because it occupies 33% of the remote, you would turn on the Apple TV.
This was even more annoying for those of us who take advantage of HDMI-CEC, because when your Apple TV turns on, so does your TV. I can't tell you how many times I returned the remote to my TV stand at the end of the night only to accidentally press the Apple TV remote and be ungraciously greeted by the bright TV turning on.
That changed with tvOS 13. Pressing the touchpad doesn't turn the Apple TV on anymore. This little change is so welcomed, it seems weird that Apple didn't include it with the Apple TV touch remote from the get-go. It just makes sense.
I love the change but I'm still getting used to it. The muscle memory of turning on my Apple TV by pressing on the touchpad is still there, yet it's really useful whenever I handle the Apple TV remote and don't mean to turn it on.
Maybe nobody else ran into this issue. You can still accidentally turn on the Apple TV by just pressing the menu or home button, but given those buttons are more tactile thereby alerting me when my fingers graced them, it was never an issue for me. Pressing on the touchpad was.
Thankfully tvOS 13 solves this issue. Did you suffer this annoyance as well or was it just me? Let me know in the comments down below.
