After the recent update to Apple’s terms and conditions, people have noticed that their Apple TV is now blocked in certain ways if they don’t have an iPhone, because Apple is asking you to agree to the terms and conditions for your phone, not offering an alternative choice.
One of the great things about the Apple TV 4K — and a big part of why we’re happy to rate it as the best streaming device out there — is that it’s like never before also linked to the Apple ecosystem.
You need an Apple ID to use it, yes, but you need some kind of account for any other streaming box; Most importantly, unlike the Apple Watch, you don’t need an iPhone to use it. And its best features aren’t locked in if you don’t have an iPhone, as they are with the AirPods. You can log into your services and take a look, at some of the best quality shows out of any similar device.
But this appears to be changing. You can see the less severe version of this issue in the image at the top of this page – This is the message I received in the Settings app on my Apple TV 4K (2021) today on one of my user accounts, requiring the user to update their Apple ID by holding their iPhone Or an iPad near their Apple TV before I can use a simple new feature.
Interestingly, I didn’t see the same message on my personal user account, which means I may have already accepted the new terms. I say “maybe” because I don’t have the memory to do this, but I use my iPhone to control my Apple TV a lot, so it probably came up and I agreed to it without reading it, as most people do with T&C changes.
What’s going on there doesn’t stop anyone from using the Apple TV at all right now, because it just asks in the background and disables a simple new feature after an update.And So it’s a relatively small problem – but some people report much bigger problems.
The user who posted the tweet below was prompted to accept the new terms and conditions with “a device running iOS 16 or later, or iPadOS 16 or later” every time they turned on their Apple TV, and seemed unable to do anything else with it until they . Except, as they point out, don’t do it Especially Any Apple devices other than their Apple TV.
I own an Apple TV, no other Apple device. Not once every time I start my Apple TV I get this prompt now. Apple What do you expect me to do about it? pic.twitter.com/CsNaTNNIHpJanuary 16, 2023
This is the worst case scenario for an approach like this – an expensive device that people have paid for and depended on, has become completely unusable.
I’ve described this new approach as a step back in the headline, because the Apple TV finds a lot of interest among movie fans who wouldn’t otherwise own Apple products. I’ve recommended it to people, and I know people who only use one because of the quality of Apple’s movie purchases and rentals. This change would be a setback, and would mean I could no longer recommend it so easily.
But if you already have an Apple TV, and you’re locked out of using it like in the image above, this isn’t a step back, it is Disaster.
However, this tweet went viral, and still does Attention of an Apple security engineer As well as the Apple Support Twitter account, which stepped in to respond to several people in the replies to the original tweet who are having various problems with their Apple TV.
So, Apple seems to be paying attention to the problems this change causes, and will hopefully provide another option in the future — of course, how long that will take is anyone’s guess.
We have reached out to Apple for comment, but did not hear back at the time of publication.
In the meantime, if you want more new Apple stuff, check out the