• by P.J. Bednarski , Staff Writer @pjbtweet, May 13, 2015

Do you have a friend who has a fabulously super-brilliant older sibling? And do they tell stories about teachers who always compared them, dimly, to the smarter one?

That, I think, is the backdrop of lots of Apple TV discussion. Apple is so known for leading the way, its Apple TV device always seems like such an also-ran. Steve Jobs always managed to slur TV to start with, so expectations that Apple might somehow re-invent the content delivery business always was a bad bet.

But Apple’s tie-in with HBO Now, coupled with a discount to entice subscribers, seemed to suggest that Apple TV has some interest in being considered as more than just one of Roku’s competitors.

Next month, Apple is supposed to make a big announcement, and it’s likely to be about a next generation Apple TV product. If there is something like unhype, that’s what seems to be happening. There's nothing to see here. Move along. 

“Unlike the Pod, Pad and Watch, whose announcements were preceded by speculation from all corners of the worlds of fact and fiction, the best we can come up with is Apple TV will have a cool new remote,” writes Allen Weiner for VideoInk.  “Even on a slow news day, that’s a yawner.”

In fact, even that remote might not be cool. The planned touch pad got a pre-pan from ReadWrite.com that doubled as one of the most thoughful essays on “What The Remote Means To Me” I’ve ever read.

“We grip remote controls with one hand, sometimes in the dark,” observes Adriana Lee. “Adding a touch pad or track pad into that equation sounds like a recipe for frustration. When we binge-watch ‘The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ or tune into ‘Transparent,’  we often reach for our remotes quickly and grab without looking. A track pad on a device that people fumble around with just begs for accidental finger flubs. Then whammo, you’re suddenly and inexplicably watching ‘Love, Actually.’ ”

And that movie, really, really should be avoided.

Apple TV, at an event June 8, is expected to announce a full TV service with its own cable-killing features though, for Apple, another skinny cable service, with 25-30 featured networks, doesn’t seem to Apple Announcement-worthy. As noted up top, that’s Apple’s “Is That All There Is?” problem. The new Apple TV, reports say, won’t even handle 4K, because very few consumers have a new ultra HD equipment. Well, nobody had use for an iPad-sized computer screen, either. Telling people what they want is what Apple is all about, no?

WHAT’S IN A NAME?  If you talked to anybody who’s not in this business (and really, why do you?) about Verizon’s acquisition of AOL, you probably heard this: AOL? Are they still around?” It made me wonder, yesterday, if under the big sturdy Verizon wing, will AOL as a brand go away?

It appears I wasn’t the only one wondering. The Wall Street Journal’s CMOToday.com reports  AOL has “the second-lowest brand health score among social-media brands” according to the research firm YouGov. Dead last is mySpace, so that’s in the the depths of badness. On a scale of -100 to to 100, AOL scores a 3 and that’s the highest it’s been in a while. (mySpace is currently -13). 

pj@mediapost.com