What I wasn’t anticipating was how shockingly slow and unresponsive the Smart TV’s interface was to navigate and load apps, compared to the dedicated mini-computer the Apple TV was. What’s more, the user interface showcases advertisements on the home screen – can you believe it? The experience is serviceable enough, of course, but it pales in comparison to the zippy set-top box experience I was used to. So, I said farewell to the Apple TV, and the Chromecast I also owned for some reason, and looked forward to a streamlined, ultra-high-definition TV-watching future. Smart TVs were at this point well and truly tried, tested, and in vogue, and my new TV could do everything my old set-top box could do. A decade later, I finally upgraded that plasma TV to something far more contemporary – 4K, HDR, high refresh rates, the lot – and of course, it was smart. It was a third-generation Apple TV that enabled my 1080p plasma screen (which always ran way too hot) to access Netflix and other video streaming services. In the early 2010s, like many people, I owned a set-top box.

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