Apple Announces All-New Apple TV
Today, Apple announced the new Apple TV, which lets you use apps to watch content however you want. The Apple TV is now more powerful with an A8 chip, and runs the new tvOS operating system, based on iOS. tvOS also includes the new Apple TV App Store, so iOS developers can create Apple TV apps and games specifically for Apple TV.
The new Siri Remote lets you select, scroll and navigate the interface, and a glass touch surface recognizes both small and large movements. Developers can use the accelerometer, gyroscope, and touch surface on the new Siri Remote in games and other app experiences.
Apple paid attention to the difficulty many people have navigating thousands of TV shows, and movies. With Siri, you can use your voice to search for TV shows and movies by title, cast, popularity, and more. Apple TV will search iTunes, Netflix, Hulu, HBO and Showtime, and display every way the resulting TV shows and movies can be played. Notably missing is Amazon Prime and Amazon Instant Videos, as well. Siri can also control playback, navigate the interface, and quickly access information like sports and the weather.
Apple demonstrated the Siri interface for AppleTV with things like “Show me New Girl,” “Find the best funny movies from the ‘80s,” “Find movies with Jason Bateman” and “Find popular TV shows for kids.” Siri was also able to control playback and on-screen navigation, as well as quick access to sports, stock and weather information.
The new, more powerful Apple TV features the Apple-designed A8 chip for even better performance so developers can build engaging games and custom content apps for the TV. tvOS supports iOS technologies like Metal, to render complex visual effects, and Game Center, to play games with friends.
For developers, an Xcode beta with the tvOS SDK is available today at http://developer.apple.com/xcode/downloads , and the Apple TV developer kit can be requested at http://developer.apple.com/tvos/ . Apple says it’s all-new tvOS operating system, which is based on Apple’s iOS “enables millions of iOS developers to create innovative new apps and games specifically for Apple TV and deliver them directly to users through the new Apple TV App Store.”
The new Apple TV will be available at the end of October, priced at $149 USD for the 32 GB model and $199 USD for the 64 GB model. See more information at http://www.apple.com/tv/