Apple TV owners to get first-ever public beta with tvOS 11
Regular Apple TV owners will soon be able download betas for the first time, getting an early peek at upcoming features, according to Apple's website.
A public beta of tvOS 11 is "coming soon," the company now says on its Beta Software Program minisite. The release is likely due later this month, when the first public betas for iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra should arrive.
The first developer betas of iOS 11, High Sierra, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11 were issued on Monday.
At the moment, only registered developers can try out pre-release versions of tvOS. Even then the update process is somewhat awkward, requiring that people connect their Apple TV to iTunes via a USB-C cable, instead of downloading software over-the-air. It's unknown if Apple has a simpler process in mind for the public beta, or if people will still need to tether.
tvOS 11 so far appears to have no major changes beyond notification support and new background modes.
In fact the company said very little about the Apple TV during its WWDC 2017 keynote on Monday, mentioning only that an Amazon Prime Video app is coming in 2017, and that "you'll be hearing a lot more about tvOS later this year." A 4K set-top has been rumored, which could be shown off at a fall press event.
A public beta of tvOS 11 is "coming soon," the company now says on its Beta Software Program minisite. The release is likely due later this month, when the first public betas for iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra should arrive.
The first developer betas of iOS 11, High Sierra, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11 were issued on Monday.
At the moment, only registered developers can try out pre-release versions of tvOS. Even then the update process is somewhat awkward, requiring that people connect their Apple TV to iTunes via a USB-C cable, instead of downloading software over-the-air. It's unknown if Apple has a simpler process in mind for the public beta, or if people will still need to tether.
tvOS 11 so far appears to have no major changes beyond notification support and new background modes.
In fact the company said very little about the Apple TV during its WWDC 2017 keynote on Monday, mentioning only that an Amazon Prime Video app is coming in 2017, and that "you'll be hearing a lot more about tvOS later this year." A 4K set-top has been rumored, which could be shown off at a fall press event.
Comments
I want new hardware for more than 4K. I want Apple TV to be an actual competitive gaming device. All this talk about graphics updates and AppleTV is using an outdated iPhone chip.
Also "notification support?" The beauty of Apple TV is that it doesn't distract your content. Watch movies on an Xbox One and you'll see what I mean. I don't wanna be immersed in a sci-fi movie and have a random pop-up chime that says "Rebecca just beat your score in FarmCrush! Can you do better?"
I have enough faith in Apple that they won't pull a Microsoft.
The third gen Apple TV's last software update was to 7.2.2 (equivalent to iOS 8.4.2). We completely missed tvOS 9 and 10 so I seriously doubt we'll see 11. Seeing as Apple is pushing everything to 64 bit and the ATV3 uses the 32 bit A5 chip, I also don't think a new app like Amazon Prime will be written for it either. Pretty much what you have now is all you'll ever get.
EDIT: What I do now to view 4K videos from my iPhone is just put them on a USB memory stick and hook it up to the TV.
Do you have the Roamio or the TiVo Bolt?