Apple TV 6.1 update makes it easier to hide unwanted channels

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited March 2014
A new Apple TV software update was issued on Monday, giving users the ability to reduce the plethora of channels on the device's home screen if they so choose.

Apple TV


Users could previously hide channels from the Apple TV home screen through the device's Settings application. But Apple TV Version 6.1 now allows this to be accomplished in a simpler fashion, direct from the home screen.

After updating, users can hide icons by holding the select button, causing icons on the screen to jiggle. Once activated, users can press the play/pause button on their remote to bring up a menu that allows users to hide the icon.

After a channel has been hidden, users can reactivate it through the Settings application.

Apple TV


The new Apple TV update arrives alongside the new iOS 7.1 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. That update added CarPlay support, various bug fixes, and improved Touch ID responsiveness with the iPhone 5s.

Apple has been steadily adding new channels to the Apple TV set-top box over the last year, giving users a number of new ways to view streaming content on their television. Recent additions include the WWE Network, TV4, and Red Bull TV.

Apple recently revealed that its streaming set-top box, which the company has famously referred to as a "hobby," topped $1 billion in sales last year, making it the company's fastest growing hardware. Total sales are estimated to have grown by 80 percent in 2013, reaching around 10 million units for the calendar year.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 48
    macapfelmacapfel Posts: 575member

    About time. All these channels were ridiculous – especially when you live in a country in which you can't receive them ...

  • Reply 2 of 48
    irelandireland Posts: 17,798member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacApfel View Post

     

    About time. All these channels were ridiculous – especially when you live in a country in which you can't receive them ...


     

    You could hide them before today you know.

  • Reply 3 of 48
    macapfelmacapfel Posts: 575member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post

     

     

    You could hide them before today as well.


     

    Right, but now its more Apple-esque. Before it was more clumsy.

  • Reply 4 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Easier to hide, sure.

    Except Music and iTunes Radio can no longer be hidden. :no::mad::wow: :???: 

  • Reply 5 of 48

    I am going to wait at least a week before trying it out.

     

    The last time Apple issued an AppleTV update, both of mine got completely bricked. Took way too much time and effort to get it all going again.

  • Reply 6 of 48
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Easier to hide, sure.
    Except Music and iTunes Radio can no longer be hidden. :no: :mad: :wow:  :???:  

    They won't let you hide those with Parental Controls?
  • Reply 7 of 48
    patpatpatpatpatpat Posts: 628member
    It still befuddles me why there is no browser built into apple tv.
  • Reply 8 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

    They won't let you hide those with Parental Controls?

     

    Nope! It’s weird.

     

    Originally Posted by patpatpat View Post

    It still befuddles me why there is no browser built into apple tv.

     

    No one wanting to use their TV as a browser comes to mind. How many “browser” TV services have existed since the 1980s? How many have succeeded? AirPlay for browsing.

  • Reply 9 of 48
    troehltroehl Posts: 31member
    You could hide channels from the home screen before, this is NOT new.
  • Reply 10 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Originally Posted by troehl View Post

    You could hide channels from the home screen before, this is NOT new.


     


    Nor is that what the article is saying.

  • Reply 11 of 48
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    Nope! It’s weird.

    1) I just completed the update and I also see no option for this in Parental Controls and you can't rearrange those top four icons either.

    2) Weird is not the adjective I'd use. I am quite annoyed by this as well as the continued inability to simply have my devices connected via Home Sharing to simply show up as "channels" instead of first having to choose the Microsoftian named Computers to get access to these iTunes libraries.
  • Reply 12 of 48
    andysolandysol Posts: 2,506member
    Nope! It’s weird.


    No one wanting to use their TV as a browser comes to mind. How many “browser” TV services have existed since the 1980s? How many have succeeded? AirPlay for browsing.

    I want a browser for hotel rooms tallest. Most hotels still have security log ins that are web-based. Without a browser you can't connect your Apple TV directly to their wifi. I have to share my Ethernet connection from laptop as a workaround. This is less expensive hotels like choice hotels to higher end ones like omnis and Marriotts. I come across it at about 80% of my hotel stays.
  • Reply 13 of 48
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post

    1) I just completed the update and I also see no option for this in Parental Controls and you can't rearrange those top four icons either.

     

    Yep, never been able to rearrange top icons, nor move anything from below up there if you had hidden anything before, but now…

     

    EDIT: Oh, but I see that some others don’t have Settings up top, but I do. Because I did before the update, I think, since everything else was hidden… or maybe it wasn’t. Anyway, Settings is in the top row for me but not for others, so that managed to get up there. 

     

     2) Weird is not the adjective I'd use. I am quite annoyed by this as well


     

    I was being generous. <img class=" src="http://forums-files.appleinsider.com/images/smilies//lol.gif" />

     

    …simply have my devices connected via Home Sharing to simply show up as “ hannels" instead of first having to choose the Microsoftian named Computers to get access to these iTunes libraries.


     

    Huh. I guess that makes sense. Great, now you have me wanting something else out of the Apple TV that Apple couldn’t care less about because they want you to repurchase everything you own in iTunes.:grumble: 

     

    Originally Posted by Andysol View Post

    I want a browser for hotel rooms tallest. Most hotels still have security log ins that are web-based. Without a browser you can't connect your Apple TV directly to their wifi. I have to share my Ethernet connection from laptop as a workaround. This is less expensive hotels like choice hotels to higher end ones like omnis and Marriotts. I come across it at about 80% of my hotel stays.


     

    Couldn’t that just be solved with a modal slide-up login option in Settings (Settings/Wi-Fi, you choose the Wi-Fi network you want, and it slides up) just like on every other iOS device?

  • Reply 14 of 48
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    patpatpat wrote: »
    It still befuddles me why there is no browser built into apple tv.

    I oft use Safari on my Apple TV.
  • Reply 15 of 48
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    andysol wrote: »
    I want a browser for hotel rooms tallest. Most hotels still have security log ins that are web-based. Without a browser you can't connect your Apple TV directly to their wifi. I have to share my Ethernet connection from laptop as a workaround. This is less expensive hotels like choice hotels to higher end ones like omnis and Marriotts. I come across it at about 80% of my hotel stays.

    Have you considered connecting the Apple TV to you Mac or iPhone via Sharing or Personal Hotspot, respectively?

    Anyway, Settings is in the top row for me but not for others, so that managed to get up there.

    This has always been on the top row, far-right for me.
  • Reply 16 of 48

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  • Reply 17 of 48
    patpatpatpatpatpat Posts: 628member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    I oft use Safari on my Apple TV.

    Through Airplay, right?

     

    Airplay has lots of issues for me, even on a direct wired connection via latest Airport extreme router. 

     

    There are a couple of websites I watch video on where it would be much better (performance and quality wide) if I could just visit them directly via a browser on appletv.

  • Reply 18 of 48
    solipsismxsolipsismx Posts: 19,566member
    patpatpat wrote: »
    Through Airplay, right?

    Airplay has lots of issues for me, even on a direct wired connection via latest Airport extreme router. 

    There are a couple of websites I watch video on where it would be much better (performance and quality wide) if I could just visit them directly via a browser on appletv.

    Videos via AirPlay will never work well so long as it's mirroring. I think that's because the iOS-based iDevice or Mac is doing all the processing and then pushing it to the Apple TV as a second monitor, which is not how it works when you do the non-mirroring AirPlay for video playback with iOS apps.

    Do these websites not have their own app for such an occasion?
  • Reply 19 of 48
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by SolipsismX View Post





    Videos via AirPlay will never work well so long as it's mirroring. I think that's because the iOS-based iDevice or Mac is doing all the processing and then pushing it to the Apple TV as a second monitor, which is not how it works when you do the non-mirroring AirPlay for video playback with iOS apps.



    Do these websites not have their own app for such an occasion?



    Along the same lines I've found that if you use the Apple TV as second monitor the quality is much improved over mirroring the screen on your source

  • Reply 20 of 48
    shardshard Posts: 96member

    I really don't understand why the analysts keep pushing for an "Apple TV" when Apple can just give away a hockey puck sized device and make almost every single television an "Apple TV".

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