Apple TV and iOS gain unified television experience with new 'TV' app
Aiming to make it easier to find content across a range of services and apps, Apple on Thursday unveiled 'TV,' a new application for tvOS and iOS that allows users to browse and search for content in one convenient place. It will arrive for free in December.
"It will completely change how you watch TV with your Apple TV, as well as with your iPhone and iPad," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said.
A "Watch Now" pane gives curated top picks that users can browse. Once a show has been viewed, it's added to an "Up Next" queue to make it easy to pick up where you left off with a series. Progress is synced across Apple devices.
Rented or owned content is available in a "Library" tab. A "Store" section lets people hunt for new material across services, and a "Recommended" tab will push curated and trending video, with categories and genres.
Apple's new TV app also integrates with Siri. In an onstage demonstration, a user was shown asking Siri to play "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," and an episode immediately began to play, picking up at the exact point where the user last left off.
Siri has also gained support for live TV, allowing users to ask to tune into programming on demand. In another onstage example, Siri was used to watch a Saturday college football game in progress, and to switch between other games being played.
Apple's new "TV" app will be available for free with a software update for tvOS and iOS. An integral part of this will be long-delayed single sign-on support for the Apple TV, also coming in December.
"It will completely change how you watch TV with your Apple TV, as well as with your iPhone and iPad," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said.
A "Watch Now" pane gives curated top picks that users can browse. Once a show has been viewed, it's added to an "Up Next" queue to make it easy to pick up where you left off with a series. Progress is synced across Apple devices.
Rented or owned content is available in a "Library" tab. A "Store" section lets people hunt for new material across services, and a "Recommended" tab will push curated and trending video, with categories and genres.
Apple's new TV app also integrates with Siri. In an onstage demonstration, a user was shown asking Siri to play "Brooklyn Nine-Nine," and an episode immediately began to play, picking up at the exact point where the user last left off.
Siri has also gained support for live TV, allowing users to ask to tune into programming on demand. In another onstage example, Siri was used to watch a Saturday college football game in progress, and to switch between other games being played.
Apple's new "TV" app will be available for free with a software update for tvOS and iOS. An integral part of this will be long-delayed single sign-on support for the Apple TV, also coming in December.
Comments
How long have TV Shows been available in iTunes? All that time and New Zealand still does not have access to them.
This needs to change. We have Netflix (although hobbled at the moment) but I really want TV Shows available in iTunes.
Maybe this app is going to fix this and give us what we want but I'm not holding my breath.
It's not streaming all your channels of your cable provider, just the ones that have apps on Apple TV.
I have Cablevision (Optimum), and with the Optimum App you can stream prob about 85% of the channels I am paying for. (about 70% of those channels I can stream with the Optimum App DO NOT have Apple TV apps)
Some of the comments have me doubting my take.
The reality right now is that I have to look through potentially dozens of sources to find what I want.
I don't care whether Mr. Robot is created by HBO or USA Network.
I just want to binge the series or catch the latest episode if I'm current.
A side-effect of the de-branding of content is that I also don't care which app delivers that content.
HBO Now, Netflix, CBS, whatever. Now I don't even need to interact with the apps themselves.
And that means that the entire "download apps with icons that fill up your home screen" model is in jeopardy.
Why bother downloading an app with an icon that takes up space on your home screen?
Isn't it easier and better to simply subscribe to a content provider to get your shows?
Why not just pay HBO for their content and present it through the tv interface without an HBO app?
Which leads us to the "Her"-like future of the OS being the sole interface.
("Her", 2013 - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1798709/?ref_=nv_sr_4 )
No more individual apps with customized interfaces to learn. Just services the user subscribes to.
All content funneled through the OS and whatever presentation device it running on at the moment.
So. App designers. Time to think about your next career move.
Your Photoshop skills may not be needed for much longer, at least with respect to tv.
And maybe not for much longer with respect to iOS / watchOS either.
Tim Cook says, "I can't imagine why you would need to use anything else to watch TV" (or something similar). Well, Tim, let me list the reasons:
1. No Netflix or Amazon Video - pretty big holes for a 'unified TV experience'.
2. Library doesn't actually list anything in my library, only purchased content from iTunes. If appropriately tagged, why can't I see all of the content that I have imported into iTunes. So now, I have to go to 'My Computer' > 'Movies' and then browse that way. Siri doesn't appear to be able to search there, either. Incidentally, this is the same problem as the 'Music' app on AppleTV.
3. No 4K - even if it did allow for Netflix and Amazon, if it doesn't do it in 4K, some of the appeal is lost. I realize this is a small subset of users, but to omit 4K in 2016/2017 is just foolish. More folks will be migrating to this resolution and other services don't seem to have any problem providing this service.
4. No browsing what is on - this is a big deal for my wife. If she can't just see her favorite channels (not all of which have an app), and it isn't as easy as turning on the TV and browsing the guide, then it is a non-starter.
Use case now: Turn on TV, hopefully it is on the right input. Open TV App. Scroll to what's on now, wait, where are all the shows? Not all are available. Oh, forget it.
"Starting in the US"
Expect to wait 2 or 3 years before this appears in Asia if it ever does, making it a fairly useless announcement for MOST of Apple's customers.
1. You won't ever see an Amazon Video app. Amazon does not wish to play. I thought there was a Netflix app, but I'm not a user of the service, so I might be (probably am) wrong.
2. It isn't clear this solves that issue. I don't use Siri, so it is a small inconvenience (to me.)
3. 4K video discussion. No comment.
4. I'm curious about this, and hope the Channels/HDHomeRun people are able to offer an OTA link option. I can switch between inputs on my TV, but the Channels app looks pretty slick, and I'm pondering springing for the HDHomeRun box to try it. If ATV had TV tuners in it, and added a coax antenna jack...wow. HDHomeRun has multiple tuners in it, so it direct supports PIP on OTA signals. But...about $200 for the box and apps.
So Apple has now introduced an App to access and use Apps. How innovative another layer to click though instead of just opening to it. Am I missing something? really miss the days of Apple's simple clean ultra useable Mac OS's