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Apple Provides First Beta of tvOS 11 to Developers

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Apr 12, 2001
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Following today's WWDC keynote event that saw the debut of iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, and watchOS 4, Apple has seeded the first beta of the new tvOS 11 operating system for the Apple TV to developers for testing purposes.

Registered developers can download tvOS 11 by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software using iTunes.

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tvOS 11 saw little screen time at today's event, and in fact, it wasn't even officially announced on stage. The new operating system was largely glossed over, with the exception of an announcement for an upcoming Amazon Prime Video app.

According to Apple's release notes, tvOS 11 brings automatic light/dark appearance switching, Home screen syncing options, new background modes and notification support, Focus API improvements, custom sound support, network-based pairing and development support, and improvements to Mobile Device Management.

tvOS 11 is only available for registered developers at the current point in time, but Apple's beta site now includes tvOS 11, suggesting a public tvOS beta is coming.

Article Link: Apple Provides First Beta of tvOS 11 to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/05/apple-seeds-first-tvos-11-beta/
Anyone have any more detail on what this might mean...

MacRumors said:
Home screen syncing potions
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Potions? Assuming typo, maybe "positions"? But does that make sense?

Wait a minute, "options": Home screen syncing options? But then what might that be? Synching with what? First thought: other :apple:TVs within the house... but would a family want multiple :apple:TVs to have a synced home screen? Speculation or hard information?

Then again if we can call an OS "High" maybe another can have "potions":
  • "Sure dude, it's 4K." and
  • "Here... try this. Now it's 8K." and
  • "No try this. Now it's a Star Trek Holodeck";)
And what do we think this might mean...

MacRumors said:
custom sound support
Click to expand...

...such as what? First thought: new audio codecs (Dolby Atmos, DTS). But then I get real and started wondering if this is interface beeps and similar, meaning we can pick different click sounds. Something else? Speculation or hard information?

Jokes aside: glad they're still trying with tvOS. :apple:TV has such potential. I wish they would give it some major focus (akin to the focus much smaller competitors with much less cash seem to apply to their versions of these little boxes).
 
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I suspect so. h.265 adoption is a very big deal. h.265 hardware support even more so.

And look at all the additional talk today about 4K editing, rendering, sharper picture quality, storing, etc. Once again, everything in the Apple hardware lineup is pretty much 4K-oriented except for this ONE piece. You can shoot 4K on your iDevices, edit & render it on a variety of Apple hardware, render it into a Quicktime-compatible container (and now h.265 formally supported), store it with all of your other media in iTunes but no easy "just works" way to display it at 4K on a 4K TV. What to do... what to do?

I wish something would have been spun about the audio side too. Dolby Atmos? DTS? I wish Apple would do an iMac Pro effort on :apple:TV, setting sights on making one that is fully toe-to-toe with picture & sound quality of BD players. If the latter is still a "bag of hurt," it seems the superior alternative should at least be toe-to-toe by now.

After all, later in the presentation, Apple made a passionate argument for speaker audio quality in support of launching their cut of an Alexa at an Apple price point. It seems if quality is paramount there, why not give us a "5" or "5 pro" that at least has the capability for 4K HDR with support for the most modern audio codecs too (even if store rentals don't support them out of the gate). Nevertheless, one can hope.
 
I was worried tvOS wasn't getting an update initially... It seems like there is a lot of low hanging fruit, I'm surprised it didn't get more attention this year. None of the software platforms got much attention but Apple TV was almost ignored.

Wouldn't Metal 2 make a big difference in making better tvOS games?
 
mox358 said:
I was worried tvOS wasn't getting an update initially... It seems like there is a lot of low hanging fruit, I'm surprised it didn't get more attention this year. None of the software platforms got much attention but Apple TV was almost ignored. Wouldn't Metal 2 make a big difference in making better tvOS games?
Click to expand...

Yes. And it seems like WWDC would be THE place to push tvOS update to drum up more developers to develop. As suggested by others in another thread, I (too) suspect a big segment or dedicated show for :apple:TV later in the year. I'm guessing they couldn't say too much today without letting some cats out of the bag that they didn't want to reveal yet. For example, h.265 means a great deal to :apple:TV too but in the various references to h.265, nobody connected the dots back to :apple:TV.
 
My 2014 Mac mini plays H.265 1080p content fine. But once I start playing 4k content, it crawls to a halt. One the other hand my Sony x800 UHD player, plays uhd hdr h.265 stuff beautifully with support for a variety of codecs for audio as well as video including VP9, DSD, DVD-audio, ALAC, AAC, dts-hdma, etc. I just use the Mac mini as a dlna server and let my Sony be the player. Wouldn't it be great if Apple TV could stream like that including 4k and latest audio codecs. Still can't believe Apple is stuck in time from 10 years ago.
[doublepost=1496697093][/doublepost]
CalZephyr said:
I, for one, am excited there will finally be an app for Amazon Prime Video.
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Amazon has some great 4k hdr content. Too bad Apple TV can't show it!!!
 
i hate phones said:
"You'll be hearing a lot more about tvOS later this year."

There has to be new hardware coming. Why else would they wait?
Click to expand...

I hope so. Now that I have a 4K TV, I really would like Apple to support it. I mean, I saw some cheap 65" 4K TVs on sale for $500 this past weekend. Anybody buying a new TV now is going to get 4K and the content for it is growing daily. I'd love to upgrade my ATV 2 finally ...
 
So I downloaded the tvOS 11 to my Apple TV and now I can’t see a damn thing. All I get is a white screen. I can hear stuff, just not see anything. And yes I have a developer account. I used Apple configurator to add the profile. Restarted the device, and when it finished doing its thing. All I get is this:
IMG_0055.JPG
 
i hate phones said:
"You'll be hearing a lot more about tvOS later this year."
Click to expand...
Was that said in the keynote? I was too busy fuming about the first of the sixth major updates being the launch of a US only video app.
[doublepost=1496707211][/doublepost]tvOS 11 is basically another dot point upgrade. Not a single new feature apart from automatic dark mode.
 
Yeah, I'm guessing a lot more features announced later along with a 4k Apple TV. I don't even care about 4K but it makes sense for them to release one by now. Plus Amazon has a good bit of 4K content so that would be a nice way to show it off.

Now of they could get Netflix in the TV App.
 
lsutigerfan1976 said:
So I downloaded the tvOS 11 to my Apple TV and now I can’t see a damn thing. All I get is a white screen. I can hear stuff, just not see anything. And yes I have a developer account. I used Apple configurator to add the profile. Restarted the device, and when it finished doing its thing. All I get is this:
View attachment 702413
Click to expand...

Not that y’all were much help lol. But I ended up fixing my Apple TV by wiping and restoring it. Not sure why I couldn’t just add the profile to it, without bricking it at first.
 
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