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Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 16 to Developers

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 16 update to developers for testing purposes, with the beta coming two weeks after Apple introduced tvOS 16 at the Worldwide Developers Conference.

apple-tv-4k-design-triad.jpg

Developers can download the new tvOS 16 beta by downloading a profile onto the Apple TV using Xcode.

tvOS 16 enables cross-device connectivity, a feature that allows developers to integrate Apple TV apps with iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch apps to unlock new experiences on the TV. Apple has also improved how multiple user profiles work in tvOS 16 by adding a shared keychain, so users won't need to sign in and choose their profile when launching an Apple TV app.

Game controller support has been expanded to the Nintendo Joy-Cons and Pro Controller, and HDR10+ support is available in the tvOS 16 Apple TV app. With tvOS 16, the Apple TV will support Matter, an upcoming standard that will improve interoperability between smart home accessories from different companies.

tvOS 16 is limited to developers right now, but Apple will provide a public beta of the software to public beta testers in July.

Article Link: Apple Seeds Second Beta of tvOS 16 to Developers
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/06/22/apple-seeds-tvos-16-beta-2-to-developers/
With all these huge discounts on the current Apple TV, maybe there's a refresh coming soon. I would buy new remotes just for Find My support.

Though come to think of it, neither AirPods Pro nor the base model of Apple Watch have sold for anywhere near full retail price since shortly after release. Maybe they just know those products are a little overpriced.

Apple could be finally making a serious push into TV and lower prices are a good start.
 
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CloudKit​

Known Issues​

  • Apps won’t launch in simulator. Xcode displays the error “Library not loaded:/usr/lib/swift/libswiftCloudKit.dylib.” (94331191)
    Workaround: Set your app’s Deployment Target to tvOS 16.

DeviceDiscoveryUI​

Resolved in tvOS 16 beta 2​

  • Fixed: PIN-paired devices are shown as discovered devices but aren’t supported. (93993830)
  • Fixed: In SwiftUI the Fallback view for DeviceDiscovery might not correctly render on unsupported hardware. (93933154)
  • When establishing connection to Apple Watch, the App Not Installed notification is missing if the corresponding app isn’t already installed on Apple Watch. (93064321)
  • When displaying the connection authorization alert on devices, the Apple TV name might appear as “null”. (90062941)
  • In the device picker, supported devices might appear flagged incorrectly as “Device not supported”.

Known Issues​

  • DevicePicker may show iOS 15 or watchOS 8 and earlier devices but connection will not be established; Cross-device connectivity requires companion devices to be on iOS 16 or watchOS 9. (94570997)

Media Experience​

Known Issues​

  • Settings doesn’t show Calibrated after completing Wireless Audio Sync. (91144719)

Siri​

Resolved in tvOS 16 beta 2​

  • Fixed: Siri might not reliably find and play music that isn’t in your Apple Music library on Apple TV. (94361633)

StoreKit​

New Features in tvOS 16 beta 2​

  • Product has new properties for localizing prices and subscription periods. For iOS 15, iPadOS 15, macOS 12, tvOS 15, and watchOS 8 or later use priceFormatStyle to format numbers derived from price. Use subscriptionPeriodFormatStyle to format durations of time relating to a subscription period. On iOS 16, iPadOS 16, macOS 13, tvOS 16, and watchOS 9 or later use subscriptionPeriodUnitFormatStyle to format single units of a subscription period. (93780442)

Known Issues​

  • The recentSubscriptionStartDate is always Date.distantPastwhen using StoreKit Testing in Xcode. (93794298)
  • The StoreKit AppTransaction API always throws an error on tvOS. (94636104)

Deprecations​

  • Deprecated the SKDownload API and removed the option to upload nonconsumable in-app purchase assets for Apple to host. In addition, support for managing these assets in App Store Connect is no longer available as of April 2022. (89764253)

Swift​

Resolved Issues​

  • Fixed: Using @Environment(\.dismiss) no longer causes a view to be invalidated when the Environment changes. (86771246)

Known Issues​

  • Network.framework resolved an issue that could cause NWBrowser, NWConnection, NWConnectionGroup, NWEthernetChannel, NWListener, and NWPathMonitor to trigger a retain cycle when various Handler blocks are set. Starting with macOS 13, iOS 16, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16, if software using Network.framework targets these releases as the minimum OS, the object releases any blocks they captured once cancelled, breaking the retain cycle. (89677097)
    Workaround: For software targeting older versions, the retain cycle can be broken by setting the handler blocks to nil after canceling the object.

SwiftUI​

Resolved in tvOS 16 beta 2​

  • Fixed: Passing multiple children to a custom Layout fails to compile. (92914226)

Known Issues​

  • SwiftUI views log to the console [UIFocus] <typename> implements focusItemsInRect: - caching for linear focus movement is limited as long as this view is on screen. (93428139)
  • For control, Section, or other views that have a Label, the ViewBuilder content now automatically arranges and styles multiple views as hierarchical elements, such as title and subtitle. If the label views are intended to be arranged horizontally rather than hierarchically, wrap the views within an HStack. (85184563)

UIKit​

New Features in tvOS 16 beta 2​

Resolved in tvOS 9 beta 2​

  • Fixed: In tvOS 15, a UICollectionView using UICollectionViewCompositionalLayout with a UICollectionLayoutSectionOrthogonalScrollingBehavior may scroll cells too far in from the edge of the screen when moving focus to partially or fully off-screen cells. (89104897)
 
Hopefully this fixes the issue I’m having about turning the volume up as the amount of times I’ve had to turn it down to then force it to turn up
 
If only Macrumors would post the build number with each beta. It would make life so much easier.

9to5mac have do so.

Build - 20J5319h
 
My only hope for tvOS 16 is that it fixes HDMI CEC which has been barely functional for months now on all 6 of my Apple TVs across 3 generations of the product.
 
Anthony Narciso said:
My only hope for tvOS 16 is that it fixes HDMI CEC which has been barely functional for months now on all 6 of my Apple TVs across 3 generations of the product.
Click to expand...
Curious, what the issue you're experiencing is? On my second TV, I'm having all sorts of CEC issue and it's hard to narrow down the cause. Can't figure out if it's the ATV4K or the PS5
 
tkaravou said:
Curious, what the issue you're experiencing is? On my second TV, I'm having all sorts of CEC issue and it's hard to narrow down the cause
Click to expand...
Essentially since tvOS 15.4 HDMI CEC has intermittently not been able to control volume on any device and has been unable to power down connected devices. Turn on devices has been fine though. Quite an issue when you rely on the Apple TV to shut down and sleep your system.
 
Please, for the love of all good things in Cupertino, did they finally fix the ‘won’t load’ library bug in the AppleTV app that apparently only exists on Apple’s own hardware.
 
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Anthony Narciso said:
Essentially since tvOS 15.4 HDMI CEC has intermittently not been able to control volume on any device and has been unable to power down connected devices. Turn on devices has been fine though. Quite an issue when you rely on the Apple TV to shut down and sleep your system.
Click to expand...
Got it. That's not my issue. For me, when I turn on the TV through any means that's not the Apple TV, the Apple TV turns on anyway and takes over.
 
Okay, I must be doing something simple incorrectly. Normally I just play with the dev releases on iOS and macOS, but thought I'd give tvOS 16 a whirl. I have a dev account and downloaded the profile; paired the Device in the beta Xcode; the beta Configurator sees the device and I added the profile; I installed the profile and see it in the Profiles list on the device and Configurator; I rebooted. When I check for updates it tells me that I am up to date (on 15.6 beta 3).

Do I need to restore to the current release OS and go through all the steps again before it will trigger the tvOS 16 beta download? It is an AppleTV 4K and the restore images on the site seem to be for the HD.
 
Has anyone had an issue finding the update from the first beta? For some reason my Apple TV 4K (2nd generation) shows the first beta as "up to date". Even tried reinstalling the profile but no luck.

Update: so this is weird, I managed to find it but had to turn off "get beta updates". I think something is wrong there lol but at least it worked.
 
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