According to the Programming Guide [1], no persistent data can be stored in the device, everything should be in iCloud, and the maximum size of the Apps is 200MB (at any given point, it seems, you can use on-demand resources)
This is an interesting way of trying to squeeze more apps and circumvent some of the latests storage-related issues in iOS
This actually concerns me, I think 400mb would have been a much more reasonable maximum. We're not going to get a lot of good games if this isn't increased.
no persistent storage sounds really brutal. Does that mean even NSUserDefaults will lose data after a task switch? No save game states if you're offline? What's the point of offering a 64gb model if apps can't store anything?
Does it really make more sense to create _another_ OS, rather than extending OS X or iOS? It seems like they're doing that anyway seeing as games etc will work "across all devices"...
The TL;DR is that if Apple made your iOS device the controller for the game on the TV, that changes everything.
Imagine that...game developers can design and program controllers for their games. That may be a bit confusing for some, and there may be some standardization that is needed....but just the idea blew my mind.
Imagine a game where I can play with my 3 kids. But, the controls for my 2-year old (on my iPad) are different than the controls for my 5-year old (on my iPod) which are different than the controls for my 7-year old (another iPad) and myself (an iPhone).
But we all experience the game fully, relatively easily, in our own way.
Oh man....that got me so excited....alas...that was not meant to be.
One can only hope that it comes in the future...because that would most definitely unlock a whole new generation of casual gamers that no console could dream of unlocking.
My concern is the apps that are approved for this device and the speed at which it occurs.
I've bought into the whole eco system in terms of hardware: macbook, Apple tv, iphones, ipads etc. But I don't really care for apple radio, itunes music, or itunes video. I use netflix and amazon and spotify. So my concern is that those apps will be quickly available without any slow down or blocking by Apple. I also like to stream local content which I can do easily with my ipad. I think as long as I can get the same selection of apps I get for ios I'll be happy, but I've seen apple make arbitrary choices before.
Amazon doesn't support the current Apple TV or Google's Chromecast, so I doubt they'll support the new Apple TV either. Maybe they think this is an effective way to get people to buy a Fire TV or Fire TV Stick.
> My concern is the apps that are approved for this device and the speed at which it occurs.
Microsoft and Sony have much longer and more arduous processes to get distribution on their consoles, so I doubt this will be a significant problem. I think a greater risk would be a loose policy allowing sub-standard apps and games getting on to the platform and giving it a bad reputation.
Consistency is really important in branding. I don't understand why people rag on Apple for being so incredibly consistent in their branding. I bet your own marketing department would love to have that kind of discipline.
How much time is spent here on HN talking about A/B testing things and going with the best result. Apple is incredibly profitable. As much as it might irk you, I bet their phraseology performs VERY well.
Does anyone know that if we mirrored a game from our iPhone 6s would it graphically look better than if we played it natively on the Apple TV? Seeing as the graphical horsepower in the phone is better than what the Apple TV offers.
Very interesting to see the alternative JavaScript and XML approach to creating apps. I guess it makes a lot of sense for the simple apps that will be available. Good that there's still basically the whole of iOS available for use, however.
Can specific apps still block airplay? I haven't used AppleTV in a long time, but it was crazy frustrating when certain apps restricted you from being able to airplay to a big screen.
I'm guessing mirroring the entire screen might be a possible workaround but I thought perhaps apps could detect this as well and shutdown.
It's so shitty how the Raspberry Pi has been able to do the same technical things as this for almost 3 years now with complete freedom and ease of use, but the only thing stopping it was DRM. Now this non-innovative POS is probably going to overtake it simply because Apple can cut a deal :/
As a developer, I wish that were true. I bought a Raspberry Pi, and just opening a window with OpenGL in it was frustrating beyond belief. You can apt-get install SDL2, but like most packages it hasn't been adapted to the Pi and won't work with GLES. So you have to build it from source. And even then I couldn't figure out how to stop keyboard input from my SDL window from leaking into the terminal that started the game. And so on... I ended up giving the Pi away.
And that was ~a full year after it came out, I never buy things on launch day.
In Xcode, it takes something between 5 and 10 clicks to create a working project for OS X or iOS (with OpenGL or whatever framework you want to use).
The developer experience is a big part of what makes the Apple TV what it is. I'm not saying it's perfect - I can't believe the App Store doesn't allow for time trials yet - but it's really, really easy to beat the developer experience for any other living room device.
How many cores does a Pi have? What's it's clock rate? How many and what type of GPUs does it have and what's their performance? Is it 64 bit? What controllers does it provide? What's the voice command system? What are it's versions of Metal, UI Kit, Cloud Kit? What's the software distribution mechanism? Sorry, but this isn't Slashdot.
Just the other day I realized I didn't even have batteries in my TV remote anymore. Haven't had the desire to turn my TV on in who knows how long. As a consumer I'm not optimistic this will change anything.
I'm at a loss for what you're trying to say here. So you don't watch TV? Like, in any of the possible ways that a TV could be utilized? No Cable, No DVD/BluRay, No YouTube/Netflix hookup, no XBMC/Kodi/Plex style streaming, no console gaming?
Sure its possible that all those options and others are not of your interests, but then what were you expecting to change? You're obviously not the target demographic.
As a consumer of what? Because of it's not of movies, TV or games then, gee, I doubt a product aimed at movies, TV and games will have a huge effect on you.
The only times I use the TV is when I want to watch something with my daughters using a WDTV. Years ago, we used to play Wii games together, but the Wii is just a pain to use and the controllers aren't even usually charged up these days.
If this offers compelling, fun multi-player casual games with a smooth, no-fuss interface I may well get one just for that.
I found that I used the TV a little more often if I could talk to it via Xbox One. If it worked as well as Amazon's Echo for voice recognition, I'd probably use it a little more. This said, I'm not excited about having to press a button for Apple TV to hear me, nor am I likely to use it if I end up losing that small remote. It would be nicer if you could either have it always on or have an option for it to continuously listen for an hour or two.
[+] [-] jaimebuelta|10 years ago|reply
This is an interesting way of trying to squeeze more apps and circumvent some of the latests storage-related issues in iOS
[1] https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/tvos/document...
[+] [-] code_sterling|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 0x0|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] badusername|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] morkfromork|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] finalight|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prgmatic|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] madeofpalk|10 years ago|reply
Initial reports suggested that this 'new' tvOS is based on iOS 9, which makes sense seeing as it's using a lot of iOS API's and frameworks
[+] [-] bickfordb|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonh|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ThomPete|10 years ago|reply
3rd party game controller for apple tv. Was hoping for that.
http://www.apple.com/tv/games-and-more/
[+] [-] marcamillion|10 years ago|reply
I read a blog post recently, that got me TOTALLY excited about the prospect of an AppleTV - https://syrah.co/joshdickson40/55ee7b652450db710180a79b
The TL;DR is that if Apple made your iOS device the controller for the game on the TV, that changes everything.
Imagine that...game developers can design and program controllers for their games. That may be a bit confusing for some, and there may be some standardization that is needed....but just the idea blew my mind.
Imagine a game where I can play with my 3 kids. But, the controls for my 2-year old (on my iPad) are different than the controls for my 5-year old (on my iPod) which are different than the controls for my 7-year old (another iPad) and myself (an iPhone).
But we all experience the game fully, relatively easily, in our own way.
Oh man....that got me so excited....alas...that was not meant to be.
One can only hope that it comes in the future...because that would most definitely unlock a whole new generation of casual gamers that no console could dream of unlocking.
[+] [-] mpg33|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] e1ven|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] robalfonso|10 years ago|reply
I've bought into the whole eco system in terms of hardware: macbook, Apple tv, iphones, ipads etc. But I don't really care for apple radio, itunes music, or itunes video. I use netflix and amazon and spotify. So my concern is that those apps will be quickly available without any slow down or blocking by Apple. I also like to stream local content which I can do easily with my ipad. I think as long as I can get the same selection of apps I get for ios I'll be happy, but I've seen apple make arbitrary choices before.
[+] [-] sciurus|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonh|10 years ago|reply
Microsoft and Sony have much longer and more arduous processes to get distribution on their consoles, so I doubt this will be a significant problem. I think a greater risk would be a loose policy allowing sub-standard apps and games getting on to the platform and giving it a bad reputation.
[+] [-] capkutay|10 years ago|reply
"We've reimagined _____ - an innovative ______ that redefines ____."
[+] [-] numbsafari|10 years ago|reply
How much time is spent here on HN talking about A/B testing things and going with the best result. Apple is incredibly profitable. As much as it might irk you, I bet their phraseology performs VERY well.
[+] [-] paxcoder|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prgmatic|10 years ago|reply
followed by "This is {epic|awesome|amazing|special}"
[+] [-] epmatsw|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rsynnott|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ForrestN|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] funkedelic_bob|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] josteink|10 years ago|reply
It's a good (superior?) platform, but could definitely use a little better app-support.
[+] [-] therealmarv|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] glasshead969|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] matthewmacleod|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rcraft|10 years ago|reply
I'm guessing mirroring the entire screen might be a possible workaround but I thought perhaps apps could detect this as well and shutdown.
Can anyone clarify?
[+] [-] adultSwim|10 years ago|reply
ha - must have some pretty limited imaginations
[+] [-] volandovengo|10 years ago|reply
Surely price point will be a big issue with adoption.
[+] [-] riemannzeta|10 years ago|reply
And will apple bluetooth keyboards connect?
[+] [-] realityking|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jawngee|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] finalight|10 years ago|reply
my apple tv is the latest generation though (before this new one obviously)
[+] [-] snyp|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] pibefision|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] frame_perfect|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gurkendoktor|10 years ago|reply
In Xcode, it takes something between 5 and 10 clicks to create a working project for OS X or iOS (with OpenGL or whatever framework you want to use).
The developer experience is a big part of what makes the Apple TV what it is. I'm not saying it's perfect - I can't believe the App Store doesn't allow for time trials yet - but it's really, really easy to beat the developer experience for any other living room device.
[+] [-] simonh|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] datashovel|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TheCapn|10 years ago|reply
Sure its possible that all those options and others are not of your interests, but then what were you expecting to change? You're obviously not the target demographic.
[+] [-] untog|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonh|10 years ago|reply
If this offers compelling, fun multi-player casual games with a smooth, no-fuss interface I may well get one just for that.
[+] [-] chaostheory|10 years ago|reply