Apple today released the final version of tvOS 9.2 software update for the 4th generation Apple TV. tvOS 9.2 is a major update that brings folders for grouping apps on the home screen, support for Bluetooth keyboards, new Siri languages and an updated app switcher UI to the new Apple TV.

Folders

You can also group apps together in custom folders as you do on your iOS device. Just drag one app on top of another to create a folder, then give it a name.

New App Switecher UI

Double-click the Home button on the remote and you’ll see the apps you’ve used most recently. So you can quickly switch from one app to another without having to go all the way back to the Home screen.

Support for iCloud Photo Library and Live Photos

The new firmware also adds complete support for iCloud Photo Library and Live Photos. With iCloud Photo Library support on Apple TV 4, users will be able to view their full collection of photos and videos synced with iCloud. Previously, Apple TV has only supported viewing iCloud Photo Sharing and My Photo Stream.

Dictation

tvOS 9.2 brings voice dictation for search and username/password entry via the Siri remote.

Siri now has the ability to search the App Store for specific apps.

New features also include Siri support for US Spanish (in US only) and French Canadian (in Canada only) as well as Siri support for UK English, Australian English and US English available across the UK, Australian and US Storefronts when English is set as the system language.

tvOS 9.2 also supports MapKit, allowing developers to implement maps into their tvOS apps.

An update for the Apple TV Remote firmware adds improved motion sensor performance and support for additional sound bar and receiver hardware.

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Apple has today released tvOS 9.2 beta 6 to developers (build 13Y5232a). tvOS 9.2 is a major update that brings folders for grouping apps on the home screen, support for Bluetooth keyboards, new Siri languages and an updated app switcher UI to the 4th generation Apple TV.

The new firmware also adds complete support for iCloud Photo Library and Live Photos. With iCloud Photo Library support on Apple TV 4, users will be able to view their full collection of photos and videos synced with iCloud. Previously, Apple TV has only supported viewing iCloud Photo Sharing and My Photo Stream.

tvOS 9.2 will also bring voice dictation for search and username/password entry via the Siri remote.

Siri will have the ability to search the App Store for specific apps.

New features also include Siri support for US Spanish (in US only) and French Canadian (in Canada only) as well as Siri support for UK English, Australian English and US English available across the UK, Australian and US Storefronts when English is set as the system language.

tvOS 9.2 will support MapKit, allowing developers to implement maps into their tvOS apps.

An update for the Apple TV Remote firmware will add improved motion sensor performance and support for additional sound bar and receiver hardware.

The latest beta is only available for developers and it must be installed on Apple TV 4 via a USB-C cable.

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Last time, we reported that the Apple affiliated chip makers have started shipping MFi enabled chips to HomeKit accessory makers. And now, more reports suggest that HomeKit appliances will hit the shelves soon, as Apple has started accepting product plans from device manufacturers regarding the same.

Apple held an MFi summit in China last week, whose attendees were strictly restricted to HomeKit partners. It dealt mostly with using Siri with HomeKit to get things done in your home, via smart devices. On the last day of the summit (Nov. 14), Apple invited all smart device makers to submit their product plans for the kit, which is generally regarded as the last formal phase before devices enter mass production.

The Apple TV is expected to be the centerpiece of the whole Apple Smart Home concept. You will pair your devices with the Apple TV, so that you can control them via iCloud or directly from a dashboard app on the set-top box’s homescreen.

In essence, we believe that the HomeKit launch will coincide with the much awaited Apple TV refresh. Now, that we know that HomeKit devices are entering into production, we are certain that the Apple TV 4 countdown is closing in as well.

If things go as rumored, we will have the next Apple TV sporting an entirely new firmware, intuitive interface, powerful capabilities and HomeKit support, at least by March next year.

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As we discussed earlier, reports from Forbes confirm Apple TV to be the center piece of Apple’s new adventure, the HomeKit. According to them, the Apple TV will carry the control panel for all your smart appliances, to be accessed within your home or even remotely (you can read more here).

Such glory days of Apple TV don’t seem very far, as chip-makers confirm that they have started shipping HomeKit certified chipsets to smart device manufacturers.

Apple unveiled the HomeKit at their developer conference held in June. With this SDK, various home appliances will be able to talk to each other, to the iCloud and to your iOS apps to get things done in the smart way.

However, as with all other Apple products, home device manufacturers will have to certify their products as MFi (Made for iPhone) and this would be done via the chips they buy from Apple-approved companies – Texas Instruments, Marvell and Broadcom.

The executives of these chip makers have revealed to Forbes that they have dispatched the initial shipments of this Bluetooth+WiFi enabled chips to smart device makers. They believe that this would be the final step in the establishment of iHome and that we’ll soon see a flurry of HomeKit supported devices rushing into the market.

“Everyone’s getting ready,” said Brian Bedrosian, senior director of embedded wireless in the mobile and wireless group at Broadcom. “Expect to see new product launches in the next cycle of product releases.”

Currently, the leading companies interested in the HomeKit include Honeywell, Elgato and Withings. With what we know so far of the kit, we are looking at smart lights, cameras, doors, thermostats, security systems, sprinklers, plugs and more, which can be all controlled with the ease of a tap.

And when that happens, your Apple TV will receive a software update (at least the 3rd gen) or the next gen Apple TV 4 will be unveiled, to rule over these smart minions.

To all those who’ve been doubting the future of Apple’s set top box, it’s time to take a deep breath and wait.

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A couple of weeks back, we received some unconfirmed reports stating that Apple sneaked in HomeKit support to Apple TV with the 7.0 update. But things became official on Tuesday, when the Apple TV 7.0.1 beta 2 was rolled out to developers. In the changelogs, Apple has acknowledged that the update “can be used for testing AirPlay and HomeKit with your iOS apps.”

More details were dug out by Apple Insider from Apple’s own development forums, where an engineer explains how HomeKit, CloudKit, smart appliances and Apple TV will work together to create the iHome.

All your smart gadgets connect to Apple’s HomeKit, which in turn is looked over by the CloudKit. You can log in to your iCloud account on your Apple TV and that’s it, your Apple TV becomes the central hub to controlling everything smart in your home, like bulbs, doors, garden sprinklers, thermostats and more.

[..] information from their connected home will automatically be synced with the TV accessory. This is made possible because HomeKit uses CloudKit to store home and accessory info in the cloud, while Keychain is used to store paired keys, the developer said.

Apple TV also acts as the “remote access peer” for HomeKit, so that you can control your smart home even if you are on a vacation. Using an iOS device, a Mac/PC or even from the iCloud website, you will be able to connect to your Apple TV and control the HomeKit enabled services.

Serving as a remote access peer will enable the Apple TV to help control connected accessories when they are away from home. When a user is accessing their smart home remotely, Apple’s system reportedly scans available remote access peers and searches for the one with the lowest latency.

It is now clear that future Apple TVs will play a dual role of delivering the content you love plus, automating your home. The new update, when it comes out of beta, will be available only on Apple TV 3 while, the HomeKit services are believed to be the hallmark of the next Apple TV too.

Though initial rumors predicted Apple TV 4 for an early 2015 launch, the recent turn of events have placed high hopes on Apple’s October 16th event.

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Once again an Apple patent is under the microscope, as Apple Insider caught up with an application submitted by the Cupertino engineers. Titled “Browsing Remote content using a native interface”, it re-imagines how the remote app works with Apple TV.

Instead of the mere navigation buttons in the current remote app, the proposed UI would be a dynamic one. It shows a menu of icons corresponding to your Apple TV channels, which you can browse through and select the favorite ones to stream.

Once the content stars playing, Apple TV sends meta info like trivia, cast, credits, etc. to the app, which can be enjoyed by the user. If you find something interesting here, you can even push it for everyone to see, and it will form a sidebar or pop-up on the TV.

The above mentioned features deal with real-time interactions between your Apple TV and the app, and forms the Active mode of the app. However, the new app comes with a Passive mode, which is what is more interesting.

In the passive mode, the user can get out of the ‘now playing’ details and browse the app again. These won’t show up on your Apple TV and hence, won’t disturb others watching with you. You can search for a better movie or add videos to queue, renew subscriptions or just about anything the app allows.

The patent also proposes for interactions via iCloud, so that you can access the TV even when you’re not within the house. Remember how Apple TV was reported to be the center of Apple’s smart home? Now, lets imagine the passive mode, remote access and iCloud, all working together. Imagine you reaching outside your house. Open the remote app, enter passive mode, access the Smart Home hub and open the garage. Meanwhile your wife is watching Netflix over Apple TV, and she doesn’t know a thing.

Though the patent doesn’t mention much about the passive mode, we believe this mode is what forms the core of the application. The active mode is just a modified piece of software and doesn’t require to be protected. Whereas, the passive mode would likely become the backbone of Apple TV multitasking between content delivery and home automation, which Apple certainly doesn’t want its competition to copy.

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Released earlier today, the new Apple TV software beta brings iCloud Family Sharing to the big screen, 9to5Mac reports. That’s in line with our predictions on how the future Apple TV may look like.

Introduced at WWDC 2014, Family Sharing allows family members to share purchases from iTunes (music, movies, TV shows) and the App Store (games!), as well as family calendar and photos.

iOS 8 introduces Family Sharing, making it easier than ever to communicate and share purchases, photos and calendars within the same household. Family members can browse and download each other’s iTunes®, iBooks® or App Store purchases. Up to six members can participate, each with their own Apple ID. Parents can create Apple IDs for children, which includes Ask to Buy, requiring parental permission for purchases. Family Sharing automatically keeps everyone connected by creating a shared family photo stream, shared calendar and provides an option for locating family members and their devices.

Also read: WWDC 2014 and the invisible Apple TV

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The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple has been building out an extensive network of data centers and connections as groundwork for moving deeper into television. Today, Apple uses a mix of content that is hosted in Apple-owned data centers and content distribution from Level 3 and Akamai, which is a good strategy for more “static” content like what is currently available in the iTunes store. Essentially, Apple can push a copy of “Thor: The Dark World” to Akamai and let them provide the servers and bandwidth to all of the users who purchase the movie.

Where this model fails is when more interactive or real-time content is being viewed. If Apple is truly going to compete for living room space as the primary set-top device, the “Live TV” problem must be tackled. Verizon did a reasonably good job of this with the Super Bowl, streaming it live to a peak of 1.1 million viewers. Yet this was a paltry 1% of the total TV audience, and those viewers were often watching the game with a 20-30 second delay. This is problematic for almost any live event, and a deal-breaker when it comes to sporting events.

The fundamental problem is one of fairly simple math. Using the new “Thor” movie as an example, the bandwidth required for a single viewer of the 1080P stream is 4.5Mb/s, well within the realm of most broadband users in the U.S. Unlike “Thor”, however, Apple can’t ship a copy of the Super Bowl video to Akamai and let them handle streaming that 4.5Mb/s out to millions of users. The streaming needs to occur in as close to real-time as possible.

Apple approaches services like this from an evolutionary perspective. Downloading of music content was the first offering, and the infrastructure was scaled up, broke, fixed, and scaled some more. Then, standard definition video downloads were added. Scale, break, fix, scale. High definition video downloads. Scale, break, fix, scale. Then streaming of static content, both music and video. In this process, they have undoubtably learned many lessons about how to build and manage the infrastructure required to support large-bandwidth events, whether it’s a new movie or the release of iOS 7. And they have learned is what they can use partners like Akamai and Level 3 for, and what they cannot.

Being the control freaks they are, it would be surprising if they continued to rely on Akamai for such a large portion of their user experience, and even more surprising if they believed that a 20-30 second delay for something like the Super Bowl would be acceptable to their users. The only solution to this is to build out the infrastructure themselves, allowing them to produce and deliver the content with as little latency as possible to as many users as possible, while still meeting their goals for quality and performance.

The WSJ article certainly lends credence to this. Apple has 20 million Apple TV’s sold to date, and another 700 million iOS devices. Whatever they build has to support this volume of users. For Apple to handle just 10% of the Super Bowl viewers via Apple TV would require a staggering 45 Terabits of data per second, all of that delivered in a manner that is at least comparable in quality and latency to what users receive today from their cable provider. From the sounds if it, they are preparing to do just that.

Related articles:

• New rumors on Apple TV 4 surface as Apple TV gains special profile at Apple official website
• Opinion: Where is Apple taking the TV in 2014?
• Native gaming on Apple TV could soon become a reality as a new Apple TV with its own App Store is on the way, sources say

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During yesterday’s Apple’s iPad event the iLife suite received a big update for iOS and OS X, and part of this was a new feature for iMovie called iMovie Theater. Apple has issued a small update to the Apple TV to bring this new feature to your living room screens.

Designed to allow users to share content to iCloud, iMovie Theater allows a user to watch the clips, movies, and trailers that they create on any Apple device. Now that the Apple TV has received the new iMovie Theater channel, you can create a movie on your MacBook Pro and have it available instantly on your Apple TV.

The new iMovie Theater channel is available through an over-the-air update.

You can access the shared content stored in iCloud by signing into the Apple TV using the same Apple ID you use on your other iDevices.

Let us know what you think of the new iMovie Theater channel in the comments below.

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According to the nice intrusive update screen that just popped up on my Apple TV, and our lovely commenters, it seems Apple has fixed whatever the issue was and it’s go time again.

Apple has issued a new release of the 6.0 firmware with a build number of 11A502 which marks a substantial increase from the pulled 11A470e version.

Check out our thread highlighting the new features Apple TV 6.0 brings, which includes iTunes Radio, iTunes Music Store, AirPlay from iCloud and much more.

Apple TV 6.0 Download

Here’s some direct downloads if you’re that way inclined:

• AppleTV(2G) (AppleTV2,1) 6.0 (11A502)
• AppleTV3,1 (AppleTV3,1) 6.0 (11A502)
• AppleTV3,2 (AppleTV3,2) 6.0 (11A502)

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