A brand new Apple TV Remote app is now available for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It can be used to control the latest Apple TV 4th gen, as well as the previous models.

The Remote app was originally demoed at WWDC in June this year, but is now available for the regular user. Prior to this, Apple had released a beta version of the app for developers only.

What does the new Apple TV Remote app do exactly? Well, if you’re using the 4th gen Apple TV, then it does everything that the physical Siri Remote does, and some more. The only thing you cannot control with the Remote app, is the volume on the Apple TV. On older Apple TV’s, everything except the Siri functionality works.

You connect the Remote app to the Apple TV using Bluetooth. Once connected, you’ll see the exact same Siri Remote on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch display. Use the touchscreen to simulate the touch pad on the Siri remote. There’s a Play/Pause button, and another button to activate Siri. Apart from that, the app can also be as a game pad for the Apple TV, a keyboard, and you can also scrub media files.

The app can double as a gamepad and you can play multiplayer games with ease, instead of using the Siri remote. Ask your friends to download the app on their iPhone or iPad, and connect to your Apple TV. Start a multiplayer game, and get playing.

A Now Playing mode is automatically enabled when watching a movie or playing a song. Scrub forward or back using touch gestures, and play, pause or go the previous menu using the dedicated Menu button. You can even activate Siri and ask it to play a song, movie, game or just talk to it.

In the Keyboard mode, you can use the iPhone or iPad to enter text with ease. Siri dictation is also supported in the app.

To download and install the new Apple TV remote app, you’ll have to be running iOS 9.3.2 or later on your iOS device. Your Apple TV will have to be running iOS 9.2.2. It’s available as a free download from the App Store. Direct download link is available below.

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Apple announced at this year’s WWDC  they are working on a new version of the Remote app for iPhone and iPad that will get all the features of the Apple TV Siri Remote, including touch navigation, Siri and game play support. According to CNET, the redesigned app will be released to the public this summer but the beta version is now available for testing and can be accessed by registered developers.

After downloading the Apple TV Remote IPA, you will be able to install the app directly to your iPhone or iPad via iTunes. The app requires an iPhone or iPad running iOS 9.3.2 or later, and the Apple TV running tvOS 9.2.1 or later.

9to5Mac’s Jeff Benjamin has already got his hands on the new app. Taka a look at his video walkthrough:

As noted by 9to5Mac, the new Apple TV Remote will allow you to:

• Navigate Apple TV with touch gestures
• Ask Siri to find something great to watch, listen to, or play
• Dictate text, including usernames and passwords
• Enter text with the keyboard
• Play games using the accelerometer and gyroscope on your iOS device
• Game Mode with simplified game controls, available while holding your iOS device in a landscape orientation
• Controll the movie, TV show, or song that’s currently playing in the Now Playing screen

Learn more about everything Apple announced at WWDC 2016.

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CiderTV is a great alternative for Apple’s own Remote app as well as for the Siri Remote. It works perfectly with non-jailbroken 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Apple TVs letting you to easily navigate menus with gestures, quickly send text queries with built-in keyboard and control your TV volume from your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch or Mac.

The best part is that it lets you do all of this from your iPhone’s/iPad’s Lock screen (Notification Center widget), so there is no need to unlock your device every single time you need to use the app.

Just swipe down to open the widgets pane and control Apple TV even if iPhone/iPad is locked.

(Note: to control Apple TV box from widget you need to pair it from the CiderTV app first and then add CiderTV widget to your Notification Center.)

The app also lets you connect to more than one Apple TV and access them all from one screen.

CiderTV is also available for Mac and Apple Watch, so you can control your Apple TV from your computer or even from your wrist.

Some of the basic gestures include:
– TAP to Select (Play/Pause)
– DOUBLE-TAP to go back
– LONG-TAP (press for a second) – go back to Home Screen
– SWIPE LEFT/RIGHT/UP/DOWN – move between menu items
– SWIPE LEFT/RIGHT – rewind or fast-forward. Further swipes will increase rewind/fast-forward speed.

CiderTV is available from the App Store for free.

The app is also available in Google Play Store.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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“Take control of Apple TV” is a book by TidBITS managing editor Josh Centers that is said to answer every question you may have about the 4th generation Apple TV. It explains how to set it up and use it to watch movies and TV shows, play music, display your photos, and run all types of apps on the big screen.

Josh walks you through cables, ports, and setup, and explains how to use gestures and spoken commands with the Siri Remote—yes, you can talk to your TV! He helps you navigate and customize the Home screen, plus describes getting-started settings such as inputting your Apple ID and enabling parental controls.

In Take Control of Apple TV you’ll read about:

• The easy Siri Remote shortcut for sleeping your Apple TV
• Checking the battery level and charging your Siri Remote
• Three ways to rewind on the Siri Remote
• Alternatives to the Siri Remote
• Connecting your Apple TV to iCloud Photo Library, iCloud Photo Stream, iCloud Photo Sharing, or to photos stored on your local computer
• Beaming the display of your Mac or iPhone screen to your TV
• Making Mac or iOS audio play through your TV’s speakers
• Ripping DVDs and Blu-ray discs
• Running iTunes Home Sharing to play media from a local computer
• Using Plex Media Server to take your media library beyond iTunes
• Essential items to pack if you’ll be giving a presentation via an Apple TV
• What you can do with Conference Room Display mode
• How to tell if an iOS app includes a free copy of its Apple TV version
• How to reset or restore an Apple TV—useful for troubleshooting or for handing your device to a new owner

The second edition of the book includes What’s New in tvOS 9.2 that discusses the most importnat features of tvOS 9.2, like support for Bluetooth keyboards, Dictation, and the capability to display your iCloud Photo Library.

The book costs $15 and is available in PDF, EPUB and mobi formats from takecontrolbooks.com.

You can also get a free sample.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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tvOS, the new operating system for the Apple TV, opens up opportunities to bring great games to the living room. Unity, the maker of a development platform for creating 3D and 2D games, has recently announced that they are already working to bring Unity runtime and all the games made with Unity to the new Apple’s platform.

Actually, Hipster Whale’s Crossy Road, one of the very first games for Apple TV 4 that was demoed during the announcement of the new Apple TV in September is using the Unity technology.

Unity is currently working with a closed focus group to iterate, improve and polish Apple TV support.

When we feel it is ready, we will open it up for public beta testing. We don’t have any dates to share yet; although we expect this to happen later this fall.

This is how Unity describes the differences between tvOS and iOS:

While tvOS is built on iOS heritage, it went under heavy cleanup process: numerous of frameworks are absent on tvOS and some new requirements are in place. TV in general is quite different in terms of how content is presented, consumed and interacted, which makes it more accurate to treat it as a separate platform rather than extension of the iOS platform.

Developers can already start preparing their game content for tvOS. According to Unity, the iOS developers can get pretty close to the tvOS experience by connecting an iPhone6+ to an external TV via HDMI cable and pairing it with a wireless MFi certified Game Controller.

The company has also published a quick checklist of what an iOS game should pass to be ready for tvOS:

• Make sure your game runs fine on the latest Unity 5.x version. Apple TV support will be based on the latest Unity 5 version available at release time.
• You should be able to control your game with just the Apple TV remote alone. However, we think the best way to prepare in its absence is to make it work with Game Controllers first. Make sure all of your in-game UI responds to Game Controller inputs. It should be playable without ever touching the screen. Later, you can easily improve on that by using the new remote touch gestures and gyroscope or accelerometer input.
• Apple TV devices will have virtually no persistent store for your games, so moving your game saves to Cloud becomes a necessity.
• Apple TV is a streamed content device and your games are expected to be streamed if they take more than 200 MB of disk space. Here comes On Demand Resource support to the rescue. You can learn more about it in our forum post.
• Most of the plugins will need to be recompiled specifically for this new platform, some of their functionality might even be unavailable on this platform. Please review all the plugins you are using inside your game and contact their providers for Apple TV support.

The new Apple TV will be available at the end of October/in early November the first  starting at $149 for a 32GB model and $199 for a 64GB model.

More on Apple TV 4:

• MAME emulator running on Apple TV 4
• Official Plex app is coming to the new Apple TV
• VLC coming to the new Apple TV
• tvOS not coming to Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3
• How Apple is fixing what’s wrong with console gaming today

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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It appears that the time has come for the little black box to grow up and become a significant player in Apple’s ecosystem. Some reports even speculate that the Apple TV will be THE center of the Apple ecosystem in homes; connecting Internet of Things devices via HomeKit, showcasing iCloud & Photos content, playing games and eventually streaming broadcast television. While the iPhone 6s will undoubtedly take center stage at this Wednesday’s event, all signs point to the new Apple TV being the real star of the show.

First, the raw details that first leaked at 9to5Mac and have been quoted through out the web since. The device will run iOS 9 and include an updated remote, likely with an integrated touchpad and accelerometers for rough gesture based input.

The internal hardware will be significantly upgraded from the prior iteration with the inclusion of an A8 processor, 2GB of RAM, Bluetooth 4.2 and 802.11ac wireless capabilities resulting in a $149 price point. It appears the price may be tied to the internal storage space with several variants being considered, likely 8 and 16GB models.

While this will create a very formidable little box, the current rumor is that it will not support 4k video.

One of the biggest improvements with the new device is said to be the interface. While initially ‘clean and simple,’ the grid based icon layout of the current Apple TVs has become a sea of never ending icons and is far from pleasant to use. Frankly I have all but ditched mine as the speed to arrive at an application and then load it is easily surpassed by competitors such as the Roku 3.

Thankfully, iOS 9’s new Proactive Spotlight Search capabilities provide a handy tool for eliminating the need for endless icons. With so many options for streaming, the ability to ‘deep search’ into applications and immediately get to the content you want will be key for TVs of the future. This improved search along with upgraded Siri functionality is said to make the new Apple TV interface really shine.

In the past, this is where the updates would have stopped, a spec and UI bump. Sure there were people that had heard rumors or seen ‘Apple TV’ show up in Flurry results, but a true native App Store for the device never materialized… until now.

Finally, after many years of speculation, desire and even dedicated gamepad support in iOS, the new Apple TV version will have apps! Why now, why not years ago?  Only Mr. Cook knows the truth but I have several theories we can discuss over beers at WWDC next year.

What is most surprising to me is that until now, there has been NO visibility of this in the development tools. None. Apple isn’t about to release an App Store without apps, so what gives? This is complete speculation, but I believe this will be very similar to the iPad launch in that the new Apple TV will support much of the current App Store catalogue with few if any tweaks needed in the code base.

However, for those that have the resources, there will be a 30 day window in which to develop an Apple TV-‘optimized’ build of your application. Much like the iPad launch, these will get special billing in the store.

This actually brings me to one of my theories on the delay, I believe the remote was a big factor and this new remote enables the backward compatibility to fill the store from day one.

Either way, we will see for sure on Wednesday September 9th starting at 10am PST.

Rob Witman (@robwitman)

Read more about Apple TV 4: 

• Apple TV 4 specs and price revealed
• Apple TV 4: big focus on gaming and Siri, support for Bluetooth game controllers
• Apple TV 4 will cost $149-$199, available in October

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Apple has just sent out invitations for its next special event on September 9th. The event will be held at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco at 10:00 am. It is widely expected that the new Apple TV model will be announced during the event.

The tagline this year reads: “Hey Siri, give us a hint,” which may point to Siri-controlled Apple TV.

Apple will be live streaming the event on the web for Mac, iPhone, iPad, PC and Apple TV users. Streaming via Apple TV requires a second- or third-generation Apple TV with software 6.2 or later.

Apple TV 4 is expected to be slimmer than the current-generation model and feature Apple’s A8 chip, a new, “drastically improved” remote with touchpad, more on-board storage, an improved operating system with support for Siri voice control and a long-awaited App Store.

9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman has recently provided more details about the forth generation Apple TV:

• Apple TV 4 will be the first model to run a full-blown iOS core and it will run a TV-optimized version of iOS 9;
• it will look like the prior Apple TV, but will be slimmer and slightly wider;
• the new remote control will not only include touch-based input but also gesture support. Perhaps it will also feature Force Touch technology;
• Apple is planning to include a support for a system-wide search on the new Apple TV (just like the Proactive search on iOS 9);
• as for the Apple TV apps, Apple has fosuced on video-centric applications, “which would allow media companies to release new channels on the Apple TV on their own schedule”;
• the new Apple TV will include a refreshed, more iOS-like interface;
• it appears that Apple’s long-rumored online TV service won’t launch until at least next year.

More about Apple TV 4:

• Apple TV 4 hardware, software, release date detailed by Mark Gurman
• Multi-touch Bluetooth remote for Apple TV referenced in El Capitan beta 2
• Apple working on its own web TV service
• WSJ: Apple to launch $30-$40/month online TV service in September
• Reading between the lines of WWDC 2015 keynote

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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It is highly expected that Apple will announce a new Apple TV model at its annual September’s event, which will very likely be held on Sept. 9th. 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman has recently provided some new details about the next-generation Apple TV:

• Apple TV 4 will be the first model to run a full-blown iOS core and it will run a TV-optimized version of iOS 9;
• it will look like the prior Apple TV, but will be slimmer and slightly wider;
• it is likely that it will retain a plastic body for the best compatibility with routers and Bluetooth remotes;
• the new remote control will not only include touch-based input but also gesture support. Perhaps it will also feature Force Touch technology;
• “the new remote will likely pack enough technology to deter users from losing the controller”;
• Apple is planning to include a support for a system-wide search on the new Apple TV (just like the Proactive search on iOS 9) but 9to5Mac was told that “the company may wait to integrate the new search features until the Apple TV is populated with third-party applications”;
• as for the Apple TV apps, Apple has fosuced on video-centric applications, “which would allow media companies to release new channels on the Apple TV on their own schedule”;
• the new Apple TV will include a refreshed, more iOS-like interface, however, “the general aesthetic will be similar to the current look”. 9t5Mac was told that the new OS looks somewhat like the mockup below:

• the new Apple TV iOS 9 builds internally run on both the current J33 (Apple TV 3) and future J34 (Apple TV 4) models, “but internal testing does not always accurately forecast public launch plans”;
• it appears that Apple’s long-rumored online TV service won’t launch until at least next year.

More about Apple TV 4:

• Apple TV 4 hardware, software, release date detailed by Mark Gurman
• Multi-touch Bluetooth remote for Apple TV referenced in El Capitan beta 2
• Apple working on its own web TV service
• WSJ: Apple to launch $30-$40/month online TV service in September
• Reading between the lines of WWDC 2015 keynote

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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Don’t you love it when best things get even better? Well, our favourite AirPlay browser for Apple TV – AirBrowser, just got a major update and we’re loving it.

You might remember that we did a comprehensive review of AirBrowser last year, when we were blown away by its ease to get connected, intuitive interface and tutorials, lag-free surfing, Mac-like gestures, multi-tab support and custom features.

We were surprised at how satisfactory the browsing on the 50-inch HDTV was and concluded it as below:

I have used a couple of other AirPlay browsers as well as some normal iOS browsers over AirPlay. But, unlike others, AirBrowser seems to concentrate on just this one thing, to the point that there is no standalone browsing. And such a focus surely shows through in its execution, as AirBrowser is noticeably faster, powerful and more intuitive now, than what I saw back in July.

In short, AirBrowser is the most premium experience I’ve ever had with any AirPlay browsers.

In this review, I’ll be focusing on the new additions to AirBrowser, namely the AdBlock and YouTube optimizations.

Ad-blocker on AirBrowser

Anybody who has used an ad-blocker addon on their Mac or PC would know how pleasant the whole experience becomes. Websites load much faster, you have less distractions, browsing consumes less data and the content display is much neater.

If you are coming from such a surfing scenario, AirBrowser will feel right at home from now on. Tap on the gear icon in the left bottom corner and toggle AdBlock on.

YouTube experience with AirBrowser

Similarly, below you can see YouTube loaded on Safari over AirPlay mirroring to Apple TV, versus the AirBrowser version. It is obvious why one might want to choose the latter.

Besides, while playing YouTube videos, a navigation bar and media buttons show up on your iOS screen, which just simplifies the whole YouTube experience. You can seek, play, pause and scrub, even while playing videos fullscreen, without messing around with the cursor.

The verdict

After checking out this update, we have no choice but to stand our ground. We previously throned AirBrowser as the best AirPlay browser in the App Store and now, it’s just grown better.

An app backed by an active developer team who pushes out frequent improvements, and delivers extremely well on what it promises, is surely worth recommending. So if you are searching for a browser for your Apple TV, don’t look any further.

Get AirBrowser now for just $2.99 (usual $4.99) thanks to their App Store promotion.

Also be sure to take a look at our full review of AirBrowser.

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Ever since Apple acquired PrimeSense, the company behind Microsoft Kinect, we have been hearing rumours of a gesture based interface for the Apple TV. A new patent filed by Apple suggests that the hands free control will not only deal with navigation, but also be available within apps and games.

The patent details a projector, which emits laser beams and a sensor, which detects the reflected rays and uses the time difference to locate your hand. The device creates a “pseudo-3D” image of the hand and detects gestures to drive the interface. An example is the cover flow menu (in the image below), which can be set into flow with just a wave.

What is interesting is that Apple has mentioned it specifically that this technology can be used as a game controller replacing joysticks.

User movements detected by means of system 20 control an interactive computer application, such as a game, in place of tactile interface elements such as a mouse, joystick or other accessory.

The patent also mentions that the target of tracking needn’t be the hand and that any object can be 3D mapped, which might be a hint to the magic wand remote which Steve Jobs dreamt of.

The Apple TV 4 is scheduled to be launched next month at the WWDC, 2015. We do not expect this gesture based navigation to make its way to it, but is surely something to look forward to in future iterations of the set top box.

Read some previous reports of the hands free control of Apple TV. And if you are interested, you can go through the patent filing here.

Read more on the Apple TV 4.

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