Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming tvOS 12.2 update to its public beta testing group, a few days after providing the beta to developers and a week after releasing the tvOS 12.1.2 update.
The tvOS 12.2 public beta can be obtained by going to the Settings app on the Apple TV and navigating to the Software Updates section under "System." "Get Public Beta Updates" will need to be toggled on, and once it is, the Apple TV will download the beta software.
tvOS 12.2, paired with iOS 12.2, lets users ask Siri to play specific media on an Apple TV from an iOS device. You can, for example, ask Siri to play Modern Family on the TV in the living room. This works for music and TV content.
No other new features were discovered in the tvOS 12.2 beta as of yet, and it's often difficult to determine what's new because Apple does not provide release notes letting us know what's changed.
Monday December 16, 2024 8:55 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple released iOS 18.2 in the second week of December, bringing the second round of Apple Intelligence features to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models. This update brings several major advancements to Apple's AI integration, including completely new image generation tools and a range of Visual Intelligence-based enhancements. Apple has added a handful of new non-AI related feature controls as...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 11:39 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple is no longer planning to launch a hardware subscription service that would let customers "subscribe" to get a new iPhone each year, reports Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
Gurman first shared rumors about Apple's work on a hardware subscription service back in 2022, and at the time, he said that Apple wanted to develop a simple system that would allow customers to pay a monthly fee to gain...
Contrary to recent reports, the iPhone 17 Pro will not feature a horizontal camera layout, according to the leaker known as "Instant Digital."
In a new post on Weibo, the leaker said that a source has confirmed that while the appearance of the back of the iPhone 17 Pro has indeed changed, the layout of the three cameras is "still triangular," rather than the "horizontal bar spread on the...
Wednesday December 18, 2024 10:05 am PST by Juli Clover
Elevation Lab today announced the launch of TimeCapsule, an innovative and simple solution for increasing the battery life of Apple's AirTag.
Priced at $20, TimeCapsule is an AirTag enclosure that houses two AA batteries that offer 14x more battery capacity than the CR2032 battery that the AirTag runs on. It works by attaching the AirTag's upper housing to the built-in custom contact in the...
Tuesday December 17, 2024 9:02 am PST by Joe Rossignol
The current Apple TV 4K was released more than two years ago, so the streaming device is becoming due for a hardware upgrade soon. Fortunately, it was recently rumored that a new Apple TV will launch at some point next year.
Below, we recap rumors about the next-generation Apple TV.
Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last week reported that Apple has been working on its own combined Wi-Fi and...
Monday December 16, 2024 4:17 pm PST by Juli Clover
Blackmagic today announced that its URSA Cine Immersive camera is now available for pre-order, with deliveries set to start late in the first quarter of 2025. Blackmagic says that this is the world's first commercial camera system designed to capture 3D content for the Vision Pro.
The URSA Cine Immersive camera was first introduced in June, but it has not been available for purchase until...
Apple launched the controversial "trashcan" Mac Pro eleven years ago today, introducing one of its most criticized designs that persisted through a period of widespread discontentment with the Mac lineup.
The redesign took the Mac Pro in an entirely new direction, spearheaded by a polished aluminum cylindrical design that became unofficially dubbed the "trashcan" in the Mac community. All of ...
Sunday December 15, 2024 9:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple is planning a series of "major design" and "format changes" for iPhones over the next few years, according to The Wall Street Journal's Aaron Tilley and Yang Jie.
The paywalled report published today corroborated the widely-rumored "iPhone 17 Air" with an "ultrathin" design that is thinner than current iPhone models. The report did not mention a specific measurement, but previous...
Hopefully tvOS 12.2 or 13.0 will provide third-party developers with the capability to add support for Dolby Atmos. The Apple TV only support Dolby Atmos on-top of Dolby Digital Plus aka the "lossy" version of Dolby Atmos. Not all that surprising as the Apple TV and tvOS did not support the lossless formats such as Dolby True HD or DTS: Master Audio to begin with.
But the saddest part of the Dolby Atmos support is how there is no API for developers to utilise in order to get it supported within their apps. Firecore, the developers behind Infuse and Plex Inc the developers behind Plex Media Player are simply not allowed to add support for Dolby Atmos within these apps.
It's only Apple themselves, and chosen streaming provides working directly with Apple that are allowed to integrate with the Dolby Atmos capabilities within tvOS. This is such a shame and is really putting some stark discrimination on the developers.
Hopefully tvOS 12.2 or 13.0 will provide a API for all the developers to use. Why limit this in such a way? It's beyond me... [doublepost=1548700522][/doublepost]The Firecore team encourages Apple TV users to raise this issue with Apple;
Dolby Atmos support has been announced at WWDC for tvOS 12!
Unfortunately, the current implementation is only useful for VOD services like iTunes, Netflix, and Vudu. Enabling Atmos for local content is a change that needs to come from Apple, and as the old saying goes “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.” So...we're asking you to be as squeaky as possible...within reason of course.
Ways you can help
[LIST=1] * Request a feature or enhancement through apple.com/feedback ('http://www.apple.com/feedback/appletv.html') * Submit an suggestion bug report through bugreport.apple.com ('http://bugreport.apple.com/') (developers only, see steps below) * Encourage other people you know to do one of the above
A good template of the details to include with your request can be found below.
Dolby Atmos is now supported on Apple TV, which is great! However, the options provided for Atmos are rather limited and not very useful for those who wish to play their own local Atmos content.
Please allow tvOS applications (e.g., Infuse, Plex, DS Video, etc.) to provide more flexible audio options to their users either through the use of Dolby MAT v2.0 or full bitstream audio passthrough.
Devices like NVIDIA SHIELD, Dune 4K, and many other Android-based media players support this feature, and it would be fantastic if the Apple TV would as well.
Steps for filing a Radar.
[LIST=1] * Log in to: bugreport.apple.com ('http://bugreport.apple.com/') * Choose: Report a new bug * For product, select: tvOS + SDK -> AV Playback * Title: “Atmos Support for Playback from Local Network Sources” * Classification: Suggestion
All we need now is a new Apple TV! Hopefully, one without the ridiculous trackpad remote. JMHO.
I like the remote. The trackpad lets me move around quickly and scrub through a show. Easy peasy. And since it has siri built in to find and play shows I fail to see why I need that through my phone as well.
