As Apple prepares to launch its streaming video service this fall, a number of Apple TV enhancements were unveiled at WWDC.
Anyone who’s gritted their teeth at Netflix and Amazon autoplaying content probably won’t care for the refreshed Apple TV homescreen (which hopefully can be customized for a quieter experience) and the incoming Apple Music lyrics are a Fire TV retread – nice to have, but not exactly groundbreaking. Yet new aTV user profiles, and associated control panel, are a promising innovation that I look forward to checking out in September.
- Multi-user support. The new Apple TV Control Center makes it easy to switch between family members so everyone gets their own personalized entertainment experience. Users see their unique Up Next list and receive TV and movie recommendations based on their tastes. The new Control Center also provides users with quick access to key Apple TV features, including system sleep and audio routing.
The team from Israel brought this to light with Boxee on the early versions of our software, but we removed it by the time we went to production devices because of complexity.
I always loved the customization feature for specific family members, but it’s an odd thing to “log on to a TV.” I’ve put TVOS 13 on my Apple TV, but haven’t gotten my girlfriend to want to control the remote, let alone see if the application supports this yet…
Apple solved the biggest thing that Windows Media Center did NOT, which was the “Windows Update required…” when you were about to watch a show… That’s as bad as the “The system has updated the clock as a result of daylight savings time” that I see on monitors in airports and train stations around the world….
Profiles makes it at least something I’ll consider.