Apple’s upcoming set-top boxes will support third-party controllers for gaming, which is good news for anyone (everyone) who doesn’t like gaming with a touchpad.
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Let’s be honest, a large amount of developers will still invest time in creating applications for tvOS, but it will be interesting to see how many it puts off. It will have two models: the 32GB and the 64GB and will cost $149 and $199 respectively. Word is Plex will be coming to Apple TV as well so that doubles the attractiveness of Apple TV.
Since the release of the Apple TV is due in October, the app is said to arrive a few months later.
Apple’s decision to go with an open ecosystem for the new Apple TV “is a bold statement”, Jason Flick, the CEO of You.i TV, a maker of a crossplatform user interface platform that counts Sony Crackle and Corus Entertainment among its clients, said.
On the plus side, since web view doesn’t always look that great in many apps and is commonly known as the “duct tape of the mobile world”, from a user perspective the in-app experience in tvOS apps could be significantly improved. “What if Apple rejects apps that feature awful controls for the remote, designed only to achieve the bare minimum functionality?”
While upgrading the Apple TV was a smart move, it still lacks a lot behind when it comes to apps.
In addition, popular media organization and streaming app Plex is also working with an app for Apple TV, according to Mac Rumors. If Apple had endowed the new Apple TV with a full suite of iOS APIs, and a reasonable cursor driven navigation approach, it would have, perish the thought, become competitive with Mac OS X. Not merely competitive, but a much lower cost alternative.
Though Olechowski has made the company’s intent to bring Plex to the Apple TV clear, he clarified that it’s too early to announce a timeframe for when we can expect it to appear on the device. This frees up the dependency of using Apple’s pre-installed online streaming services.
This a huge leap from the previous generation Apple TV.
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The new Apple TV faces stiff competition in the living room, from higher priced consoles, and from comparably priced Android consoles.
