Apple TV Developer Kit - Missing cable?

Also having the same problem. There were only 2 cables in the box - a lightning connector and a power cable. Can't find any documentation about how to connect the Apple TV to my Mac.

Ah..... As a previous reply pointed out (now deleted), at the bottom of the email (2nd batch) it says:

"USB-A to USB-C cable recommended (sold separately)."

Highly recommended...

Mine also arrived today, also missing USB-C cable. (Edit: mine was part of batch 2, see below)

Apple do sell a USB-A to USB-C cable (which is what you need to put apps onto the device): http://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/HHSP2ZM/A/belkin-20-usb-c-to-usb-a-cable

Thanks everyone.. Indeed it was mentioned in the email from Apple that "USB-A to USB-C cable recommended (sold separately)." It's in such beautiful and small font that I didn't really pay attention to it.. Looks like I wasn't the only one. Good news is that it's for sale in Apple, just search "Belkin 2.0 USB-C to USB-A Cable".

These are pretty much packaged for the consumer but I'm not complaining about something I got for a dollar 🙂

Does anyone know if I can use the USB-C to USB-A adapter as seen with the new MacBook? My local IT desk has one of those.

The adapter for the MacBook converts the C socket to an A (master) socket, allowing you to connect a cable to a B (slave) socket on a peripheral.

The TV is a slave/peripheral, so you would need an adapter from C to B socket, in order to connect it to the A (master) socket on your dev machine with a normal A-to-B USB cable. I'm not even sure if that adapter exists. A to C cables, however, are widely available and cheap.

The cable that came in the first batch of boxes is very generic, not shiny and Appley, so at least you're not missing out on that 😉

I purchased an off the shelf adapter from Best Buy and it did not work. A true USB-C cable off of Amazon worked fine.

I called and was told the second round developer kits intentionally had the USB-C cables left out. (I guess this means that Apple must be a/b testing.) I suggest you call anyway, request the cable, and report back here. It is bordering on silly sending out a dev kit, intentionally omitting the the key cable to make it a developer kit, even if it was only a dollar. Checking amazon and monoprice now. Test flight isn't how I envisioned sending apps to the unit until they are nearly completed.

The developer number is 800-633-2152 and you'll need your developer team id.

I just tried calling Apple Dev Support, but they said that when I checked out, there was a note about the cable being sold separately. I'm just wondering what the lightning cable is for since there isn't a way to connect it to the Apple TV.

I also received my Apple TV Developer Kit today and yeah, it's definitely missing a necessary cable. The Lightning to USB cable it came with is fine for connecting the remote directly to the Apple TV, but without the USB-C to USB-A, there's no way to connect the device to my MacBook Pro. I found the Belkin cable someone mentioned above on the Apple Store (US) online, but there's no "Add to Cart" option even when I pick a store for it to ship to. I did find it on Belkin's website, though it's only available in black:

http://www.belkin.com/us/F2CU032/p/P-F2CU032/

I was hoping to get everything hooked up and load tvOS beta 3 onto it tonight, but I guess tomorrow's another day.

It's to charge your Siri Remote. Though, you can't charge from the Apple TV itself, because it doesn't have a USB-A port.

I got the same response. Not really a "Developer Kit" without the cables required for.. you know.. development. Apple should have probably kept the lightning cable and given us the usb cable. Or changed Highly Recommended to Required on the purchase page to make it more obvious that if you want to use the Apple TV for its intended purpose, you're going to need that cable.

Unfortunately for me, I don't have a local Apple Store to grab a cable from and nobody else locally stocks them so I'm stuck waiting for delivery 😟

You're getting a $150 gadget for free, shipped to your door, and complaining because it doesn't include a $10 cable (a fact that they warned you about when checking out)? 😕

Just order a cable from Apple, Amazon, monoprice or whatever. A couple more days won't kill you.

I'm not complaining - I'm happy to pay for the cable - I would have been happy to pay for the unit, just pointing out that the terminology of "Developer Kit" implies that it is, in fact, a kit.

kit1

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I did see the message indicating that the USB cable was not present and that it was recommended, however my (clearly incorrect) inference at the time was that the cable was recommended but not required - possibly because you could load apps over the air or via some other mechanism (not a lot of information available). Basically the wording sucked and if Apple do a similar promotion next time, they might like to rephrase.

I live in a relatively remote area in Australia so Amazon and Monoprice are both out and the nearest Apple store is some 565km (351mi) away.