What apps will Apple and the big guys provide?

Question

Jnygaard OP

Created Oct ’15

Replies 6

Boosts 0

Participants 5

Hi,

This might be a bit of a weird question, but does anyone know what apps Apple will provide out of the box??

Will there be a:

Browser (Safari)??

Simple mail client (e.g. readonly with only subject and sender)?

iMessage??

Weather???

Call annunciator/notification?

....???

And yes, I know it's intended as a multi-user (family) device, but it would still be feasible to be able to see things like mail and msg overview. I see the senario, where ou are in the couch, streaming your favorite show. Apple Watch is charging along side the phone in the other end of the living room. You hear it vibrate. Who is texting/calling you??? Is it your wife calling with a car break down? or is it just your buddy checing if golf is still on for sunday? Would be nice to know, without having to walk to the phone...

And what about the other big guys. The googles and facebooks ect. I would think it would be safe to assume there would be a youtube app (from google, not apple?), a facebook and other social apps. And various news app.

But who really knows?? It would really nice with a page where we could get an indication of what is in the pipe, so we don't spend time brewing a cool weather app, just to realize apple as made an even cooler one....

Boost

Answer 1

Floating Wrench OP

Oct ’15

Other than when the new Apple TV was announced, I do no believe Apple has said what will be included when distributed to consumers.

If you look at tvOS, it appears that there is no API provided for web browsing applications, but only Apple knows what will ultimately be included in the final release.

If there is something specific you would like Apple to include, then now is the time to suggest it via the bug reporter.

0

Answer 2

Frankcom OP

Oct ’15

Why should apple leave out the "web browse" functionality - it is essentially needed and a decision against it, would be not understandable - not only for me.

0

Answer 3

Brent Royal-Gordon OP

Oct ’15

I don't know about you, but I've never used a web browser on a TV that was any good. The controls are always extremely clunky; since anything on a web page could be connected to some mouse-clicking Javascript, you're basically forced to have a pointing device, and that's awkward with a TV. It can be hard to read small text from ten feet away, so you have to zoom or reformat things—but the remote is too small for pinch-to-zoom. And typing URLs, usernames, passwords, or form fields? Forget it.

Granted, you could've said some of the same things about phone web browsers before the iPhone, and Apple pulled off a miracle there. But that doesn't mean they can do it again on a different platform. And if they can't do it well, they probably won't do it at all.

0

Answer 4

Frankcom OP

Oct ’15

I fully agree that the typical web sites cause definitely problems on a typical tv screen, so it should be adapted for sure.

But in times of great technique and great ideas I definitely see a chance to get webpages readable in a convenient way even on Apple TV.

A logical analysis of the related HTML content and a combination of brain will get good results for sure.

0

Answer 5

bmaltais OP

Oct ’15

The one app I wanted to make for the tvOS required web site rendition. It is essentially an app the turn the display into a "kiosk" displaying sites fed by RSS.

The lack of webui support has pretty much killed my project ;-(

0

Answer 6

Jnygaard OP

Oct ’15

While I fulle agree a pointing device is need for www browsing on a tv, I do not agree it's impractical. Have you seen the way LG does it with their "magic remote"?? They use a motion (gyre) sensor in the remoet to move a pointer. And you don't have to point it in any particular diretion, as the pointer will just hit the edges and get synched, just like a mouse. I beleive the newer (>2014) Samsungs smart tv has a similar thing, but I only tried the LG. If you havn't tried it, I'd suggest you swing by a Best buy and give it a spin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=610gd_j5qIo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7Gzsnlirfc Skip to 1:34 or so

And since the new siri remote has the gyro and acc meter build in, it should be posible to make a similar experience with ATV. In fact, I'm surprised they do not utilice the gyro to point on the keyboard for entering text. Unless LG has a patent on the magic remote of course....

0