The Apple Events app was bumped yesterday to version 3.0 on the tvOS App Store, bringing updated text and graphics for the upcoming June 22 WWDC keynote along with a surprise announcement from Apple: the software has become part of the company’s TV app.
“Apple Events is now part of the Apple TV app,” reads the changelog. “To watch announcements from Apple including special events, open the TV app or visit apple.com”.
In other words, people can now tune in to Apple’s live-streamed keynotes and video replays of past announcements right from within the TV app across their iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV. Before this change, the Apple Events app only existed for the Apple TV.
The company has not removed the Apple Events app from the tvOS App Store — you can still download the refreshed software, but after opening it you’ll be greeted with a new splash screen offering the warning message along with two buttons: Open Apple TV App, which does just that, and the Learn More button that produces another screen.
As evidenced on the screenshot top of post, that promotional screen informs customers that the TV app now provides three basic functionalities: watching Apple’s events, streaming Apple TV+ content and buying, renting or subscribing to iTunes and third-party content.
Choosing to open the TV app takes you to its new Apple Events section where you can watch the most recent announcement or explore previous events. At the time of this writing, the TV app highlighted last year’s WWDC keynote. Content-wise, nothing has changed: the same videos that used to be available in the Events app are now served by the TV app.
Choosing an Apple event video displays the summary screen as if you were going to watch your favorite movie or TV show, including the ability to add the Apple event video to your Up Next queue. Like with other videos served through the TV app, these Apple event videos can be either streamed or downloaded for offline viewing.
However, I couldn’t find how to get to the Apple Events section in the TV app from the main screen, without clicking that link in the Events app. And for the final tidbit before signing off, the Apple Events section in the TV app indicates that the upcoming WWDC keynote may be a 4K broadcast. That’s a major upgrade from before, when Apple used to limit its event videos to the 1080p resolution in both the Apple Keynotes video podcast and on its official YouTube channel.
So, WWDC 2020 could be Apple’s first 4K event.
What do you make of this change?
Let us know in the commenting section down below!