Apple has seeded the sixth beta of iOS 10, watchOS 3, macOS Sierra, and tvOS 10 to developers today. These new beta software versions come a week after the previous versions. Touting the usual bug fixes and improvements, these betas aren't likely coming with new features, but rather with small adjustments to both the UI and existing features.
After adding support for searching shows from Viacom-owned Comedy Central and music networks MTV and VH1 on the fourth-generation Apple TV a month ago, Apple has recently added Australia's Stan streaming service to the list of providers that support tvOS's universal search feature, as first discovered by MacRumors. Now customers in Australia can find content on Stan by pressing the Siri button on their Siri Remote.
Two weeks following the release of the third beta of iOS 10, watchOS 3, tvOS 10 and macOS Sierra, Apple on Monday issued iOS 10 beta 4, macOS Sierra beta 4, watchOS 3 beta 4 and tvOS 10 beta 4 to members of the Apple Developer Program. The public beta of iOS 10 and macOS Sierra matching the latest developer-only releases should be released tomorrow to public beta testers enrolled with the Apple Beta Software Program.
On tvOS 10, you can switch between Dark and Light appearance. Dark Mode, one of the new features of tvOS 10, adjusts the look of your Home screen and backgrounds so that posters and icons are easier to read at night. As such, it makes watching TV at home feel more like going to the movies.
Conversely, selecting Light background makes posters and icons pop. Our video guy Andrew O'Hara has tested Dark Mode on tvOS 10, here's his quick hands-on video.
Apple's OSes suffer from a previously unknown exploit which could allow an attacker to compromise the security of a device by having the user open an unsuspecting TIFF image file. Thankfully, the vulnerability has been patched in the most recent releases of iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS.
Resembling the dangerous Stagefright exploit that plagued Google's Android platform for the better part of last year, the security hole could allow a nefarious user to gather sensitive data from your device as soon as you access a simple text message containing a malicious TIFF image file, Fortune said yesterday.
Earlier this week, Apple seeded a third beta of iOS 10 (build number “14T5296d”) to its developers who are registered with the Apple Developer Program.
Although the software is light on new outward-facing user features, it still contains some noteworthy fixes along with improvements for Siri, 'Made for iOS' game controllers, the Music app and other aspects of the operating system.
We went ahead and asked our video editor Andrew O'Hara to spend some hands-on time with tvOS 10 beta 3 and capture his impressions on video.
Here's what Andrew had to say about beta 3.
In addition to releasing OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, iOS 9.3.3 and watchOS 2.2.2 software updates, Apple this morning also posted a bug-fix tvOS release for the fourth-generation Apple TV. Available via the Software Update mechanisms in Settings → System → Software Update, the tvOS 9.2.2 software update packs in performance improvements, bug fixes and security enhancements found since the release of tvOS 9.2.1 two months ago.
In addition to releasing a third beta of iOS 10 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch to members of the Apple Developer Program, Apple on Monday morning also released a third beta of tvOS 10 for developer testing. tvOS 10 beta 3 (build “14T5296d”) can be deployed on fourth-generation Apple TVs that have an appropriate configuration profile installed and are running a prior beta of tvOS 10.
This past weekend, the social networking giant Facebook announced that a beta version of its brand new software development kit (SDK) for Apple's Swift programming language is available for download. The new SDK integrates Facebook buttons into iOS, watchOS, macOS and tvOS apps written in Swift, and integrates such features like Facebook Login, Analytics for Apps, Graph API and Share to Facebook sheets. The Facebook SDK source code is available via GitHub on an open-source basis.
Universal Search feature on the fourth-generation Apple TV has been refreshed yesterday with expanded support for searching content provided by tvOS video apps from Viacom-owned Comedy Central and music networks MTV and VH1. Provided these apps are installed on your set-top box, you can either use the Search app on the device or press the Siri button on the remote and use your voice to find shows like South Park and others.
Aside from Single Sign-On for pay-TV apps and other new features and enhancements, tvOS 10 brings expanded Siri capabilities to the fourth-generation Apple TV, including searching across even more apps, YouTube search, topic search and tuning right into live channels.
Both existing and new Siri features will be available in four new new countries when tvOS 10 launches this fall. Here's our detailed preview along with a video hands-on of the above Siri features coming to your big screen via tvOS 10.
In addition to releasing a second beta of iOS 10 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, Apple today issued a second beta of the tvOS 10 operating system powering the fourth-generation Apple TV. tvOS 10 beta 2 (build number “14T5284d”) is available on the fourth-generation Apple TVs that run a prior beta as an over-the-air download in Settings → System → Software Updates → Update Software.