The future of TV is apps says Apple’s Tim Cook

By adding an app store to Apple TV, many popular iOS apps will come to the big screen. It’s the future, says Tim Cook.

Apple Inc. on Wednesday unveiled an Apple TV that will support third-party developer apps for the first time, marking the first overhaul of the product in three years.

By adding an app store to Apple TV, many popular iOS apps will come to the big screen. At the media event, the company also introduced a Siri-enabled remote with touch sensitive capabilities that will expand the platform’s gaming potential.

Apple CEO Tim Cook discusses Apple TV at

“We believe the future of TV is apps,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Apple said games like “Galaxy on Fire” and Walt Disney Co.’s new Star Wars game, “Disney Infinity,” would come to Apple TV. Popular real estate sites like AirBnB and Zillow also are developing apps that would allow big-screen house hunting.

Apple said it redesigned its iTunes store and is also bringing its new music-streaming service, Apple Music, to the TV. Many of its content-focused apps — such as HBO, Netflix and Hulu — will have new looks.

The new remote features a microphone to activate Siri voice search.

Developers from Hipster Whale demonstrated how their popular game, “Crossy Road,” would work on the TV, allowing users to play with multiple players. Gilt, an online shopping company, showed how users would be able to shop from their couches. And Major League Baseball’s app will now allow viewers to watch two games at once and access detailed stats and team information.

Apple also revamped the interface’s style, introducing a more modern operating system focused on content. The old platform had a clunky user interface, where users scrolled through a tile home screen to select a streaming service. Users could only search one service at a time and it was difficult to search extensive streaming libraries. Viewers can now search for shows and movies across streaming services, and pull up information about specific titles while watching them.

Apple event: need to know

The biggest hardware shake-up is the remote. The earlier version featured three small buttons to perform basic commands. The new remote features a microphone to activate Siri voice search, as well as motion and touch sensors to allow users to swipe through Apple TV’s interface or play games.

With a Siri-enabled remote, viewers can speak to find a show across streaming services. Siri can also help recommend movies and shows. Users can speak into the remote with various commands — asking the question, “What did she say?” for example, while watching a show will rewind it 15 seconds and display captions.

Apple TV is slated to go on sale in late October, starting at $149 for the 32 gigabytes version and $199 for the 64 GB version. Its developers’ tools, tvOS, become available today.

All prices US dollars

The Wall Street Journal