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tvOS 9.0 Code Hints at iOS-Like Folder Support for New Apple TV [Updated]

Wednesday November 4, 2015 6:39 pm PST by Husain Sumra
Developer Steve Troughton-Smith has explored the code and found that HeadBoard, tvOS' UI, includes support for folders. Yesterday, Apple seeded the first beta of tvOS 9.1 to developers, the first software update to tvOS 9.0.

AppleTVfolders
Image via Steve Troughton-Smith

Folders on tvOS currently work in a similar way to iOS, notes Troughton-Smith. A user would just have to drag one app over the other to create a folder. Users would also have the ability to rename folders. Troughton-Smith was able to activate the folders using the LLDB software debugger. The folders appear to use a 3 x 3 layout and sit alongside apps on the Apple TV's home screen, just like folders do in iOS.


In recent days, Apple has been updating the Apple TV's new App Store with Top Charts and Categories for better discoverability. However, those updates were server-side updates that didn't require users to update their software. Folder support would require a software update, but it's unclear which software update Apple would enable it in. Last year, iOS 8 code pointed to split-screen multitasking, but the feature didn't become official until iOS 9 almost a year alter.

Correction: An earlier version of this story wrongly indicated that Steve Troughton-Smith had found the code for tvOS folders in tvOS 9.1. He found the code in the public, released tvOS 9.0.

Related Roundups: Apple TV, tvOS 12
Buyer's Guide: Apple TV (Don't Buy)
[ 71 comments ]


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Avatar
haruhiko
43 months ago
I just need Bluetooth keyboard support and an update of the remote app.
Rating: 18 Votes
Avatar
garylapointe
43 months ago

I just need Bluetooth keyboard support and an update of the remote app.


Twenty-four letters between A and Z? This is probably the worst on-screen keyboard I've EVER seen.

Seriously, I've had this thing for 4 hours now and I'm pretty much ready to send this thing back.

It's like someone was intentionally trying to make it bad.
And just so no one could be happy, they threw away the bluetooth support for keyboards and didn't bother to update the Apple Remote App! I can use my iPhone to type on my TiVo, how does it not work on the Apple TV?!?

Gary
Rating: 17 Votes
Avatar
kwikdeth
43 months ago
3x3 huh? I see we're still focused on wasting as much screen real estate as possible. I'm sure the icons will look great on a 70" HDTV...

Rating: 11 Votes
Avatar
ErikGrim
43 months ago

In Apple new products are developed in secret separate teams so usually these first-gen products (e.g. iPad 1 - stuck in iOS 3.2 for a long time even after release of iOS 4, Apple Watch - native apps, and of course, all sorts of problems with the new Apple TV) seem to be out of place with the current lineup.

I feel like someone put the AppleTV dev team in a locked windowless shed for the last three years, and they just recently came out for air, and was puzzled as to why no one had told them about TouchID, iCloud Keychain, iCloud Photo Library and Apple Music.
Rating: 10 Votes
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newyorksole
43 months ago
It's sad that we get excited over such small things. Folders that should've been standard?...
Rating: 10 Votes
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ErikGrim
43 months ago
Pretty inevitable with the forthcoming rush of apps.
Rating: 8 Votes
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seamusk
43 months ago
I hope apple does not change the on screen keyboard due to the complainers. It's much easier to navigate as a single line.
Rating: 7 Votes
Avatar
Jal217
43 months ago

After being trained by this hideous one line alphabet touch pad remote flicking keyboard, everyone will be a ninja in using the Siri remote. It's planned.

This Apple TV thing surely is not what Steve Jobs said he cracked it in the Biography.

I feel like after using the keyboard for a while I've become very good at swiping at just the right speed and distance to land on the right letter. This is actually an improvement over the grid layout because unless it's in line with the previous letter it would be at least two movements to get to the next. I think once people get good at it they will realize why apple did it. My only issue with it now is that it doesn't loop back to the start at the end
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
haruhiko
43 months ago

3x3 huh? I see we're still focused on wasting as much screen real estate as possible. I'm sure the icons will look great on a 70" HDTV...

It's not 3x3 now on an iPad.

Twenty-four letters between A and Z? This is probably the worst on-screen keyboard I've EVER seen.

Seriously, I've had this thing for 4 hours now and I'm pretty much ready to send this thing back.

It's like someone was intentionally trying to make it bad.
And just so no one could be happy, they threw away the bluetooth support for keyboards and didn't bother to update the Apple Remote App! I can use my iPhone to type on my TiVo, how does it not work on the Apple TV?!?

Gary


After being trained by this hideous one line alphabet touch pad remote flicking keyboard, everyone will be a ninja in using the Siri remote. It's planned.

This Apple TV thing surely is not what Steve Jobs said he cracked it in the Biography.
Rating: 6 Votes
Avatar
Crzyrio
43 months ago
I'm excited for WWDC.

I feel like, that is when Apple will kick tvOS into overdrive.
Rating: 4 Votes

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