Apple Provides Second Beta of tvOS 11 to Developers

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming tvOS 11 update for the fourth-generation Apple TV, a little over two weeks after seeding the first beta following the keynote of the 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference.

Registered developers can download tvOS 11 by connecting the Apple TV to a computer with a USB-C cable and installing the beta software using iTunes.

tvOS 11 received little attention at the Worldwide Developers Conference, but according to the release notes, it introduces a few new features to the operating system.

tvOS 11 brings automatic switching between light/dark mode based on local time, Home screen syncing options that keep multiple Apple TVs in a household in sync, new background modes and notification support, Focus API improvements, custom sound support, network-based pairing and development support, and improvements to Mobile Device Management.

Later this year, Apple will partner with Amazon to bring an Amazon Prime Video app to the Apple TV for the first time, and in tvOS 11, AirPods are able to pair automatically with an Apple TV.

The new tvOS 11 update is only available for registered developers at the current point in time, but Apple plans to release a public tvOS 11 beta in the future.

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Top Rated Comments

mikesch

54 months ago

In this seed, there are new icons for the Movies and TV Shows apps. They now use Apple’s San Francisco font. These icons were previously shown in some promotional screenshots. Glad to see them in tvOS 11 beta 2!

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

noraa

54 months ago

I really wished Apple had introduced a picture-in-picture mode like on iOS and macOS - that would be extremely useful on an AppleTV. Maybe in tvOS 12...

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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