Apple TV, still definitely not a hobby, has some new features to add as it grows. Tim Cook mentioned that there are 50 percent more users now than there were last year, and no doubt they’ll be happy with the addition of Dolby Atmos audio and some nice sign-on streamlining.
Apple TV is now the only streaming player to be both Dolby Atmos and Vision certified. Assuming you’ve got a 4K HDR-capable TV, it could be nice to have, since iTunes boasts the biggest selection of content for those — but since hardly anyone does, it’s more of an aspirational feature at present.
There are over 100 video channels now after the addition of several live news and sports ones. In France Apple TV will be the exclusive provider of Canal+, and in Switzerland Apple has partnered with Salt for a similar exclusive. And Charter Spectrum will also be coming to Apple TV later this year, so around 50 million people will be able to watch their normal cable content through the device. Finally!
Helpfully, many of these apps won’t require a separate log-in, including Charter Spectrum — as any smart TV user or cable cutter knows, managing these logons can be incredibly annoying. So a single sign on (or zero sign on in some cases) will be a boon.
Unclear what this means for those of us who share passwords between friends and family. Possibly not good.
If you’re a TV background video aficionado, you’ll also be interested in the new orbital video of Earth that can be displayed while nothing else is going on. It’s exclusive to Apple.
