Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
Australian technology news, reviews, and guides to help you
TV app update in 2019

Apple’s TV app rolls out changes to bring services together

Owners of the recent Full HD and 4K Apple TV models are getting an update that makes it easier to find shows regardless of the services they’re on.

Watching TV these days is generally made up of services and places to find content on. You have Netflix, Stan, Amazon, and the various catch-up services you might be relying on, including ABC iView, SBS, Seven, Nine, and Ten, or the Freeview app to catch the live services of each.

Simply put, we have a lot of places to get our media from, and it usually means jumping in and out of apps to get it done.

Apple has been working on a fix for this, however, developing an app for the iPhone, iPad, and of course the Apple TV, and it’s designed to do just that: bring apps and services into the one environment, or at least the shortcuts needed to get you there.

The app will not just show your library of movies and TV shows purchased on Apple, but also the shows on networks, letting you run them from inside the app. However right now, much of that content works solely for the US, with networks such as HBO, Showtime, and Starz working stateside, but not in Australia.

Locally, Australian channels seem to be more of a “coming soon” affair, though Apple is providing a curated list of TV shows and movies through the system, with content for kids at different age groups collected as a way of providing suggestions for them to watch.

While Apple’s devices are ideally the way Apple would normally suggest people to watch on, owners of select Samsung TVs will also be getting the access, with the 2019 Samsung TVs being joined by last year’s models such as the NU7100, NU8000, Q6F, Q7F, Q8F, and Q9F. If you have any of these, the update will mean Apple’s iTunes movie and TV show store is also available for your TV, delivering 4K HDR content to the TV without needing an Apple TV.

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