According to reports from 9to5Mac, Apple TV could bring some pretty cool features through an update that will be released at its WWDC event. The event is slated for June, so there is time yet. However, Apple is known to be pretty closemouthed where its software updates are concerned, preferring to reveal the whole thing with a bang. As such, this could well give us a rare, in-depth looks at what is to come.
The WWDC event is slated to take place in June and among other things, is very likely to host a prominent tvOS update. Reportedly, the tvOS 11 will bring some major changes to the experience. For instance, the update could well introduce a way to handle multiple Apple IDs for the different people in the house.
Up until now, Apple appeared to have planned its TV for a single user scenario. Which didn’t make particular sense considering that TV is something that is usually shared among different members of the same family. tvOS 11 could rectify the oversight and bring in different user profiles for different members of a household. Logging in through any of these IDs would then bring a personalized screen with all the different preference brought to the fore. Among other things, users would be able to see their preferred songs and playlists in the Music app, view their personal iCloud Photo Library, and be able to change the app home screen to display their favorite apps.
Interesting. This also makes you wonder if the feature would also be included on iOS 11, which is also likely to be unveiled at the same event. That could allow a bunch of people to pool their money and but the undoubtedly expensive iPhone 8 later in the year.
There are also reports that the tvOS 11 could also introduce a version of Picture-in-Picture to the Apple TV. How this could works is pretty simple. You can play a video and then dock it to a side of the screen and then use the rest of the screen to open another app. For instance, you could watch a video while playing a game. Don’t expect to be able to watch two different videos side by side though (though why someone would want to do that escapes me) as only one video stream will play at once.
If a PIP window is active, playing another video would pause/stop the PIP stream.
The features could well make interesting additions to the Apple TV. Let’s see if the company actually introduces these features come June. We have mailed the company and will update the article with a statement, if we receive one.
