“The iOS 12.3 and tvOS 12.3 betas released to developers this morning bring the new TV app that Apple first debuted at its March event on Monday,” Juli Clover writes for MacRumors. “‘Watch Now’ with its ‘Up Next’ function is still front and center in the TV app, but there’s a new machine learning-based recommendation engine that will surface personalized content suggestions for you based on what you like to watch. ”
“Up Next will continue to keep track of what you’re watching so you’ll never forget what episode of a TV show you’re on or where you left off watching a movie, while the new ‘For You’ recommendation feature will draw in content from more than 150 streaming apps, including Hulu, Amazon Prime, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, and more,” Clover writes. “In addition to the ‘For You’ section, the TV app will also offer ‘Because you watched…’ recommendations much like Netflix. ”
“There is a new “Channels” feature in the TV app, which is one of the main new components that Apple added,” Clover writes. “Channels are subscription services that you can sign up for and watch within the TV app without having to open up another app.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, the situation is at least congealing into to fewer choices now. Basically, most users can be pretty well satisfied with Apple’s TV app and hopping over to the Netflix app or the few other non-participant holdouts. It’s a much better experience now than it was in the “old days” of hopping around from app to app to app. Hopefully, someday, the Netflixes of the world will join Apple’s TV app, too.
Remember the iTunes Store holdouts? The ones worth anything all wised up and arrived on iTunes Store eventually.
A company in search of a vision.
If channels will have the ability to show only Prime shows in Amazon, it’ll be worth using as a front-end just for that.
It would be great if the new Apple+ would have local channels so you wouldn’t need an attenna.