📺 BIG TV Updates, Top 10 Home Automations

Your Apple TV Is Getting a BIG Upgrade

Most years, Apple TV doesn’t get a lot of feature enhancements when software update season rolls around, but tvOS 17 coming this Fall is a different story.

The stand-out feature this year is Continuity Camera coming to Apple TV. Meaning you’ll be able to use your iPhone (or any iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi network) as a camera and mic for a FaceTime call. Plus, apps like Zoom and WebEx will be creating Apple TV versions to also utilize this feature.

While this will be fun for families FaceTime-ing grandparents, and you can even use Continuity Camera to overlay yourself on lyrics when using Apple Music Sing (karaoke), this will truly shine in all those conference rooms that don’t have a proper video calling setup.

I’ve been in many meetings where someone tries to mirror their MacBook display, or iPad, onto a big screen and it’s always a bad experience. Audio comes out of the TV speakers, but the iPhone doesn’t noise-cancel, so there’s feedback. Plus, one’s looking at the camera in the room which is usually on a table, so there’s a big visual disconnect.

With this update, businesses can get an iPhone mount to permanently affix to the TV, and whenever they want to do a video call, it’s just a few simple steps away. Just make sure if it’s your iPhone getting used, enable Do Not Disturb 😏 

Many other big features are coming too, like a redesigned Control Center, Find My Apple TV remote, and more. Watch the video above or click here for the full rundown.

Apple is Working on a Chat-Bot, and Rabbits are Furry

Mark Gurman, a reporter at Bloomberg who often has the most accurate leaks and rumors leading up to Apple product launches, wrote a piece this week revealing that Apple is working on its own ChatGPT-like tool and it’s already being used inside the company. The most shocking part of the news is its codename, “Apple GPT.”

Incredible.

That was sarcasm by the way. This should not be shocking to anyone, as Apple already held an internal summit on AI earlier this year. And Apple has many things in development not yet announced to the public, so this seems par for the course.

The story continues that Apple is investigating consumer-facing use cases for the tool and it may be released next year.

One minute after that Bloomberg story was published, Apple’s stock jumped, and Microsoft, which has already partnered with OpenAI, took a small hit to their stock.

Is any of this interesting?

Well, I made a whole video on the possibilities of Apple incorporating LLM (large-language model) type chatbots into their apps and services, you can watch here. And Apple already uses lots of machine learning across their apps and services, which are very much like AI features.

So when the actual “news” seems rather small, it’s peculiar how “big” the story seems. Enter Bloomberg Terminal. I won’t belabor the whole explanation and connection, but I highly recommend you read John Gruber’s piece on the matter, and why Bloomberg reporting may skew a certain direction.

You can also listen to the AppleInsider podcast this week, where I attempt to explain the connection even further. Listen here:

Top 10 Home Automations

I’ve been meaning to make this video for a while! Smart home devices are fun all by themselves, but trying to communicate their value to someone who has never used HomeKit products can be a challenge.

In my latest video, I show off my ten favorite home automations all running in Apple Home. From temperature triggers that turn on patio fans, motion sensors, accessory groupings, and lots of HomeKit buttons, I hope you enjoy the tour!