Earlier today we announced that the long anticipated iOS 7.1 update was released. Hot on its heels were a few other updates including one for Xcode (5.1) which adds support for iOS 7.1, an update to the Remote app (4.2), and an update for the Apple TV. The thing is, I can’t seem to find out what the new 6.1 update does, at least not much. Everyone and their grandmother has mentioned the new ability to hide the channel icons directly on the Apple TV menu screen, which previously required you going into the Settings to do this.
By the way, the new method is to select a channel then press and hold the center Select button on the remote until the channel button starts wiggling, like apps on the iPhone. Then you can move it around the screen or use the Play/Pause button to select whether to hide it or not.
To unhide any channels, you will still need to go back into the Settings for the device. Aaaaaaand, that appears to be it. A few blogs have started their posts with, “Among other things, the update lets you hide channels…”, but then doesn’t go back to expand on those “other things” leaving me to believe that they don’t know what else the update does either. Some other blogs say the update added the iTunes Festival channel, but at best that is only partly true. The channel was there before, but now has been updated to reference the SXSW conference. The thing is, I’m not sure the 6.1 update was responsible, especially given that Apple has the ability to add and update channels without any software update at all. Unfortunately, I did not take notice of whether the change was there before I clicked “Download and Install”. I DO know that there were some security updates because Apple has a support article about it, which I found while looking for update details for iOS 7.1. I just find it difficult to believe that a .1 numbered update only includes a channel hiding option and some security updates. So, what else do you think it did? Did it update some underpinnings for the next set of features to be “unlocked” later? Did it add something transparent like improved video streaming? Or am I just reading too much into this version numbering thing?
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