We all love our Apple TVs, but nobody loves searching for apps and games on it. The Apple TV is a box with a tremendous amount of power, but it often feels like that power is locked behind a confusing and inaccessible app store.

This catalog aims to change that. AfterPad provides a web frontend for searching and browsing the Apple TV store, as well as curating the best of the best into an Editor’s Choice section geared towards power users.

Terrific work by Kevin MacLeod at AfterPad. Until Apple comes up with a solution to link to tvOS apps and browse its App Store on the web, the Apple TV App Catalog will be useful to look up app details, prices, and screenshots.

(And I’m pretty sure he coded all of this on an iPad Pro, which is even better.)

In addition to iOS 9.3, Apple released the first beta of tvOS 9.2 today. Benjamin Mayo has a rundown of what’s new at 9to5Mac:

With the new Apple TV tvOS 9.2 beta, Apple has added a whole host of new features to the tvOS platform. This includes support for pairing Bluetooth keyboards, Folders organisation for apps on the home screen, a new App Switcher UI and a native Apple Podcasts app.

There are also some enhancements to Siri and other improvements. Apple has added support for two new Siri languages: US Spanish and French Canadian.

There was a ton of work left to do in the first tvOS – and I’d argue that the software shouldn’t have shipped without Remote app support – but it looks like Apple is catching up quickly.

In an interview with BuzzFeed published this morning, Apple’s Eddy Cue has shared some details on how the company sees the new Apple TV as a gaming device.

“When we first announced the iPhone, we didn’t tout it as a gaming device. But games became a huge part of iPhone, because it turns out that a lot more people than just hardcore gamers love games. We expanded the market. I think the vast majority of people around the world probably aren’t looking to buy an Xbox or PlayStation. But that doesn’t mean they don’t enjoy playing games. I think Apple TV expands the gaming market to those people.”

Cue goes on to say that “hardcore gaming isn’t exactly the ecosystem we’re after with Apple TV”, adding that, however, hardcore games will be released on it in the future. Essentially, Cue’s pitch is reminiscent of Nintendo’s goal with the Wii in 2006 – to expand the gaming market to people who don’t want to buy a console but would be comfortable with casual games on a TV. Only this time, Apple has an existing multi-billion iOS ecosystem backing the efforts of developers approaching the TV App Store.

Also from the interview, Cue revealed that the full functionality of the Siri Remote will be available in a new iPhone app next year:

“We’re working on a new Apple TV remote app that will give you the full functionality of the Siri Remote on your iPhone,” Cue said. “We’re hoping to ship that in the first half of next year.”

Yesterday’s tvOS update restored support with Apple’s existing Remote app for iOS, but it sounds like Apple has bigger plans that involve full Siri integration on the iPhone, too. I wonder if this app will also unlock deeper multiplayer features for gaming – with the “full functionality of the Siri Remote” on an iPhone, will multiple users be able to use their iPhones as controllers for games?

Apple:

The new Apple TV is here, bringing incredible and immersive apps and games to the big screen. Get in-depth technical information on building and designing for tvOS, learn refined coding techniques, and obtain valuable development instruction from Apple experts. Register by November 13, 10:00 a.m. PST for an opportunity to attend a Tech Talk in a city near you.

This year, Tech Talks will be focused on tvOS and will take place in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Japan, and Australia. Sessions will cover best practices on “designing apps for tvOS, implementing focus-driven user interfaces, integrating the Siri Remote and game controllers, leveraging TVML for media apps, and enabling On-Demand Resources”, plus gaming and graphics, video streaming, and more.

Developers can register here.

Writing for Polygon, Dave Tach has an in-depth overview of how games will be installed and work on the new Apple TV:

Before app slicing, Apple treated apps as all-or-nothing bundles. That meant that you couldn’t start playing Barbie: War until the multi-gigabyte file that included levels one to 10 (and all of the resources created for other devices, resources you didn’t need and would never use) finished downloading. But with a combination of App Thinning, slicing and on-demand resources, users can get the essential components of a game — things like the executable code, the splash screen that loads when you launch the app, the title screen artwork — in the initial download and reserve downloading for, say, levels eight to 10 until players approach them by completing the prerequisite levels. Levels four to 10 live in the cloud, tagged, and Barbie: War’s developers can say when the game should start downloading the assets tagged for specific levels.

This is possible because Apple provides developers with cloud-based storage accessible at any time — or on demand.

Tach goes on to explain how tvOS will manage app installations, and he also interviewed some game developers on their thoughts on the new Apple TV. I’m really curious to see how all this will work in practice.