Updated July 4 with details of other upcoming Apple TV and home device news.
Here’s how you know Apple is getting stuff right: when it introduces a feature you’ve never thought of but as soon as it’s here, you think, of course, that’s brilliant. That’s a good description of what’s coming soon for both iPhone 16, earlier iPhones and Apple TV. It’s a subtle update to the mute button. And hot on the heels of this news comes a leak that the Apple TV range is changing in other ways too.
MacRumors has identified code “discovered on Apple’s backend” which says that Apple is working on a new home accessory to sit alongside the HomePod and Apple TV.
The report says, “The code references a device with the identifier ‘HomeAccessory17,1,’ which is a new identifier category. The name is similar to the HomePod’s ‘AudioAccessory’ identifier.”
That identifier is especially intriguing because it suggests by mentioning 17,1 that it may include the same processor that is expected in the Apple iPhone 16, the A18 chip. Which means the new device will be capable of advanced features, perhaps relating to AI.
More than this, the code refers to two models which haven’t been released and are Apple TV devices. This fuels earlier rumors that a new Apple TV (or two) could be released this year, perhaps in September when the iPhone 16 series is expected to debut.
But the big news here is the suggestion that a new device is going to be so powerful it needs the A18 chip in it, whatever it turns out to be. Could it be the rumored hybrid of Apple TV with display? That would be innovative.
Apple has a history of intriguing innovations on Apple TV. Years ago, it improved video playback in a way no other company before—or since—has done.
If you miss what someone on TV said, you could pick up your Siri remote and say, “What did he/she/they say?” Whichever pronoun you use, the result would be the same. The video would rewind by 10 seconds, then play the bit you didn’t hear again, with subtitles front-and-center, and just for those few seconds. If you haven’t tried it, it’s fantastic.
Now, with the next-gen software for iPhone and Apple TV, iOS 18 and tvOS 18 respectively, there’ll be another key innovation.
It will work on the upcoming iPhone 16 series, but also iPhones all the way back to the iPhone XS, once the software is installed. The software is currently in its second developer beta. It will come to public beta later this month and reach general release in September.
So, how could anyone improve the mute button? It just works, right? Apple’s change is brilliant: when you mute video playback, either on the iPhone or by pressing the mute button on the Apple TV remote, as the silence descends, subtitles automatically appear onscreen. Tap the button again and as the sound fades in, the subtitles fade out. How cool is that?
The feature will also be available, with a satisfying sense of completeness, on the iPad and Mac when you’re watching video using the default video player.
Now, I can see some drawbacks to this: if you’ve muted the TV, or iPhone or whatever, so you can take a call or listen to your significant other across the living room, say, and you continue to focus on the screen because you can still see the words, instead of listening to your interlocutor, you may come a cropper, be warned.
However, overall, this is one of the neatest upgrades for watching video that has appeared for ages. Only Apple.
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