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First Apple TV apps and games unveiled as developers prepare for tvOS App Store launch

The Apple TV is now available to buy but customers won’t be receiving their new hardware until Friday at the earliest, according to Apple shipping estimates. Although the dev kits currently lack an App Store to download software, plenty of developers are announcing their titles for the new Apple TV, ahead of schedule. We’ll be bringing you full coverage of the Apple TV later in the week but here’s a taste of the software already announced for the Apple TV’s debut …

Simplex

Plex has already announced that it is making an official Apple TV client ready for the App Store launch (more on that soon) but there is also a market of third-party clients that could be even better. One of these is Simplex. Simplex Video will stream your full Plex library straight to Apple TV featuring a fantastic UI that closely mirrors the Apple iTunes Movies experience, whilst exposing all of the Plex categorization options. This could be the de facto to stream your own content library to Apple TV, as iTunes Home Sharing leaves much to be desired.

Mr Jump

Mr Jump won an Apple App Store Editor’s Choice for its addictive iPhone and iPad platformer earlier in the year, accruing over 15 million downloads. The game maker is now bringing the popular title to Apple TV. Users tap on the Siri Remote touchpad to control Mr Jump and navigate the various platforms and obstacles in the levels. A longer tap makes Mr Jump go higher. A variety of power-ups are unlocked on the way, giving the one-button platformer a surprising level of depth. You can download Mr Jump for iOS now to get it automatically on the new Apple TV when the App Store launches.

Streaks Workout

Streaks is a cool new workout app for Apple TV. You can select from a variety of activities to do workouts directly in your living room … all wrapped into a pretty design with bold imagery and rich typography. Streaks times the pacing and number of repetitions and keep a record of your performance history. The goal is to do one workout every single day; you can customize the goals based on your fitness and free time. Get Streaks when the tvOS App Store launches. It’s also worth giving a shout-out to the 7 Minute TV Workout here, which is a very similar premise, but it includes videos of instructors doing each move so you can copy the professionals and maximise your efficiency.

Withings Home

Home health company Withings is jumping on board too, they’ll have an Apple TV app available at launch. The Withings Home app will work with their video monitoring hardware to let you easily add CCTV in every room of the house and view it all on your big-screen TV in the living room. The app will support streaming of up to 4 live videos at the same time, so you can glance at the security and safety of everyone in your house simultaneously. The app will be available for free in the Apple TV App Store but obviously you will need to buy the Withings cameras for it to be useful.

Sketch Party TV

SketchParty kind of exists today on the current Apple TV through AirPlay — you can download the iOS app and stream the game content to the television. It’s not a great experience though, AirPlay lag and occasional choppy frame-rates ruin the experience.

With the new Apple TV, SketchParty has made a tvOS game that runs on the Apple TV hardware. The app still connects with users’ iPhones and iPads to act as controllers for each of the players, where the sketching takes place. Its just that the main experience is now being powered by a real native app, allowing SketchParty to deliver higher quality, sharper graphics and fluid visuals to the Apple TV, eliminating the lag issues inherent with AirPlay Mirroring.

This is just a taste of the kinds of apps and games to expect for tvOS. Apple is still working through the review queue so the Apple TV app library will grow significantly in the coming days. Many of the top apps are also still under embargo, so we’ll bring you full coverage of those as the details become public. The first Apple TV units will be delivered to customers this Friday and we expect the tvOS App Store to go live for people with developer kits on Wednesday or Thursday.

(If you are working on a great tvOS app, please get in touch).

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Comments

  1. gjconstructs - 8 years ago

    If I play a game on my iPhone or iPad and stream it to the TV…or is that even possible?

    • twelve01 - 8 years ago

      Yes, you can do this with The 3rd gen TV already, through Air Play

    • goodenglishgrammar - 8 years ago

      It’s possible, but the lag makes it an unplayable experience when looking at the TV. There are also all kinds of bugs that can occur with Airplay that make the experience unreliable (Airplay suddenly shuts off or crashes the app/phone).

      • Robert Stukenbroeker - 8 years ago

        I do this all the time without any lags or anything. Smooth as butter experience.

      • incredibilistic - 8 years ago

        @Robert – Glad your experience is buttery smooth but I’m in the glitchy, laggy camp. Then again there’s very little reason to stream a game to my TV because I still have to look at my phone to see where my fingers are. It’s good if someone else wants to see what I’m playing but that’s not a request I get.

        The good news is that games will be playable through the new Apple TV so the days of AirPlay streaming are coming to an end.

  2. Inaba-kun (@Inaba_kun) - 8 years ago

    Anime streaming site Viewster will have an app for launch too.

    Sadly no word yet on larger services being there for launch, if at all. Amazon and BBC, get your acts together.

  3. Mel Gross - 8 years ago

    Too bad the Withings cameras cost $200 each.

    • incredibilistic - 8 years ago

      Woof! That’s pricey but if you’re a new mom/dad, or want to keep your eyes on the nanny, or want to monitor the front door in case someone steals an Amazon package from your front door it’s worth it.

      • cameron823 - 8 years ago

        Amazon delivered my new Withings camera but it was stolen before I could connect it. #catch22

  4. freediverx - 8 years ago

    “Simplex Video will stream your full Plex library straight to Apple TV featuring a fantastic UI that closely mirrors the Apple iTunes Movies experience, whilst exposing all of the Plex categorization options. This could be the de facto to stream your own content library to Apple TV, as iTunes Home Sharing leaves much to be desired.”

    Finally, someone calls out Apple on the crappy user experience for Home Sharing content on Apple TV 4. Thank you.

    • freediverx - 8 years ago

      Incidentally, Apple should be embarrased at the prospect of a third party app having to fix Apple’s terrible UI and user experience for Home Sharing.

    • Paul Douglas - 8 years ago

      “Finally”?

      Look, I’m not arguing the point, but the device isn’t even in consumer’s hands yet. “Finally” is a bit of a stretch.

  5. Steve Grenier - 8 years ago

    Simplex looks wonderful. I always hated how Apple’s Home Sharing UI was a simple list. Most of us have all the necessary metadata, give us a nice UI too!

  6. Nirah Lee - 8 years ago

    Mobile Montessori is proud to bring Educational Apps to Apple TV! Our first app, the Hundred Board, will be available on the initial release day of Apple TV!
    http://www.mobilemontessori.org/blog

  7. lexxkoto - 8 years ago

    Simplex looks interesting, but I’m gonna wait for Infuse.

  8. maingeek1 - 8 years ago

    We need infuse or something similar to it. I would love to sideload Kodi on this thing, which I think is coming very shortly. This box shaping up to be a good replacement for Fire TV, only if Amazon releases an app for Prime. (which I`m very confused about)

  9. frobots - 8 years ago

    Even Atari’s Pitfall is better than this “Mr Jump.”

  10. chuckisbusy - 8 years ago

    What about VLC? I need the VLC app in the pipeline to the app store before I buy the new Apple tv!!

    • ausoleil - 8 years ago

      VLC is coming, it was announced in September.

  11. Phil Wu (@phobus) - 8 years ago

    Nothing compelling yet. Plex already runs on *everything*. These games look like crap.

  12. sulaymanf - 8 years ago

    You Don’t Know Jack! is a party game that had one of the best AirPlay streaming experiences (one device would stream to AppleTV and other iOS devices would be controllers for up to 4 players). It feels like it would be a natural fit for the new AppleTV, but I haven’t heard anything. I hope they port it over.

  13. Satoshi Nakajima - 8 years ago

    Hi, I am woking on an open source project, which allows non-programmers to create Apple TV apps very easily. I’m wondering if anybody isinterested in taking a look at it. I’m looking for a feedback from non-programmers.

    http://www.swipe.net/what-is-swipe/

Author

Avatar for Benjamin Mayo Benjamin Mayo

Benjamin develops iOS apps professionally and covers Apple news and rumors for 9to5Mac. Listen to Benjamin, every week, on the Happy Hour podcast. Check out his personal blog. Message Benjamin over email or Twitter.