Apple's tvOS SDK and Swift 2

It has been a long, long wait for Apple developers, but native Apple TV development is finally here with tvOS SDK, and Apress has a book for developers who want to get started working with it.

Developing for Apple TV using tvOS and Swift is due out in December, and it covers Swift 2 along with examples of Apple TV apps that you can use to customize for your own app ideas, including how to work in a cursor-less environment using Stack Views and the tvOS focus engine and how to store and share your tvOS data via iCloud.

The Apple TV has been around for a while, but writing native apps for it was limited to jailbreak apps — not really ideal, especially when you want your apps on the App Store. Now with tvOS, the Apple TV becomes much more than a set-top box for watching TV and movies. It’s now a complete entertainment center that you can use not only for watching your favorite shows, but also for running native apps, playing games written for tvOS, and even reading ebooks together with your family on a big screen without hassle.

Now, what about the screen? The nice thing about the Apple TV is that the screen is up to you. If you want a huge 4K Ultra HD curved-screen monster, go for it. If you picked up a nice little HDCP-compliant monitor on sale, you can use that. It’s about the content, not the screen.

Apress isn’t slacking on the iOS development front, either. We have the Swift 2 edition of Beginning iPhone Development coming next month, along with Learn Swift 2 on the Mac, and some Internet of Things goodness with Program the Internet of Things with Swift for iOS. We’re also addressing the design side of app creation with Designing for iOS with Sketch, and we’ve already published Swift 2 for Absolute Beginners. Apple moves, well, swiftly. But we’re right there with them. 

(by Michelle Lowman)