A new YouTube video (embedded below) showing the first browser designed for the new Apple TV has been published. The app uses a private API to render web content, so it’s not likely you’ll be seeing it on the App Store any time soon, but the project is open source and can be downloaded by anyone.
The browser takes advantage of the Siri Remote bundled with the new Apple TV hardware to navigate websites. Pressing the glass surface on the remote switches between two modes.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIDTh9bVRas]
The first allows the user to scroll by flicking the glass, while the other mode displays an arrow that can be moved freely around the screen. Once the arrow is visible, pressing the glass surface again will click on whatever’s below the arrow.
The simplistic browser loads pages quickly and seems to work fairly well. For casual browsing it might be quite useful. Unfortunately, as noted above, it’s not likely to be released officially because it requires access to a private API to function.
Earlier this week, another Apple TV hack demonstrated built-in support for iOS-like folders on the home screen, which would make app management much more powerful.
