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What Operating System Does The New Apple TV Use?

R

rs14smith

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 7, 2009
144
2
Hey everyone,

I can't seem to find a straight answer on what OS the new Apple TV uses. Some articles I'm finding online are stating it's using a stripped down version of Mac OSX, and some are saying it's using the iOS. I didn't see it on the Apple webpage displaying the device nor in the specs section.

I'm doing a report and just trying to confirm which OS it uses, and if possible find a reputable source that states it.

Thanks ! :)
 
Not to contradict the previous poster....but...the second generation AppleTV runs on iOS, the same operating system used on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

I guess you could say that IOS is a stripped down version of OS X...but the fact is the ATV2 runs the same operating system as the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad (as stated above) and can be jailbroken with the same tools as those that jailbreak the iPhones and iPad.

A search in Google will confirm.
 
So in a nut shell, the following devices use the iOS: iPhone, iPod, and Apple TV?

I know the versions may differ, but at the root, it's iOS in general?
 
Chundles said:
Says version 4.0 in the settings, no updates available.
Click to expand...

That is the appletv software version, the old appletv was on 3.x, so this is version 4 of appletv software. Version 4 of atv software happens to be iOS 4.1.

Versions 1-3 were based on Tiger.
 
davidwarren said:
That is the appletv software version, the old appletv was on 3.x, so this is version 4 of appletv software. Version 4 of atv software happens to be iOS 4.1.
Click to expand...

Ah. That makes sense. Hopefully iOS 4.2 is shown as 4.2 on everything.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

davidwarren said:
Chundles said:
Says version 4.0 in the settings, no updates available.
Click to expand...

That is the appletv software version, the old appletv was on 3.x, so this is version 4 of appletv software. Version 4 of atv software happens to be iOS 4.1.

Versions 1-3 were based on Tiger.
Click to expand...

WTH?! Don't give bad info. The os for the new apple tv has nothing to do codewise from the original. It runs IOS, a different code lineage that the old systems OS.
 
ericvmazzone said:
WTH?! Don't give bad info. The os for the new apple tv has nothing to do codewise from the original. It runs IOS, a different code lineage that the old systems OS.
Click to expand...

That may be, but it is shown as version 4 to the consumer to keep the Apple TV line the same. Because remember, 4 comes after 3.
 
Intell said:
The Apple TV 2 runs iOS 4.1, not 4.0.
Click to expand...

Fragmentation! Are you seeing this Android haters? ;)

But yeah, the old Apple TV (which I think is a superior machine TBH) runs OS X with a front end called "Backrow" - a modified version of Front Row. The new Apple TV runs iOS with a front end called "Lowtide" which can also be hacked onto the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.
 
0dev said:
Fragmentation! Are you seeing this Android haters?
Click to expand...

Hardly fragmentation. All of the hardware is under Apple's control. Where as Android is under to control of many different hardware manufactures. And one could say that the iPhone/iOS became "fragmented" the day the iPod Touch 1G came out.
 
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back in 2007, it was talked about being a derivative of Mac OS X, because iOS (according to Wikipedia):

"iOS is derived from Mac OS X, with which it shares the Darwin foundation, and is therefore a Unix-like operating system by nature."

As everyone on here has said, the original Apple TV in its various software versions was Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)-based, but this one is completely iOS-based (the motherboard is even similar to the iPad's!).

So, in short, everyone but the iPod classic, nano, and shuffle that Apple sells is Darwin-based.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)

Intell said:
ericvmazzone said:
WTH?! Don't give bad info. The os for the new apple tv has nothing to do codewise from the original. It runs IOS, a different code lineage that the old systems OS.
Click to expand...

That may be, but it is shown as version 4 to the consumer to keep the Apple TV line the same. Because remember, 4 comes after 3.
Click to expand...

No it's not shown as version 4 so the user sees it as being version 4 of atv. It's version 4 since it runs version 4 of IOS.
 
Intell said:
But remember the average user doesn't not know that the ATV2 runs a different OS the the ATV1.
Click to expand...

The average user didn't know the Apple TV existed until the second version :D Jokes aside, I don't think people are going to get too confused - and they've sold a LOT of these already.
 
ericvmazzone said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C134 Safari/6533.18.5)



WTH?! Don't give bad info. The os for the new apple tv has nothing to do codewise from the original. It runs IOS, a different code lineage that the old systems OS.
Click to expand...

I didn’t say it had anything to do code-wise with the original. In fact, I said the original was based on Tiger. However, the current version of software on the new Atv is the fourth iteration of software for Atvs. I guess we will know for sure when the Atv is updated to 4.2; will it skip to 4.2 or be 4.1 of Atv…
 
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