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The old Apple TV setup screen. Note the glassy button and its blue glow.Andrew Cunningham
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The new Apple TV setup screen—no glass, no glow, and lighter fonts all around.Andrew Cunningham
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The old Apple TV home screen. Glassy buttons everywhere.Andrew Cunningham
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The new, flattened screen and its iOS 7-y icons.Andrew Cunningham
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More iOS 7 icons.Andrew Cunningham
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New iOS 8 icons.Andrew Cunningham
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The old Apple TV Settings screen.Andrew Cunningham
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The new Settings screen. The new fonts and buttons are accompanied by flatter, more abstract images.Andrew Cunningham
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The old software was "Apple TV Software 6.2."Andrew Cunningham
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The new one says it's version 7.0.Andrew Cunningham
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But if you click you can see the underlying iOS version. 7.1.2 retained the iOS 6-era interface.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 8 is the one that makes it flat.Andrew Cunningham
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Text input on the old Apple TV software.Andrew Cunningham
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And again on the new version.Andrew Cunningham
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Hulu Plus on iOS 7. Many of the Apple TV's channels look mostly like this.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 8 changes fonts and buttons, but the way content is displayed is basically the same.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 7.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 8.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 7.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 8.Andrew Cunningham
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The larger, glassy playback controls in iOS 7.Andrew Cunningham
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The iOS 8 version is thinner and less glassy.Andrew Cunningham
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Playing music in iOS 7. This interface is already pretty basic.Andrew Cunningham
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Playing everyone's favorite free album in iOS 8. It looks mostly the same, just thinner and with no reflections.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 7. Reflections, glass, blue glow.Andrew Cunningham
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IOS 8. Thin lines, thin fonts, no glass, no reflections, no glow.Andrew Cunningham
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iOS 8 picks up a new Beats Music channel, fruit of the acquisition.Andrew Cunningham
The Apple TV's interface is only vaguely similar to the one on your iPhone or iPad, but inside the set-top box is the same hardware and software that runs the rest of the iDevices. Alongside iOS 8, Apple today introduced "Apple TV Software version 7.0," a fancy name for "the Apple TV's version of iOS 8."
The Apple TV's software was never as skeuomorphic and texture-soaked as iOS 6 was on the iPhone and iPad, but the old interface still used thicker fonts and glassy buttons. The new update tweaks the design to bring it in line with iOS 7, iOS 8, and the upcoming OS X Yosemite. Helvetica Neue Light is everywhere, and glassy buttons and faint blue glows are replaced by flat black-and-white buttons.
The new design is what you'll notice first, but the Apple TV picks up a few other iOS 8-related features, too. The box supports Family Sharing, the feature that lets family members with different Apple IDs share purchases with one another. There's a new Beats Music channel, which ties in to the streaming service Apple picked up when it bought Beats earlier this year. And AirPlay now works with other iDevices, even if they're not on the same Wi-Fi network—now, devices can form an ad-hoc wireless network and stream that way. We recommend using the Apple TV's built-in security features to keep strange iPhones from finding and streaming to your Apple TV without your consent.
iOS 8 can only be installed on the third-generation Apple TV, the model introduced in March of 2012 and gently revised last year. The second-generation version, which looks the same from the outside but uses slower hardware and can only output 720p video, will not get the update, but for the time being should continue to work with all of its installed channels. The update can be installed with the set-top box's built-in software updater.
Listing image by Andrew Cunningham
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