This morning Apple refreshed its betas for iOS and Mac OS X, adding a number of new, comparatively minor tweaks as iOS 8 and Yosemite both nudge ever closer to their official launches. But nestled among these tweaks is perhaps Apple’s biggest surprise of all — it’s updated the aging Apple TV interface to better resemble iOS 7.
Image Via iLounge
Granted, this isn’t the sweeping overhaul of the user interface that some users have been waiting for. There’s still a massive cascade of gridded channels to sort through, for instance, and little has been done to make navigating the pile a little less painful.
Image via Daniel Perez
But at least it’s a step in the right direction, right? The ghost of iOS 6 lives on in the use of reflections for the items at the top, but on the whole the new icons and interface sport the “flat” look that Apple design chief Jony Ive championed with the introduction of iOS 7. The new look’s especially noticeable with Apple’s own apps, such as Movies, TV Shows, Music, and Computers. The appearance of iOS 7’s slim Helvetica Neue font rounds off the changes.
The other features introduced in previous developer betas remain, such as support for Family Sharing and displaying iCloud photos. These and other changes are expected to make their way to the general public alongside the release of iOS 8 sometime this fall.
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