Beta Apple TV firmware lets users rearrange menu icons
updated 01:29 pm EDT, Wed June 27, 2012
May hint at later Apple ambitions
The latest beta of the Apple TV firmware -- based on iOS 6 -- allows people to rearrange onscreen app icons, testers note. The feature is triggered by moving the cursor to the icon a person wants to move, holding down the Select button, and then using arrow buttons to shuffle the app around. Pushing Select again locks an icon into place. Using the standard iOS 5-based Apple TV firmware, holding Select puts the device to sleep.
The new option is similar to an equivalent on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but forces a person to lock and unlock the onscreen menu for each icon they want to move, owing to the limitations of the Apple TV remote. Apple could conceivably be paving the way for a future touchscreen remote, or simply letting iOS devices have more control through the Remote app. The company's upcoming TV has in fact been rumored as getting a touchscreen remote, and using a modified version of the Apple TV firmware.
