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Apple TV to land with apps, games: Priced at $149 for 32GB

Apps will finally arrive on the new Apple TV set-top box, helping the company and developers to monetize the living room experience.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor
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(Image: CNET/CBS Interactive)

Apple TV just graduated from the company's "hobby" section into a major player in the television space.

At an event in San Francisco, the company announced its new set-top box designed with the living room in mind. The new box lands with a brand new look and brings the best of iOS -- including Siri and Apple Music -- to the television.

Costing $149 for 32GB storage, and $199 for 64GB, the box will be available for order in late October.

The set-top box comes with a 64-bit chip, and HDMI and Ethernet ports.

It will also come with a brand new remote control, dubbed the Siri Remote. Apple's Eddy Cue said the new Siri remote has a new glass touch-based surface for precision and accuracy for interacting with the new TV user interface.

'"Show me funny TV shows,' and Siri will give you a list of comedies," said Cue. In a demo, he explained how it's also possible to skip forward and skip back with simple natural language commands and to receive on-screen information related to the content with questions like "who stars in this?".

Siri will be able to search Netflix, Hulu, Showtime, and iTunes, among others in due time.

Apple TV will run a new operating system -- the company calls it tvOS -- which is built on the foundation of iOS, allowing developers to tap into existing technologies like Metal and Xcode. That means as many as 11 million registered developers could bring a whole wealth of new apps and games to the new platform.

The set-top box will come with its own dedicated App Store, allowing viewers to download games and apps from their living room couch.

"The future of TV is apps," said chief executive Tim Cook.

Developers can access the new tvOS developer kit starting Wednesday.

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