A week after releasing tvOS 17.5 to all users, Apple is now making a new tvOS 17.5.1 update available. At this moment, it’s unclear what’s changed in this version, as Cupertino hasn’t added new functions for Apple TV users with tvOS 17.5.
Still, the company just seeded iOS 17.5.1 to iPhone users, which fixes “a rare issue where photos that experience database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.”
As reported by BGR last week, iPhone users on Reddit were saying that people who updated to iOS 17.5 found deleted photos reappearing in their library without explanation. However, it’s unclear if this bug could have also affected Apple TV users.
With tvOS 17.5, we couldn’t discover new features, as we think Apple is preparing to unveil them alongside tvOS 18 on June 10 with the WWDC 2024 keynote.
With tvOS 17.4, Apple also offered us a mild software update, although it was full of references for unreleased products and operating systems. With beta 1, the company added references to unreleased homeOS software.
This software could most likely be used for a HomePod with a screen. Bloomberg and other outlets have reported on a HomePod with iPad integration, like an Amazon Echo Show product. Apple is also apparently working on a HomePod with a circular display. That said, instead of the current wave animations on the HomePod, we could see music and weather data, for example.
In addition, HomePod Software 17.4 added a new feature for Siri. According to the release notes, “This update enables Siri to learn your preferred media service, so you no longer need to include the name of the media app in your request.”
If you use Pandora or YouTube Music, you don’t need to ask the HomePod to play a song on that streaming service, as Siri will understand this is where you usually listen to songs.
BGR will let you know if we discover anything new with tvOS 17.5.1 or if Apple gives any release notes for this update.
