A reference to ATVRemote1,5 turned up in the macOS 26.7 release candidate, spotted by MacRumors, and it lines up with what Gurman had already described as part of Apple's 2026 roadmap. That's the whole factual content, to be clear - an identifier in shipping code. No description of what changes, no size, no button layout, nothing. Which of course means everyone has immediately started listing what they want, and the top request on r/apple is a dedicated Source button.
That request says more about HDMI-CEC than it does about Apple. The argument goes: nine times out of ten CEC switches the input fine, and the tenth time you're digging out the TV remote you were trying to stop using. A source button ends that. It also means acknowledging you have other inputs, which is not historically how these boxes get designed, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Second on the list is a speaker for Find My, which is less a wishlist item than an admission of how many of these things live inside sofas. People are taping AirTags into cases for this.
The third one, a customisable action button, is where the useful part is, because you can already do a version of it today. In Settings, Remotes and Devices, Volume Control, Learn New Device, when it asks you to press and hold mute, press your TV remote's input button instead. You trade mute for input switching. I've run that setup for a while and have never once missed mute.
Anyone here still on the current aluminium remote and genuinely happy with it? Every thread I read is people complaining about the edges and the skip button.
That request says more about HDMI-CEC than it does about Apple. The argument goes: nine times out of ten CEC switches the input fine, and the tenth time you're digging out the TV remote you were trying to stop using. A source button ends that. It also means acknowledging you have other inputs, which is not historically how these boxes get designed, so I wouldn't hold my breath.
Second on the list is a speaker for Find My, which is less a wishlist item than an admission of how many of these things live inside sofas. People are taping AirTags into cases for this.
The third one, a customisable action button, is where the useful part is, because you can already do a version of it today. In Settings, Remotes and Devices, Volume Control, Learn New Device, when it asks you to press and hold mute, press your TV remote's input button instead. You trade mute for input switching. I've run that setup for a while and have never once missed mute.
Anyone here still on the current aluminium remote and genuinely happy with it? Every thread I read is people complaining about the edges and the skip button.
