WWDC was two weeks ago, and beta versions of Apple's new operating systems iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite and of Apple TV were made available at that time. Now, Apple has made updates to those betas, including an update for Apple TV that supports iCloud Family Sharing. The Apple TV can now access content from multiple iTunes accounts in a family. Apple requires that those accounts share the same credit card, which should help with piracy concerns. However, a lot of families that let kids use iPads, iPods, and iPhones don't want them to have a credit card on file. For those users, I always recommended an iTunes gift card with a finite value. That would put a limit on purchases, however it would make them ineligible for Family Sharing.
Fortunately, iOS 8 brings another family-oriented feature. If a device is dedicated for the kids, when they try to make a purchase, it can be set to ask the parent for approval via a popup message on the parent's iOS device. This should eliminate any excessive in-app purchase problems, as long as parents set this up properly.
This new beta release requires an Apple TV third generation. I happen to have two Apple TVs, a second generation and a third generation. The third added 1080p support and used an A4 system-on-a-chip processor. The faster processor is apparently required for Apple's newest features; or it may just be that for beta testing, they don't want the slower unit to result in bug reports that are hardware related.
Apple also released updates to iOS 8 beta and Mac OS Yosemite beta. As a developer, I can't comment too much on them; but I can say the pace of the updates is nice, and if Apple keeps it up, any outstanding bugs shouldn't remain too long!
