Apple finally revealed its plan to conquer TV

On Thursday, Apple announced a new Apple TV app that brings all your shows and videos into a central app.

It's simply called "TV," Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed on Thursday.

Basically, the app will tie together whatever services you have, from HBO to Showtime to CBS, and provide you with one place to find new shows to watch and pick up where you left off.

It's also available on your iPad and iPhone.

In the "TV" app, you'll be able to browse by category and also look "hand-curated" collections by Apple's editorial team.

"TV" also has a section called "store," which let you buy shows or movies, or sign-up for premium services like Starz or Hulu.

This fits into Apple's new plan for TV, which revolves around building an advanced TV guide rather than creating its own TV package, as industry sources told Recode's Peter Kafka in August.

On Thursday, Apple also showcased its "live" Apple TV abilities, which use Siri to drop you into live events like sports (by channel or by event name).

Apps and TV

Last year, Apple CEO Tim Cook declared that the "future of television is apps," a refrain that has been repeated by Apple execs over and over since then (and Cook repeated again Thursday).

But navigating separate apps is a horrible way to watch TV, and it seems that Apple knows this. Most people don't want to navigate the 8,000 different Apple TV app menus and designs (as of Thursday), each ostensibly tailored to the type of TV content that lives within them. It's annoying to deal with an ESPN app, and a Netflix app, and a Showtime app, and a Sling TV app.

So most people, in their hearts, don't really want an Apple TV as it was initially conceived.

What's much better is a universal search, browse, and suggestion mechanism that fetches you the right content - as fast as possible.

There was one caveat, though: Netflix was conspicuously absent from the demo.