Posts tagged with "apple tv"

Apple Showcasing “Great AirPlay Apps” In The App Store

With the release of iOS 4.3, Apple enabled third-party developers to implement the AirPlay streaming technology in their apps, a feature that was previously exclusive to Apple’s own software on iOS 4.2. On the new iOS 4.3, not only does Safari allow you to stream video content from the browser to an Apple TV, developers also got the possibility to use the AirPlay APIs (after several requests) in their applications. Apps like Air Video or StreamToMe greatly benefit from the addition of AirPlay without any manual hacking.

To celebrate the new feature for all developers, Apple has put up a section on the App Store to showcase the first apps that make great use of AirPlay. “AirPlay-Enabled Apps” collects 11 different apps that have been updated to support wireless streaming, The list includes the VEVO Player, Air Video, ESPN Magazine, and Discovery Channel HD. All these apps let you beam video from your iOS device to the Apple TV in your local network.

You can find the section here, and we hope Apple will soon update it to feature more great apps for the iPhone and iPad. The problem? If you have a Verizon iPhone you might be out of luck.

What’s New In iOS 4.3 for Apple TV→

What’s New In iOS 4.3 for Apple TV

iLounge has posted its usual rundown of what’s new in the latest Apple TV software update, and this time it looks rather huge. One problem, though: why does Apple keep naming ATV software releases inconsistently with the rest of iOS devices? Internally the Apple TV displays “4.3”, but Apple calls it “4.2 software update”. This is beyond my understanding.

Anyway, the new sports applications baked into the ATV look great, especially the MLB.TV one with all those fancy graphics, interactive menus and HD video. I’m not baseball or basketball expert (but I like an NBA game every once in a while), but these apps seem really well done.

MLB.tv is available in all countries where iTunes Movie Rentals are offered, specifically the United States, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, the U.K. and Japan.

NBA League Pass on the Apple TV is available only in the United States. Although the NBA offers an International League Pass on its web site, this is different from the U.S. League Pass and cannot be used on the Apple TV—a U.S. League Pass account is required to login.

Together with the NBA and MLB.TV apps, a new redesigned keyboard with a “recent” option for quick input, new slideshows themes, time zone and HDMI output settings and the much-talked AirPlay support also made it into this update.

iOS 4.3 for Apple TV is a solid update. Check out the full roundup at iLounge.

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Roxio Toast 11, Record & Convert Anything

Given all of the digital media you work with, shouldn’t there be a suite of tools that enable you to covert those old DVDs to your iPad, to record anything currently playing on your Mac, or to grab the latest shows from your TiVo? I don’t know… maybe something like Roxio’s Toast 11 Titanium and Titanium Pro? Fans of Roxio rely on Toast as their primary video conversion tool, or may have found it to be their lifesaving application that was able to rip proprietary disks from old camcorders into something iMovie can work with. In Toast 11, a brand new user interface is accompanied by a slew of new features making it the most friendly iteration yet for users of all kinds looking to convert family video and share projects with friends online.

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You Can Now Control Your Apple TV and XBMC with Rowmote

Rowmote is an excellent virtual trackpad for iPhone and iPad we reviewed a while ago that lets you control the mouse cursor and media playback on your Mac. In my review I wrote:

Rowmote is one of the most solid virtual touchpad apps I’ve tested recently: the touchpad is large, buttons for media control have been placed at both sides of the iPad so you can quickly tap on them with your thumbs. That’s a great idea. A smaller surface in the Trackpad tab also allows you to adjust the Mac’s volume by sliding your fingers. A series of modifier keys placed in the same toolbar let you easily perform keyboard shortcuts assigned to certain OS X applications.

With a blog post published last night, the developers of Rowmote have confirmed that the app now works with an Apple TV – as long as you’re willing to jailbreak it, which shouldn’t be a problem using the latest Seas0nPass. Rowmote’s compatibility with the Apple TV software doesn’t just stop at menus and tabs, it also lets you easily control applications like XBMC installed on the Apple TV. That’s pretty cool.

Rowmote is the only app which will control both the standard Apple menus as well as third party applications such as XBMC on your Apple TV. Rowmote Pro’s keyboard is fully supported.  Please look at the instructions below before purchasing to ensure you’re comfortable with the requirements!

Installation requires jailbreaking your Apple TV.  This process is not supported by Apple.   While these instructions have worked well for me and for many others, I can not guarantee they will work for you.  If for some reason the installation fails, you can always ‘factory restore’ your Apple TV.

Instructions are available here. Go download Rowmote from the App Store at $4.99.

Seas0nPass Untethered Jailbreak for Apple TV 4.1.1 Released

A few minutes ago the FireCore team announced the availability of a new version of Seas0nPass for Mac that brings untethered jailbreak for the Apple TV 4.1.1 – also known as iOS 4.2.1 for all other devices.

All credit for the untethered jailbreak process goes to the Chronic Dev Team. Seas0nPass for Windows is also being finalized with the untether and will be available soon.

The latest Beta3 version of aTV Flash (black) is compatible with Seas0nPass, GreenPois0n and Pwnage Tool jailbreaks.

A previous version of the app with tethered boot option was released in January. There aren’t many tweaks and apps available for the Apple TV yet, so feel free to try this if you’re really willing to experiment with the little black box.

greenpois0n Reaches Release Candidate 6, Jailbreaks Apple TV

greenpois0n, the  tool for jailbreaking your iOS devices on version 4.2.1, has been updated again, and now supports jailbreaking the second generation Apple TV. By jailbreaking the second generation Apple TV you will be able to install NitoTV without all the hassle and difficulty of using SSH and entering lines of code into terminal as was previously required.

Now at release candidate 6, this version of greenpois0n is also said to fix some issues that had occurred when using zodttd’s emulators. For those curious, NitoTV allows users to play more video formats, run emulators, view RSS feeds, view weather forecasts and more in what is essentially a more fully featured media center application.

greenpois0n RC6 is available for Windows and Mac.

[Via Engadget]

More Evidence of iOS Gaming on the Apple TV Unearthed, Online Multiplayer too?

Since the Apple TV was revised last year with an iOS backend there has been ample speculation that Apple would eventually allow users to run apps and games and Engadget has today reported that some code in iOS 4.3 beta 3 further backs up that speculation. More specifically, the uncovered code references “ATVGames” and “ATVThunder” which also point to leaderboards, a controller, a way to schedule games and a storefront.

Two other strings were particularly noteworthy; “com.apple.appletv.play.live.thunder” and “.play.archive.thunder”. No one is really sure what they fully mean but as Engadget points out, the AppleTV is limited to 8GB’s of storage which is admittedly fairly minimal possibly suggesting that “archive” or “live” could mean streaming games or multiplayer. Engadget’s source also comments that  “OpenGL is mature and thoroughly implemented enough that streaming low bandwidth data and computing locally could happen”.

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Apple Dominating Download-To-Own Video Market

When it comes to purchasing movies, iTunes (not Amazon) is still everyone’s de facto service according to iSuppli. With two thirds of the market under it’s control, Apple accounted for 64.5 percent for Internet video on-demand for 2010, competing with Amazon’s growing user base and Microsoft’s Xbox market.

“The iTunes online store showed remarkable competitive resilience last year in the U.S. EST/iVOD movie business, staving off a growing field of tough challengers while keeping pace with an dramatic expansion for the overall market,” said Arash Amel, research director, digital media, for IHS.

While Apple hasn’t maintained their lead of 74.4 percent market-share since 2009, the iPad and the Apple TV have played a large role in keeping Apple at the top of their game. We imagine that with the next iPad and future updates for the Apple TV (it can’t be much of a hobby driving that 64.5 percent market share can it?), Apple will continue to deliver a seamless market experience by staying competitive in both affordability and how content is delivered. Too, what if Apple ever launches that unicorn status Apple television?

[iSuppli via CNET]