Apple TV

According to internal Google documents that 9to5Google has obtained, huge updates to the Chromecast platform — in almost every respect — are just around the corner. The long-rumored 2nd generation Chromecast hardware is set to debut at Google’s event later this month with several brand new features, including “Chromecast Audio,” Spotify support (finally!), a brand new Chromecast companion app, and more. Here’s a roundup of everything we’ve learned so far…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple Music Festival kicks off in London in just two days, and in preparation Apple TV has gained a dedicated channel for viewing the free performances from home. The Apple Music Festival channel includes a Featured section for highlighting performances, a Lineup section for following the schedule, and an About section for learning about the event. Once the festival is underway, users will be able view live performances for free right from the Apple TV.
Expand
Expanding
Close

With the launch of YouTube Gaming earlier this year, Google’s Twitch competitor that lets users live stream and watch gameplay videos on YouTube, users can now live stream and browse gameplay videos on YouTube from dedicated apps. Google first enabled live streaming the desktop, and today announced plans for Android, but an update to the popular AirServer app is taking advantage of the lack of iOS streaming support by enabling users to live stream directly to YouTube from their iOS devices.

Google does have a YouTube Gaming app or iOS, but it currently only acts as a community-style app for letting users access live streams and recorded gameplay videos from their iPhone or iPad. AirServer, however, tells us it collaborated with YouTube to enable streaming from iOS apps using its mirroring technology:
Expand
Expanding
Close

One of the standout features of the new Apple TV is its support for gaming, but now Apple has reversed its stance and placed a new limitation on that capability. Apple has said from the beginning that third-party controllers will be supported on the new Apple TV. The SDK for the device carries Game Controller support and the company mentioned it on stage at its unveil event. Apple also mentioned that games that worked only with third-party controllers were okay, meaning the games wouldn’t necessarily have to be compatible with the company’s bundled Siri Remote. Now, however, Apple says that games can not require the use of third-party controllers.

Expand
Expanding
Close

CBS plans to bring its $5.99/month All Access subscription service, which offers a mix of on-demand TV shows and live streaming from local stations, to Apple TV and other platforms in the near future, a source with knowledge of the matter informed us.

Word that Apple TV is still in the company’s sights for the All Access service comes as it officially announces support for Google’s Android TV platform today and ahead of an official launch of Apple’s revamped Apple TV platform arriving in October.
Expand
Expanding
Close

Hot on the heels of Plex announcing its plans to build an app for the new Apple TV, the developers behind the popular media playback software VLC have announced that they too are planning to support the new Apple TV. While details on the app are sparse at this point, the VLC team announced in a blog post that they have started work on VLCKit for tvOS.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple has started emailing developers who won the Apple TV developer kit lottery today, according to several users on Twitter who received the message. Users who have been selected will be shipped a development model of the next-generation Apple TV to aid in the creation of their apps.

Expand
Expanding
Close

I don’t plan on subscribing to Apple Music when my free trial of the service runs out. It’s not really something I care to pay $10 a month for. I’m not an avid music listener; I sometimes put some hip hop on in the car, but that’s about it. For me, paying $10 every month for access to a large library of music that I don’t plan to use to the fullest extent just isn’t worth it, and I prefer to own what music I do listen to.

I also hate the idea of subscription software, like Adobe’s current Creative Cloud offering. Like my music, I’d rather own my software outright than pay a monthly fee to have access to it. The same is true for just about every other subscription service that’s out there.

So it might surprise you to find out that I think Apple should get into the TV and movie subscription business. What’s more, I’d be willing to pay every single month for access to that service. Why the difference of opinion on this topic? Keep reading and find out.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple announced the new Apple TV with a good selection of app demos and announcements for the launch and now that the SDK has been released many others are jumping onto the bandwagon. ITWorld asked Plex about whether it would be bringing its media server app to tvOS. The answers was a resounding yes.

I reached out to Plex via email and Scott Olechowski, the co-founder of Plex replied, saying, “We are very excited to have a crack at bringing our users Apple TV. It’s been a long requested platform and we’re excited to work on it. We want it, our users want it…and we’re anxiously awaiting the tvOS developer beta info, so we can finally dig in.”

With the current Apple TV, Plex users do not have native access to a Plex client on their television without jailbreaking. Instead, users have had to resort to streaming their content from another Plex app to the set top box over AirPlay. However, this will change with the addition of an app SDK and accompanying App Store with the new Apple TV.

Expand
Expanding
Close

While most shoppers won’t be able to get their hands on the revamped, Siri-powered Apple TV until next month, YouTuber Andru Edwards managed to get his hands on one today and has posted the first unboxing video for the new device.

Edwards shows off the included peripherals, including the all-new remote with voice control functions. The video reveals that the remote is actually metal, not plastic, as it appeared to be during the event, and comes with a Lightning cable for charging (which is unfortunately not black to match the Apple TV).

You can check out the full video below the break.

Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple TV’s user interface has been through more changes over the past 8 years than any other Apple OS — the rare Apple UI that has seen more major changes than the devices it runs on. As improbable as this might have seemed for a “hobby,” fixing the Apple TV was one of the last topics Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs discussed with biographer Walter Isaacson: “I finally cracked it,” Jobs said about an upcoming Apple TV UI. “It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine,” apparently indicating that complex remotes would be a thing of the past. But after Jobs passed away, the Apple TV received only a couple of modest tweaks — improvements, but modest nonetheless — as Jobs’ mysterious “simplest UI” apparently remained unused.

As an Apple TV user and fan, I’ve spent years waiting for this week’s introduction of the fourth-generation Apple TV, as much for improved hardware as the opportunity to see Jobs’ vision in action. I’ve long suspected that pervasive voice control was the missing link — Siri was added to the iPhone 4S just before Jobs died — and from every indication, Apple has done a wonderful job of building voice navigation into the new Apple TV’s tvOS operating system. But did it get the rest of the UI right, or are we in for more years of main menu redesigns? Let’s take a look at what tvOS 1.0 gets right and wrong…

Expand
Expanding
Close

While Apple hasn’t detailed the changes publicly, the company is planning what appears to be a major, undocumented overhaul of its AirPlay protocol with iOS 9 that should make the framework for streaming video and audio content between devices a much smoother experience for both users and developers. It is, however, breaking many screen mirroring apps in the process and forcing developers to scramble to implement workarounds ahead of the launch of iOS 9 on Wednesday and the new Apple TV in the coming weeks.

Perhaps the best example of these apps is Reflector from developer Squirrels. The app utilizes AirPlay to allow cross platform wireless mirroring from mobile devices to Macs, PCs, and other devices with the app installed. The developer first brought the change to our attention and warns that developers will have to follow in its footsteps to implement a workaround that will allow screen mirroring apps to continue functioning after iOS 9 is released… 
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s “Hey Siri” special event was so completely jammed with major announcements that a lot of little details fell through the cracks — performance differences between the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, battery surprises in the iPad Pro and iPad mini 4, and connectivity omissions in the Apple TV 4, just to name a few.

Every year, once the event’s dust has settled, I dig through all of the information out there to bring you a clearer picture of what to expect from Apple’s latest devices. Here are the things you’ll want to know about the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro, iPad mini 4, and Apple TV 4…
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV event is finally over and we’ve got a lot to say about it. From 3D Touch to the iPad Pro’s Apple Pencil, there’s a lot to cover that happened during the event. Let’s get into a recap of the event as well as our first impressions of Apple’s latest product announcements. The Happy Hour podcast is available for download on iTunes and through our dedicated RSS feed.

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/223171562?secret_token=s-l6Ub7″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”150″ iframe=”true” /]

Expand
Expanding
Close

When word surfaced this week that Periscope has been secretly working on an Apple TV app, it was pointed out that Twitter’s live broadcasting service only supports portrait video capture while TV sets of course are landscape. It appears Periscope already had plans in motion to change that, though, as the latest version of the app released today adds support for streaming in landscape orientation.

Aside from setting the stage for the future app on the new Apple TV announced yesterday (Periscope hasn’t demoed the app, but it’s icon appears in an Apple TV human interface guidelines graphic and was seen on stage), the update creates a better viewing experience for Periscope users. It handles displaying video much better now regardless of how the broadcaster is holding their phone. Landscape streaming doesn’t require viewers to hold their phone in that way, either, and it’s a much better fit for web viewing as well.

Periscope also points out new accessibility enhancements for visually impaired users which has been a popular request. Check out the latest release notes below:
Expand
Expanding
Close

Apple earlier today took the wraps off of a handful of new products, including the iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro, iPad mini 4, a new Apple TV, and several new accessories. Members of the press who were in attendance of the event at the Bill Graham Civic Center in San Francisco got the opportunity to try out many of Apple’s new products and as you’d expect, they all shared their thoughts.

Expand
Expanding
Close

On Apple’s public specs page, it says that the new Apple TV includes an A8 chip and that’s about it in terms of the bundled SoC. However, Apple’s developer documentation goes into more detail specifically listing the hardware as having 2 GB RAM (via Steve Troughton-Smith). This means the internals are actually better than the A8 in the iPhone 6 and latest-generation iPod touch, which only have 1 GB of RAM.

Expand
Expanding
Close

The new Apple TV comes in 32 GB and 64 GB flavours, but Apple doesn’t want you using all that space up too quickly. Developers have to comply to strict rules about how their apps can use local storage. For starters, the app binaries themselves cannot exceed 200 megabytes of static resources: any resources required over that cap must be available to download on-demand and are only cached for a limited time. This means that games are going to have to really reorganize their code to segment their gigabyte blogs into small level chunks.

In addition, Apple says the Apple TV has no app-accessible persistent local storage. This means that all data must also reside in iCloud, such that if the system decides to delete the app data, it can be redownloaded.

Expand
Expanding
Close