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Posts tagged with "airplay"

Steve Jobs: iOS and OS X Keynote Presentations Coming To Apple TV

According to a recent email from Steve Jobs to a user asking whether the Apple TV would be able to display Keynote presentations at some point, iOS and OS X presentations are coming “soon” to the Apple TV.

“Soon”, as in Keynote ‘11 for Mac and an updated iPad version? That would be an option, or maybe a simple update to the existing iWork suite to support the feature. Speaking of which, that would be something like AirPlay for presentations, right? It makes perfect sense to be able to output presentations on a bigger screen powered by the Apple TV in an Apple-focused office environment, although the functionality wouldn’t obviously be that big of a deal for “home workers”.

Anyway, we’re looking forward to new AirPlay feature, iWork ‘11 or whatever a Steve Jobs email can tell us about new things coming to Apple devices.

AirPlay Disappears From iOS 4.2 GM on iPhone 3G

As noted by 9to5mac last night, AirPlay went missing on the iOS 4.2 GM for iPhone 3G. The feature was there in the previous betas and was working fine, allowing users to stream audio (no video to Apple TV yet, it needs an update) to AirPlay-compatible devices.

Apple apparently removed the feature when releasing the GM build on November 1st:

After speaking to multiple developers and users testing out the iOS 4.2 betas, we have determined that AirPlay did in fact work on the iPhone 3G at one point, meaning the AirPlay functionality was definitely removed from Apple’s two-year-old iPhone at its GM stage. The reason this is an issue is because Apple states, even on their own website, that AirPlay is supported on ALL iOS 4 devices.

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iTunes Movies Now Available in Italy and Switzerland, We Want An Apple TV Now

Good news, fellow Italian and Swiss MacStories readers: we haz iTunes Movies. Earlier today Apple indeed silently launched the new iTunes section in both countries, you too can check it out by following this link. Both normal purchases and rentals are available.

We say “silently” because no press release went out nor did Apple put any banners and / or links in the iTunes Store homepage to promote the new Movies (or, in Italian, “Film”) – it’s pretty much a hidden section with a rather straightforward interface. Read more

No AirPlay For Video Until November→

No AirPlay For Video Until November

Engadget reviewed the AppleTV box today and got some more details on Apple’s new service (better HD quality than Amazon – nice!).  We had thought the previous reviewers forgot to try out Airplay on a 4.2 Beta iOS device.  But it turns out that even the 4.2 betas don’t yet allow AirPlay video to happen.

That’s bad news for developers who are running betas, but it makes sense for Apple to ship a feature when everyone can access it. I guess the Apple TV will get 4.2 in November as well, together with all the other iOS devices.

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Apple, The Next Step Is AirFiles

I installed iOS 4.2 beta on my iPad, but haven’t been able to check out the new AirPlay or AirPrint features yet: I don’t have an Apple Airport Express station to configure with my stereo, nor I have a compatible HP printer in the office. Still, I know these two new features pretty well: AirPlay is Apple’s take on how you should be able to consume digital content in the living room, AirPrint allows you to print documents from your iPad and iPhone with a few taps. Both of them are great features. I want to focus on AirPlay, though: as Seth Weintraub puts it, AirPlay is Apple’s “go to market” strategy - in a way that this single feature will let users easily hook their iPhones and iPads to the Apple TV to effortlessly share SD content, and eventually pay for HD versions using Apple’s TV own rental system. Any kind of video content can be streamed using AirPlay, as long as it uses a standard media controller and it’s encoded using the popular H.264 video format.

I haven’t tried it personally, but I already know AirPlay is going to be huge amongst iPad and iPhone owners once the new Apple TV will be available. This kind of one-tap streaming and sharing of content between devices has got me thinking, though: what if Apple shipped “AirFiles”, a built-in system to share any kind of documents across mobile devices and computers? Read more

Airplay is Apple’s ‘Go to Market’ Internet TV strategy→

Airplay is Apple’s ‘Go to Market’ Internet TV strategy

Apple’s three year campaign to get content producers to shift from Flash to H.264 has been largely successful and is now at a tipping point. You can now view ‘most’ video on the web on H.264.

That means you can watch most Internet video on AppleTV over Airplay.  The day AppleTV is released, you’ll be able to watch free SD versions of clips shows that appear on ComedyCentral.com like the Daily Show and Colbert Report via Airplay.  You theoretially should be able to watch Hulu Plus so long as it is encoded in H.264 (and doesn’t get blocked once the networks figure out what Apple has done).

Killing Flash video (or at least making content providers offer H.264 alternatives) is what made all of this all possible. Whatever video you watch on your iOS device, you can now watch on your  HDTV.

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