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Posts tagged with "apple tv"

Apple Releases iOS 4.2.2 for Apple TV 2G

A few minutes ago Apple pushed a minor software update for the Apple TV 2nd generation. The firmware file, available for download here, is labelled 4.2.2 (build 8F305), but we’re pretty sure it’ll follow another nomenclature in the internal Apple TV settings or Apple’s website, as with previous releases. iOS 4.2.1 for the second generation Apple TV was released on March 22 with various fixes including TV compatibility and audio improvements.

Apple’s official Downloads webpage hasn’t been updated with a changelog yet, so we’ll update this post as more information about the update becomes available. [via]

Update: Here’s the full changelog for 4.2.2. As expected it contains various bug fixes and stability improvements.

Use AppleTV video caching for faster AirPlay viewing→

Use AppleTV video caching for faster AirPlay viewing

Dan Frakes from Macworld writes on how the Apple TV caches content streamed via AirPlay:

The latest Apple TV doesn’t have a hard drive, but it does have 8GB of internal memory. Some of that memory is used to store the Apple TV’s operating system and other software, but a big chunk of it is used to cache media—video, audio, or photos—for better performance. If you’ve ever streamed a movie from your Mac or from Netflix, you’ve seen the blue progress bar “fill up” as the Apple TV stores a chunk of that content (a technique often called buffering). When you’re watching the video, the Apple TV actually reads the stored data, rather than the data streaming over the network; as stored data is used, it’s discarded and replaced by new data. This is why you (usually) don’t see stutters and freezes in streamed video, even with a choppy network connection.

But this caching doesn’t just happen with media streamed over the Internet or from your Mac—it also happens when streaming, say, video from an iPhone. And, in fact, that video stays in the Apple TV’s cache until the memory is needed for something else.

The idea is that your wireless network might not be up to snuff to instantly stream video from your iPhone or iPad. By using the aforementioned knowledge of how caching works, you can “prepare” the Apple TV for company by streaming media at least once to avoid a thirty or forty second delay when your revisit that content. Instead of re-buffering the streamed content, the Apple TV will recognize you’ve already played that content, and simply read that data locally. It’s an interesting tidbit of knowledge (the fact that the Apple TV doesn’t flush its cache every so often), for those lacking the bandwidth. But where you have the capacity, video on the local network should start streaming in three to four seconds.

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2 Million Apple TVs Sold So Far?

According to a “survey of Apple suppliers” by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities relayed by AppleInsider, shipments of the second-generation Apple TV have reached 2 million estimated units, with 820,000 units sold last quarter. The device originally went on sale in October 2010, and whilst Apple has always been touting the Apple TV as a “hobby” for a very few percentage of Mac and iPhone users, the second-gen Apple TV is based on an entirely new streaming system from the iTunes cloud, and AirPlay. The Apple TV is priced at $99, and can be paired with an iPhone or iPad for remote controlling functionalities.

Shipments of the second-generation Apple TV continue to be strong, reaching more than 2 million estimated units since the device launched late last year, according to a new report. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo of Concord Securities revealed the results of his survey of Apple suppliers on Tuesday. The numbers show that sales of the Apple TV have held relatively steady since the device first went on sale last October.

In December, Apple announced 1 million Apple TVs had been sold in three months. Although the report by Ming-Chi Kuo claims 820k units have been sold in Q2 with shipments topping 2 million, an Apple TV sales estimate from October of last year suggested that Apple could sell 1 million Apple TVs per quarter. Apple is set to announced its Q2 2011 financial results later today, but just like the iPod touch Apple TV sales numbers shouldn’t be disclosed by the company.

In the past months, Apple has focused on fixing compatibility issues with the Apple TV and various HDTVs, as well as adding new features to the box like NBA League Pass and MLB.tv integration. Apple is also rumored to be considering licensing the AirPlay streaming technology to third-party TV makers – a move that would allow the company to receive royalties, and expand the AirPlay userbase with millions of non-Apple TVs connected to iOS devices.

Sydney Hotel Deploys iPad 2s In Every Room

After the deployment of iPads in The Plaza hotel and others, The Establishment Hotel in Sydney Australia has become the world’s first to provide iPad 2s in every guest room of their hotel. The hotel, located in the financial district of Sydney, acted quickly to purchase enough iPads for their more than thirty rooms as they went on sale in Australia on March 25th and has since implemented them earlier this month.

The iPads, which are provided free of charge to all guest rooms, include a selection of music, movies and apps. In particular the hotel includes a welcome video to the hotel, a broad selection of international newspapers on the iPad, travel applications such as Trip Advisor, a Merivale bar and restaurant guide and of course Angry Birds. The hotel also features unlimited free WiFi for all guests and an Apple TV with surround sound system in each of their rooms, letting guests AirPlay content from the new iPads to the TV or sound system in their rooms.

Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes has said that they are looking at what they can do next and how they can bring “innovation to our guests”;

Now that we have the hardware, we are only limited by our own imagination. Well, maybe also by the software developers’ abilities but seriously, we will be looking at ways in which we can integrate this technology further into the whole guest experience

 

Apple TV 4.2.1 Update Released With Various Fixes

As noted by MacRumors, Apple issued an update for the second-generation Apple TV earlier today bringing a number of fixes and stability improvements. More specifically, the Apple TV 4.2.1 software (based on iOS 4.3) fixes the color and flickering issues reported by many owners of old televisions in the past months and also fixes other problems with audio and “wake from sleep”. The changes are outlined in Apple’s support document for the device.

TV compatibility: Addresses issues that may cause the screen to flicker or display incorrect color on some older TVs.

Wake from sleep: Addresses an issue where Apple TV may not wake up from sleep.

Audio: Addresses an issue where audio may not be heard on some TV models after switching from another input.

Stability and performance: Apple TV Software Update 4.2.1 includes stability and performance fixes for Apple TV

With iOS 4.3, Apple brought NBA League Pass and MLB.tv to the Apple TV, as well as several minor changes to the interface and user experience.

“TV Anywhere” Looks Promising: Time Warner Launching iPad App To Stream TV

While Sling Media’s iPad app already exists to stream TV from anywhere thanks to your Slingbox, the powerplay into “TV anywhere” will ultimately be made by cable companies and Internet service providers. With companies like Hulu and Netflix competing against Time Warner, Dish Network, and Comcast, the only move left is to level the playing field by making content available everywhere. If I can get a new episode of House every week on my iPad from Time Warner (even more crucial when traveling), what’s the use in paying an additional fee for Hulu? While I’ve ditched cable all together because of the outrageous subscription fees, I may be enticed back with the promise of being able to stream content to my iPad. Read more

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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