CrunchGear » Apple TV

Apple TV could start offering unlimited TV shows for $30/month

John Biggs — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:30:46 +0000

The antitheis of Apple TV

Riddle me this: would you pay Apple $30 a month for unlimited access to TV, presumably coinciding with the actual network air time or shortly thereafter? Interesting, non?

PKafka has talked to some industry execs who have been approached by Apple in preparation of just that sort of thing. You pay $30 and get TV – on demand. The Apple TV would ignore the DVR market completely, instead becoming a sort of subscription-based cable TV service.

Kafka notes that there are 65 million iTunes accounts, a nice cohort of folks to suck money from. He can’t confirm any names or networks right now, but it seems this content will be commercial free.

Considering it costs less to totally pirate the heck out of TV, this might not be a viable option for many consumers. However, it’s an interesting proposition.

CrunchGear PSA: If you run XBMC or Boxee on your Apple TV, do not upgrade to 3.0 – UPDATE

John Biggs — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:44 +0000

To repeat, do not upgrade your Apple TV to 3.0 if you’re running hacked ATV plugins like XBox Media Center or Boxee. I’m sure this will be fixed in a matter of days – if not hours – but as of right now it means a ride on the Failboat to Sad Trombone Town. That’s right: this update destroys the only thing that makes Apple TV usable and good.

Also, as an added bonus, Apple TV firmware 3.0 is insignificant. It adds Internet radio to the package and improves the UI. It also adds Genius playlists. My cup, as they say, runneth over.

I started to really like the Apple TV recently because I built an entire infrastructure for watching TV and movies using shell scripts, RSS feeds, and spit. Apple’s ham-fisted hegemony has destroyed all that.

But I do have Internet radio! Welcome to 2001, Apple TV! When I’m old and bitter I can listen to AM talk radio from all over the world!

Yipeee!

That said, you can easily hack any 2.x AppleTV with the ATVUSB Creator, a Windows or OS X app that takes the hard work out of hacking. You just run it and insert the resulting USB key into the Apple TV. A few minutes later you have Boxee and XMBC installed. We also have an older How-To here.

For now, keep your eye on this and this for updates. I’ll do the same. Together, we can fight this menace.

If you accidentally update to 3.0, run ATVPatchstick on your 3.0 machine, ssh into it using frontrow@appletv.local password: frontrow. Then enter these commands, ideally one at a type:

wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/OS/061-6242.20090624.Aq20P/2Z694-5660-029.dmg wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/EFI/009-7567.20080212.Vc45T/LOCKED_ATV11_00DA_00B.scap wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/EFI/061-3046.20080212.U7tgG/AppleCapsule.efi wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/IR/694-5484.20080708.hnji4/irrxfw-0x0244.irrxfw wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/IR/061-3045.20080708.Aq12D/IRReceiverUpdaterTool2 wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/SI/061-3618.20080212.Pk8Bn/hdmiutil wget -c http://mesu.apple.com/data/SI/061-3617.20080212.Qvh6u/FW29050_20080205_dse_hex.sihex mv {2Z694-5660-029.dmg,LOCKED_ATV11_00DA_00B.scap,AppleCapsule.efi,irrxfw-0x0244.irrxfw,IRReceiverUpdaterTool2,hdmiutil,FW29050_20080205_dse_hex.sihex} /Users/frontrow/Updates/ wget -c http://ericiii.net/sa/appletv/osupdate chmod 755 osupdate sudo chown root:wheel osupdate sudo ./osupdate

This will downgrade your system to 2.4 without touching your content.

UPDATE – If your remote stops working after loading 2.4, you can either factory restore or:

1. Allow the normal 3.0 update to download but do not install it. A screen will appear asking you if you want to update later. This will place a set of files, including the 3.0 firmware, into /Users/frontrow/Updates/ (these files will include IR updates as well)
2. Remove the .dmg file containing the 3.0 firmware.
3. Download the 2Z694-5660-029.dmg from here and place it into /Users/frontrow/Updates.
4. Follow the last part of the above update:
wget -c http://ericiii.net/sa/appletv/osupdate chmod 755 osupdate sudo chown root:wheel osupdate sudo ./osupdate

Apple TV only available in 160GB model now, price drops to $229

Doug Aamoth — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:40:00 +0000

Remember Apple TV? It’s still around, there’s just no 40GB version any more. Not that 40GB would hold too much content nowadays anyway, especially with all the HD video available on iTunes and elsewhere. Previously priced at $229 for the 40GB model and $329 for the 160GB model, Apple is now offering just the 160GB model at the old 40GB model’s price of $229.

There’s some loose talk going around that Apple’s new iTunes LP enhanced album content might find a big-screen home on Apple TV via a future software update. That’s still in the rumor phase, though, so let’s take it with a grain of salt.

Apple TV [Apple Store via Mac Rumors]

Munster inhales fumes of prophecy, foresees Apple TV TV

John Biggs — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:48:28 +0000

Gene Munster of 1313 Mockingbird Lane and Piper Jaffray is positing that because the Apple TV isn’t doing so well that Apple will soon sell a TV with Apple TV features built-in, an idea so ludicrous that it caused me to spit out my Metamucil.

Let’s look at his reasoning: the Apple TV is “losing ground” to other subscription services – I’d argue it’s lost ground to everything and is now, in its current incarnation, an also-ran – and so Apple will create a DVR combo/download system with Hulu, Joost, FARK, Digg, JDate, and other web services built-in. So that’s not so far fetched, right? But get this: Munster thinks a TV is also in the cards.

An Apple television set within the next two years that could wirelessly sync with iPods, iPhones and Macs. “Such a device would command a premium among a competitive field of budget TVs; we believe Apple could differentiate itself with software that makes home entertainment simple and solves a pain point for consumers (complicated TV and component systems).”

He’s got all the points right – Apple sells at a premium, Apple thinks different, Apple can solve pain points – but he gets one thing wrong: TVs are so off Apple’s message that he might as well be proposing the manufacture and sale of spear-fishing gear.

Apple is in the living room race, to be sure. But a TV isn’t the way they’re going to win it. The set-top box is much more logical and they could build a kick ass DVR inside a sexy little box. They sell hardware with an upgrade cycle of about eight months – a year on the topside – so for them to blow out a TV would be non-conducive to their goals. Something smaller that sits next to the TV can be upgraded an infinitum. Most folks keep their TVs for years, even decades. Why would Apple want to be in that market?

Apple knows it’s got a winner with the iPhone OS and an App Store-containing, video-streaming, DVR-ing UberApple TV is a sure bet. However an Apple TV TV? Not so much.

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Boxee continues to innovate with API and new Alpha version for Mac, Apple TV

Robin Wauters — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:01:40 +0000

Free entertainment hub Boxee keeps on getting better and better. A couple of hours ago, the venture-backed startup released a full API that allows developers to build applications for the open-source platform using a set of API calls in Python and writing the GUI using XML. At the same time, the company is laying the groundwork for a richer App Box, which it refers to as an open application store where they are not the gatekeeper (like Apple for its iPhone App Store) but rather a facilitator. Heck, they're even prepared to act as middleman for connecting freelance web developers with companies looking to leverage their API. Hard not to love that type of company. Boxee is today also introducing a new test version of the Boxee alpha version for Mac and Apple TV (get it here for Intel Mac OS X 10.4+), adding two applications that were built using the brand new API. The new Boxee alpha comes with a lot of music goodness as it includes both Pandora, the popular music streaming service, and RadioTime, which enables their users to access over 100,000 traditional radio stations from across the globe.

Apple is exploring a Wiimote-like controller for the next-gen Apple TV

Shaila Luther — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:00:14 +0000

We may see a “remote wand” in the box of the next Apple TV, according to a 64-page patent filing published this week. The wand would control the movement of a cursor on a TV screen much like the Wiimote allows in, say, your home screen. It would also allow for 3D controls. Did they talk to Nintendo about this first?

The wand could support more features for the Apple TV system (if Nintendo doesn’t bar its relesase), including zooming and rotating operations and keyboard, image, illustration, and media applications. For example, instead of navigating to letters with the arrow keys in the current remote, the wand allows you to quickly mouse over to the letters. The wand could serve as a digital pen for an illustration application (pictured above), but I don’t see a real use for an MS Paint-like application on your TV.

In my opinion, I do not want to feel like I am navigating a PC (or a Wii) on my TV screen, but I’m curious to see if this actually gets implemented and if people will find it appealing. Honestly, I don’t even want to see another Apple TV. I want to see more Roku-like set top boxes.

How to recover Boxee/XBMC after the Apple TV update

John Biggs — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:35:15 +0000

Apple TV update 2.3.1 came out last week – my Apple TV suddenly reset itself on Sunday and blew away my Boxee/XBMC installation – but fear not: it’s easy to fix. You just reinstall the patchstick!

For those of you who have ATV and don’t use XBMC, you’re missing out. The program plays AVIs natively so you can just upload, via SCP, to a folder and your videos appear right on the menu. Great stuff.
Here’s how:

1. Download ATVUSB creator.
2. Insert a USB stick. I used a 1GB model but you could get away with maybe 512MB. Larger keys have been known to have problems, so err on the side of too small.
3. Run ATVUSB creator.
4. Take out the key and plug it into your Apple TV. Unplug the ATV and watch Tux appear.
5. Let the installation run. Take out the key when it’s finished and restart the ATV.
6. Select the XBMC/Boxee menu and select Update. You will be prompted to download all of the latest media software.
7. Once you restart, all will be well.

Calm down: Apple TV 2.3.1 does not bork Boxee

Peter Ha — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:02:42 +0000

It was reported this morning that the latest AppleTV update FUBAR’d Boxee, but that’s not true, says Boxee.

Each firmware update from Apple will normally erase non-Apple menu items from AppleTV.

Boxee users simply need to re-apply the patchstick to add the menu item back. Additionally boxee software and data persists so after the patchstick has be applied, user logins, media sources, preferences, etc. will be just as they were before the upgrade.

Calm down and carry on,
Andrew & Team boxee

Useful Links:
Patchstick Link: http://code.google.com/p/atvusb-creator/

Apple TV 2.3.1 updated totally borks the Boxee add-on

Matt Burns — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:15:22 +0000

It goes without saying that Apple really doesn’t want you messing with their APIs in non-approved ways. The latest update for the Apple TV doesn’t seem to do much more than remove third-party add-ons like Boxee. Hopefully this reaches you in time before the auto-update function kicks on so you can save your precious, non-Hulu supporting app.

Boxee updated for AppleTV 2.3

Devin Coldewey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 20:20:16 +0000

We posted some rather complicated instructions over the weekend for users of the AppleTV augmentation app Boxee to manually upgrade. Of course, the official version would come out after only a day or two. Now those of you not terminal-inclined can enjoy the fruits of the box. Did that sound dirty just then?

Apple TV 2.3 firmware now available

John Biggs — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 06:06:12 +0000

Remember your Apple TV? That thing next to the TiVo? It’s ready for its upgrade. The improvements are very minor but it now supports third-party remote control learning and AirTunes streaming to other audio outputs including Airport Express speakers as well as other Apple TVs. You should be able to download the new firmware in Settings.

AirTunes Streaming from Apple TV Music can be streamed via AirTunes to Airport Express speakers or other Apple TVs in your house.
Third-party Remote Controls Apple TV can now learn other remote controls and use them in addition to the Apple Remote.
Playlists Playlists in iTunes that contain Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, and Music Videos can now be seen on Apple TV.
Music Volume Control Support for volume control in Music.

Apple working on networked television sets?

Doug Aamoth — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 15:31:17 +0000

Jason Calacanis apparently has it on good authority that Apple’s next big thing might be networked high-definition television sets — basically, a TV with all the Apple TV stuff already built into it. This actually makes a lot of sense, as Apple’s been pretty good at the whole digital content thing. It’s got iTunes onto most people’s computers and has made steady progress in hooking up with TV and movie studios, so why not get into the hardware – TVs — that people want to use to consume this content?

After all, getting stuff from your computer to your TV set hasn’t exactly been an easy task for non-techies. And Apple made it relatively easy for “regular” people to get music from their computers to their portable audio devices, so it’s not totally out of the realm of possibility that the company could do the same with television sets.

Apple TV updated, now has Genius

Nicholas Deleon — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:40:56 +0000

Not only did Apple update iTunes overnight, but it also updated Apple TV. That must be good news for, I don’t know, maybe a dozen of you.

In addition to the usual security and bug fixes (including one that sounds pretty ominous: “maliciously crafted movie file may lead to an unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution”), there’s now a Genius playlist feature.

In a way, Genius Apple’s way of heading off services like Slacker and Pandora. By creating a well-mixed and thematic playlist of out of your music collection you bring songs to the fore that you may not have listened to in years. While that’s not very impressive in an 8GB device like the Nano but fairly impressive in a 100GB collection on a desktop. The Genius Sidebar, connected to the iTunes Store, is also a “big, fat iTunes money tree” and is even more visible than the old iTunes Store bar that appeared at the bottom of iTunes. By suggesting thematically linked music choices every playback could turn into a sale.

We all know how what Genius is all about, but now it can be accessed on your Apple TV holding down the play button while a song is playing.

Either grab the update manually via Software Update, or wait for your Apple TV to prompt you.

Remote app doubles as Apple TV keyboard

Peter Ha — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 16:09:11 +0000

I’m without an Apple TV but John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame has stumbled upon a new facet of the Remote app that no one else seems to have realized before. Apple doesn’t seem to be touting this little factoid either, but you can use your iPhone/iPod Touch instead of the janky on-screen non-QWERTY keyboard as your Apple TV keyboard. Wowzers. What you’re typing is reflected on-screen. That’s pretty neat.

AppleTV missing from WWDC; Are its days numbered, or will there be a glorious future?

Matt Hickey — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:30:16 +0000

Shortly after the launch of the original iPhone a year ago, Steve Jobs held a private conference in Cupertino for the employees of Apple where they learned that anyone working at Apple for more than a year would get a free iPhone. Good for them. He also outlined the approach Apple was taking towards the future, saying that the iPhone makes the fourth leg of a four-legged stool, the other legs being the iPod, Macs, and Apple TV.

At the WWDC keynote on Monday, where Jobs introduced the iPhone 3G, he said something similar, but the stool he spoke of only had three legs: Music (iPod+iTunes), iPhone, and Macs. But where’s Apple TV?

The set-top video box loved by thousands of users wasn’t even mentioned in passing during the keynote. That’s not that surprising considering that developers don’t have access to the box, but the omission from the “stool” analogy is troubling to those of us who use the device. Is Apple dropping the underachieving product, or is it a sleeping giant that could change your living room?

We’d like to see it opened like the iPhone, with its own app store. Not that we’d want it as a computer — though some do — but it’d be great to be able to get a Google Maps or Weather widget for the box. Then as a screen saver for your TV you could get relevant information.

We don’t have that, and there are no rumors of it being in the pipeline. In fact, for the first time since the Apple TV was announced, there really aren’t any rumors about it at all.

But don’t count the box out yet. Because the Apple TV runs OSX, like the iPhone, most apps and games developed for the iPhone will run with little tweaking on the Apple TV. That means it’s entirely possible that we’ll at some point see things for the apps store ported to the device.

Or we might not. Even with the lowered price tag and “Take 2″ software that came out a few months ago the Apple TV is not a stellar seller for Apple. It’s not that the device doesn’t work — indeed, it’s one of my favorite pieces of gear I own, and that’s saying something — it’s that people aren’t really ready for it.

Cable companies have been offering pay-per-view on-demand content for years but the majority of people just don’t use it. There’s a mental hurdle to be overcome and Apple’s just not trying very hard to get over it.

Really, when’s the last time you saw an Apple TV commercial on TV?

But I’m guessing that’s going to change. Come the holiday season, when many games are out for the new iPhone and the fever reaches a peak, why wouldn’t Apple say, “Oh, yah, you can play these games on your home TV now.”

Apple’s already targeting the Nintendo DS with the iPhone and iPod Touch as a gaming platform. Adding the Wii to its sites while staying in the same platform would be a big step, and a welcome one as well. The motion-sensitive game play is great. If you haven’t tried it out yet, find a way. It adds another dimension to the gaming experience you can’t describe.

It wouldn’t be a stretch for Apple to add a wireless controller to the Apple TV that mimicked the iPhone/iPod Touch as a controller, giving the same great way to play to people who can’t go with the iPhone or won’t go to the iPod Touch.

That innovation, coupled with the iTunes music store and the integrated support for all the media on all the computers on the home network would make the Apple TV into the digital hub that Apple wants it to be.

Of course this is speculation. We don’t know what Apple has in store for Apple TV. It’s entirely possible that Jobs has nothing up his sleeves for the device, which would be too bad. But that’s not likely. Jobs has said before that the Apple TV is one of the most exciting devices he’s ever worked on at Apple, and each update it receives gives it more welcome features, like native YouTube support and streaming podcast downloads.

So maybe the Apple TV will turn into an iPhone-like gaming platform. Or maybe Apple will just start promoting it. Or maybe Jobs and company have something planned that we can’t even begin to guess. But one thing’s for sure: Keep an eye on the Apple TV, it will probably surprise you later this year.

aTV Flash hack shut down

John Biggs — Fri, 30 May 2008 17:03:40 +0000

Remember that little thumb-drive that beat the heck out of your Apple TV until it gave up its precious? Well, due to some fair use issues (read “People getting pissed that aTV was stealing their programs”) they’ve discontinued the product.

In our interpretation of the fair use doctrine, our software does not cross any lines, but since this is a grey area issue, we have taken a proactive approach and decided to seek clarifcation directly from the rights holder before we offer the product again.

The site says outstanding orders will be refunded but seriously, just do it yourself. It’s not hard.

Ready-made Apple TV hack should help non-geeks play DivX

John Biggs — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:55:49 +0000

AppleCore LLC is selling a USB drive that will reflash your Apple TV and add a number of interesting features to the Apple TV:

Key Features:
- Play most video formats (DivX, Xvid, AVI, WMV, RMVB + more)
- Play DVD files WITHOUT converting them
- Sync, organize and watch non-iTunes video files
- Browse the web with a Safari based web browser
- Rent & watch Hi-Def movies from Jaman.com
- Stream media from UPnP(v1) media servers
- View local weather forecasts
- View RSS Feeds
- Enable SSH access
- All original Apple TV features remain intact
- And much, much more…

Dubbed aTV Flash, the software is an amalgam of most of the current hacks available for Apple TV in an easy-to-use package. It costs $59.95 as someone who has tried — and failed — to reflash his Apple TV I can assure you it’s a fairly small price to pay if you don’t have the time to dig through the AwkwardTV wiki to figure all these things out yourself.

(via Palluxo)

A rumor: Apple to release multitouch keyboard for Apple TV

Nicholas Deleon — Sat, 17 May 2008 19:45:25 +0000

There’s a rumor currently making the rounds suggesting that Apple could release a multitouch keyboard for Apple TV. The Bluetooth keyboard, as the above mock-up shows, looks a lot like the company’s standard issue aluminum keyboard, but with an expanded area on the right side—the multitouch surface.

The multitouch pad would be totally programmable, and would be able to function as anything from a simple number pad to an iPod-like click wheel to a whatever-else-you-have-in-mind. That’s the rumor, at least.

The real surprise here is that people care enough about Apple TV to create sophisticated mock-ups.

Over/under on Apple’s ‘day and date’ iTunes movie scheme being a success?

Nicholas Deleon — Mon, 05 May 2008 13:15:59 +0000

What starts as a weird love letter to Apple ends as a keen examination of its chances of success in the one place it still hasn’t conquered: your living room. A rather long piece in today’s Times looks at whether or not Apple’e latest scheme to release movies on the same day and date as their DVD release will have any sort of specific effect on sales of Apple TV, and any general effect on Apple’s performance in the living room.

Unlike when iTunes was still shiny and new (and, essentially, the only place to go for legal music downloads), Apple doesn’t have a stranglehold on the legal movie download business. You’ve got Amazon Unbox, Xbox Live Marketplace, and any number of other solutions. Apple can’t throw its weight around like it used to, as it did when it gifted us 99 cent music singles.

Not being a movie fan, I personally couldn’t give a toss what happens in this space, but I look forward to seeing if Apple can co-opt another industry, forcing it to bend to its will.

Apple TV received minor upgrade Friday

Matt Hickey — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:45:55 +0000

One of my favorite things I own is my Apple TV. I use it several times a week, and the HD download store is amazing. The quality of the videos is perfect and the audio is fantastic. You should all consider one thoughtfully.

That said, I was pleased today to find an upgrade available on my console today. Apparently it adds a “genres” menu when browsing movies, but nothing else major. You should, however, stay up to date. Go upgrade, friends.