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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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?
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:
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.
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.
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?
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
