Apple's forthcoming service would unify top TV networks into one package. Photo: Alex Heath/ Cult of Mac
More details surrounding Apple’s unreleased TV streaming service are leaking out as its Worldwide Developer Conference approaches in June.
There’s still a lot we don’t know for sure, but a new report sheds light on how Apple is proposing to handle the actual streaming of live TV to its millions of users.
Sling's television interface. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Dish has reached a new agreement with Turner Broadcasting to keep TBS, TNT, and CNN on its Sling TV service. That’s great news for cord-cutters, but what’s even better is that HBO is coming aboard too — and in time for the new season of Game of Thrones!
This week: more rumors of a souped-up Apple TV coming in June, and we examine the softer side of Steve Jobs, as described in a new unofficial, Apple-backed biography. Plus: Skynet is the stuff of movies, but Elon Musk, Steven Hawking, and now Steve Wozniak, all believe AI is a big threat. Should we worried? You’re gonna want to unplug your Segway after this discussion.
Our thanks for Freshbooks for supporting this episode. FreshBooks is the easy-to-use invoicing software designed to help small business owners get organized, save time invoicing and get paid faster. It also makes tax time a cinch. Get started now with a 30-day free trial.
Apple hasn't approached NBC's parent company about a TV service. Photo: NBCUniversal
It turns out Apple isn’t talking with NBCUniversal about partnering for its forthcoming TV service. At least not yet.
How do we know? Because Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, hasn’t been approached by Apple at all. But that doesn’t mean NBCUniversal’s content won’t be on Apple’s service when it launches.
CNN came to the Apple TV today in the form of “CNNgo,” an app that lets you view live broadcasts, shows, and popular news clips.
Unfortunately, the bulk of CNNgo is still shackled to cable, meaning you won’t be able to view anything except some short video highlights without first entering TV subscription information.
Apple TV is boosting up its channel lineup ahead of the company’s rumored launch of a stand-alone streaming service. Channels for TED Talks, Young Hollywood, and Tastemade were added to the Apple TV homescreen this morning, bringing viewers a new selection of cooking tutorials, celebrity TV shows, and educational talks.
TED Talks serves up a number of presentations given by intellectuals all over the world, focusing on a myriad of topics ranging from body language to how we discovered DNA. Young Hollywood offers users a range of celebrity-focused shows, interviews, and other programming all available for free. Aspiring chefs can find a bevy of cooking shows in the Tastemade channel that features food adventure shows, cooking shows, and also video city guides.
We're finally going to get the TV experience we deserve. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
A new Apple TV set-top box is set to arrive this summer at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference, according to a new report citing sources familiar with the situation.
The upgrade would represent a much-needed “significant overhaul” of the device, letting it go far beyond Apple’s current TV offering and crossing over into other areas such as music, apps and even home automation — with a nifty Siri-based interface, to boot.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Apple TV’s big redesign has been rumored for over a year now, but the long wait might pay off big time, for shareholders at least.
By blowing up the cable industry with its subscription TV streaming service, Apple could add up to $30 billion in global annual revenue to its bottom line, according to projections released by Baird Equity Research.
The more we hear, the more Apple’s reported web TV service sounds like a dream come true for cord-cutters!
With previous reports suggesting the subscription service will offer around 25 channels in total, a new Wall Street Journal report claims Apple is busy talking with both Discovery and Viacom about the venture. Deals with those companies could bringing channels including Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, TLC, MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon to viewers.
Content creators want to know what people are watching, and Apple is willing to help. Photo: Robert S. Donovan Photo: Robert S. DonovanFlickr CC
Apple is planning its own cable-free TV service for a fall launch, and it’s pulling out all the stops to lure potential content partners.
According to a new report, networks Apple is courting have been offered complete access to viewer data, such as what shows they watch and when they watch them. It’s an unusually friendly negotiating approach for Apple that signals the company really wants to get the service off the ground soon.
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
It’s looking like 2015 will finally be the year that Apple’s dream TV service becomes a reality.
After years of reports that the company has been trying to get its own TV subscription off the ground, June is on track to be the month it’s debuted for the world to see. The service will reportedly offer around 25 channels and cost a little more than the competition.
Now you’re a freshly minted Apple fanboy with money to burn, and you want to go from zero to full-on Apple hero. How much is it going to set you back if you’re ready to go all in with the latest, greatest gear Cupertino has to offer?
Are you ready for the Apple Watch? Photo: MacStories
Whether it’s watching it via Apple’s website, or joining us here on Cult of Mac for our live blog, there are plenty of ways to keep abreast of today’s “Spring Forward” Apple keynote.
If you’ve got an Apple TV, you can also tune in to watch the event — courtesy of the newly-added Apple Events channel.
Does this tagline look familiar? Photo: John Anthony/Twitter
Apple is no stranger to having competitors copy its style. Samsung, HP, and Xiaomi have all been caught in the act multiple times, but the last company we expected to rip off Apple is Comcast.
For its new cable remote, Comcast has taken a page out of Apple’s playbook by copying the company’s iconic “Designed by Apple in California” tagline. The copy job is so bad, they didn’t even bother to change the font. It looks like the words “Comcast” and “Philadelphia” were basically slapped over Apple’s original tagline after production.
Apple TV is way more than just a "hobby" to Tim Cook. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
The rumor mill has been quiet as of late regarding Apple’s plans to disrupt the TV industry. But now Recode is reporting that Apple is in talks with programmers about doing its own Internet-based TV service for cord-cutters.
Similar to the way Dish’s Sling TV bundles channels together at an attractive cost, Apple would design its own experience around delivering content without the use of traditional cable companies.
Now all you need is a wrist strap for your iPhone. Photo: Anuj Tandon/Rolocule Games
To get the fun of virtual bowling without a Wii, look no further than Bowling Central, a magical iOS app that lets you swing your iPhone around to send a virtual bowling ball slamming into all the pins at the end of the lane.
The game is powered by Rolocule Games’ motion-tracking technology, called “rolomotion,” which lets you swing your iPhone like a Wii remote. The gaming company’s two founders wanted to create a Wii Bowl-style experience, only with an Apple TV and an iPhone, and they won a 2014 Edison Award for their solution.
“We worked really hard to get the motion gaming controls right,” Rolocule’s Anuj Tandon told Cult of Mac in an email, “and getting the perfect controls took time. Not only … can you give accurate direction to the ball, but by twisting the wrist, the ball can be given a spin, just like real bowling.”
The Interview has been made available for streaming and purchase online ahead of its theatrical release Christmas Day. YouTube Movies, Google Play, Xbox Videos, and a dedicated website are all offering the controversial comedy for $5.99 to rent and $14.99 to own in HD.
The next version of Apple TV may allow you to take your viewing with you wherever you go. Photo: Apple
Features like Handoff demonstrate just how useful it is to be able to chop and change tasks between different Apple devices, perhaps starting an email on your iPad and continuing it on your Mac.
A similar thing may soon be possible with your Apple TV, as a patent published today shows how Apple has invented a way of carrying out a sort-of reverse AirPlay: sending content from your Apple TV to your iOS device, rather than the other way around.
The big advantage of the concept is that it would allow remote viewing of Apple TV, whether this means having a TV show follow you from room-to-room, or tuning into your Apple TV while you’re away from home.
All Apple TV owners now get Watch ABC's full episodes. Photo: Apple
ABC is making life a little bit better for cord-cutters today with the announcement that all Apple TV users will now be able to access full episodes of aired shows.
The Watch ABC app previously required a cable subscription to view all episodes of a season, but starting today every Apple TV owner will be able to watch entire shows of series like Scandal, Modern Family, and How to Get Away With Murder, one week after they air.
The AirBrowser app lets you use your TV as a web browser, without all the usual hassles. Photo: IdeaSolutions
This post is brought to you by IdeaSolutions, creator of AirBrowser.
Would you like to surf the web, watch streaming videos, read newspapers and do everything else you normally do on your Mac browser, in full screen on your TV? Pinch to zoom, swipe, bookmark pages — all using your iOS device as a remote control?
AirBrowser let’s you do all these things. You can get the full desktop browsing experience on your television, with all the sites you visit optimally scaled to fit your TV’s screen size. Read on and watch the AirBrowser video for more info on this easy-to-use app.
The new YouTube experience on Apple TV has ads. Blech. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Yesterday, we were excited when a major update to the Apple TV introduced a major redesign of the set-top box’s official YouTube app. Today, though, we’re a little less enthused, because it turns out that along with getting a new look, it also got ads.
Apple TV adds three new channels. Photo: Buster Hein/Cult of Mac
Apple TV received a huge update this morning with four new channels getting added to the lineup, plus a completely redesigned YouTube channel that makes it easier to find your favorite viral videos.
MMA-addicts will be happy to hear that a dedicated UFC channel was added this morning, along with Fusion, Dailymotion, and Conde Nast’s new offering The Scene, giving users more free video content options than ever.
Apple TV is in desperate need of an update. Photo: Apple
It’s been over two and a half years since Apple TV was updated, and while Apple’s been happy resting on its laurels, its biggest competitors are passing it by.
Google’s Chromecast is now more popular than Apple TV, reports Parks Associates, which says streaming media players become more popular than ever in the first three quarters of 2014, as 10 percent of U.S. households bought at least one new streaming device.
Kinect-like gesture control comes to the Apple TV. Photo: Onecue
We know that Apple is interested in giving the Apple TV Kinect-like motion sensing abilities — they bought the 3D motion tracking company behind the tech last year, after all — but who knows when, if ever, it will actually come to living rooms.
If you want to start waving your way through your Apple TV’s interface now, though, meet the Onecue. It’s a cool little gadget that grafts Kinect-like functionality into your home entertainment system.
Great Apple deals can be hard to come by on Black Friday, but here’s a nice exception: If you’re looking to get your hands on an Apple TV, Staples is having a killer deal, selling Apple’s set-top streaming media box for just $79, a $20 savings..