Cable industry veteran and former CableLabs executive Jean-François Mulé became an engineering director at Apple last month, and he’s hard at work on “something big.” His appointment comes just weeks before Apple is expected to unveil its latest Apple TV, and at a time when the Cupertino company has been working hard to improve the $99 set-top box.
But is Mulé part of something a little more exciting?
FaceTime just keeps getting better. The recent addition of audio calls in iOS 7 is great news, right? Well, sort of.
There are plenty of apps in the App Store that let you make calls over your data connection rather than through the carrier’s phone network.
FaceTime audio calls are great — something that Google+ Hangouts have had for a long time. (Hangouts actually lets you add a voice call to a group video Hangout.) They enable free international calls, for starters. The protocols underlying FaceTime enable high-quality audio calls.
More importantly, they give users one more reason to get into the FaceTime habit.
Unfortunately, FaceTime has a fatal flaw. It’s still — inexplicably — an exclusive phone system for Apple customers to call each other. What kind of phone system is that?
Apple updated its Apple TV offering this morning to include new channels for Major League Soccer and Disney Junior. The new channels aren’t bound to raise much excitement from average consumers, but sports fans and parents of young kids are sure to enjoy the new additions.
MLS allows soccer fans to hookup to their MLS Live subscription to watch live games across the country, while also keep tabs on scores and standings. There are a number of soccer-themed videos that can be enjoyed for free, and you can watch highlights of your favorite team via the Club Channels.
The new Disney Junior app provides live access to Disney Junior with a cable subscription, as well as access to Disney Junior TV shows on demand, so you can load up an episode of Jake and the Never Land Pirates for your rugrat while you rush around getting ready.
It just got a lot easier to set up your Apple TV. Apple has detailed a new way to input login and WiFi network information when setting up a third-gen Apple TV with an iOS device. All you have to do is physically tap an iPhone against the Apple TV to instantly transfer settings over Bluetooth LE (low energy). The Apple TV needs to be on the latest 6.0 update, and the other device needs to be running iOS 7.
If you were one of the many Apple TV users who didn’t have a pleasant experience updating to the big 6.0 update a few days ago, it’s safe to re-download and try again. After there were widespread reports of the software bricking devices, Apple pulled the update from its servers.
That happened earlier today, and now version 6.0 is available again with a new build number and hopefully some bug fixes. You can find it in software update. Once it’s installed, your Apple TV will be able to install updates on its own.
Apple TV 6.0 is one of the biggest updates to the set-top box ever. It adds iTunes Radio, Airplay from iCloud, shared Photo Streams, Podcast syncing, and more.
Friday, we reported that Apple TV was updated with a new v6.0 update, bringing with it features like AirPlay from iCloud and iTunes Radio.
Today, however, Electronista reports that the update has been pulled. We’ve confirmed that the update is no longer available, as our un-updated Apple TV still says it has up to date software today, showing Apple TV software version 5.3.
We assume the update was pulled due to several user reports on the Apple TV discussion forum of Apple TV devices becoming useless after updating to the new OS.
Today Apple released a major update to the Apple TV that was originally predicted to arrive alongside iOS 7 on Wednesday. Version 6.0 of the set-top box’s software includes some big additions, including iTunes Radio, shared Photo Streams support, and AirPlay from iCloud, which is essentially Apple’s answer to the Chromecast from Google.
Amazon has added AirPlay support to its popular video streaming app – Amazon Instant Video. Starting today, the new feature allows iOS users to push video from their iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the Apple TV. Not quite as good as having an Amazon Instant Video channel on the Apple TV, but the move is sure to satisfy Amazon Prime users for the time being.
The update also includes more IMDB integration with cast info, ratings, trivia and quotes. Amazon also says the updated app is faster, more responsive and now supports concurrent downloads. There’s also a new “Customers who watched this also watched…” feature to help users discover more movies and spend more time and money on Amazon. The free update is available now in the App Store.
Source: iTunes
Thanks: Charles!
A rumor surfaced right before Apple’s iPhone 5c/5s keynote yesterday saying that secret shipments of Apple TVs were arriving in the U.S. AllThingsD quickly squashed the report saying that Apple was not planning on unveiling new Apple TV hardware this month, and based off yesterday’s event, that certainly looks to be the case.
A big software update for the Apple TV will reportedly arrive on September 18th alongside the release of iOS 7. But that’s the only Apple TV news that has been on the horizon, until now.
Although Apple didn’t show off an Apple TV refresh yesterday (despite the secret shipment of new Apple TVs they got in last week), it’s still coming in the form of a software update, and All Things D has some new details on what we can expect.
If you were hoping to spend some cash on the Apple online store this morning, you’re going to have to wait a little while. It’s just gone down ahead of today’s press event in Cupertino, and when it comes back up, we expect it to be populated by at least two new iPhones, and possibly new iPods and a new Apple TV as well.
Apple’s first major product event of the year is set to take place on Tuesday, September 10th. There was WWDC in June, but this time around will be all about the iPhone, Apple’s crown jewel.
The event will be held in Apple’s Town Hall auditorium at its Cupertino headquarters, which is a venue that was last used for the debut of the iPhone 4S in 2011. The iPhone 5S is expected this year, and like the 4S was to the 4, the device will look nearly identical to the iPhone 5 and focus on internal improvements. For the first time in Apple’s history, the rumor mill is predicting the unveiling of not one, but two new iPhone models at once, with the second being the iPhone 5C.
Here’s everything to expect from Apple’s September 10th iPhone event:
At an event in Japan today, Sony unveiled the new PS Vita TV, a tiny set-top box that will sell for around $95 and look to compete with devices like the Apple TV. Not only will it let you stream content from services like Hulu and Sony’s own Video Unlimited service, but if you connect a DualShock 3 controller, it will also allow you to play PSP and PS Vita games on your TV.
Despite rumors that Apple will announce a new Apple TV at its September 10th iPhone event, no such hardware unveiling is planned, according to AllThingsD. But a big software upgrade will be announced, and it will reportedly add new AirPlay functionality that makes it easier to watch content you purchased from the iTunes Store on a friend’s Apple TV.
With all the hubbub about new iPhones and new iPads coming, it wouldn’t be surprising if Apple slipped a small Apple TV update in there too. Although Apple dismisses it as their “hobby,” the Apple TV usually inherits the previous generation A-series chip when a new iPhone or iPad comes out. In this case, it’s the A6. In addition, Apple’s been building up steam when it comes to the Apple TV lately, releasing a number of entirely new channels in the last few months. It would be natural to follow that wth an update.
These are all good reasons to believe that Apple might try to slip in an update to their set-top box on September 10th, and lo and behold, a new report seemingly confirms that new Apple TVs are already making their way into the country.
If you’ve been wondering why the TV Shows icon on your Apple TV has suddenly vanished today, you are not alone. We’ve been getting tips for the past several hours from readers who can’t access the TV Shows category of the iTunes Store on their Apple TVs, with some complaints being as old as this morning.
What’s odd is that Apple’s status page for cloud services hasn’t mentioned the outage yet. The TV Shows section of the iTunes Store seems to be working for most on the desktop, so maybe it’s just a bad glitch. We’ll update this post once Apple acknowledges the issue.
Image: Alexander Martinez
This might just be the kind of rumor only a Hutt could love. According to self-professed “intergalactic” news site Jedi News, the Apple TV could soon get a new channel dedicated entirely to Star Wars on-demand programming.
One of the best hacks to come to the Apple TV in the last year is PlexConnect, an amazing little program that hijacked the Trailers channel on your Apple TV and connected it to the Plex home media library running on your Mac. What the hack meant was that you could stream your Mac’s entire video or media library to your Apple TV just by navigating with the remote… no AirPlay required.
It was wonderful, but Apple doesn’t like hacks. That’s why PlexConnect is now dead. (Update: It’s back!)
Apple has today rolled out a new Apple TV update that adds yet more apps to the $99 set-top box. As expected, music video streaming service Vevo is part of the mix, as are the Weather Channel and the Smithsonian, and two new apps from Disney.
You know what everyone should do if they have an Apple TV? Install Plex, the incredible media server that can stream any digital media file on your Mac to your Apple TV, no jailbreak required.
I’m dead serious: Plex is awesome, and installing it on my Mac has been a total game changer in regards to the way I watch media in my own house. From my Apple TV, my MacBook Air, my iPad or my iPhone, I can stream my entire video library anywhere with no hassle.
Apple is reportedly looking to skirt the cable companies and strike up deals with HBO, ESPN, Disney, and Viacom to offer their content on a new pay TV service. Rather than distributing content in channels, Apple’s strategy would emphasize apps over cable TV according to a report from QZ.
Sony, Google, and Intel are also trying to score similar deals and might even get their pay TV services up before Apple. However, Apple is also looking to release a TV set as well, in order to control the entire TV-watching experience.
The iTunes Festival is an annual, month-long music festival and concert series that Apple has thrown since 2007 at the Roundhouse Art Centre in London. Earlier this year, Apple revealed the lineup for the 2013 Festival, but now Cupertino is starting to get the ball rolling on the festivities, updating the Apple TV with a new channel and updating the iTunes Festival iOS app accordingly.
Earlier this month, we reported that Vevo, the popular music platform, was in talks with Apple to make its own Apple TV channel a reality. The channel would allow Apple TV owners to access Vevo’s 24-7 music programming, and would be monetized by ads.
Unfortunately, there were no other details, and you know what they say, “A rumor’s not a rumor that doesn’t die.” So let’s kill off this rumor by making it a reality: the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the Vevo app could launch on the Apple TV as early as this week.
Apple TV manages to grab most of the spotlight for streaming set-top boxes, but when it comes time to actually view content, Americans are using Roku far more frequently than Apple’s little hobby.
A new study from Parks Associates found that while the Apple TV is used by 24% of U.S. consumers with a streaming video device, Roku has managed to best that with a 37% usage rate among households with such devices.
Cord cutting is something a lot of people threaten to do, but pretty much only ever talk about. People really like the idea of eliminating their cable bills and simply connecting their TV to the web, but the reality is there’s too much on TV you can’t easily get if you cut the cord, like HBO, and for most people, the technology involved is still a difficult hurdle.
But if there’s anything that’s going to get you to cut the cord? According to a new report, it’s an Apple TV.