Apple TV - page 128

Apple’s most useless-out-of-the-box product, the “hobby” Apple TV, has just gotten a minor update.

Don’t expect this to revolutionize (or even improve) the usefulness of your dust-catching Apple set-top. It’s an update so inconsequential that Apple couldn’t even be bothered to write up some change note for it.

That said, Apple TV users are piecing together that the update, once applied, is mainly to improve the way that the new Aperture 3 pro photo software suite shares images with the Apple TV over the local network, while bringing support for iPhoto and Aperture’s Places and Faces features.

If you don’t care about that, there’s another reason to tempt you top upgrade: users are reporting that the update seems to fix intermittent issues the Apple TV has when switching the HDMI output cable.

If you’re interested, you can update the firmware of your Apple TV to 3.0.2 through the “Update Software” option under Settings > General. Otherwise, we’ll be sure to shake you all awake when Apple finally gets serious about Apple TV.

LAS VEGAS — The biggest electronics show in America —  the Consumer Electronics Show (or CES for short) — opens later this week in Las Vegas, but several companies paid big bucks to preview their new wares to the hundreds of journalists at a special preview event on Tuesday evening.

And there, in the middle of the room, was this bright-red Apple TV. Yeah, a high-def, flat-panel TV shaped like an Apple. The question is, what idiot would buy a TV shaped like an Apple?

“It’s unique, it’s fun, it’s apples,” said the flak unhelpfully.

Made by an unknown-to-me Chinese company, Hannspree, perhaps someone thought it might be mistaken for a real Apple TV, made by, you know, Apple? It has a remarkably Apple-like logo on the front (see the pic after the jump). And it does remind you of the old toilet-seat iBooks of old; the transluscent plastic ones with the carrying handle.

But the company was also displaying TVs covered in fur that looked like Polar and Panda bears, so who knows?

Not all boats float on a rising tide. That seems to be the lesson Apple is learning with its Apple TV, a device analysts say has not benefited from increased sales of the company’s other products, including iMacs and iPods and even the lowly Magic Mouse. Apple TV sales rose just 10 percent in 2009, despite an upgraded Apple TV 3.0 OS.

The minor growth was likely due to 2008 being a slow year, not because the streaming device made any inroads into a hard-to-define market, NPD Group vice president of industry analysis Steven Baker said.

Gizmodo toured Apple’s just-opened retail store on the Upper West Side, and calls it a “temple” to the company’s products.

I call it a temple because the architecture conveys a nearly religious aesthetic, a place to worship Apple, beyond any other Apple store you’ve ever been to. The top floor’s a vast open space, enclosed by spartan stone walls which support a massive glass ceiling. The rows of tables in the main room feel like pews.

I can’t tell you – and the pictures can’t show you – how utterly open and expansive the room feels. Apple says it has more demo units than any other store in the world. To give you an idea of the space, the walls are 45 feet tall, and could fit 11 Apple 5th Avenue Cubes inside. It’s the spareness that’s breathtaking. It’s cold. Not literally, but the stone walls, the glass, the sheer space rob it of any sense of warmth or feeling. The only sense of life in room is the products. It’s a temple to them, really.

More pictures after the jump.

As anticipated, Apple has updated the Apple TV software to 3.0, which brings a new interface and home screen with quick access to favorite content. Instead of drilling down to get to a recently-rented movie, it’s now accessible right off the home screen, as are favorite TV Shows, podcasts and YouTube movies.

The update also adds support for iTunes LPs and iTunes Extras, as well as Genius Mixes and internet radio.

The update likely breaks Boxee, the unsanctioned internet media player that actually makes the Apple TV useful, but internet radio is a welcome addition.

To support the new Apple TV software, Apple has also updated iTunes to 9.0.2. As well as being compatible with the Apple TV 3.0 software, the update adds a new “dark” viewing option in Grid View. The iTunes update also once again breaks Palm Pre syncing.

The iPod. The iPhone. Apple TV.

One of these things is not like the other. I’ll give you one guess which one I’m talking about.

Since its inception, Apple TV has been little more than a half-baked idea that appeals only to a niche market. Even Steve Jobs says Apple TV is only “a hobby.”

For a company known for pumping out game-changing products, this is very out of character. Apple TV is great at what it does, but it could be so much more.

A major update of the Apple TV may be in the works.

Apple has slashed the price of the 160GB Apple TV to $229 (from $329) and discontinued the 40GB model. Meanwhile, it looks like Apple’s new iTunes LP — a new format for multimedia music bundles — is designed for high-resolution output on the AppleTV.

The iTunes LP content is output at 1,280-by-720, the native resolution of an Apple TV when hooked to a high-definition TV. Apple’s new iTunes Extras (bonus movie material usually included on bonus DVDs and now available for download on iTunes) is also designed to be output at the same high resolution. While this is natural for movie content, it’s a curious choice for music content, albeit multimedia music content, which might naturally be formatted for playing on computers and laptops.

Which all points to a major update for the Apple TV in the near future. The AppleTV hardware has remained essentially unchanged since its introduction, although it has received a couple of software upgrades.

The 160GB model is the only configuration of the Apple TV now on offer. The 40GB Apple TV was previously priced at $229.

Steve Jobs usually refers to the AppleTV as a “hobby,” and not a real business. The choice of movies for the device on the iTunes store remains relatively limited.

Apple TV on Amazon.

If the TV industry doesn’t invent a digital business that customers want, it risks an “iTunes moment,” when Apple took hold of the online music business, a Microsoft exec said.

“Realistically. I think the industry has about two to three years to adapt or face its iTunes moment. And it will take at least that long for media brands to build credible, truly digital brands,” Ashley Highfield, managing director of consumer and online at Microsoft UK, told the Guardian.

Highfield gave the gloom and doom prediction today as the keynote speaker at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Answering the inevitable question of how to make money from these new ventures, he said “media companies need to embrace controversial targeted advertising techniques, such as behavioral targeting based on users’ web viewing habits, with the ad inventory going into an auction-style model similar to the system Google operates.”

Interesting he didn’t name Apple TV — speculated “dead” as Sony and Microsoft entered the market last year — as a specific threat, but spoke of the success of iTunes.

In 2007, a Forrester analyst said both iTunes and Apple TV were “dead ends” that would be “eclipsed by television and cable networks will quickly shift their content to free ad-supported streaming.”

Ha. I tried out Apple TV for about a week while house sitting this summer.  The interface was nice, the remote control cool. I’d still rather keep the cheapo PVR with a slightly wheezy fan a friend rigged up — because, while it’s an ugly little box and the remote control works about 40% of the time, there’s no DRM.

Via the Guardian

UPDATE: The WSJ has corrected its story to say it is “not clear” Apple will attend CES in 2010. However, we were told in January that Apple will attend. “It’s a done deal,” our source said.

Apple has definitely ditched Macworld in favor of the giant Consumer Electronics Show, the Wall Street Journal reports — confirming news first reported by Cultofmac back in January (and later by Apple Insider).

“Apple plans to attend the show’s 2010 version, marking the first time in memory the Cupertino, Calif., consumer-electronics giant will be there,” said the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The WSJ says that Steve Jobs has been invited to be a CES keynote speaker but hasn’t returned calls. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Intel CEO Paul Otellini are on tap to deliver the speeches at the show.

Neither Apple nor CES has made any official announcements. Apple last year said it would no longer attend trade shows, saying it could better reach its customers through its retail stores.

CES is held in January in Las Vegas, often conflicting with Macworld. It’s a giant zoo, but nonetheless attracts most of the world’s consumer electronics makers, who show off their wares for the upcoming year.

Apple is now more of a consumer electronics company now than a computer company, making CES a much better fit than MacWorld, the source told CoM back in January.

The popular Boxee media center software is the rare app that starts on the Mac before going to Windows. CC-licensed pic by Matt Grimm.

Here’s some good news for Mac users of Boxee, the popular media platform for Macs and Apple TV: The software is going Windows.

At a developer event on Tuesday night in San Francisco, Boxee released its first version for Windows PCs.

This is good news for Mac users because the Boxee platform will have a much larger user base for developers to create plug-ins for. Significantly, the software will run on Windows Media Center PCs, which is by far the biggest installed base of computers connected to TVs.

Hulu’s newly released Desktop application may or may not put Boxee on the ropes, but it could end up being the best thing that ever happened to the Mac mini.

Released Thursday by the popular television content aggregator whose major partners also happen to be some of the biggest Hollywood content producers, Hulu Desktop signals a major move away from the “online only” model that once served as a thin veneer of protection against the ire of cable companies that pay good money to get content from Hulu’s partners.

Still trying to have it both ways, Hulu issued comical Terms of Service with the desktop product that purport to prevent users from using the software on “Prohibited Devices,” to whit:

“You may not download, install or use the Hulu Software on any device other than a Personal Computer including without limitation digital media receiver devices (such as Apple TV), mobile devices (such as a cell phone device, mobile handheld device or a PDA), network devices or CE devices (collectively “Prohibited Devices”).”

In the real world, however, don’t be surprised to see news of an AppleTV hack by this weekend (if not before); and Mac mini users who employ that device’s excellent media server capabilities with a connection to plasma screens in their living rooms should be sitting pretty, too.

Will you use Hulu Desktop or stick with your web browser? Will you keep the content on your computer screen or take it into the living room? Let us know in comments below.

Nearly 900 people RSVPd for the boxee meetup Tuesday at Webster Hall in NYC, where the “bleeding edge” media center platform is announcing brand new partnerships with Pandora, Radio Time and PBS, as well as a more robust API and a new XUL-based framework for the boxee browser that will enable easier interaction with any web-based video (translation: Hulu web pages).

Live video of the meetup and a chat session are accessible on the Mogulus boxee meetup channel.

With the new Pandora station, boxee users can listen to their personal quickmix and favorite stations, as well as create new stations, making music in the living room more accessible than ever.

BoxeeHQ is also releasing a new PBS app today, and the company promises its new API will allow developers to build apps using XML pages and Python scripts, giving them control over everything they want from a UI perspective.

They offer as an example the new implementation of Radio Time, an application built using the new API that will allow users to stream over 100k terrestrial radio stations from around the world.

By adding new access to more music and continuing to add to and refine access to video content, boxee is definitely pressing its case as a force to be reckoned with in the breaking down of barriers between internet and traditional media content.

Apple has filed a patent for a wireless “remote wand” with the idea of adding it to future versions of Apple TV.  The wand would give users with control over a cursor on the Apple TV screen, sort of like a mouse controls a cursor on a computer. The wand would also give Apple TV three-dimensional controls similar to those offered by Nintendo’s Wii controller.

According to Apple Insider, unlike the current 5-button remote on the current version of Apple TV, the wand can control a number of functions and can be used to zoom, as a keyboard application, an image application, an illustration application and a media application.

The Z-bar, from Zillion TV is a compact set-top box that pulls HDTV signals from your broadband connection to offer you ad-supported HDTV shows and pay on demand.

The service is currently in beta, but when it’s available later in the year, you will be able to view shows for free with advertising attached, or buy them to watch ad-free shows.

Some big names are attached, too, such as NBC Universal, Disney, 20th Century Fox Television, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros. Digital Distribution.

Zillion TV claims 15,000 titles in the current library and by launch they say they’ll have more. Is this the future of TV in your home?

Via Crave

AppleTV is dead, it just hasn’t stopped moving yet.  With fewer than 2 million units sold, it hasn’t achieved the commercial success of its rivals, and continues as a failed effort on the part of Apple to extend the digital hub into the living room.

The final nail in AppleTV’s coffin comes yesterday as Netflix announces a digital only subscription option, but the fatal shot was fired back in November.  Follow me after the jump, as we discuss how Netflix strategy not only killed AppleTV but also threatens more than just longtime rival Blockbuster, and what (if anything) Apple can do about it.

Apple released an Apple TV update Tuesday evening that, not surprisingly, removes third-party add-ons, such as the popular media center application Boxee.

Apple TV users who are willing to hack their device to extend its functionality are likely to be savvy enough to have disabled auto-update on their machines, but it’s also likely some may wake to an unpleasant surprise on Wednesday morning.

The Apple TV support page had not been updated at press time with fixes and improvements in software version 2.3.1. Readers are invited to let us know in comments what amazements, if any, come with the update.

Via AppleTV Junkie

Apple may be putting the finishing touches on a new streaming video service that would allow iTunes users to access purchased video content without the need to download and store it on a local machine, according to a report Wednesday at AppleInsider.

iTunes Replay would let users stream content such as movies and TV shows directly from Apple-owned servers in a manner similar to Amazon’s Video on Demand (formerly known as UnBox) and the Instant Watch service from Netflix, and may also improve the experience of the company’s Apple TV set top box, allowing users to stream purchased media directly from Apple’s servers without syncing or copying files between Apple TV and a computer running iTunes.

The report is unclear whether Apple intends to move toward a “streaming only” distribution model for the typically large files created by video content, or if iTunes Replay would merely represent an option for consumers with fewer concerns about retaining physical control of their purchased media content (and less storage in which to keep it).

To the extent that media distributors such as Apple, Amazon and Netflix embrace the streaming distribution model, consumers may find relief from the need to maintain ever greater storage capacity for growing media libraries. Though the trade-off – and guaranteed consumer dissatisfaction – will arise over bandwidth limitations that already make even a YouTube-watching experience sub-optimal at peak demand times in some places in the US.

Boxee released a new version of its free, open source social media software for Mac Thusday that includes support for ABC. Included, of course, in ABC support is access to one of the most popular network TV shows, “Lost,” which serendipitously had its season premier,…wait for it, Wednesday.

The Boxee peeps are duly excited because ABC also produces two other ragingly popular TV shows, “Desperate Housewives,” and “Gray’s Anatomy.”

News from torrentfreak indicating “Lost” was the most downloaded TV Show on Bittorrent in 2008 dovetails with Boxee’s plan, according to a spokesperson, who told Cult of Mac, ” we strongly believe that given the option, most users will opt for streaming a TV Show (with a reasonable amount of ads) rather than using a file-sharing service.”

Online streaming offered by ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, etc. has made progress over the past 12 months in terms of quality, breadth of selection and release windows (i.e. the time it takes for the show to be available online after it originally aired). In this respect, a service such as Boxee is a great alternative to the file-sharing networks.

Boxee hopes to release an Apple TV version within the next few days and is still working on making it available for Windows and Ubuntu.

Blogger Rick Yeager has launched iPod and AppleTV podcast versions of his whimsical on-line gadget guide.

The fast-paced podcasts feature a no-nonsense style that one reviewer describes as “perfect for people who want to learn something or pick up a new skill quickly without enduring the news digest format used by other podcasters.” Yeager’s takes on gadgetry feature instructional info and tips and tricks for the Mac-curious, geeks and professionals alike.

The MacMerc podcast subscription is free on iTunes.

Via Geek Culture

Apple Wednesday released a software update permitting the Apple TV device to operate more as a hub for digital content. At the top of the list of enhanced features included in the 2.3 software: AirTunes streaming.

The new ability opens possibilities for Apple TV owners to listen or view content from either another Apple TV or Airport Express speakers.

Additionally, the update expands access to your iTunes playlists, permitting videos, podcasts or music to be accessed via Apple TV. In October, Apple released an update that included the latest features in iTunes 8.0, including support for the new Genius playlist function.

The update also adds support for third-part remote controls besides Apple’s and music volume control.

Users of the streaming-media service boxee are advised to not install this latest upgrade. Apple TV users are reporting the 2.3 upgrade disables boxee.

I took quite ill on Thursday, and literally didn’t leave the house at any point between Friday and Sunday mornings. And, like a lot of bed-ridden people, I was in far too much pain to actually think about reading, writing, or, well, thinking. Instead, I got caught up on all of the junky entertainment I never find time for otherwise. Comic I hadn’t yet read. DVR’d episodes of Top Design. And virtually all of the content on Netflix Watch Instantly.

Now, for those of you who still haven’t had the chance to try out streaming Netflix, I will say that it works incredibly well. Movies start quickly, the new interface allows you to scrub through looking for your exact place, it resumes play if you accidentally quit. (I had a few films with skewed soundtracks, but it was a rare occurrence). What’s astounding, however, is just how tiny the Netflix streaming library is compared to Hulu, iTunes, or, you know, Netflix DVD service. After a few days in bed, I’d watched literally everything that I had any interest in seeing that the streaming service had. I mean, there are only two seasons of 30 Rock.

And that’s when it hit me: everyone who’s called for Apple to start a monthly subscription model for iTunes has been almost right. There’s tons of money to be made there. But the opportunity isn’t from making its full music library available for $15 a month. It’s in charging $20-30 a month for unlimited TV show access.

Think about it: Apple has the largest library of digital downloadable video on the planet right now. Sales haven’t been as good as hoped. Apple has begun to rent movies, which means it has the DRM to prevent people from keeping a permanent copy of a rented clip on their hard drive. And yet TV shows are still available only for $1.99 each. While that’s a pretty good price, it’s not one that I’ve paid since Apple first made TV available through iTunes (I briefly had 10-pack passes for The Daily Show and Colbert way back). But I would gladly ditch my Netflix subscription and pony up the same $20 a month for unlimited rentals of the TV shows on iTunes, even without movies. That’s $240 gross from me that Apple and the TV studios wouldn’t see otherwise.

Now, if it were anyone but Apple, I would say that kind of price is too high to pay. But this wouldn’t be a streaming competitor to Hulu — it would be for files that could work on any iPod or iPhone. That’s a compelling proposition right there. It would further cement Apple’s vertical integration as the premiere agent for digital entertainment on earth. It would make an AppleTV as essential as a TiVo. It could even begin to make the cable companies nervous if Apple’s selection continues to improve (live sports being an obvious exception).

I think it’s a slam dunk. Does it make sense to you?

Boxee announced product upgrades today giving users of its Mac-Ubuntu-AppleTV media center application seamless integration with Hulu and CBS.com offerings through the Boxee interface.

Making a bid for wider recognition of its product at CEA i-Stage in Las Vegas, Boxee is preparing to move from the invitation-only Alpha stage into beta release of a service that aims “to bring all your entertainment into one place.” The company plans to send out 10,000 invitations to its final Alpha release today.

Be sure to watch the video embedded above for a good overview of what Boxee is all about, and check out the Techzilla Boxee Review we posted a few weeks ago.

Interested in trying out a cool media center for use with your Apple TV? Cult of Mac readers are invited to receive expedited applications for testing the alpha release of Boxee, a music, video and picture management solution to let your Apple TV play practically any DRM-free multimedia file. Follow this link to receive your alpha testing invitation.

Boxee for (Intel based) Mac works on OS X 10.4 (Tiger) and 10.5 (Leopard). Boxee for Linux is supported on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) or 8.04 (Hardy Heron) x86 (not x86_64) operating systems. The Boxee patch works with the 2.2 update to Apple TV, but remember to install the update before you install the Boxee patch.

Detailed instructions for installing the Boxee patch after the jump.

The sharp-eyed folks at iphone savior spotted a MacBook Pro cameo on the season premiere of The Office.
In it, receptionist Pam appears in the Scranton branch from New York via iChat video.

While it’s easy to understand that Office followers — wry code monkeys and creative types alike — would appreciate the nod, Dunder Mifflin seems so much more PC than Mac.

How many places like that use MacBook Pros?

Speculation surrounding this morning’s ‘Let’s Rock’ Apple special event remains intense, with Digg’s Kevin Rose at the center of the vortex of leaked data, or so it seems.

Overnight we’ve picked up a few more details on what to expect, thanks to MacRumors, who tell us that not only will the iPod nano see a shape-shift, returning to the long and thin look of the first two generations, capacity will rise to 16GB.

Apple’s also expected to introduce nine different colours for the nano, adding purple, yellow and orange to the existing pink, silver, black, blue, green and Product (RED).

Less is known of the iPod touch, which is expected to see a price cut to bring it into line with the cost of an iPhone—and seems unlikely to see a capacity increase, MacRumors also claimed – though far less is known of the iPod touch than of the iPod nano upgrade, other than some suspicions that new features could be enabled in future generation devices, cameras or a microphone, for example.

To recap Rose’s claims, Tunes 8 is expected to offer a Grid View, Genius Playlist recommendations, a new Visualizer (based on the Magentosphere visualiser) and support for HD TV show downloads from iTunes, a feature currently only available to the Apple TV.

iPhone and iPod touch users are also hoping for iPhone Firmare 2.1, which it is hoped will introduce true push support for MobileMe, more stability in 3G connectivity and an end to widely-reported cases in which iPhone user’s applications and iPod features become unavailable. iPods of all stripes are anticipated to see price reductions, as Apple grapples to deal with an increasingly saturated music player market.

Analysts, soothsayers and philosophers of all stripes seem to have achieved a consensus decision in recent days that new MacBooks are unlikely to make an appearance at this event. However, Apple’s publicity people have been urging media to attend the show, which implies that all Apple’s secrets aren’t yet out in the open…that the company has also organized a European media event in London boosts such expectation.

Perhaps that one more thing could turn out to be an all-new version of the Apple TV, now equipped with a digital TV receiver, DVD player and larger hard drive? At least one report speculates on such a possibility.