Every day, millions of people watch more than a billion hours of video on YouTube. More than half of those views come from mobile devices.
From tutorials and tech reviews to vlogs and movie trailers, YouTube is the largest video sharing service in the world, growing at a rate of 300 hours of content every minute (that’s an average of 18,000 minutes being uploaded every minute of every day). If you’re not using the YouTube app to dive into this ocean of video content, you’re not doing it right.
By Chris Brantner
The Tour de France is the premier cycling race in the world. Anyone can enjoy watching the event as the cyclists put themselves through one of the most grueling physical tests in all of sports. If you want to watch during the three-week race, you can easily stream the Tour de France on Apple devices, with or without cable.
The Tour de France starts Saturday, July 1, and finishes on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday, July 23. Throughout the race, NBCSN will air live coverage on a daily basis. Thankfully, there are some great ways for you to stream the race on any of your Apple devices.
By Chris Brantner
Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world — there are soccer fans everywhere. With all of this popularity comes a ton of potential leagues and tournaments to watch. If you’re a big fan, you’ll be glad to know there are some great ways to watch streaming soccer on Apple TV.
By Chris Brantner, guest blogger
The NBA playoffs are upon us again! At this point, it could be anyone’s championship, which makes watching all the more interesting. Who will rise to compete in the final games, and who looks likely to fall?
If you plan to watch the NBA playoffs on your Apple device, you’re in luck. Whether you’re using your Mac or your iPhone, there are several options for both cable users and cord cutters.
Between our computers, phones and TVs, there’s almost too much screen to fill. Right now in the Cult of Mac Store, we’ve got a pair of deals that will bring more content than you’ll know what to do with.
SelectTV offers an unmatched library of TV, movies, radio stations and more. Getflix unlocks the vast seas of streaming video. Snag these deals and you’ll never want for something to watch again.
Even the best streaming services can be a crapshoot when it comes to our favorite shows — one day they’re there, the next day they aren’t. Aren’t Netflix and Hulu supposed to have the biggest, most formidable libraries of content? Not exactly.
SelectTV by FreeCast boasts the world’s largest entertainment library, bringing the perks of both cable TV and web streaming, effectively dwarfing any competitor’s library. The same can’t be said of the price, though, because right now you can get a year of SelectTV for just $19 at Cult of Mac Deals.
Getting your weekly fix of new TV shows from Hulu is about to get more expensive, as the streaming video service plans to phase out its free tier that was supported with ad revenue.
After letting users watch thousands of episodes for free since it launched nine years ago, Hulu has partnered with Yahoo to offer up its content for a new service called Yahoo View, an ad-supported service that will give viewers the ability to watch the five most recent episodes of shows from ABC, NBC and Fox.
So you’ve got a fourth-generation Apple TV (the one with Siri Remote and all the apps) and you’ve just downloaded VLC, the “play everything” video app that was just ported to tvOS.
The last few versions of Apple TV haven’t included any storage for video files, and the same is true of the latest model: All the device’s storage is for apps and associated media files. Getting your own videos up on the big screen using VLC takes a little finesse.
Here’s how to watch any video (with a few caveats) on your Apple TV via VLC.
In news that is likely to cause all manner of headaches around Hollywood, Popcorn Time — the streaming torrent service often described as “Netflix for pirates” — is now easier to access than ever, thanks to a new website.
But how long will it last?
Sometimes described as “Netflix for pirates,” the video streaming service Popcorn Time is coming to iPhone. The standalone Popcorn Time iOS app will launch imminently — quite possibly as early as today — and will allow users to watch pirated TV shows and movies on the move.
While it won’t be allowed in the App Store for obvious reasons, a workaround means users can install the app without having to jailbreak their handsets first — although, for now, you’ll need to have access to a Windows computer.
Popcorn Time, the app for Mac and jailbroken iOS devices that allows you to stream movie and television torrents from the cloud, has often been heralded as “Netflix for pirates,” thanks to its easy-to-use interface and huge selection of content. Turns out that’s enough for Netflix to consider Popcorn Time a direct competitor.
Getting into the streaming TV business might be all the rage right now, but it’s far from an easy game to play. (Which is why Tim Cook referred to Apple TV as “a hobby” for so long.)
Proof positive of this is Qplay, the Internet video-device and iPad app startup launched by the founders of TiVo, which has announced that it’s closing shop less than six months after launching its debut product.
What’s everyone’s favorite U.S. streaming service? Netflix? Hulu? Amazon? Angry buzzer sound! You’re wrong! It’s iTunes, natch, at least according to a recent consumer satisfaction survey by ForeSee.
Amazon Instant Video is one of the best reasons to sign up for Amazon Prime. It’s not as good as Netflix yet, but it’s getting there, and it’s cheaper. To make things better, Amazon just announced that they’re adding A&E’s networks to Amazon Instant Video.
The licensing agreement between Amazon and A&E gives Prime Instant Video customers access to popular shows from A&E, bio, History, and Lifetime. So now you can watch all the shenanigans of Duck Dynasty right from your iPad or Kindle Fire.
Update: It appears that the app’s developer has started replacing the channels with ads for “Futubox.” A classic scam. The app did work at one point, but we no longer recommended buying it now.
Update 2: It looks like Apple has yanked it from the App Store.
A $0.99 iOS app has surfaced over the weekend in the App Store called “TV English Premium.” The universal app allows anyone to stream 55 premium TV channels live without paying for a subscription. An iPhone or iPad also does not need to be jailbroken to stream for free. For only $0.99, you can have access to many BBC and premium U.S. TV channels in HD on your iOS device.
Netflix has updated its popular iPad app with enhanced Retina graphics. Everything from the icon to the app’s text has been updated for the new iPad’s shiny display, and the update is available now in the App Store.
One of the biggest complaints about the Netflix iOS app has been the lack of HD video streaming, and according to Netflix, HD video is coming soon. We wouldn’t be surprised if the next app version included the upgrade. We can’t wait for that!
Remember that streaming HD video over 4G on the new iPad will use a lot of data, so be aware of how much video you stream on the go.
The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards will be held tonight at 8:00 PM at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. You can stream the event live, including the pre-show this afternoon, for free on your mobile devices.
Thanks to the free GRAMMY Live app in the App Store, you can stream today’s festivities to your iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
In what seems to be a match made in palette heaven, Redbox has found itself a red partner to help expand its video entertainment business into the digital world. Verizon and Redbox have announced a joint venture to combine the famous Redbox new release rentals with content-rich video on-demand streaming. This new venture will package all the services together for an undisclosed subscription price, with hopes of competing against other video subscription services like Nextflix.
The race to the cloud just heated up today: Cloud Engines, most known for their white, instant-server-in-a-brick Pogoplug network-attached storage device, launches two software-only versions that turn your Mac into a home-based server.
SAN FRANCISCO: Google is not to be underestimated, but sitting here watching a demo of the first Google TV, I’m not sure it has mainstream appeal.
Built by Logitech and running Google’s Android software, the Logitech Revue Google TV has definite geek appeal. It does everything: the $299 box connects to satellite and cable TV, compatible DVRs and Web video, as well as other online multimedia. You can search for content using your voice and control it with a smartphone. It has apps, HD videoconferencing, and functions as a universal Harmony remote, controlling all your home theater devices. (For a detailed breakdown of how it compares to Apple TV, see here)
But there’s no way my mother will go for it.
Hot on the heels of the new Apple TV , Google is launching its own set-top box next week.
Made by Logitech, the Android-based will be unveiled next Wednesday October 6 at press events in San Francisco and New York (see the invite below).
Like Apple’s device, the Google TV is black, although it’s quite a bit larger than Apple’s diminutive box (see David’s photos comparing it to the old Apple TV). The Google TV will run on a 1.2-GHz Atom processor with 4 GB memory, 802.11n Wi-Fi, two HDMI-out ports, Dolby 5.1 surround sound and a pair of USB ports. It will also offer video-chat at 720p if you connect a webcam.
It promises an innovative search-based interface. Search for what you want, and it displays content from the Web, cable, satellite and compatible DVRs. Here’s a trailer showing how it works:
Ok, maybe the little black box won’t arrive in every single home, but unlike the 1st-gen AppleTV, the 2nd-gen announced today is going to sell like buttery hotcakes slathered in maple syrup.