Curvy. Smooth. Uncomplicated. Think of any product One Infinite Loop has spat out over the last decade or so and you’ll almost invariably and immediately come up with a few key adjectives to describe them (and if you don’t, you’re probably not reading this right now anyway).
But The Bluetooth-equipped Altec Lansing InMotion Air ($200) is pretty much the opposite of anything and everything Jony Ive and his colleagues at Apple believe in. At least, that’s true as far as its aesthetics and ergonomics are concerned; under the hood though, it packs a punch.
Nothing says “hey baby, how you doin’ ” quite like expensive, cutting edge-technology wrapped in luxurious wool. Libratone’s new AirPlay-equipped Live and Lounge speakers don’t just say it, they sing it. With a European accent.
This weekend broke news that Apple was already hard at work on OS X 10.8, so it would be natural to assume that in the next version of OS X, Cupertino will bring even more iOS functionality to their desktop operating system: stuff like Airplay and iMessages.
Nope. But don’t be too disappointed. AirPlay and iMessages are reportedly coming to OS X 10.7 Lion, instead.
The BBC has finally issued an update to its free iPlayer app for the iPad that allows users to stream content to their Apple TV for viewing on their television.
The latest piece of full-on AirPlay sound hardware is from the sonic wizards over at Los Angeles-based Audyssey.
Yeah, the Lower East Side Audio Dock Air ($399) looks more like a Lego brick than the outfit’s svelte South of Market dock we raved about earlier this year — but the new, six-speaker dock is filled with audio-techno-jargon like “passive bass radiators” and “Smart Speaker technology,” which is probably English for “this will blow you away, dude.” And of course, don’t forget the AirPlay.
Everyone seems to want some AirPlay action. The newest dock to crash onto the stage is this AirPlay-equipped, sleek-looking monolith from iHome, the iW1 ($300).
Boxee has launched its official, free iPad app, allowing users to watch streaming content on the tablet device and transfer playback from the iPad to the Boxee Box.
Additionally, the new Boxee Media Manager allows you to stream video to the iPad from a Mac or PC. Alongside the new apps, Boxee has brought AirPlay support and Lion compatibility to its set-top box.
iOS 5 beta 3 introduced a number of new features that weren’t present in the previous two developer releases, including a selection of new sounds and a handy new ‘AssistiveTouch‘ menu. One thing you may not have stumbled across, however, is AirPlay mirroring for FaceTimes calls on the iPad — allowing you to see your caller bigger than ever before on your HDTV.
You’ll soon be able to use a Bluetooth keyboard with the Apple TV, and there’s a good chance that devices like the iPad and iPhone will also serve as remotes for the set-top box in the near future.
Bluetooth support has been uncovered in the latest Apple TV model, and iOS 5 will also have this Bluetooth support when it’s released this Fall. Apple is clearly positioning the Apple TV as an all-in-one place for entertainment in the living room, and this Bluetooth discovery hints that the Apple TV will soon become a place for your favorite App Store apps.
Apple has launched two new TV ads for the iPhone that could potentially be the last to feature the iPhone 4. Demonstrating FaceTime and AirPlay, the ads continue the “If you don’t have an iPhone…” campaign which started back in March.
Rather than focusing its efforts on its diminishing smartphone business, it seems RIM may be planning to launch a device that will rival the Apple TV, packed with PlayBook hardware.
Firemint wowed us all when it updated Real Racing 2 to support 1080p video output via the iPad’s AV Adapter. It comes as no surprise to us, then, that when iOS 5 goes live later this year, this popular racing sim will be the first title to offer dual-screen gaming over AirPlay on your HDTV.
Everyone who owns an Apple TV loves AirPlay – it’s a fantastic way of streaming your moves and music straight to your TV that was previously a luxury only iOS and iTunes users could enjoy. However, thanks to the doubleTwist software, users can now send content to the Apple TV from their Android smartphones.
The doubleTwistsoftware for Mac & PC advertises itself as “the iTunes for Android” and allows you to wirelessly sync your iTunes playlists, photos and videos to your Android phone with the accompanying Android application. Its most recent update introduced the ability to stream all of this content to the Apple TV over AirPlay.
Good news If you’ve got a Sonos music system and an Apple AirPort Express: a free software update will make your multi-room Sonos system AirPlay compatible.
The iOS 4.3 update enabled third-party applications to take advantage of AirPlay and stream content to the AppleTV and other compatible devices. Since it went live, developers have been updating their apps to include AirPlay support, and we’ve put together a list of the top 10 iOS apps that are currently AirPlay ready. We’ve chosen apps to keep you entertained, up to date with the latest news, and even one to help you workout.
In defiance of Apple’s will, you can already stream AirPlay media to your Mac and Ubuntu… and now, if you’re on a Windows machine, the trifecta is complete.
The one guy at Apple who programs their fantastic iOS Remote.app seems to have been busy before Christmas break: a new update was pushed live yesterday, adding AirPlay control on the AppleTV to the app’s already great list of features.
The new Remote.app is now at version 2.1 and, as usual, is available on the App Store as a free download. You can now use it to control iTunes on your Mac to stream videos directly to your new AppleTV, as well as play rented Movies and TV shows on your Mac without ever getting up from a supine position.
Internet Radio support is also new, and there are a slew of new stability and performance improvements as well, as well as some bug fixes for issues connecting to an iTunes library or Apple TV.
AirPlay may have been a little bit of a disappointment upon arrival, but TUAW’s Erica Sadun just keeps on managing to make it better. Just a week after her release of AirPlayer, an app that tricks AirPlay into thinking your Mac’s an AppleTV, comes her brand new tool, called AirFlick… and it’s everything that AirPlay should have been out of the box.
What does AirFlick do? It allows you to stream video content from your Mac to your AppleTV: AVIs, MP4s, even streaming video files on the Internet. You name it! “It” being non-Flash video.
There’s already a few hacks out there to allow you to extend the admittedly rather limited AirPlay functionality of iOS 4.2 to run on non-iOS devices: last week, for example, TUAW’s Erica Sadun released AirPlayer, an app that tricks AirPlayer into think your Mac’s an AppleTV.
Now, though, plucky and ingenious hackers are figuring out how to do the same thing on non-Apple hardware, and the first fruit of those labors has now been released for Linux.
Don’t have an AppleTV, or even a TV, but interested in beaming some of your iPhone’s videos to that inviting 27-inch iMac display? TUAW’s always ingenious Erica Sadun has put together a tricky new piece of software that fools your iPhone or iPod Touch into thinking its an AppleTV.
It is widely rumored that when the Mac App Store finally launches early next year, it’ll launch with the iWork ’11 productivity suite available as separately purchasable applications… but could iWork also be delayed to make sure there’s enough time to bake AirPlay support into Keynote?
Maybe. An email from Apple CEO Steve Jobs strongly implies that when iWork ’11 drops, Keynote ’11, at the very least, will support AirPlay functionality.
One thing’s for sure: iOS 4 hasn’t been very kind to iPhone 3G owners. Not only did the major update end up slowing most iPhone 3G devices to a crawl once installed, but iOS 4.x under the iPhone 3G is missing many of the features like multitasking or GameCenter that other devices get to enjoy.
The good news for iPhone 3G users is that the soon-to-be-released iOS 4.2 update supposedly does a lot to improve the 3G’s sluggishness problems. The bad? Apple’s culling yet another promised feature from 3G owners: AirPlay isn’t coming to the iPhone 3G after all.
You can’t fault it’s functionality, really. The sneakPEEK II allows you to pump content from your iPad or iPhone to your television easily by just connecting it to your device via their umbilical. On one end is the standard Apple docking connector and, on the other, composite and component inputs for plugging into pretty much any television out there. It’ll even charge your iPad while you watch a movie or play a game, thanks to an integrated micro USB connector and AC adapter.
That’s not bad functionality, but when iOS 4.2 rolls around, isn’t the point of a cable like this going to be pretty much obviated when AirPlay allows you to stream video or audio from any app to any AirPlay-compatible device… including Apple’s own $99 AppleTV?
The sneakPEEK II, of course, is cheaper than an AppleTV, but at $59.99, the price discrepancy is so minimal that we can’t help but feel there aren’t a lot of people who will opt for Scosche’s solution over Apple’s sexy black box. In fact, about the only thing to recommend it over an AppleTV is if you want to pump video from a classic iPod up to your television, or if your television lacks an HDMI port.
