I haven’t seen an episode of Vampire Diaries before, but it’s great to know that if I ever have a hunkering for more vampire love affairs I will still be able to get my fix after this last Twilight movie comes out.
Warner Bros. released their new iOS app yesterday called “Day After US,” that allows iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad owners in the U.S. to watch all of Warner Bros. popular TV shows the day after they air.
On Thursday, Jefferies analyst James Kisner revealed that the much-anticipated Apple television, the product we’ve been talking about for well over a year, is almost ready to make its big debut. In fact, Kisner said its launch was “imminent.”
According to sources for AllThingsD, however, it’s not quite as close as Kisner would have you believe. While Apple has indeed held talks with a number of large cable companies, it seems it hasn’t yet spoken to TV programmers. With that in mind, it seems the Apple television is some way off just yet.
Apple’s current “hobby” — also known as Apple TV — doesn’t tell us much about Apple’s future plans for the living room.
It’s a good product under the right circumstances. But five years from now, living rooms are going to be transformed by all-encompassing systems that turn TVs into video phones, gaming systems, home automation control centers and artificial intelligence assistants.
Does Apple have what it takes to compete in the living room?
Along with the announcement of the iPad mini today, Apple debuted a brand-new commercial for the device that’ll likely be airing on TV soon. In traditional Apple style, this ad features both the full size iPad and its mini counterpart set against an all-white backdrop.
Apple has been really stepping up their advertising game lately, first with the excellent iPod ad last month, the funny iPhone 5 spots, and now this new iPad commercial. Check it out after the break.
When Apple holds a press event to announce its latest gadget, the vast majority of us are frantically refreshing our favorite websites in an effort to keep up with the news as it’s breaking. It’s not often we get to watch the event live.
But sometimes, Apple treats us to a live video feed. And it’s doing that today for the much-anticipated iPad mini event.
With the 30-pin dock connector on the brink of extinction, you’re probably wandering how you’re going to hook your iOS devices up to your TV without the help of an Apple TV. Your old HDMI and VGA adapters won’t work, and Apple didn’t announce any new ones at its iPhone 5 event. So does that mean AirPlay is the only option?
Thankfully, it does not. Apple has confirmed that Lightning-compatible HDMI and VGA adapters will be arriving for your new iOS devices “in the coming months.”
While we’re almost certain Apple is working on its own television set, when it will launch is a complete mystery. Initially it seemed the set could make its debut before the end of 2012, and then reports pushed the release date back until 2013. Now according to a new analyst report, it’s unlikely won’t be adding an Apple HDTV to your credit card bill any time soon.
Why? Apple’s senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue has reportedly indicated to analysts that there’s still a lot of work to be done with content providers.
Even with the iPad eating away at the time we spend in front of the bigger screens — in my case, the iPad is my screen of choice when watching Netflixed TV shows — cable subscriptions still have a ton of appeal. Want to watch the Olympics live on your iPad via the official NBC app? You’ll need a cable subscription; and then there are all the recent great cable shows: Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, etc.
But you’ll need a guide to sort through the mire, and that’s where the i.TV app and your trusty iPad or iPhone comes in.
It seems that making your latest product look exactly like the market leader isn’t always the fastest route to success. As Samsung found when it aired its first commercial for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, the device is so similar to the iPad that half of TV viewers thought it was an Apple product. Only 16% realized it was made by Samsung.
Apple has just uploaded a new a new iPad commercial to their YouTube channel, following in the same manner as the previous iPad ad, talking about all the various capabilities of the 3rd generation iPad.
The new ad, entitled “All On iPad”, shows people tweeting, having a FaceTime chat, browsing the web, painting, reading, and more.
The ad runs as follows:
Read it. Tweet it. Be surprised. Be productive. Make a sale. Make some lunch. Make it movie night. Play a game, or an old favorite. Do it all more beautifully, with the retina display, on iPad.
Clearly, Apple is continuing to stress the importance of the Retina display, as this is the third commercial Apple has aired about the new iPad, highlighting the Retina display in each one.
Apple’s iPad ads have been traditionally different than its iPhone ads, which have recently featured celebrities, as well as its recent Mac ads, which have been met with much criticism. Clearly, Apple is continuing to broaden its advertising strategy in a number of ways, experimenting with ads targeted towards a wide variety of consumers.
All in all, the 30 second spot is very similar to its predecessor, using the same music and voice.
The ChargeCard is an iPhone charging that’s designed to live in your wallet, purse, or pocket. Shaped like a credit card and measuring just 2.54mm thick, this is the thinnest iPhone charging cable you can buy, and you can pull it out whenever you find a free USB port to charge your device. What’s more, you can finally say goodbye to carrying messy cables.
If you want to watch a movie on your Apple TV, but you want the sound to play through a stereo or home theater system, rather than through your TV, the only way to do that right now is to install a bunch of messy cables that connect one device to the other — and they need to be relatively close together.
In iOS 6 beta 3, however, you can send audio from the Apple TV to an AirPlay-enabled speaker system at the other end of the room wirelessly.
Steve Jobs: The Lost Interview has made its way to the iTunes Store and is now available to rent more than six months after a sample of the video was teased online. The one-hour, 15-minute video can be rented now for just $3.99, but it’s only available to those in the United States.
The NPD Group reported today that the use of digital tablets like the iPad has more than doubled across the globe this year.
According to surveys of approximately 14,000 TV owners across 14 different regions worldwide, the research group found that a whopping 10 percent of those surveyed reported using their iPad or other tablet to watch video. This is up from about four percent of the same population surveyed a year ago.
Like its monitor-calibrating cousin, the Spyder4Pro, the Spyder4TV HD ($125) from Datacolor is used to fine-tune the color profiles in your life. But as the name implies, the Spyder4TV isn’t for your Mac’s monitor; this Spyder wants to correct the color on your HDTV.
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Apple has begun airing two new ads for Siri and the iPhone 4S titled “Joke” and “Life.” Both spots feature actor John Malkovich. The new ads are similar to other recent Siri commercials starring celebrities like Zooey Deschanel and Samuel L. Jackson.
These two new commercials show Malkovich using Siri for a variety of tasks, such as checking the weather and his calendar. Malkovich also asks his iPhone for a joke, and Siri classically replies with “Two iPhones walk into a bar, I forget the rest.”
There’s no shortage to information out there about Apple’s HDTV plans, but most of it focuses on specs, designs, and user interface (including coverage from our source who has seen one). With the device being a near certainly, other questions are being raised. Will it be an instant hit? How different will the experience be compared to the existing Apple TV set-top box? How much revenue could it net for Apple?
According to calculations by Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty, an Apple HDTV would be a huge windfall for Apple. She sees it as likely to double the money that U.S. households spend annually on Apple products within three years.
Time Warner Cable and Viacom have agreed to resolve a battle over Time Warner’s iOS app that allows users to stream Viacom content within their homes over a wireless network. Both companies released a joint statement this week confirming that Viacom content would be returning to the free TWC TV app.
The unfortunate reality of trying to replace cable with video subscription services such as Netflix or Hulu is that, well… they kind of suck. Okay, so that’s my opinion and it’s completely possible that you’re happy with the Walmart bargain bin selection of movies Netflix has to offer, or being last to find out that The Island was just purgatory and the whole point of LOST was, well… pointless. There’s many reasons why I’ve been unable to cut cable out of my life, and if I’m going to be paying for it every month — I might as well get my money’s worth. That’s where the Slingbox SOLO comes in.
While there’s been a lot of speculation about Apple’s plans to enter the HDTV market, most of the discussion – including information from our source who has seen the device – has focused on the device itself. The form factor, pricing, manufacturing options, interface, input and remote control mechanisms, which iOS and OS X technologies could be leveraged in a TV – all these are key elements to the story of an iTV or Apple HDTV or whatever the device might be called.
These areas of speculation, however, don’t ask the most critical question: Will people buy an Apple HDTV?
According to tech research firm Strategy Analytics, the answer is yes – and it’s a pretty emphatic yes for iPhone owners.
DigiTimes reports that Apple’s manufacturing partners in Taiwan are said to be bending over backwards to secure orders for the company’s latest devices by constructing specialized plants that will be dedicated to producing parts and components for the iPad mini and the next-generation iPhone.
At last, here’s the Apple TV everyone is waiting for. Well, kinda. Bang & Olufsen’s new V1 is a 32 or 40-inch 1080p TV with a hole in the back where you can hide your little puck-sized Apple TV. This, combined with a remote that can be used to control Apple’s set-top box, means that the V1 is the closest you’ll get to an actual HDTV from Apple.
I can’t be sure, as I was a brainless, sieve-memoried child at the time, but I’m pretty sure that our family’s first portable (B&W) TV had a screen that wasn’t much bigger than the screen of my iPad. Still, the crappy picture and bulbous, almost circular screen didn’t stop my brother and I laying belly-down on the end of our parent’s bed and watching Monkey roll up the screen in a fuzz of snow and bad reception.
Now I can relive those dark days by putting my iPad into the Handmade Natural Stained Wood Retro TV iPad Dock, an Etsy product whose name is as good as a description.
iOSLiveTV is a web-based TV service that allows you to watch premium TV channels on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch completely free of charge. It’s just like TV English Premium, the app we told you about last week, only it works… incredibly well. And it offers a lot more channels and AirPlay support.
Ever been half way around the world wishing you could watch your favorite local sports team as they go up against their longtime rival? NimbleTV hopes to grant that wish by offering a subscription-based TV platform that would allow users to access all of their television from anywhere in the world, on any device. NimbleTV will host your TV subscription plan and deliver it to you using their cloud-based software. The NimbleTV service is a global platform that features:
