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The Apple TV software has been updated in a very quiet manner, but the new functionality contained in that update—AirPlay broadcasting, support multiple iTunes account, shared photo streams—is more substantial than it first seems. And the fact that you can now rearrange icons on the home screen suggest that proper support for iOS apps could finally be on the way.
I mean, sure, it’s just icons on a homescreen. But why would Apple suddenly care about letting you rearrange this stuff unless they were going to open up an Apps infrastructure or deliver an avalanche of updated channels? (And honestly, the former sounds a little more feasible than the latter.) We’ve seen this functionality in beta builds, and now that this is official, apps support seems all the more likely. And as AirPlay support between iPhone, iPad and Apple TV has ramped up, it has gotten to the point where the Apple TV might as well allow apps. But it makes sense that they wouldn’t fully roll out everything right now, since the company traditionally updates its Apple TV hardware in October, and would probably want to save a major software overhaul for that reveal.
But these other new features are exciting too. AirPlay will now allow you to broadcast streaming content to other devices. (Think multi-zone control for speakers connected to AirPort Express routers, Macs or AirPlay speakers.) Shared photo streams means that you can view whatever your friends upload to their iCloud (as long as you receive an invite from them). And support for multiple iTunes accounts means that more than one person can easily rent movies or buy music, which is good for those who have roommates. Plus there are a handful of other new features which iDownloadblog discovered and are listed below.
Shared Photo Streams – Accept invitations for Shared Photo Streams, browse photos and comments, and receive notifications of new content.
AirPlay – Send audio content from Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs). Also includes the ability to require an onscreen code to use AirPlay with your Apple TV.
iTunes account switching – Save multiple iTunes accounts and switch quickly between them.
Trailers – Search movie trailers. In the United States, see show times for local theaters.
Screen savers – New Cascade, Shrinking Tiles, and Sliding Panels screen savers.
Main menu – Reorder icons on the second page by holding down the select button on the remote.
Subtitles – SDH support for the deaf and hard-of-hearing as well as improvements to viewing and selecting subtitles.
Network configuration – Support for setting up advanced network options using configuration profiles. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5437 for more information.
Stability and performance – Includes general performance and stability improvements.
If you have one of the iOS-based Apple TVs, its probably worth downloading the update and checking it out. [iDownloadBlog]
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I swear to god if they release a software overhaul and only make it available to the apple TV they announce with it, i’m abandoning all future apple software in annoyance. I can deal with my iPad becoming obsolete, but my Apple TV isn’t even a year old.
What i’d love from them is the ability to select a trailer, and then set it to download on an airplay-connected laptop. As well as separate out my ‘computer’ icon into its components on the homescreen (crappy internet and general disgust at the cost of apple TV and film mean its basically a glorified media hub.)
The jailbroken ATV 2 is where it’s at for me, if the update still allows for the JB then I’m all for it.
I’m not going to touch Apple TV until they can offer me a transparent glass screen like the Loewe Invisio concept. Just stick an Apple logo on the brushed aluminium bar at the bottom and you’re done.
I’ve been hearing ATV App rumors for way too long. When it comes, it comes.
My ATV works great to Airplay HD films from my iPad (or from my NAS via my iPad) to the TV, though the mirroring feature is hit & miss.
It also works ok for playing iTunes films, but since most of the films I want to watch on iTunes can only be bought, then it is pretty pointless with the ATV.
What it does need is 3rd party apps. More than anything else. Sure, you Americans get a few nice features that the rest of the planet doesn’t get, which is when you think about it, Apple sticking their middle finger up at the world. Seriously, Apple TV is about the only platform in the world that doesn’t have the BBC iPlayer. How hard would it have been to include the iPlayer, or any other regional on demand streaming service. Apple have enough money and enough staff, and their competition has been doing it.
So, if Apple can’t be bothered, at least open it up to developers who can.
you know that you can get all of the american’s great features right? Just change your DNS and you get all of that lovely content… US Netflix and Hulu mainly…
True, and I do test the waters there a bit. But, odd as it may sound, I actually prefer British content. I do like some US shows, but I can’t really pinpoint exactly why, but UK shows just interest me more. I’m not born in the UK by the way, it’s just once I started watching the BBC, I couldn’t go back.
rw004,
What DNS do you use to fool Hulu? They have gotten crazy lately and banned DNS based region masking as well as sniffing out two different VPN’s ip sets and blocking those. You get a nice screen that says Hulu doesn’t support the use of DNS anonomizing or connection thru VPNs (and how do they know that?) when you’ve pressed play and started the stream.
ovbg,
I am not an Apple fanboy but I am a massive ATV fanboy. For someone who frequently travels internationally and has itunes accounts in different regions it couldn’t be a better device.
However those strengths are the reason there is no BBC iPLayer or ITV NetPlayer or any UK streaming App. It has NOTHING to do with Apple and they’d love the content. It has everything to do with the fact that except for Hulu (and Hulu do the Voodoo Magic – not Apple) nothing on the Apple TV is region locked. There is nothing there that doesn’t just work regardless of where you are on the planet and the channels available to you are tied to your iTunes login. If I login with my UK account I obviously have a completely different menu to my US account (with all the extras). Whereever I am it just works. And that’s the rub. THe UK streaming services don’t license their content for viewing outside of the UK and they have all determined Apple’s setup leave them open to infringing on others if much of the content is viewed out of region.
And that’s the very simple reason you don’t have UK catchup TV on Apple TV…
…except I’ve found that mirroring is so damn good that it doesn’t bother me. Anything I can access on any other device in the house goes full screen to the TV instantly
I was going to mention that I mirror all of the catch-up apps to my TV from my ipad or iphone (whatever is at hand) but I thought that might go a step to far.
(Disclaimer: Before I get bashed as a fanboy, there are two iPhones in my house but they are basically used as glorified remote controls and media servers. They aren’t connected to cellular. My personal phone is a HTX Sensation XL – which I prefer)
It’s a good idea, but it’s not why the iPlayer or ITV are not on the ATV.
iPlayer is on every other device pretty much out there. And none of those are region locked any more than the ATV. Your laptop for instance is the least region locked device anyone could find, and the iPlayer has it’s best, most full featured app/program on the computer (laptop, PC, Mac etc). The region locking, for all devices is IP address driven. It would be pretty damn easy for the ATV to detect your IP address, if in the UK, include the official BBC app, which only works with a UK IP address. Pretty much all other devices have no problems with this.
But the point of the Apple TV is that you get all your stuff wherever you happen to be. They don’t allow region locking. You are welcome to put up your content, but it can’t be region locked. BBC and ITV could have a channel with only their own content – but they’ve licensed so much of the good stuff to US broadcasters they’d get the same problem in reverse.
That said I don’t know ANYONE who owns an ATV that doesn’t also own an iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch or Mac. And with mirroring you can just mirror catch-up from any of those other Apple devices.
(Except for Hulu – and like I said they are a special case and work their own Voodoo black magic. They have even figured out when I am coming thru my VPN and blocked that IP; I changed VPNs and it worked for about a month before they blocked that too!)
They do allow region blocking, both via IP address & iTunes store. If you log in with a US iTunes account, you get more options than the UK iTunes account so it could also work the other way around. Log in with your UK iTunes account and the iPlayer pops up.
There is also IP region blocking. Everything allows IP region blocking as it’s independent of the device. Test out your Netflix account on ATV and it will default to the US one when in the US and UK one when in the UK – via your IP address.
So there are no license issues with the iPlayer. If you have a UK IP address, you can access the iPlayer. If you have a US IP address, you can not. Simple as A-B-C. ATV allows this, as every other device in the world does.
iPhone, iPad and the iPod do have the iPlayer as you say, and it is region blocked JUST like I described. So, there is no reason why the ATV can’t have it as well. What is the advantage? iPlayer on iPad, iPhone and iPod will not airplay in HD. I know. I have the apps. You need to use the silly mirroring feature and the video quality is very average when that is used.
On the other hand, my Samsung TV has an iPlayer app, and it works in full HD. (it is region blocked via IP address just like every other device)
You are not 100% correct.
If you are anywhere in the world that doesn’t offer Netflix native it is not region blocked on ATV but defaults to the region from which the account is paid for. If you are in a region with Netflix it defaults to that region. However, my point is the same that Netflix works wherever you are in the world.
All of the other channels on a US login work with Apple TV wherever you are in the world (Except Hulu) even though their web versions are region blocked.
Hulu is a special case and a unique case on the ATV platform.
There is nothing on a UK iTunes login that will not work on ATV if you take it to the US and login and manually switch the store.
You will also discover that if you are in the US and have location services on you can watch BBC/ITV on your idevice thru a VPN, but you will not be able to mirror it at any resolution to your ATV.
These are all licensing issues, and I stand by my points.
This is a feature and not a bug… It also remains the reason there is no BBC/ITV on the ATV platform…
AGAIN – Hulu is the exception. It is the US equivalent of BBC/ITV player and they have made an exception to allow it in the US ATV platform with region blocking.
It was never an issue of if some organisation could region lock. It’s the agreement that Apple requires for a channel to be on ATV…
It seems pretty point debating this case as you miss everything I have said. There is Region blocking on the Apple TV. It’s exactly the same as with ANY OTHER device. You can not honestly tell me that if the iPlayer was on the ATV it would work anywhere in the world and infringe license agreements, because evidence on EVERY other device shows that the iPlayer is region blocked by IP address. So if Apple did include it, it would be region blocked just like every where else without the “Hulu Magic” you speak of.
No, it is not a bug. I never said it was. It is poor implementation however, since iPlayer is on almost all other devices worthy speaking of. The ATV is about the only international device which does not have iPlayer.
What you say also is entirely incorrect regarding VPN and iPlayer on an iDevice. YOU CAN AIRPLAY the BBC iPlayer, from an iPad/iPhone to ATV outside of the UK with a VPN. This works without any exceptions at all. 100%.
Hulu is not the equivalent of the BBC iPlayer. Hulu is a third party on-demand, subscription based service that streams content from multiple broadcasters. The iPlayer is an exclusive BBC platform. It streams BBC content and not content from other broadcasters. Hulu does not work outside the US due to IP region restrictions. The iPlayer does not work outside the UK due to IP region restrictions. Apple have only US based 3rd party content on their Apple TV, and ignore all international services. This has nothing to do with licensing issues as you state, since Apple’s competition don’t appear to have those issues. It is 100% to do with the fact that Apple are only concerned with US services on their ATV and ignore other international content.
“What you say also is entirely incorrect regarding VPN and iPlayer on an iDevice. YOU CAN AIRPLAY the BBC iPlayer, from an iPad/iPhone to ATV outside of the UK with a VPN. This works without any exceptions at all. 100%.”
We’ll have to agree to disagree then because the fact is you can’t, unless the ATV is also connected to the internet through a VPN connection as well. If the ATV is connected to the internet through a local connection it WILL NOT allow it.
It’s not worth the aggro to continue though, so I’ll leave you with a good day. It’s nice to meet another Apple TV maven/fan.
SivadUk, there is no aggro on my part. I am debating this with you, because as far as this topic goes, you are simply wrong.
Evidence is in the proof. I am currently in Germany, with an iPad and an ATV. I have just connected to BBC’s iPlayer with the VPN on the iPad (so, not on the ATV) and it Airplay’s across to the Apple TV. I am currently watching Doctor Who.
It works. I have just tested it.
Being an expat living in Germany, and wanting UK TV, I have become somewhat quite knowledgeable regarding this. After all, I have had to find out how to stream UK TV shows for practical reasons, rather than just discussions. Having spent the best part of this year trying to work out my best options to bring UK TV with a 10ft experience into my home, in Germany (without a satellite dish as my new apartment can’t offer that), I may sound like a “know it all”, but in reality it is just all the things I learned along the way, which someone living in the UK may not have needed to know.
This is also reflected in why the Apple TV does not include the BBC iPlayer. It is not, as you suggest, because Apple can not region block on their device. From my personal experience I now know that this is entirely done externally from all devices by IP blocking – in other words, regardless if this is a PC, iPhone, Android device, Smart TV or the Apple TV – it is the BBC, at the BBC where the region blocking is performed when they check your IP address (again, external from Apple). This is how Hulu blocks people outside the US as well.
It is also not a licensing issue, as the BBC has already taken this into account, with their region blocking, to allow the iPlayer to work on almost all devices one can think of, whether that is a Smart TV (Samsung, Sony etc), Blueray player, Xbox, PSX, iPad, iPod, iPhone, Android Phone, Android tablet, Mac, PC, Laptop, Desktop, Youview, Boxee, XBMC, Skybox, FreeSat Box, many other sat boxes and even the biggest competitor of Apple TV, the Roku box. Only the Apple TV box is missing. Why would that be the case… Maybe the fact that Apple simply are not interested in their international customers with this particular box could be the reason. It can’t be the Hardware (we know it works), it can’t be the software, we know it’s not the region blocking (BBC do this externally, and it works for all devices as it is based on the IP address) and we know it’s not the licensing (The BBC have this sorted as you can see from the list of devices above)…
I enjoy discussions SivadUK, with people have differing opinions to me. And I don’t want to come across as aggressive to you. There will be a time, most likely in the future, when I learn something from you. But streaming television, especially across borders, is something I know quite a bit about right now, since it is the primary way I actually watch TV.
It is also how I watch my tv as I split my time pretty equally between London, NY, Rio and Malta….
All I can say is my experience differs from yours…
However, it was a nice discussion.
Hi – I’m late coming to this but am hoping I can get some guidance here. Basically I am having the same issues as SivaUk in that I cannot get iplayer content to airplay on my TV when I’m in France. My set up is:
- iPad running iPlayer programmes via VPN to a UK server. All programmes play perfectly on the iPad.
- I switch to airplay and I end up with an error message saying that AppleTV cannot load the content.
I’ve tested this back in UK using the same VPN connection (in case it was a VPN issue) and all worked OK. So all I can think of is that the is some ‘check’ that iplayer does to spot the French IP address and blocks it. EXCEPT that you have no issues with doing this in Germany.
If anyone has any ideas I’d be very grateful.
“Think multi-zone control for speakers connected to AirPort Express routers, Macs or AirPlay speakers”
Pretty sure you can’t send music to speakers plugged into a Mac. I couldn’t anyway but it certainly showed up my AirPlay devices.
Shame you can’t set multiple AirPlay devices (i.e. music plays on the lounge speakers and the bedroom speakers). You can do this on the Mac but not on iOS devices.