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The £100 Apple TV really could be Apple’s secret weapon in the living room, but it’s basically gimped, especially in the UK. No apps, no browser, not much content other than Netflix and expensive iTunes. But what’s this? Apple’s adding full Bluetooth keyboard support? Now you’re talking.
Given that the Apple TV is essentially an iPad without a screen, there’s no end to things you could do with it, given apps and a keyboard. By adding Bluetooth keyboard support, and possibly support for a Magic Trackpad or something, and if you added mobile Safari in there and iOS apps too, Apple could turn its stealth ‘hobby’ into a Trojan horse for living room domination.
OK, so web browsers on TVs have never gone down well, but imagine keyboard support and apps. BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD, Now TV, LoveFilm, and any number of streaming apps, plus anything that needs a bit of light text entry — Tweetbot or Facebook on your TV anyone?
We heard Tim Cook upgrade the Apple TV from a ‘hobby’ to ‘an intense area of interest’, maybe this is more what he was thinking, rather than a full-blown Apple HDTV? [9to5Mac]
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And don’t forget it makes one of the best XBMC base units going.
Sam, your wishlist sounds exactly like what my Xbox + Smartglass already does…
It’s aimed at people who are in Apple’s environment completely.
I use my Xbox and Smartglass all the time, but my ATV is my ‘go to’ for watching Netflix or streaming films or iTunes Match. It’s because it’s always on (it does sleep but wakes really quick) and is fast to use. My 360 needs time to boot up and then navigating it is slower than the ATV. It’s also noisier but that isn’t so much an issue. If you have a 360 and Smartglass and are not in Apple’s ecosystem, then you’re not missing anything. Me, I use both for what I feel they do best
I completely understand. With the quieter Xbox revision and the Netflix App…you effectively have the same thing.
Horses for courses.
I’d give my right arm for iPlayer, 4oD and LoveFilm on the ATV (though would make typing on a paired keyboard a little slower…)
4OD is the only one on that list you can’t have already via Airplay. You could, but they disabled Airplay support at the same time as they introduced the 3 minutes of mandatory ads before a stream. I’ve not used it since.
iPlayer works great, as (I hear) does LoveFilm (we don’t have it, a friend does).
Well, the ads I won’t criticize, perfect time to make a cuppa. Besides, this is how Channel4 makes it’s money, entirely from commercial sponsorship. If we take this away, 4oD is gone. Afterall, it’s not the BBC and funded by the license fee.
But I agree with you 100% on Airplay. There was no excuse to remove this. At a time, when all other services are improving their Airplay (just before 4oD removed theirs, ITV added full screen, and just last week the BBC improved theirs to not need mirroring).
Shame on 4oD.
Am I in some parallel universe? My HDMI works and the iPlayer app has never needed mirroring to work. Odd.
Now, if the BBC could *please* allow the iOS gadget to go to sleep but keep playing rather than running the battery down by keeping the screen at full brightness when using Airplay then I’d be happy.
That was an earlier version of BBC’s iPlayer. It required mirroring to work, but had a full screen hack (unlike Demand5 where there are black borders on all sides). Basically, it was much like what the ITV app currently uses now. You need mirroring, but it has a hack that makes it full screen.
It may have been an earlier update that removed this from the BBC, and last weeks update was just the quality improvement. I may have made a mistake on the timings there, as once I started using the iPlayer directly in my SmartTV, I stopped with the iPad app as I hated the mirroring hack and poor quality.
Funny how such a simple improvement turns things around. I now prefer to use the iPad app and Airplay as the quality is so much better and the UI is an improvement over the SmartTV.
I always see Apple TV described as: “No apps, no browser, not much content other than Netflix and expensive iTunes”.
This completely misses the point about what the Apple TV is. It’s a fantastically convenient way to make your other Apple gadgets play nice with your telly. If you have any iOS device, then it has *every* app (except 4OD – idiots) via Airplay, it’ll stream your tunes direct from your phone or from iTunes on any PC in the house, a keyboard (via remote), etc etc. It’s an interface for other Apple gadgets, and it does that wonderfully.
Now of course if it did more as a stand alone that would be wonderful, but it’s already pretty great *if* you are in the fruit ecosystem already.
apart from the fact that hdmi is currently borked on the Apple TV due to Apple not rolling out intels fix for its HD4000 graphics chipset
Is HDMI borked?? It’s working fine on HDMI for me. Never had a second’s problem direct, from iOS or from OSX.
^^Sounds just like my android hdmi dongle – except the dongle is smaller to the point of being invisible, self powered from tv, far cheaper, browses, streams from and to any device via wifi, easily connects to bluetooth keyboard/mouse and plays 4OD…
please can you share with us what you use?
+ ebay/amazon link if poss.
Ta
here’s one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Google-SMART-TV-Cloud-Stick-Android-4-0-Mini-WIFI-IP-TV-PC-FULL-HD-1080p-3D-HDMI-/290812101518?pt=UK_Sound_Vision_Internet_TV_Media_Streamers&hash=item43b5c0838e
How well does 4oD work with this Dongle? And if you have Overplay or UnblockUS, could you test out TVNZ :O)
works fine, no specialised app but 4od automatically sends you to the optimised page for android phones when using boat browser or any browser that can run flash…
can’t check out the others for you i’m afraid
Thanks for checking 4oD anyway :O) I think I’m going to try one of these sticks. The new Favi SmartStick may be a good option when it arrives in Europe in a couple of weeks.
ATV3 jailbreak please!
Have people not considered that Airplay is another trojan horse? Assuming it is proprietary (patented etc), Apple could license Airplay technology to TV makers and obsolete the need for a set top box at all. Simply pair your iDevice (or Mac) with the TV and fire whatever content you want to the big screen – without having to touch anything on the remote control?
(Cross posting this comment on the other Apple TV story.)