Saw this one coming, didn’t you? Apple’s new App Store Remote app (FREE!) lets you control iTunes or Apple TV, and .Mac Galleries are now MobileMe Galleries, so that means Apple TV needs an update to.
Could Apple’s servers get any busier today? (And how ’bout ours! Yowzers!) Just fire up your Apple TV, go to Settings, General, Software Updates, and let it rip!
My Apple TV updated this morning, and Chad’s already thrown his old cable box out the window. Are you updating yet?
You’re out with a friend on Wednesday night and hear that, because of the “big game”, the season finale of NBC’s The Office will be airing later that same night instead of the next as usual.
Panic? Try to rush home? Call your mom and beg her to record it? Hope you can download it off the torrents without getting sued into oblivion?
Nope. You just whip out your trusty iPhone, touch your way through a simple, elegant interface and — boom! — EDGE/Wi-Fi sync a new recording schedule back to the DVR-equipped Apple TV in your living room.
When you get home, The Office is recorded and waiting to watch on the big screen. And if you’re too tired to finish watching it, you can just shift the content right back to your iPhone (or MacBook Air, or any other iTunes savvy device) and watch it on your way to work the next day.
Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? Not according to one of Apple’s latest patent filings…
Apple has released the software update for the Apple TV that was announced at MacWorld 2008. It offers new features like an improved interface, video rentals direct from the iTunes store, podcasting, and the ability to browse photos from Flickr and .Mac.
I just realized, though, that the update that would actually get me to buy the Apple TV is missing: some sort of real use for that USB port on the back of the device. While many would like it to support an external hard drive (and some have had success doing so with some hacking), that’s not the feature that I’d like to see.
What I’d like on the Apple TV is something that I do with my Mac on a daily basis - watch and listen to the media that’s stored on my iPhone. I keep my iTunes library at home and sync my music and movies to my iPhone. When I’m at work I plug my iPhone into my work machine and I’m able (since I manually manage my music) to access that media on my computer. Since the Apple TV is essentially a “Mac lite,” and can already access iTunes files (and iTunes DRM as well), the problem certainly isn’t incompatible media formats or an inability to read the iPod. It seems that the only real limitation here is one of interface. That seems like a fairly small limitation.
There are two other possible limitations, of course. The first is that it’s such a “niche” feature that Apple doesn’t want to waste resources enabling it. This seems unlikely to me, though, as it would be awfully convenient for my buddy to bring over his iPod or iPhone and we could watch a movie stored on it (granted, of course, that it may not be as high a resolution as we’d like) — it seems like the sort of thing that wouldn’t be that difficult to do and that Apple would happily tout as a feature. The second is that Apple is choosing not to develop this feature either to help Mac sales or because of pressure from music and movie industry execs.
You know what would be even nicer? The ability to transfer a rented movie from the AppleTV to an iPhone.
Jobs notes how everybody has tried and failed to get movies off the internet onto a widescreen TV. He admits that Apple TV was a miss as well, that people really want Movies, not an accessory for your computer.
“Apple TV Take 2: No Computer Required.”
The HD movies are a dollar more to rent.
The new interface on Apple TV is really slick - the shopping experience of looking for movies, music, and TV shows on your television seems very intuitive and fun. You can also browse and download any podcast in the iTunes podcast directory. Browsing photos is easy too - despite the fact that Flickr refused to serve up photos for Steve. 
It’s a free software upgrade! …..AND they’re droped the price to $229. It will all be available in 2 weeks.
Jm Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, has announced that going forward, their DVDs will come with a “digital copy” that you can use in iTunes or on your iPhone.
  
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The iPhone Blog merged with the Phone different site in May of 2008. Both sites were founded on a premise that comes one from one of Apple's old slogans: Think different. The iPhone Blog: for people who dare to phone different.
