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Apple updates Apple TV, Remote app to allow multi-touch control - Page 2

post #41 of 65
6/24/09 at 8:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by teckstud View Post

Sorry- you're right- my apologies to the poster. Sometimes I post too fast before I actually think it through.

No kidding.

Quote:
I still believe more than Apps, just Safari added would be a much better solution.

Lol, didn't you complain to high-heaven when the iPhone just had web-apps? So now you're saying the better solution is just Safari instead of an SDK?

Then when Apple releases that, we'll have to listen to your whining all over again....
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post #42 of 65
6/24/09 at 8:07pm
We use it all the time .. Cheaper to Rent HD movies then cost on PPV on Direct TV. .Dont use netflix because I travel a lot and like to watch movies on my computer or phone.. And would forget we pay a monthly fee.
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post #43 of 65
6/24/09 at 8:24pm
The ability to fully use the ATV via the Remote is awesome. And the keyboard for the YouTube search is the big highlight for me.
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post #44 of 65
6/24/09 at 8:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by djames42 View Post

I have a Mac Mini hooked up to a 500gb external drive (that's about to be replaced with a 1TB drive, 'cause all my media is quickly filling the existing disk). The 160gb drive in the Apple TV would be fine if I was only streaming music and SD video from the Mini upstairs via iTunes. I have a fair bit of HD content now, and while that does stream okay over wireless-N, it saturates my network to the point where any other heavy activity causes the video streaming to stutter. I also cannot scrub through the video very well when playing remote content.

Further, those who have used Boxee know it's a wonderful interface for playing back content that's not compatible with iTunes. While that does stream okay (as the ATV processor is too slow to play back HD content that's not h.264-encoded, due to the fact that its hardware accelerator only supports that format), I find it simply more reliable to play back local content. Boxee seems to periodically drop my external, remote drive.

Both my external hd died . Becareful .
i have boxee. i can't quite figure out how it works ??

help

9
whats in a name ? 
beatles
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whats in a name ? 
beatles
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post #45 of 65
6/24/09 at 10:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

Apple breathed some new life into its Apple TV media hub on Wednesday with upgrades to both its firmware and the iPhone's Remote app that let owners control the wireless media hub through multi-touch input on their handheld's touch-sceen. ...

This is really bad software. I downloaded the AppleTV update as well as the remote update after reading this article at work today and there is no way to tell that these features have been added and the new remote software looks and behaves exactly like the old remote software. In other words this is not "discoverable" in any sense of the word by the average user.

I had to come back here this evening to re-read the article in detail (sorry it was too boring to spend my time reading it at work), and find out what to do to enable the feature.

There is no way that the average AppleTV user will ever discover this functionality unless Apple produces an advertisement or some such. AppleTV is a great product but I'm starting to wonder if Apple knows what the heck they are doing.


Edit: This is a bug. In case anyone else gets bit by it besides me ... if you update the app on the iPhone first, and then update the AppleTV, the app in the iPhone won't do anything different until you then go sync your iPhone to your computer and then try it with the TV again. Still kind of stupid, but not as bad as I represent above. Apologies.
In Windows, a window can be a document, it can be an application, or it can be a window that contains other documents or applications. Theres just no consistency. Its just a big grab bag of monkey...
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In Windows, a window can be a document, it can be an application, or it can be a window that contains other documents or applications. Theres just no consistency. Its just a big grab bag of monkey...
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post #46 of 65
6/24/09 at 10:47pm
Very Nice! Like the ability to use the keyboard now instead of the onscreen scroll & click. Not bad, would love to see the ability to plus TUNER into the USB port and have the ability to watch TV / Record TV via AppleTV.
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post #47 of 65
6/24/09 at 11:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimzip View Post

Hahah. Yeah no kidding. In fact all I'd ask for is a bigger HD!! 160GB is nowhere near enough space to host music, photo & video libraries!

Jimzip

ah, that's not how AppleTV works... the "content" primarily stays on your macs or on remote internet volumes. there is no need to store it locally.
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post #48 of 65
6/24/09 at 11:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by meelash View Post

No kidding.



Lol, didn't you complain to high-heaven when the iPhone just had web-apps? So now you're saying the better solution is just Safari instead of an SDK?

Then when Apple releases that, we'll have to listen to your whining all over again....

I still don't see why they can't just add the iPhone 3.0 firmware update to the Apple TV. Sure the processor is probably too inferior, blah, blah, blah...but if the 3.0 firmware works in the original iPhone, then it should work in the Apple TV.

Note: i have no idea what the hardware comparison is and i have no evidence that they are similar between the ATV and iPhone 1.0. Only my foolish hope that they would make the ATV really useful instead of just a TV sized iPod. Borr-ing!
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post #49 of 65
6/25/09 at 12:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post

I've got my iTunes library on a USB drive connected to my AirPort Extreme. All the computers in the house can share one library containing everything. Next step is getting a Mac mini connected to the TV.

It would save me a lot of money if the AppleTV could grab data from that same hard drive instead of needing a host computer running iTunes. Talk about a waste of energy leaving a computer on 24/7 so the AppleTV can get content from it.

For those thinking about upgrading their AppleTV hard drive, forget it. Apple uses 1.8" iPod hard drives in the AppleTV.

I have been trying the same thing. Two major problems I've had:

1. Every time I start iTunes, unless I open finder and go look at the music directory on the USB drive, my location of music resets itself back to the mac I am using. I think it takes too long for the drive to spin up and respond? Does this happen to you?

2. How do you deal with multiple accounts reading the library? I have to go rescan the drive again from each machine anytime I add music, otherwise they don't update.

Thanks in advance if you have any suggestions...
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post #50 of 65
6/25/09 at 5:37am
I love my Apple TV. To me the HDD is not irrelevant as it the video streams over the wireless network (to me at least) perfectly well.

Every update has only improved on a great box until now. With this new update ATV no longer recognizes the chapter points in any of the movies or TV episodes in my library, and that is a bit of a pain.

2.66 20in iMac (early 2009)
2.16 Black Macbook (mid 2007)
1.5 PPC Mac Mini (2005)
40GB Apple TV
80GB iPod Classic
8GB iPhone 3G

Couple of hours later.......

Oops! Yes it does recognize my chapter points, at least it does using the nifty white Apple remote. Thank god for that! :-)))))
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post #51 of 65
6/25/09 at 7:29am
How about games?

Use the iPhone/iPod touch as a controller. Add USB ports to allow syncing/charging.

iPod nano 5th Gen 8GB Orange, iPad 3rd Gen WiFi 32GB White
MacBook Pro 15" Core i7 2.66GHz 8GB RAM 120GB Intel 320M
Mac mini Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 8GB RAM, iPhone 5 32GB Black

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iPod nano 5th Gen 8GB Orange, iPad 3rd Gen WiFi 32GB White
MacBook Pro 15" Core i7 2.66GHz 8GB RAM 120GB Intel 320M
Mac mini Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz 8GB RAM, iPhone 5 32GB Black

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post #52 of 65
6/25/09 at 7:44am
It would be nice if they extended this functionality to those of us using the Mac Mini as an ATV. I like FrontRow (although have been using Plex as well) but it would be nice to be able to have the same functionality that you all have on the ATV on the Mac Mini as well.
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post #53 of 65
6/25/09 at 9:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by rjmcinnis View Post

I have been trying the same thing. Two major problems I've had:

1. Every time I start iTunes, unless I open finder and go look at the music directory on the USB drive, my location of music resets itself back to the mac I am using. I think it takes too long for the drive to spin up and respond? Does this happen to you?

Thanks in advance if you have any suggestions...

I actually have 3 external HD that I keep all my movies on but my library is still kept on my main drive. I've never run into that issue with this set up. Hope that helps.
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post #54 of 65
6/25/09 at 10:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by NasserAE View Post

If you have a desktop then it might not be a problem. Most of us who want bigger hdd use a notebook as our main computer...What if I am not at home and my my family want to watch something?

You bring up something that I haven't thought of - a family sharing the same iTunes library. I guess I just figured that a family would have a desktop as a main family computer since it's not much use to anyone else if it's out of the house. After all what if someone want's to work on a paper, update Quicken or work on some photos but Daddy took the computer to work? Seems to me that the laptop is more the problem than the AppleTV. I'm just not sure a majority of homes work like this.

A friend of mine (single) uses a MacBook as his only computer and also has an AppleTV. He uses an external HD to store his iTunes Library since it would take up way too much real estate on his MacBook. He's been streaming to Apple TV for years now and never complains of wanting a larger AppleTV HD. Afterall, even with a larger AppleTV HD, you still have to store the content on your Mac as well. It's not like an larger AppleTV HD saves you any drive space on your Mac.
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post #55 of 65
6/25/09 at 10:11am
These are the same issues that the biz sector dealt with decades ago.

Consumers are now finding themselves with multiple network devices and feeling the
pain of having content stranded.

Now with broadband offering better upload rates and remote access tools getting easier I want to see streaming options.
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post #56 of 65
6/25/09 at 10:44am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yensid98 View Post

You bring up something that I haven't thought of - a family sharing the same iTunes library. I guess I just figured that a family would have a desktop as a main family computer since it's not much use to anyone else if it's out of the house. After all what if someone want's to work on a paper, update Quicken or work on some photos but Daddy took the computer to work? Seems to me that the laptop is more the problem than the AppleTV. I'm just not sure a majority of homes work like this.

A friend of mine (single) uses a MacBook as his only computer and also has an AppleTV. He uses an external HD to store his iTunes Library since it would take up way too much real estate on his MacBook. He's been streaming to Apple TV for years now and never complains of wanting a larger AppleTV HD. Afterall, even with a larger AppleTV HD, you still have to store the content on your Mac as well. It's not like an larger AppleTV HD saves you any drive space on your Mac.

Different people have different configurations and needs. Making AppleTV as multimedia center with bigger hard drive will fulfill everyone needs, even those who prefer to stream their media files. Right now AppleTV is crippled because the hardware is capable of much more than just stream content. The internals of AppleTV are more like a computer and someone actually installed Mac OS on it.
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post #57 of 65
6/25/09 at 11:59am
Quote:
Originally Posted by yensid98 View Post

I guess I just figured that a family would have a desktop as a main family computer since it's not much use to anyone else if it's out of the house. After all what if someone want's to work on a paper, update Quicken or work on some photos but Daddy took the computer to work? Seems to me that the laptop is more the problem than the AppleTV. I'm just not sure a majority of homes work like this.

I think the typical family is heading towards each family member having their own laptop. But it doesn't make much sense for everyone to have a copy of every media file on their own computer. That's why the ATV should have a huge HD as an option along with the ability to plug in external drives. That's why more than one computer should be able to sync to the ATV and let everyone else share from the ATV.

All of Apple's "ATV is just a hobby" talk says a lot about Apple that they don't get how great this device could be. Bring on the App store, bring on a safari web browser (with Flash support!), and even though I'm not a "gamer", bring on optional wii-like controllers.
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post #58 of 65
6/25/09 at 12:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iru69 View Post

I think the typical family is heading towards each family member having their own laptop. But it doesn't make much sense for everyone to have a copy of every media file on their own computer. That's why the ATV should have a huge HD as an option along with the ability to plug in external drives. That's why more than one computer should be able to sync to the ATV and let everyone else share from the ATV.

But the Apple TV is not a server it's a media extender which is why some people actually have more than one (depending on how many TV they own).
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post #59 of 65
6/25/09 at 12:46pm
My wife and I both have iPod Touches and we own 2 AppleTv 40GB units. I updated both AppleTV's this morning and the Remote Applications on both iPods. Mine works fine like the article says, but hers looks like the old app. The only difference I can find is that I have upgraded to the 3.0 OS on my iPod, but haven't gotten around to hers yet. Will upgrade her when I get home tonight and let y'all know what happens.

Personally, my biggest complaint with the old Remote app was showing TV Shows in Reverse Alphabetical only. This actually resolves the issue as the AppleTV has always showed TV shows in Season/Episode order and the AppleTV update fixes it further by listing the oldest episodes at the top of the list instead of starting the series at the bottom of the list.

Now if they could just allow for more than 2 iPod Touches to be remotes.
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post #60 of 65
6/25/09 at 1:03pm
This might have come up already, this remote is just about the same that Boxee released 6 months ago.

Someone also asked about Hulu, that would be Boxee as well.
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post #61 of 65
6/25/09 at 2:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RWHGadianton View Post

My wife and I both have iPod Touches and we own 2 AppleTv 40GB units. I updated both AppleTV's this morning and the Remote Applications on both iPods. Mine works fine like the article says, but hers looks like the old app. The only difference I can find is that I have upgraded to the 3.0 OS on my iPod, but haven't gotten around to hers yet. Will upgrade her when I get home tonight and let y'all know what happens.

Personally, my biggest complaint with the old Remote app was showing TV Shows in Reverse Alphabetical only. This actually resolves the issue as the AppleTV has always showed TV shows in Season/Episode order and the AppleTV update fixes it further by listing the oldest episodes at the top of the list instead of starting the series at the bottom of the list.

Now if they could just allow for more than 2 iPod Touches to be remotes.


3.0 is required for the Remote update.
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post #62 of 65
6/25/09 at 3:28pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

But the Apple TV is not a server it's a media extender which is why some people actually have more than one (depending on how many TV they own).

That line of reasoning is a little unclear to me. Currently, one user can sync their library (or a portion of their library) to the ATV. Why not allow more than one user to sync their library to it? If you're suggesting that makes it a "server", fine with me, it doesn't matter what it's called, it addresses the issue of a family sharing an ATV in the living room. Having more than one ATV in different rooms doesn't seem to solve the issue.
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post #63 of 65
6/25/09 at 3:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by iru69 View Post

That line of reasoning is a little unclear to me. Currently, one user can sync their library (or a portion of their library) to the ATV. Why not allow more than one user to sync their library to it? If you're suggesting that makes it a "server", fine with me, it doesn't matter what it's called, it addresses the issue of a family sharing an ATV in the living room. Having more than one ATV in different rooms doesn't seem to solve the issue.

No I'm simply saying that a software and hardware perspective the Apple TV makes for a poor server. It may be better and more functional for Apple to offer a storage/server device where the ATV is just another client.
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post #64 of 65
6/26/09 at 1:28am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hmurchison View Post

Already have a Blu-ray player.

I need something that's going to display my photos once I get around to gettings a good camera that shoots RAW.

I have one that shoots RAW and the moment iPhoto touches it, it converts it to a JPEG.
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post #65 of 65
6/26/09 at 1:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by iru69 View Post

That line of reasoning is a little unclear to me. Currently, one user can sync their library (or a portion of their library) to the ATV. Why not allow more than one user to sync their library to it? If you're suggesting that makes it a "server", fine with me, it doesn't matter what it's called, it addresses the issue of a family sharing an ATV in the living room. Having more than one ATV in different rooms doesn't seem to solve the issue.

Why share media from an ATV when its much easier to manage a library from iTunes? This isnt logical to me. Kids should have iPod nanos.

The best ATV setups I have seen are those who are using it to send media from a centrally located desktop external hard drive (2TB+) that contains hundreds of handbrak'd MP4s and M4V files and thousands of MP3s. Everyone in the house can access this content (shared via iTunes) from their laptop or ATV (yes, a very efficient media extender).

From my point of view, the only thing missing is the ability to stream media directly to an iphone or iphone touch so you dont even need a laptop or ATV to access the media. Ultimately, streaming this across the world should be where this is going. The concept of a a truly mobile media library is something i have had dreams about since the mid 90s. There's software that does this, but Apple needs to go ahead and build it into the iPhone 3.x software. Not sure what the holdup is here... 3G bandwith maybe?
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