Apple reinstates Home Sharing in latest iOS 9 beta, tweaks Handoff interface
Apple made good on a promise to return music Home Sharing to iOS with the release of its fourth iOS 9 beta on Tuesday, a build which also came with a few minor user interface adjustments including a new way of displaying Handoff panes in the app switcher.
As seen in the screenshot above, Home Sharing for music is now an active option in iOS 9 beta, restoring a feature many iPhone, iPad and iPod users relied upon to stream content not stored locally on their iOS devices. Home Sharing was stripped of its ability to play back music with the release of iOS 8.4, which coincidentally marked the launch of Apple Music in June.
Apple first debuted Home Sharing on iOS in 2011, allowing iOS device owners to stream music, movies, TV shows and other digital content from a central computer running iTunes on a shared network. The feature removal left only video streaming available and only affected iPhones, iPads and iPods.
Also changed with today's iOS 9 version is the app switcher, which sports a relocated Handoff pane that resides at the bottom of the screen. Swiping up on the preview initiates a Handoff session and loads app data from a host device. Previously, Handoff popped up as an extra app switcher pane located to the far left of all open iOS apps.
Introduced as part of Apple's cross-platform Continuity feature set, Handoff lets users swap data between compatible apps running on iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite. For example, users can start typing up an email on Mac before seamlessly switching over to an iPad, picking up where they left off. The feature has since extended to Apple Watch, though functionality is limited to one-way transfers to Mac or iOS.
Apple is scheduled to release iOS 9 this fall alongside next-generation iPhone models.
As seen in the screenshot above, Home Sharing for music is now an active option in iOS 9 beta, restoring a feature many iPhone, iPad and iPod users relied upon to stream content not stored locally on their iOS devices. Home Sharing was stripped of its ability to play back music with the release of iOS 8.4, which coincidentally marked the launch of Apple Music in June.
Apple first debuted Home Sharing on iOS in 2011, allowing iOS device owners to stream music, movies, TV shows and other digital content from a central computer running iTunes on a shared network. The feature removal left only video streaming available and only affected iPhones, iPads and iPods.
Also changed with today's iOS 9 version is the app switcher, which sports a relocated Handoff pane that resides at the bottom of the screen. Swiping up on the preview initiates a Handoff session and loads app data from a host device. Previously, Handoff popped up as an extra app switcher pane located to the far left of all open iOS apps.
Introduced as part of Apple's cross-platform Continuity feature set, Handoff lets users swap data between compatible apps running on iOS 8 and OS X 10.10 Yosemite. For example, users can start typing up an email on Mac before seamlessly switching over to an iPad, picking up where they left off. The feature has since extended to Apple Watch, though functionality is limited to one-way transfers to Mac or iOS.
Apple is scheduled to release iOS 9 this fall alongside next-generation iPhone models.
Comments
I know, it's weird isn't it? You'd have thought they'd use similar code for the iDevices but clearly not. Home sharing for music almost never works for me, and I've got only about 8k tracks.
I wanna know if you can properly watch youtube videos on a TV again using your ipad.
I didn't know this was an issue. If it was an iOS 9 issue, and not an iPad-specific issue, I was just able to push a YouTube video from Safari onto my Apple TV from my iPhone running iOS 9b4.
I didn't know this was an issue. If it was an iOS 9 issue, and not an iPad-specific issue, I was just able to push a YouTube video from Safari onto my Apple TV from my iPhone running iOS 9b4.
I have ios 8 and the problem is, I have a cable to plug into my TV and I can't watch youtube videos on it through that. However, I think ios 6 or 7 could have.
1) My bad. I assumed this was about AirPlay.
2) I have to assume that the component AV cable for the 30-pin connector will be receiving future support if it was removed with iOS 8. My recommendation is to buy a G3 Apple TV (I would guess than $50 used) so you can conveniently use your iPhone wirelessly.
Yeah me too. Seems a little odd, but was that gesture removed all together? I know on an iPad 3, I can't swipe forward in Safari and of course I don't get the slide out task switcher.
Does home sharing for reasonable-sized music libraries actually work now?
Define ‘reasonable.’ That’s a very subjective term to use. In my opinion certainly nothing above 20,000 tracks. No ‘reasonable’ individual could possibly listen to that many tracks in their lifetime. Anything above that is pure braggadocio.
That about 1300 hours of music. Hardly braggadocio. If you listen to music all day at work you would get through that collection in a bit over half a year.
Regardless, 20k, 50k or 100k should be easy to index and serve using a modern computer and network.
This is a software problem, not a user problem.
Define ‘reasonable.’ That’s a very subjective term to use. In my opinion certainly nothing above 20,000 tracks. No ‘reasonable’ individual could possibly listen to that many tracks in their lifetime. Anything above that is pure braggadocio.
Just because you have that many tracks, doesn't mean you like them all. Many albums have a few good songs and a load of rubbish to fill them out. Do you delete the other tracks? No, who has time for that.
Glad to see this returning in iOS 9, but I really would've like to see this corrected in 8.4.1...