appletv

No, Apple still isn't working on a personal video recorder to rival Windows Media Center. But it looks like Apple has filed a patent for a different kind of media center.

Essentially the patent describes a system that inludes a module controller and a series of modules that could include devices like the AppleTV, iPhone, and Macintosh computers. You'd be able to control each device through the central media hub. So you could stream content stored on your PC to any device on the system.

But you'd also be able to control the system using one of the modules. So imagine pulling out your iPhone, pushing a button, and having access to your entire media library.

Keep in mind, these patents only tell you so much. Some patents are for concepts that never get turned into products. And in other cases, they're just not very explicit. The patents that cover the product now called the iPhone were widely interpreted in the blogosphere to be a touchscreen iPod or a PDA.

[via Gizmodo]

iPhone Shmi-phone. There might be another way to watch iTunes videos on your cellphone. Stream them from an AppleTV using Slingbox.

Yeah, you can pretty much plug a Slingbox into anything with a video output and stream media to a PC, Mac, or mobile phone. But Sling Media is testing remote control codes to make sure the Slingbox can control an AppleTV remotely.

When all is said and done, you'll probably see a client that lets you flip through an AppleTV interface on your laptop, PDA, or mobile phone using a virtual AppleTV remote control.

Of course, it's possible that Apple will announce support for streaming audio and video directly from an AppleTV to the iPhone, due out in June. But if you've already dropped the money on an AppleTV and a Slingbox, wouldn't it be nice to be able to stream media to your existing cellphone without having to buy a new one for $500?

The AppleTV is turning out to be the little box that could. It could be an internet TV platform, it could be a full fledged computer, and it could even be a video game console.

In the short time since the AppleTV began shipping, we've seen hackers:

• Run the internet TV program Joost
• Add a larger hard drive
• Extract the AppleTV OS as a disc image

But that was just the beginning.

So with all this talk about the AppleTV, it's easy to forget that a Mac Mini isn't much larger and doesn't cost much more. And it's a complete computer. So sure, you could spend your time hacking the AppleTV to add support for extra video codecs, Joost, and external hard drives. Or, as Ars Technica points out, you could just make your Mac Mini into your Home Theater PC.

Ars takes a look at various software that can handle video, movies, music, and photos. All Macs ship with Front Row these days, but it has limited file support out of the box. So the article also explores Xhub, Media Central, iTheater, Center Stage, and MythTV as alternatives.

It's important to keep in mind that most of these solutions do not include PVR functionality out of the box. That's partly because the Mac Mini doesn't come with a TV tuner. You can pick up an external tuner and slap on some EyeTV software, but it might not integrate perfectly with your HTPC software of choice.

I'm starting to get the feeling I could make a full time job out of blogging about AppleTV hacks, but this one's pretty cool. Yesterday reports started to surface that you can install the WebTV program Joost on an AppleTV. Since I don't have an AppleTV, I couldn't put this to the test.

But luckily our friends at tuaw have an AppleTV, a Joost beta account, and a hacker spirit. Apparently the program was slow to load at first, but it does work. You'll need to run Joost using VNC so that you can type in your account name and switch channels. The AppleTV remote isn't supported. But hey, you can watch Joost on your TV using AppleTV. No complaining, okay?

Looks like Microsoft wants to give you a good reason to buy that new Xbox 360 Elite with the 120GB hard drive. So they're pumping up their offering of HD video content available on Xbox Live Marketplace.

New content from Paramount, New Line, and Warner Brothers will include Braveheart, World Trade Center, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Snakes on a Plane, and Babylon 5: The Lost Tales.

There will also be new content from A&E, National Geographic, Totalvid, and anime from ADV Films.

While there's been a lot of talk these last few days about the AppleTV, the truth is you can only purchase programs with VGA resolutions from iTunes, while Xbox Live offers up HD content (with a hard-to-follow pricing scheme based on "points.")

Gizmodo has a rather appropriately titled "Apples and Oranges" article comparing the AppleTV with the TiVo Series3. Sure, the AppleTV's not a PVR, but both boxes let you watch high definition TV, play music, and view pictures.

So who wins? Umm... nobody. It's apples and oranges, remember? Basically, neither does a great job of displaying downloaded HD video content. TiVo records and plays high definition TV, while Gizmodo prefers the AppleTV when it comes to photo and music playback.

eHomeUpgrade, on the other hand decided to compare apples to apples today, and has a nice chart comparing the AppleTV to the Mvix MX-760 media streamer. While this isn't a hands-on review, it's still worth taking a look. The MX-760 features upgradeable storage, support for many more audio and video codecs, and higher resolution video.

It's no secret that the AppleTV runs a modified version of OS X. And that means that intrepid hackers might be able to get the OS to run on non-AppleTV boxes or add functionality to the existing hardware. But the first step is getting the operating system off of the hard drive to take a look at it.

Well, it looks like we can cross that one off the list. While it's no longer hosted on his web site for obvious reasons, one fine fellow managed to extract a disc image of the AppleTV OS. He reports that it's now available on various BitTorrent sites.

The disc image is about 200MB, and right now it only works with the AppleTV hardware.

[via Engadget]

The AppleTV just started shipping this week and there are already at least two major user-initiated upgrades that seem to work. You can swap out that 40GB hard drive for a roomy 120GB or larger drive, and you can reportedly add support for DivX and Xvid video codecs.

If you're curious what's inside Apple's latest box, our friends at Engadget have taken a peek at the AppleTV's innards.

PBS tech guru Robert Cringely is going around spreading rumors about an upcoming Apple upgrade. Here's the deal (best taken with two asprin and a grain of salt): Apple will add a chip that handles video decoding and encoding to all of its computers this year.

The chip will be capable of proessing H.264 videos, meaning you can watch all of those videos downloaded from the iTunes store without putting any real strain on your CPU at all. The bigger story will be the chip's encoding power. Because with great power comes... great capability of recording television programs.

It'll cost Apple about $50 per device to add the new chip. But the chip could pay for itself in no time flat by ensuring that every Apple computer sold, from the Mac Mini to the high end Mac Pro will be able to handle all sorts of multimedia and video functions. And in a world where computers are increasingly used to consume, create, and upload videos to YouTube, that's a killer app.

Looks like Apple's running a little behind schedule on getting the AppleTV ready to launch. The device, which allows you to wirelessly stream iTunes content from your Mac or PC to your television set in the other room had been expected to go on sale by the end of February.

Now, Apple is saying the device will be ready toward the middle of next month. Steve Jobs first showed off AppleTV last fall, but the road from working prototype to production unit is often long and slow.

[via tuaw]

Now that the AppleTV is out and about and we can see what it is (or isn't) capable of, there are still a lot of people looking for PVR functionality on their Macs. In the past we have mentioned some options, but today Mac News offers up a review of MediaCentral.

MediaCentral supports a lot of the standard features such as a Music section, an area for pictures as well as a DVD library. Some of the more interesting features that it boasts are IPTV, Skype integration and support for radio stations.

While most of the news out of last week's 3GSM conference was understandably mobile phone-related. But i-mate took the opportunity to show off their upcoming X-Stream Digital media Hub.

The unfortunately named X-Stream is basically an LCD TV sporting 720p and 1080i support with a built in Media Center PC running Windows Vista Ultimate. There's also a 500GB hard drive and a wireless router hiding in there. No word on pricing or availability yet.

i-mate also announced the X-Stream Dock, a small box running Windows CE that connects to your TV, allowing you to stream media from your PC to your TV set, and the Momento digital picture frame sporting 802.11b/g and supporting RSS feeds (think Flickr feeds).

That low rumbling whirrr you heard coming from the west as you sat down to your Fruity Pebbles this morning was the sound of the generators for the Steve Jobs Reality Distortion Field coming online. The master took the stage once again today to wow fans, put an end to some of the recent speculation and introduce some new products.

As far as MacWorld's go, this one was a little odd. Most of the keynote was devoted to the new iPhone, with no mention of iLife, iWork, Leopard or any of the computer hardware. You can get the complete rundown on the show, including all the info about the iPhone, from our pals over at TUAW. For our purposes here though, the big news is Apple TV.