Rumors have been swirling for nigh on a year now about what would come to pass when Apple finally delivers its television. Not that the Apple TV is any slouch mind you, but visions of a fully integrated Apple HDTV have had experts and fanboys alike drooling. News about a possible release schedule and what could be expected of this hardware has been slow to nonexistent in recent months leaving many people filling that informational void with speculation. One particularly juicy daydream was just delivered by our friend over at The Verge and we simply had to pass it on. So here is one die-hard’s dream of the perfect Apple TV.

The goal is to explore what would be possible if the software manufacturers and the cable providers could hold hands and work together. After all, the HDTV technology today has plenty of punch behind it, but 2K or 3K resolutions wouldn’t mean a thing unless there was a way for subscription-focused live internet streaming to link without limitations to Apple’s superior content delivery system. So the Apple TV would seamlessly integrate with all of our mobile devices, while maintaining a more friendly relationship with non-apple products as well.

When it comes to hardware, it’s obvious what should go on the ‘must’ list. You’ve got to have Bluetooth and AirPlay, as well as integrated WiFi technology that passes muster. That beautiful HD quality FaceTime camera and software should make an appearance, as well as 3D technology if they can get it right (which means losing the terrible glasses, of course). Resolution should bottom out at 1080p, and outputs should include USB, Optical Audio, HDMI and Apple’s new Thunderbolt. That will allow for an expanded hard drive, though inclusion of a DVR with at least 1TB of storage should be in the conversation.

Of course, FaceTime won’t be the only iOS App to make an appearance. What would be perfect is a fullscreen App store, where you could buy and utilize many of the apps that make the iPhone, iPod and iPad so fantastic. But you would also be able to download one-click access to the various players you most frequently use (Hulu Plus, VUDU, Netflix, etc.) AND to purchase subscriptions to pay cable networks. Ideally you’d be able to pick a monthly or yearly subscription to ShowTime or AMC, while also paying for membership to HBO Go or one of the other fantastic cable streaming sites.

As with your other Apple hardware, the Apple TV would certainly utilize Spotlight for searching. But in our ideal device it would be able to search not only your library’s content, but anything available on iTunes, within an app Store, or upcoming in a TV guide listing. That way you’d immediately see any free and paid options. If Siri was integrated to help remind you of subscribed shows or TV Guide alerts, that would just be the icing on the cake.

And as far as that TV guide is concerned, the closer the resemblance to our app screen the better. All the channels could be listed vertically, with click-through descriptions. The guide would cleanly integrate with iTunes, so you could see all upcoming releases the same way. Previews would be available for all movies (as on Apple Trailers), and anything you bring to the party through an external drive would upload to the same guide and be visually cataloged.

Is all of this probable, or even possible? Who really knows. This is the Apple TV that will live in our dreams until we are given one in real life. It’s going to take Apple becoming more willing to accept non-Apple products, and the cable providers choosing the joy of the user over maximizing advertising profits. If you think it’s probably not going to happen, you can dream at least. It’s what Steve Jobs would have wanted.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Apple TV, which has recently taken the #1 spot of top-sellers in the TV and Video category on Amazon, is experiencing a surge in sales in recent months and developers like Firemint, Splitmo or Cerebral Gardens are taking notice.

“We are excited about how popular Apple TV has become as a way to enjoy content without paying high cable bills,” said Rob Witman, founder at Splitmo, makers of Air Show, a photo sharing and editing tool for iPad and iPhone via HDTVs. “And we are taking it a few steps further. We are focused on letting customers enhance their devices and use their HDTV and iPad for a shared video and entertainment experience. Companies like us see an opportunity to create very cool experiences to share on the big screen using platforms like Apple TV.” Apple has sold 5 million Apple TVs in fiscal 2012.

Also read: Air Show HD – Review

Cerebral Gardens is a developer that leverages AirPlay‘s dual screen capabilities with their popular app Party Doodles for iOS. “Apple’s AirPlay technology opens the door to all kinds of innovative app ideas that aren’t possible on other platforms,” said Dave Wood, president at Cerebral Gardens.  ”Being able to wirelessly connect a big HD screen to a mobile device enables developers to create a much more immersive experience for their customers.”

Also read: Apple TV gaming: Party Doodles for iPad and Apple TV

Whether it’s multi-player games like Firemint’s Real Racing 2 HD, which offers a split-screen gaming experience from iPad to HDTV, or MetalStorm: Wingman from Z2Live that features seamless AirPlay compatibility, an ecosystem of games and tools is emerging around Apple TV.

Also read: Real Racing 2 HD First to Support Wireless Gaming over AirPlay on Apple TV 2

Witman says that Splitmo has a few additions to Air Show in the works like stickers, art and freehand (you can already share your HDTV-edited photos through the app on Facebook and Twitter). He say that Splitmo is also rolling out some “unique mobile to HDTV products” in the coming months that will add to the growing array of offerings that enhance the Apple TV experience for customers.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

ESPN has finally updated its WatchESPN app with AirPlay support. The update includes AirPlay support for all channels (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN3) and support for AirPlay in background. This is a great news for sports fans and the owners of older iDevices that don’t support AirPlay mirroring feature.

The free WatchESPN iPhone, iPad and iPod touch app gives you 24/7 access to live streaming feeds from ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU. The app features:

Live streaming access to the top events from the ESPN family of networks, including:
* NBA Regular Season and Playoffs
* Major League Baseball
* The Masters, US Open and The Open Championships
* College Football and Basketball
* Barclay’s Premier League, Spanish Primera Division and Euro 2012 Soccer
* All 4 Grand Slam tennis events
…and thousands more live events airing on the ESPN networks

Up-to-the-minute news, highlights and analysis with live streaming access to your favorite ESPN shows, including:
* SportsCenter
* PTI
* Mike & Mike
* SportsNation
* Baseball Tonight
…and every other ESPN original show

Note: Access to WatchESPN live video is determined by your TV provider and, in some instances, your internet service provider.

WatchESPN is a free download from the App Store.

Also read:
How to watch live sports on Apple TV
Watch live sports on Apple TV with SportsDevil XBMC video addon

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Gamers rejoice! Cerebral Gardens, a software development studio specializing in iOS and Mac apps, is launching the “first game for Apple TV” through the App Store. It’s called Party Doodles, and it’s a multiplayer, interactive party drawing and guessing game game you’ll certainly be busting out at your next gathering. Dave Wood, the founder and president of Cerebral Gardens, calls Party Doodles the first game ever designed specifically for the Apple TV, and it’s certainly about time. And when integrated with AirPlay, it really represents the next generation of gaming.

Party Doodles seamlessly integrates the Apple TV with the iPad, a perfect fit that fans of party games should love. Which means Cerebral Gardens will love checking their bottom line next month, as more than four million Apple TVs were purchased in 2011. Sure, that’s still a small segment of all the millions upon millions of gamers out there, but there’s certainly something to be said for being the first kid on the block. Party Doodles in pioneering a new market, and eager fans will probably reward their work.

Cerebral Gardens first thought of the game last summer, when Apple launched their mirroring technology, giving users the ability to link their iPad directly to their Apple TV wirelessly through the AirPlay. Party Doodles is a drawing game designed for multiple users, so it really takes advantage of that cutting edge technology.

So what will Party Doodle fans find outside of integration with their Apple TV? Well, the game comes stock with hours of free content, more than enough to make your next get together a hit. And since the game is app-based, users can always buy additional gameplay if they run out of free time. Party Doodle also integrates with social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and fully supports the new iPad’s retina display.

Head over to What’s on iPhone to read the full review of Party Doodles for iPad, and then make your way over to your friendly neighborhood App Store to pick up your copy today.

Party Doodles is a free download from the App Store.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

One of the new features in iOS 6 beta 2 for Apple TV is the ability to reorder the icons on the main menu, as spotted by MacMagazine.com.br (via MacRumors):

The feature is accessed by holding down the center Select button on the remote for several seconds, after which the selected icon begins to wiggle as is seen on other iOS devices when in reorder/delete mode. The wiggling icon can then be moved by using the directional buttons on the remote, with other icons automatically adjusting to make room for the icon being moved.

One difference in icon reordering between the Apple TV and other iOS devices is that the lack of a touch interface means that only one icon at a time can be selected and moved on the Apple TV. There is also no sign yet of an ability to delete or hide unused icons on the Apple TV menu.

Is Apple preparing apps for Apple TV? CNET notes that Apple introduced a similar feature in iPhone OS in 2008, just ahead of an SDK that let developers build their own apps.

iOS 6 Apple TV update will be released this fall.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

“The mythical Apple television set that everyone talks about is already here,” said Jeremy Allaire, CEO of Brightcove, in an interview with The Verge. Brightcove, a provider of cloud content services, has just unveiled the App Cloud Dual-Screen Solution for Apple TV. The new solution enables media publishers to develop apps for the iPhone and iPad that simultaneously control content, data and information presented on an HDTV while displaying synchronized content on the iPad or iPhone.

The dual-screen solution leverages Apple’s AirPlay technology, which allows viewers to use applications that simultaneously present content, interactive options and data on both the touch device and an Apple TV.

Brightcove’s new Dual-Screen App Solution will be included in the new App Cloud SDK and available to the open source community, enabling content owners to build dual-screen apps for Apple TV.

The availability of the dual-screen solution coincides with Brightcove’s introduction of App Cloud Core, a free developer edition, also announced today. App Cloud Core enables developers to build an unlimited number of mobile applications using HTML5 and JavaScript.

Although dual-screen apps for iOS and Apple TV (AirPlay-enabled apps) already exist, thanks to an open source SDK, it will be now easier to create such apps for Apple TV.

[image: The Verge]

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Tim Cook’s interview at D10 conference and BGR’s report that Apple may introduce Apple TV SDK at WWDC 2012 led TechCrunch’s Josh Constine to believe Facebook will soon come to the Apple TV. Constine argues that our friends’ high-resolution photos and videos would look “great blown up” on a big screen and that “Facebook TV could be a more natural place for display ads.” He also thinks Facebook app could be a selling point for Apple’s new TV hardware (whatever it will be: an updated set-top box or a standalone Apple TV set):

Facebook’s got the world’s biggest archive of photos, with 250 million posted each day, and allows for high-resolution uploads that’d look great blown up on a big screen. Imagine the photos from your news feed turned into a slideshow on your Apple television. Or the videos shared by friends streamed back-to-back. Even simple text status updates and their comments shown full-screen could be a pleasant laid-back experience. It could update reverse chronologically in real-time so you could leave it on to always see the latest content.

And while Facebook is struggling to make money on small mobile screens, Facebook TV could be a more natural place for display ads. Advertisers have been demanding a bigger, flashier ad formats that Facebook TV could host. We’re so used to watching commercials on TV that a glossy still ad every 10 minutes or 10 photos, or the occasional fifteen-second pre-roll might not seem out of place.

BGR reported on Friday that Apple will introduce an Apple TV SDK and Apple TV App Store at WWDC 2012.

Apple will kick off WWDC with its keynote presentation today at 10 a.m. PST. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for the latest updates on WWDC 2012.

[source: TechCrunch]

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Is the Apple TV about to get its own App Store? According to BGR, Apple will introduce an Apple TV SDK at WWDC 2012. Apple TV software development kit would allow third-party developers to make apps for Apple’s set-top box.

BGR reported last month that Apple is planning to unveil a brand new version of the Apple TV operating system at WWDC. A “trusted source” has told BGR that the new OS will be much more feature-complete than the current Apple TV OS and that it’s apparently the one that the long rumored Apple TV set will run.

At this year’s D10 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook made clear that Apple TV is no longer a “hobby” project for the company: ”This is an area of intense interest for us,” Cook said, referring to the TV business. We’re going to keep pulling this string and see where it takes us.”

China Business News reported in May that Foxconn has already started a pilot production of the new Apple “smart TV”.

Apple will kick off WWDC with its keynote presentation today at 10 a.m. PST. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ for the latest updates on WWDC 2012.

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

At the event held today in San Francisco, Apple announced the new, third-generation Apple TV. It supports full 1080p video playback, comes with a simpler, redesigned, icon-based user interface and runs on Apple single-core A5 chip (as opposed to A4 in Apple TV 2 and A5X in iPad 3).

The updated Apple TV features 1080p programming including iTunes movies and TV shows, Netflix, Vimeo, photos and live sports from MLB, NBA and NHL in HD. Apple has expanded its iTunes in the Cloud functionality in iCloud, giving users the ability to access purchased movies and TV shows right from iCloud on the Apple TV. With iCloud, you can now buy movies and TV shows on Apple TV and watch them on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac or PC.

Apple also announced that second generation Apple TV users can install the new Apple TV user interface via a free software update, available today. Still, third generation Apple TV is required to play 1080p video.

Following the new Apple TV unveiling, Netflix has announced that, starting today, users can sign-up for Netflix directly on the Apple TV and pay via an iTunes account. Also, with the new third generation Apple TV, users will be able to watch movies and television streaming on Netflix in 1080p high definition and with Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.

The new Apple TV will be available next week (Friday, March 16th) for $99. Pre-orders start today.

You may also want to read:
All you need to know about the new, third-generation Apple TV (updated)
Munster: Apple TV set will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone
AirPlay Mirror your Mac’s screen to Apple TV with AirParrot

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

While the whole world is already waiting for a long-rumored Apple TV set, and while the Cupertino-based company is struggling to cut content-delivery deals with media companies, tomorrow Apple will probably only reveal an updated, third-generation Apple TV set-top box – just a foretaste of what Apple’s reinvented TV will be like.

The new Apple TV (Apple TV 3?) is said to include Bluetooth 4.0 capability and a faster processor required to stream rumored upcoming 1080p iTunes content. But hey, you won’t revolutionize the TV with Bluetooth and a faster chip! So, what are the game-changing features Apple has added to its updated set-top box to conquer the TV market?

Here is a full list of what we can expect from the new Apple TV:

• It will be controlled by iPad 3: Forbes’ contributor Anthony Wing Kosner thinks the iPad3 could be the “World’s Greatest Remote Control” for the Apple TV, with features like multi-channel previewing, multi-angle selection, unified media viewing and social media integration;
• It will include Bluetooth 4.0 technology: 9to5Mac’s Mark Gurman speculates that low-power Bluetooth 4.0 technology could bring a bunch of new input devices to Apple TV: Bluetooth remote with a built-in noise-canceling microphone to take Siri commands or some sort of touchscreen game controller – like a standalone version of the iOS Remote app. With the FM Radio chip in the new Apple TV, Apple could theoretically include radio streaming support;
• It will include faster processor: possibly a variation of the dual-core A5 chip;
• It will run the Hulu Plus app natively: 9to5mac has gotten word that “inside Apple there are Apple TVs running the Hulu Plus app natively. The app is feature complete and ready to roll out to Apple TV users on current builds”;
• It will integrate Siri: According to Globe and Mail, Rogers and Bell, Canada’s largest telecommunications companies, already have the product in their labs: it reportedly integrates Siri, Apple’s voice-recognition software, to help viewers make programming choices;
• It will be controlled by hand gestures: the same sources claim the new Apple TV can be controlled by hand gestures;
• It will have apps (channels-as-apps): The Guardian’s Jean-Louis Gassée believes that “to gain acceptance, the Apple TV ecosystem will have to offer a library of entertainment apps tailored for TV”, just like MLB.tv app for Apple TV;
• It will become a game console: Developer Michael Gile predicts that “Apple TV will be the most successful game console in history.” He revealed that he’s working on porting Wolfenstein 3D and Quake over to the Apple TV’s system;
• It will support iCloud: According to WSJ, it’s possible Apple will allow you to record live TV and save the shows to iCloud;
• It will be available on March 7^th or 8^th: Today, MacRumor discovered that the current model is not available in 98 percent of Apple stores in the US. While trying to order Apple TV 2, MacTrust discovered that the earliest shipping date for the stock was 8 March 2012. According to The Verge, at all of the stores where the device is out of stock, availability is listed as starting on or after March 7^th.

The Verge has more news on the forthcoming Apple TV:

We’re told that it will have 1080p capabilities, and will work in conjunction with the iPad and other Apple devices to deliver new video streaming / mirroring functionality (which will also fall inline with new Mountain Lion features).

Apple will update both the new Apple TV and the iPad 3 not with the rumored, quad-core A6 system-on-a-chip, but rather the A5X, a dual-core SoC said to have a more powerful GPU. From what we’re hearing, it’s basically an A5 on steroids.

Update #2: 9to5Mac reports they’ve gotten some pricing information on the new Apple TV model:

The Apple TV J33 model, MD199LL/A – J33 BEST -USA, will come in at the same $99 price point (and similar prices globally).

You may also want to read:
Munster: Apple TV set will be the biggest thing in consumer electronics since the smartphone
New Apple TV will be announced on March 7th
Giveaway: Win a free copy of AirParrot for Apple TV 2
AirPlay Mirror your Mac’s screen to Apple TV with AirParrot

Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!