MacNN | Photos of AppleTV update: YouTube, security

MacNN | Photos of AppleTV update: YouTube, security

...since I was too lazy to take my own...

Has the 1.1 update been good to your hacked Apple TV? | Apple TV Hacks

Has the 1.1 update been good to your hacked Apple TV?

If you'd hacked your AppleTV, this resets it all - so consider carefully whether to do so. IF you do update and have hacked/patched your AppleTV, be ready to do it all over again, and some tings may have changed.

One reader suggested removing all hacks before updating, then try to install them after updating.

Playlist: Apple TV beyond YouTube

Playlist: Apple TV beyond YouTube

Goes into the rest of the 1.1 update:
-parental controls
-expanded screen saver
-photos can be prioritized when syncing
-can browse other countries' iTunes Stores

YouTube live on AppleTV - how to set it up

YouTube goes live on AppleTV - How To

YouTube is now live and rolling on AppleTV, here's how to get it.

-Fire up your AppleTV. It is on a network that is internet connected, right?

-go to Settings

-go to Update Software

-it'll check for update, and if you're successfully connecting to the internet, it will say:

"Apple TV Update

An update is available for your Apple TV. Do you want to download it now?

A message will appear when the update is ready for installation."

There are then choices for Download Now or Udpate Later.

Select Download Now, it takes you back to the Settings screen and where it said "Update Software" before it now says "Downloading update..." with a little twirly thing to let you know it is working on it.

The download took about 4 minutes for me at 3PM CST, probably servers are busy today.

You CAN navigate away and do other things while it is downloading.

Once it is done downloading, it takes you back to a screen that says:
"Apple TV Update

The Apple TV update has finished downloading. Do you want to install it now?

Your Apple TV will restart and begin installing the update. Do not unplug your Apple TV while it is updating.

Clicked Update Now at 3:06:00, it took 3 1/2 minutes to be back up and running normally.

The Apple logo appeared and dissapeared 4 times, the fifth time the logo had a progress bar underneath.

Progress bar goes away, logo again, black screen, logo again, blink, logo again, blink, logo again, logo fades out, logo back, black screen, then the intro animation. So up and rolling at 3:09:30 roughly.

Then there's a new item after Movies and TV Shows - YouTube.

Select that, and you get Featured, Most Viewed, Most Recent, Top Rated, History, Search, Log In.

Selecting Featured, you can then see a scrolling list on the right with sample frame and descriptions on the left.

Videos start playing after a few seconds.

16:9 videos do play full screen appropriately, but of course the compression artifacts are pretty atrocious.

Even videos that are several minutes long start playing within seconds.

Search is there, but you have to navigate the alphabet with the 4 direction remote - a pain.

OK, gotsta get back to work, more some other time.

But as expected - it is YouTube quality - heavily compressed, and only as good as the source material, which is often OF questionable quality.

I also noted huge variances in audio levels, but again that is a source content issue, not an Apple or YouTube issue.

-mike

MacNN | Apple TV selling for razor-thin margins?

MacNN | Apple TV selling for razor-thin margins?

"The Apple TV may be selling near break even or potentially at a loss, according to a new study by iSuppli. A breakdown of the stanard 40GB media hub's component costs suggests that a finished device costs $237 to produce; this leaves just $62, or less than 21 percent, of the selling price to be recouped by Apple. However, the figure is said to omit the necessary marketing costs for the device, suggesting that the actual revenue per device is either slim or may actually incur a slight loss."

I don't know that I buy iSuppli's #s, do they appropriately factor in Apple's bulk discounts? But Steve Jobs said at the D Conference that AppleTV is a hobby, whereas computers, iPods, and soon phones are businesses. Is that a tacit admission that it isn't working out as well as they wanted it to? Or merely that they recognize the market isn't ready to go big with this kind of tech and approach?

MacMerc.com: Review >> Elgato turbo.264

MacMerc.com: Review >> Elgato turbo.264

"Elgato makes some of the coolest consumer video hardware for the Mac (or anything). So we were pleased to hear that they are out to speed the arduous process of conversion to the latest-greatest in codecs: H.264. Elgato's EyeTV hardware has packed countless hours of programming to high-quality files for EyeTV. With the turbo.264 dongle, get ready to compress video for your iPod and Apple TV twice as fast as your processor."


USB dongle accelerates H.264 encoding - iSquint took 11 minutes, turbo.264 took 7. I'd be curious to see how good the footage looked, and compare that to Apple's AppleTV preset to get a better apples to apples comparison.

The test machine was a 500 MHz G4 - and that's ooollllllllllld hardware, so saying this device converts faster than software is like saying a scooter is faster than grampa with a bad hip.

They are available from the HD For Indies Amazon Store - Elgato Turbo.264 - Video H.264 (MP4) Encoder Hardware for $89.

Macworld: News: BigBanana.TV offers movies for Apple TV

Macworld: News: BigBanana.TV offers movies for Apple TV:
BigBanana.TV is a new online service focused on bringing movies and film to users of the Apple TV. The service has launched with 25 classic movie titles that will appeal to cult movie fans, especially.

They are the equivalent of open source movies - they are in the public domain for the most part.

AppleInsider | Apple announces iTunes U on the iTunes Store

AppleInsider | Apple announces iTunes U on the iTunes Store: "Apple on Wednesday announced the launch of iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store featuring free content such as course lectures, language lessons, lab demonstrations, sports highlights and campus tours provided by top US colleges and universities including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, Duke University and MIT."

Be interesting to see how much of this content might be video, and then presumably how much of it will work seamlessly with AppleTV.

-mike

AppleInsider | Some time spent with Apple TV -- an in-depth review

AppleInsider | Some time spent with Apple TV -- an in-depth review

Long article going over where the AppleTV stands. They get some techie stuff wrong (stating everything plays back from the hard drive, stating everything gets scaled to 720p, other small details), but the broad strokes I generally agree with.

AT&T planning IPTV for Apple TV in 2008? - Engadget

AT&T planning IPTV for Apple TV in 2008? - Engadget: " A well-connected source tells us that AT&T and Apple are working on adding IPTV capabilities to the Apple TV beginning sometime next year. "