Michal Ždanský AirPlay technology is one of the biggest draws to getting an Apple TV. The wireless audio and video protocol makes more and more sense, especially with the arrival of OS X Mountain Lion on the Mac. Even so, most developers and users have not yet discovered the potential it hides.
Even before this year's WWDC, there was speculation that Apple might unveil an SDK for building third-party apps for the Apple TV. The press event was followed by a cold shower, as there was no word about software for TV accessories. The user interface was redesigned for both of the latest generations in February, and the current form is much closer to iOS as we know it from the iPhone or iPad.
There are several reasons why developers were not given the opportunity to develop applications for Apple TV. First of all, it is a hardware limitation. Whereas the the latest generation it still only has 8 GB of memory, which is also not accessible to the user, is a clear sign that Apple has no plans to open Apple TV to third-party applications just yet. Apps simply shouldn't be installed anywhere, as that 8GB is reserved for buffering when streaming video, the operating system, etc. In theory, you could run apps from the cloud, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. Another indicator is that although the third-generation Apple TV includes an A5 processor, one of the cores of the computing unit is turned off, apparently Apple did not anticipate the need to use more processing power.
The last argument is controlling the Apple TV. Although the Apple remote is a handy compact controller, it is practically unusable, for example, for controlling a less promising category of applications – games. Another option for controlling the device is any iOS device with the appropriate application. But this application only replaces the Apple remote and its environment is adapted to it, so it is still not suitable for controlling more complex applications or games.
But there is one feature that many people overlook so far, and that is AirPlay Mirroring. Although it is mainly intended to mirror everything happening on iOS devices, it has some advanced options that only a handful of developers have been able to use so far. Two features are key: 1) The mode can use the entire width of the TV screen, it is not limited by the 4:3 aspect ratio or the resolution of the iPad. The only limitation is a maximum output of 1080p. 2) The image is not necessarily a mirror of the iPad/iPhone, there may be two completely different screens on the TV and on the iOS device.
A great example is the game Real Racing 2. It allows a special mode of AirPlay Mirroring, where the game in progress is displayed on the TV, the iPad acts as a controller and displays some other information, such as the map of the track and the location of opponents on it, the number of laps completed, your ranking and other game controls. We can see something similar in the flight simulator MetalStorm: Wingman, where on the TV you see the view from the cockpit, while on the iPad the controls and instrumentation.
In any case, this potential was noticed by developers from Brightcove, who yesterday revealed their solution for applications using two screens for Apple TV. Their SDK, which makes it possible to program native iOS software using HTML5 and JavaScript, will allow developers and media publishers to easily create dual-screen applications using AirPlay. The Apple TV will thus become a second screen that will display different content than the iPad or iPhone. The practical use is well demonstrated in the video below:
Microsoft is basically trying to do the same thing with its own SmartGlass solution, which it revealed at this year's gaming exhibition E3. The Xbox connects to the phone or tablet using the appropriate app and displays additional information from the game, expanding the interaction options. Brightcove CEO Jeremy Allaire says of his dual-screen solution:
"The App Cloud Dual-Screen solution for Apple TV opens the door to a whole new content experience for users, where HD TV viewing is accompanied by the wealth of contextual information that fans demand."
We can only agree and hope that more developers will catch on to this idea. AirPlay mirroring is a great way to get third-party apps onto your Apple TV while still being able to conveniently control them using the touch screen. An iPad or iPhone will provide enough space to install applications and, at the same time, enough computing and graphics power to run the most demanding games, such as Infinity Blade.
There are several reasons why developers were not given the opportunity to develop iPhone applications.
There should be an Apple TV, right? And not an iPhone.
In short, some of them have seen the Nintendo Wii U
Did Nintendo see the iPad? As for the accompanying information, they did roughly the same thing. In addition, Panasonic also uses something similar after the iPad.
I agree with Nintendo :-)
I don't really understand it, 4GB of memory was enough on the first iPhones, and I think 8GB was and still is on the 3GS and it could be used both for video, music and applications, why would it not work with the same memory on the Apple TV.
Otherwise, I also have an ATV2 at home, but I'm not very satisfied with it, it doesn't work at all via WiFi, and when I connect it to the LAN, it's a bit better, but there's still a delay in the stream, and the choppy and laggy things bother me quite a bit. So, she's such a sissy, but she can't be used.
It needs a quality dual-band router, for example the new AirPort Express looks interesting now.
I thought about apple TV, but in the end I found out that it probably doesn't suit my needs. Can you give me some advice? I need to wirelessly stream video from a macbook or lenovo to a projector, then it should be possible to directly connect an external drive and play from it. Is it possible with apple TV, let's say, even after JB?
Mountain Lion will be able to stream video, or it can be done for now via the AirParrot application (it's also for Windows). After jailbreaking and installing XBMC, the Apple TV can play videos in virtually any format, for example from a NAS.
According to Mountain Lion's specifications, Air Play will only be supported on the latest series of Mac computers. I'm already having bad luck with the Macbook from 2010.. So I probably won't upgrade the system and buy an Apple TV.
So tomorrow I'm going to buy a macbook pro 2011 on sale, and since it doesn't have vga or hdmi and I don't want to buy a reducer, I thought about something wireless. I'll probably buy the Apple TV when Mountain Lion comes out and read the first reviews about how it works...