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Apple TV Thoughts


Apple calls the Apple TV a hobby, the reason behind that is, that it will never have the sales figures that the iPad, the MacBook and the iPhone gets. The moniker “hobby” tells analysts that they shouldn’t expect the Apple TV to be a mainstream product that sells in the tens of millions! Apple do say that those who bought the Apple TV really like it.

I am one of those who did buy it, and yes I do like it. I use it a fair bit but there are a few things I would like it do better.

First what do I like about it?

I like the fact that I can stream content from my iMac (in the office) to the TV in the front room. As I have an Apple and iTunes infrastructure for content then this works really well. As well as showing photographs, I like that I can show movies and videos from iTunes on the TV. I like the ease by which I can stream rented videos too without needing to “move” them from one device to the other.

I like how I can use AirPlay to stream content from the iPad to the Apple TV and onto the TV. For example I can use ITVPlayer on the iPad and watch it on the TV without cables. This works much better than ITVPlayer does on the PS3, likewise with BBC iPlayer and 4OD from Channel 4.

I like how Netflix works on the Apple TV, films in my opinion work better on the big screen than on the computer or the iPad.

I like how I can watch movie trailers quickly and easily.

So what do I think needs improving?

It would be nice to add UK-centric services to the Apple TV. Why can’t I add BBC iPlayer, ITVPlayer, etc to the Apple TV? Netflix got added “automatically” why can’t the other services? I suspect it might be a licensing issue, so I have to do it by AirPlay. Now though I like AirPlay it isn’t perfect and I have had a couple of issues with it, notably no audio and sometimes buffering of the video.

Renting movies does seem “expensive” to me, and I would be happy to rent the cheaper SD movies. At the moment I rent the movies on the iMac and then stream to the Apple TV, but would be nice to be able to do that from the Apple TV direct.

I like the idea of renting TV shows, but I suspect that there are so few TV shows that I want to rent that I haven’t done this very much. I either use iPlayer for more recent shows like Hustle, Elgato’s EyeTV to record a series such as Pan Am that I am going to watch later, or Netflix to watch older series, currently enjoying The 4400 as it happens.

There is a selection of internet video services on the Apple TV, but I don’t really use them. I think this is more me than the fault of Apple TV, I am not one to go through multiple amusing YouTube videos… but I am aware of people who do, so I suspect that this is more there cup of tea.

It would be nice to add music services to the Apple TV, but as Apple’s focus is iTunes I don’t see that happening anytime soon. If I was switched into the iCloud then I guess that would enable me to access some of my music, but I would also need iTunes Match so that I could listen to the mp3s I have downloaded from Amazon and my CDs. Though it has to be said there are a fair few radio stations I could listen to!

Now I know that I can “jailbreak” the Apple TV and install Plex on it, but that’s not really a mainstream option. Firecore’s aTV Flash is another option, but costs $29.95.

I guess my final thought on the Apple TV is that for many of the features you need a decent broadband connection, and not everyone has that. I am lucky in that my exchange now has fibre (FTTC) but before it was upgraded my ADSL connection was very slow and I had a fair few problems with it. FTTC does make the Apple TV much more useful and of course downloading from iTunes is much better too with FTTC.

Overall the benefits of the Apple TV certainly outweigh for me the small number of issues I have with it. I think for £99 as a set top box it really is value for money, but I say that with the caveat that you really do need to have an iTunes ecology for content.

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Remove strangers from your photographs

This video is currently doing the rounds on the tech sites, so obviously I thought I would post it here.

No details on when it will be released, but I can imagine as you take the photograph it takes a few more and analyses what is moving and what isn’t and then combines the images into a single image with no strangers.

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Back of a lorry

As you start to look, you do start to find QR Codes in all manner of places. As well as junk mail, advertising, newspapers and chocolate bar wrappers, I recently found a QR Code on the back of a lorry!

Driving up the M5 I found myself behind a big lorry with a huge QR Code on the back. Taking the advice on the lorry to “scan with care” and using my iPhone in a windscreen mount, I was able to take a photograph and also use the Optiscan App to scan the code. When I later stopped at the services I checked the URL and found the QR Code belonged to a waste management company and the URL sent you to a mobile version of their website.

An interesting use of a QR Code, but was it any better than a URL or a short URL? To be honest yes, would be much easier for a passenger to scan in the code then trying to note down a complicated URL. This was in my opinion a pretty good use of a QR Code, but I did worry about people like me trying to scan them in, whilst driving.

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Battleship for iPad – Game Choice #04

If you like using your iPad for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPad over the last few years.

Battleship for iPad £1.99

Experience the sea-assault game that sinks all pretenders. More powerful than ever on iPad, enjoy spectacular HD-quality graphics and stunning sound effects. Launch into the iPad exclusive 2 Player Mode and test your strategic senses in an all-out engagement for naval supremacy – just like the all-time favorite board game!

Now first things first, you can play Battleships using pen and paper and that is probably the best way to play.

My son got for Christmas a plastic version (not the official version) that was quite fun, but had one drawback the co-ordinates were the same colour as the board and as a result in poor light I actually needed a torch to read off the co-ordinates!

So in a fit of frustration I decided that there was bound to be a version for the iPad and I would buy that…

There are a few versions available for the iPad, in the end I went with the official version. No real reason, the reviews on the others were mixed and in the end I quite liked the look of the app.

As a game it works. As well as the classic version there are a few alternatives that are quite fun.

The AI when playing on your own isn’t perfect, but then again, Battleships is really more luck than skill once you’ve got a strategy sorted. Against a human however the game works well.

Annoyed with EA by the number of adverts for their other games, especially as I paid for this app; I’ve noticed that with many of the EA games they are shoving adverts into their games. It’s annoying and doesn’t work, well it doesn’t work for me.

If you have the boardgame and assuming it isn’t sitting on a shelf gathering dust then you’ll probably enjoy the iPad version.

Get Battleship for iPad in the iTunes App Store.  – No longer available.

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Netflixing

Even though I was less than impressed with the range of films and TV shows on the new Netflix service in the UK I decided I would give the service a go (having heard good stuff about the service in the US0 and you get a free trial for a month, so it wasn’t going to cost me anything.

I left it for a few days as I expected that everyone else in the UK would be trying out the service and this would have an impact on Netflix’s servers.

So far I have watched the service on my iMac through the Safari browser, through the Apple TV and using the iPad App.

The iPad app works really well, and I have had no buffering issues, and was really pleased with the quality, which was a good as BBC iPlayer and even Home Streaming from my iTunes collection.

Netflix “appeared” on my Apple TV menu, without me needing to do anything. The navigation was fine and again streaming quality was excellent.

Through the Safari browser, most of the time it was okay, but I did have more issues than through the iPad or Apple TV. Netflix uses Silverlight and though I updated the plugin I did have a few stuttering issues. I know this wasn’t a bandwidth issue as if I streamed the same content on the iPad, it worked fine. I also found that I couldn’t interact with the video controls on the Silverlight player, so the pause button didn’t work, but the space bar did to pause the video.

Overall I was impressed with the technical side of Netflix and if I was to continue with a subscription then I know it would work with my system.

As for the content, I think I *may* be able to justify the £5.99 a month it costs, but I would expect to either see an increase in the quantity of content on the service or regular new releases. Netflix is not the place to see new stuff, but from a back catalogue perspective I do expect to be able to see more than there is in there now.

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Action Movie FX App

What the Action Movie FX app does is allow you to shoot a video and add a special effect.

This is a clever app and I am still surprised by how good it is and the fact that it works on a phone…

Well maybe I shouldn’t be surprised as the Star Wars I The Phantom Menace was rendered on computers that had a similar power to the iPhone!

There are two effects that come with the free app, but you can purchase more effects.

The process is quite simple, shoot the video, add the special effect, adjust the timing and wait for it to be rendered. Then you can share the video either to Facebook, via e-mail or save to your camera roll.

Basically this app is a bit of fun and very clever.

Get Action Movie FX in the iTunes App Store.

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Boggle for iPhone – Game Choice #03

If you like using your iPhone for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPhone over the last few years.

Boggle £1.49

Boggle is a nice simple game that gives you sixteen letters, has a time limit, and you need to create as many words as possible with the rules that the letters can only be used once and must be “touching”.

As with a lot of good games it is a simple concept, but quite challenging to play well.

With a recent update the basic game was reduced to just two minutes long, in the most recent update this has reverted back to three minutes following complaints from players. Three minutes is just about right when waiting for a bus or a train, or on the tube.

There is a free ads supported version, but pay the money and get the ad-free version.

Get Boggle in the iTunes App Store. – No longer available.

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Netflix, now in the UK

Today saw the release of Netflix in the UK.

Just download this free app and you can instantly watch TV shows & movies streaming from Netflix.

I have been somewhat interested in Netflix after listening to rave reviews about the service in the US on podcasts such as TWiT. I quite like the idea of “all you can eat” subscription video service, the key though is the content and how often it is refreshed.

I wrote over three years ago now how I subscribed to the GO!VIEW service for the PSP from Sony and Sky. This was a video subscription service (downloading for the PSP mind you, not streaming) however I only subscribed for two months, not for any technical reason, purely content, once I had watched what I wanted to see, and there was no refresh of content within those two months, I couldn’t see the point of continuing my subscription. Now of course GO!VIEW is defunct and no longer available.

When we got our new TV, which has internet services built in, I did consider getting a Lovefilm subscription, but wasn’t that impressed with the content back then.

With the Netflix announcement I have been looking at the content available, and importantly how easy it will be to access. Alas my TV does not have Netflix, though it may come in with an update later. I thought my LG Blu-Ray player would be a possibility, but alas no luck there either. Good news however the PS3 does have Netflix capability and there is an app for the iPad and the iPhone. I suspect that we may see a future update to the Apple TV that gives us Netflix on that box.

So apart from the content considerations, I am also concerned about the impact it will have on my broadband cap, I have a bandwidth limit on my fibre connection and in recent months we have got quite close to the limit. My concern will be if I start using Netflix I will (obviously) be using more bandwidth and if I have to increase my cap that will cost me more money. Not sure if I will watch Netflix instead of iPlayer, that may be a possibility so may not have such an impact after all.

So what about content? Well that has to be a serious consideration and you don’t subscribe to Netflix if you want the most recent film and TV releases. For example it only has the first four seasons of the new Doctor Who, so no Matt Smith (though some may think that is a blessing). There are a few 2010 films, but most are much older.

So not sure yet, but hey you can have a month’s free trial and that may well be the way to go.

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Take a break

I get a fair bit of junk mail at work, but one of the most bizarre I got recently was a KitKat!

Underneath the KitKat though was a QR Code. Well you know me I just had to scan it…

Though whoever used it hadn’t realised that the border or padding around a QR Code is an integral part of the pattern and it helps the scanning software to identify the code amongst the rest of the page.

As a result it took me a little longer for Optiscan on my iPhone 4 to recognise the code.

The code sent me to a YouTube video which was a good idea.

As I eat the KitKat I can watch a video about the company on my phone.

Overall, apart from the graphic designer losing the integral border on the code, this was a good way of using a QR Code on a piece of marketing material.

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Mondo Solitaire for iPad – Game Choice #02

If you like using your iPad for games (in the main casual gaming) then you may be interested in the following games that I have enjoyed playing on my iPad over the last few years.

Mondo Solitaire – £3.99

On every Windows computer was a copy of Solitaire, partly to teach users how to use a mouse, and in the main for users to waste time…

There are a number of free Solitaire apps for the iPad, but what I like about Mondo Solitaire is the sheer number and variety of games within the app.

Mondo Solitaire is the ultimate Solitaire experience for your iPad. With over 100 games and over 200 different combinations of gameplay, you’re sure to find your favorites, such as Klondike and FreeCell, plus many new games to discover, from Angkor Wat to Xerces.

Mondo Solitaire’s beautiful, crisp graphics let you easily identify your cards and assess your current move. Clever tools like the magnifying glass and the paper clip help you intuitively manage your game.

A familiar library search lets you sort and select all of your games — by name, style, favorites, and even popularity. The categorized interface makes it really easy to find the exact game you want to play.

Mondo Solitaire is a true casual game you can play whenever and wherever, yet dismiss quickly to surf the web or send messages. When finished, simply tap on the game application’s icon and head right back into the action!

There is a huge choice of card games to play and the library function certainly makes it very easy to work out which games you like and which ones you’ve not played yet.

The size of the iPad screen makes it ideal for playing card games and is much easier than playing using the iPhone screen (though there is a version of Mondo for the iPhone, alas it is not an universal app so you will need to buy it for both the iPad and the iPhone).

Mondo was one of the first games I purchased for my iPad and I have been very pleased with it.

Mondo Top 5 Solitaire (which is £1.99) uses the same solitaire gaming engine in “mondo Solitaire” to bring you FreeCell, Golf, Klondike, Pyramid, and Spider. However for £3.99 with the full Mondo you get over a hundred games, so I would spend the £3.99.

Get Mondo Solitaire in the iTunes App Store. – No longer available.