Apple TV and Flickr

Only Apple and Flickr will know why that particular restriction is in place.
It's possible that is all that Yahoo/Flickr would allow.

vargtimmen said:

why does ATV only allow you to view public photos on Flickr?

This is really frustrating, I want to keep my photos private but allow my father on the other side of the world to see my photos on his Apple TV.

As far as I can tell this is an Apple TV issue not a Flickr one.

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I've been waiting for the ability to sign into one's Flickr account on the Apple TV for years. At this rate, I've all but given up hope that it will ever be possible.

I echo your frustration. Yes I'm convinced it is an Apple issue, not a Flickr issue.

As far as I know, all the current "apps" on the Apple TV to access third party content sources (flickr, Netflix, WSJ, etc.) are written by Apple, not the third parties themselves.

Frankly, despite its usefulness, Flickr does not get much more than cursory attention from Apple. But the ability to login to a particular Flickr account is quite basic and it's silly Apple hasn't enabled that functionality on the ATV yet. I suspect they just don't devote much of their resources to Flickr for the ATV.

dgalvan123 said:

I echo your frustration. Yes I'm convinced it is an Apple issue, not a Flickr issue.

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what makes you come to that conclusion?
yes the app will have been written by Apple, but permission for access to content has to be permitted from the content provider in question.

it's not possible to make any conclusion as to who decided that only public images were accessible.

chenks said:

what makes you come to that conclusion?
yes the app will have been written by Apple, but permission for access to content has to be permitted from the content provider in question.

it's not possible to make any conclusion as to who decided that only public images were accessible.

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There are a variety of third party apps on the iPad and iPhone that access flickr and show you private photos. Darkslide, is one example. It is an app that is not written by Apple nor by Flickr, yet it lets you log in to your flickr account and see your private photos. There are other apps that do this as well. Therefore, Flickr apparently has no problem giving permission for a third party app to access and display private photos, if the user logs in through that app.

The Apple TV Flickr "app" simply does not allow you to log in to your Flickr account. If it did request or allow you to login, Flickr would provide the photos access to your private photos (they've demonstrated that via other apps like Darkslide). But the app (built by Apple) does not have that feature.

That's what leads me to the conclusion I drew.

dgalvan123 said:

That's what leads me to the conclusion I drew.

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You're still basing the conclusion on Flickr having no issue with allowing the AppletTV to log in to the Flickr eco-system.

Neither you, nor I, know whether that is the case or not, thus the conclusion is flawed.

I'm not saying that Flickr/Yahoo is stopping it from happening, however you can also not say that it is definitely not the issue.

The only facts we have are that currently the AppleTV has no access to private photos. Any reasoning on why is conjecture (ie a guess).

chenks said:

You're still basing the conclusion on Flickr having no issue with allowing the AppletTV to log in to the Flickr eco-system.

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Yep. I am convinced that Flickr wouldn't mind Apple allowing the user to login to their flickr account. Considering there are dozens of other third party apps (not made by Flickr or Yahoo) that currently allow users to login to their Flickr accounts, I think that's a safe assumption. Why would Flickr allow every other company to make their own apps that allow you to login to Flickr from their iphones, ipads, androids, or TVs (via Roku, for example) and see their private photos, but then have a problem with Allowing the Apple TV to do it?

I mean, you can even login to your flickr account and view your private photos through a Roku box. As far as Flickr is concerned, that is a very similar device to the apple TV. Why would flickr allow the functionality for Roku, but not for Apple TV?

You may claim "we just don't have enough information", but I disagree. The evidence is there. Other companies' devices can see the private photos. Therefore it's not likely to be Flickr restricting other from displaying the photos. Apple TV is an outlier.

I think it's much more likely that Apple, who is known to be the company that built the Flickr functionality into the Apple TV, simply hasn't bothered to update that functionality in a long time.

If you have any reasoning or evidence to support a different conclusion, I'd love to hear it.

dgalvan123 said:

Yep. I am convinced that Flickr wouldn't mind Apple allowing the user to login to their flickr account. Considering there are dozens of other third party apps (not made by Flickr or Yahoo) that currently allow users to login to their Flickr accounts, I think that's a safe assumption. Why would Flickr allow every other company to make their own apps that allow you to login to Flickr from their iphones, ipads, androids, or TVs (via Roku, for example) and see their private photos, but then have a problem with Allowing the Apple TV to do it?

I mean, you can even login to your flickr account and view your private photos through a Roku box. As far as Flickr is concerned, that is a very similar device to the apple TV. Why would flickr allow the functionality for Roku, but not for Apple TV?

You may claim "we just don't have enough information", but I disagree. The evidence is there. Other companies' devices can see the private photos. Therefore it's not likely to be Flickr restricting other from displaying the photos. Apple TV is an outlier.

I think it's much more likely that Apple, who is known to be the company that built the Flickr functionality into the Apple TV, simply hasn't bothered to update that functionality in a long time.

If you have any reasoning or evidence to support a different conclusion, I'd love to hear it.

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i refer you back to my previous reply which says that neither you or i can categorically state the reason why. your reasoning remains conjecture (as does mine).

chenks said:

. . .your reasoning remains conjecture (as does mine).

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And what is your reasoning?

dgalvan123 said:

And what is your reasoning?

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My reasoning is that neither you nor I work for Apple or Yahoo, and neither of us were involved in developing the Flickr integration for the AppleTV.

Thus, any conclusion either of us come up with is pure conjecture and certainly NOT fact.

chenks said:

My reasoning is that neither you nor I work for Apple or Yahoo, and neither of us were involved in developing the Flickr integration for the AppleTV.

Thus, any conclusion either of us come up with is pure conjecture and certainly NOT fact.

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. . . ok. But couldn't you say that about any conversation that takes place on Macrumors at all, since most of us don't work for Apple? I don't see how what you're saying is a useful contribution to the discussion. But to each their own.

I'm sorry if anyone here mistook me for an Apple/Flickr/Yahoo employee. I'll happily admit I don't know for sure, just drawing conclusions based on available evidence.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand:

-It is a FACT that Flickr applications on other devices (such as Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, Android, ATT Uverse and even Roku devices) DO let you log in to Flickr and DO let you see private photos.

-It is a FACT that Apple's Flickr functionality on the Apple TV DOES NOT let you do this.

-It is a FACT that Apple designs and builds the functionality on the Apple TV to access third party content (ie: they built the Flickr functionality, the YouTube functionality, the Netflix functionality, etc.).

-It is a FACT that, when asked about how to access Flickr photos on a TV using a particular device, Flickr refers users to the manufacturer of that device (in this case, Apple), see:
http://www.flickr.com/help/account/#1042736
"If you want to view your photos on TV using a method other than AT&T's U-verse, such as Roku, please contact the manufacturer or developer of the device directly."

I look at those facts and draw the conclusion that Flickr would probably happily let Apple build in a login feature on the Apple TV, since they allow it with so many other devices/apps, and I can't think of why they would treat the Apple TV differently. It seems unlikely to me that Flickr is obstructing Apple TV from letting you login. It seems more likely that Apple just hasn't added login functionality because it's not a big priority for them compared to other features they may be planning to add to the ATV.

Admittedly I don't know for sure, but "pure conjecture"? I'd say that's an unfair characterization. More like evidence-based deduction.

No flickr log-in from AppleTV

Look, I've got nothing BUT private photos. They're kiddie pics that I have no interest in being available to everyone. It is unreasonable that I can't access my flickr account from AppleTV. We brought AppleTV to camp to show off kiddie pics in wide-screen HD TV to our extended family, but it's a no-go Can't even AirPlay from iPhone flickr app. **Needless to say, Roku was ordered from Amazon yesterday and it is due to arrive at camp TODAY. Sorry, Apple - we DID try you first ~

LaurelPollard said:

Look, I've got nothing BUT private photos. They're kiddie pics that I have no interest in being available to everyone. It is unreasonable that I can't access my flickr account from AppleTV. We brought AppleTV to camp to show off kiddie pics in wide-screen HD TV to our extended family, but it's a no-go Can't even AirPlay from iPhone flickr app. **Needless to say, Roku was ordered from Amazon yesterday and it is due to arrive at camp TODAY. Sorry, Apple - we DID try you first ~

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Agreed it's lame.

That said other potential solution: If you have a iPHone 4S or iPad2 or 3, you can Airplay mirror your screen and anything on it to your TV.

You could also get a cable to hook up your iPhone to your HDTV, but I think it only works for certain apps, not sure if Flickr allows that.

It's amazing to me that Apple can create great products 90% of the time then turn loose the idiots the other 10%. Why in the world would I want to mark my photos public so everybody in the world can see them when I just want to show them on my home TV? Complete idiocy to expect a user not to sign into his/her Flickr account and show the pictures that are stored.