Brightcove Makes it Easier to Develop Dual-Screen iOS and Apple TV Apps

MacRumors · Jun 26, 2012

Brightcove announced today the introduction of App Cloud Core, a free edition of the company's app platform that allows developers to create native iOS apps using HTML5 and JavaScript. In addition, one of the major new features of the API is the ability for developers to easily create dual-screen apps for iOS devices to broadcast content to the Apple TV over AirPlay.

The new solution enables media publishers to develop rich content 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 unique 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.

This ability to broadcast separate content to a user's device and Apple TV is not new (Real Racing 2 HD Demo), but the new APIs provide another easy way for developers to implement these features. Brightcove offers this demo of how it can be used:

There's been a lot of attention to how Apps might work on a television interface. Microsoft recently announced a new technology called SmartGlass which offers a two-way Airplay-like standard that allows mobile devices to act as second screens for content being displayed on TV from an Xbox.

Beyond Apple's own efforts with AirPlay, there has been rumors that Apple might take it a step further with a fully developed Apple TV app model as well as the possibility of a full Apple television set in the near future.

Article Link: Brightcove Makes it Easier to Develop Dual-Screen iOS and Apple TV Apps

ToomeyND · Jun 26, 2012

This could actually have some great applications for "game night."

I know that this would be using incredibly advanced tech for very low-tech fun, but that's what the ipad is about!

Mad Mac Maniac · Jun 26, 2012

YES! I would love to see this capability enabled for many of my apps. This is definitely a step in the right direction. I was hoping to see Apple promote/encourage this somehow with something like that, but good to see someone doing it!

Damian Ragar · Jun 26, 2012

Nice but, having to invoke the bottom bar to launch the content via airplay kills the deal IMO. Would be far more intuitive to have the app push the content via AirPlay natively via some kind of button/menu.

vmachiel · Jun 26, 2012

Great, now i won't have to buy a Wii U anymore

Amazing Iceman · Jun 26, 2012

$ 99/month is not making it easier at all.
Free version is a teaser. Full features ain't free.

kiljoy616 · Jun 26, 2012

Very cool implementation, this could really be great for gaming also.

Owen Imholte · Jun 26, 2012

Damian Ragar said:
Nice but, having to invoke the bottom bar to launch the content via airplay kills the deal IMO. Would be far more intuitive to have the app push the content via AirPlay natively via some kind of button/menu.

This would be very nice, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple adds a related API in the future but it is definitely not possible right now. I won't be surprised if they never add it in order to prevent apps from surreptitiously sending views to a screen.

filmantopia · Jun 26, 2012

kiljoy616 said:
is it me or is Apple moving to console more than an actual TV. AppleTV v.3 could with a little more room be a contender for casual gaming.

That's the thing, if Apple's intending on a successful "TV-like device", the device needs to possess significant feature improvements over a standard TV & Apple TV combo. Something pretty drastic. I'm in the camp that thinks it's going to happen.

Navdakilla · Jun 26, 2012

Love the innovation. Keep it coming!

drumcat · Jun 26, 2012

filmantopia said:
That's the thing, if Apple's intending on a successful "TV-like device", the device needs to possess significant feature improvements over a standard TV & Apple TV combo. Something pretty drastic. I'm in the camp that thinks it's going to happen.

I think it's the reverse. The "TV" is going to get dumber, and the in-hand device smarter. TVs are just big screens, but it's a "desktop" vs "laptop". Give me the laptop (almost) every time.

CanadianGuy · Jun 26, 2012

Great example

For a great example game of using dual-screen well. Check out this shared experience party game for Apple TV: Party Doodles - http://bit.ly/PartyDoodles

Apple basically used it as an example of how to build shared experience games at WWDC.

Full Disclosure: I'm the developer of the game...

charlituna · Jun 26, 2012

Amazing Iceman said:
$ 99/month is not making it easier at all.
Free version is a teaser. Full features ain't free.

I already pay $99 a year to Apple to make my apps which can be natively programed to do this whole two screens, multi screen stuff (see Real Racing, the native Video app etc). And it's really not that hard if you bother to learn the SDKs.

So why would I pay, or worse make my users pay, any amount for such function. I might as well write DO NOT DOWNLOAD MY APP at the top of my description. These are folks that balk at spending even 99 cents for most stuff, especially games.

----------

drumcat said:
I think it's the reverse. The "TV" is going to get dumber, and the in-hand device smarter. TVs are just big screens, but it's a "desktop" vs "laptop". Give me the laptop (almost) every time.

I can agree with that. In fact I still strongly believe that all that 'real tv' talk is actually Apple updating their Cinema Display line up with higher quality and bigger sizes. I would happily pay for a 40-46 inch 1080p Retina Display with a healthy frame refresh and HDMI etc to plug in my blu-ray, my apple tv, my cable box, my computer rather than the same for a 'smart' tv that is full of a bunch of stuff I'll never use.

gnasher729 · Jun 26, 2012

Owen Imholte said:
This would be very nice, and I wouldn't be surprised if Apple adds a related API in the future but it is definitely not possible right now. I won't be surprised if they never add it in order to prevent apps from surreptitiously sending views to a screen.

This has been possible and actually quite easy to do with Cocoa for a long time. First you check whether [UIScreen screens].count >= 2. There is always one screen, but if this count is 2 or more then you have an external screen.

Next you get the second screen, that's [[UIScreen screens]objectAtIndex:1]. Get its bounds by calling the bounds method, create a window, set it to be on the second screen, add a view, and that's it. That's all to get started.

If you want to do it really well, you can ask iOS to tell you when external screens are added or removed, you can ask what resolutions are available and change the resolution if you want. But it's all really easy to do.

Designing a useful user interface may be a little problem, since your external screen won't be a touch screen; so if you put a button on the external display, nobody will be able to press it. Second display is purely for display.

mdelvecchio · Jun 26, 2012

slightly off-topic, but has anyone seen how Pioneer's AppRadio head unit works w/ iOS? it's a car stereo w/ a 6.1" or 7" multi-touchscreen; but the kicker is your apps can take advantage of it as an external *touchscreen* display! (when plugged into the head unit w/ a 30-pin cable).

ex: MotionX can show list driving directions on your phone while outputting the map to the head unit -- which you are free to interact with using touch.

there are other apps too. i think its amazing, but not many apps take advantage of it.

mdriftmeyer · Jun 26, 2012

charlituna said:
I already pay $99 a year to Apple to make my apps which can be natively programed to do this whole two screens, multi screen stuff (see Real Racing, the native Video app etc). And it's really not that hard if you bother to learn the SDKs.

So why would I pay, or worse make my users pay, any amount for such function. I might as well write DO NOT DOWNLOAD MY APP at the top of my description. These are folks that balk at spending even 99 cents for most stuff, especially games.

----------

I can agree with that. In fact I still strongly believe that all that 'real tv' talk is actually Apple updating their Cinema Display line up with higher quality and bigger sizes. I would happily pay for a 40-46 inch 1080p Retina Display with a healthy frame refresh and HDMI etc to plug in my blu-ray, my apple tv, my cable box, my computer rather than the same for a 'smart' tv that is full of a bunch of stuff I'll never use.

Not to mention the whole HTML5/Javascript solution when I've got all the heavy APIs I could desire to do the heavy lifting and then customize my functionality in C/ObjC/ObjC++/C++ via LLVM/Clang/OpenCL without adding a footprint, namely WebKit, on top just to then develop on top of that in a mark up language and a scripting language.

Amazing Iceman · Jun 26, 2012

mdriftmeyer said:
Not to mention the whole HTML5/Javascript solution when I've got all the heavy APIs I could desire to do the heavy lifting and then customize my functionality in C/ObjC/ObjC++/C++ via LLVM/Clang/OpenCL without adding a footprint, namely WebKit, on top just to then develop on top of that in a mark up language and a scripting language.

Yeah, why add an extra layer of what could make your app bulky and laggy?
I think Brightcove's solution is just another way to attract web developers to create iOS apps without having to learn a low-level language. Reminds me of Clarion and QuickBasic, form the old days.

----------

charlituna said:
I already pay $99 a year to Apple to make my apps which can be natively programed to do this whole two screens, multi screen stuff (see Real Racing, the native Video app etc). And it's really not that hard if you bother to learn the SDKs.

So why would I pay, or worse make my users pay, any amount for such function. I might as well write DO NOT DOWNLOAD MY APP at the top of my description. These are folks that balk at spending even 99 cents for most stuff, especially games.
----------

True. There's so much more power inside the APIs already provided. This is more to attract Web Developers who don't know or want to learn OBJ-C or deal with APIs. Sort of what Bento is in the Database world.

hipnetic · Jun 26, 2012

CanadianGuy said:
For a great example game of using dual-screen well. Check out this shared experience party game for Apple TV: Party Doodles - http://bit.ly/PartyDoodles

I just tried your app, but didn't see any way to enable AirPlay. If the only way to do that is via AirPlay Mirroring, then that's not a very good example of what we're talking about here. And in the case of your game, the answer card would be made visible for everyone to see on the TV. Or am I doing something wrong?

KnightWRX · Jun 26, 2012

mdriftmeyer said:
Not to mention the whole HTML5/Javascript solution when I've got all the heavy APIs I could desire to do the heavy lifting and then customize my functionality in C/ObjC/ObjC++/C++ via LLVM/Clang/OpenCL without adding a footprint, namely WebKit, on top just to then develop on top of that in a mark up language and a scripting language.

In your haste to be condescending, you forgot why we have these higher level frameworks in the first place : time to market. Rapidly being able to build and deploy your application is why most people don't bother with the lower level languages APIs and use these higher level frameworks.

Frankly, unless you really need to push the performance, it's much more important to actually ship your application if you intend to do a living. There's a market out there for these sort of products, as we've seen time and again in about every segment of application development.

hipnetic · Jun 26, 2012

KnightWRX said:
In your haste to be condescending, you forgot why we have these higher level frameworks in the first place : time to market. Rapidly being able to build and deploy your application is why most people don't bother with the lower level languages APIs and use these higher level frameworks.

I agree, and it's interesting because I've been recently thinking more seriously about learning to program for the iPhone. My past experience (sort of distant past now) is in developing with Visual Basic and a bit of .NET. Back in the day, I loved the instant gratification of VB. Being able to slap some objects (text box, command button, etc.) on the screen, double-click on some of them and add a bit of code, then click run and you could instantly play with it all. It made coding fun. I haven't started to delve into iPhone programming yet, but I'm a bit concerned that it's going to be a lot less "fun" and a lot more "work." The great thing about a an easy-to-use Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool (I don't think that terminology is used anymore) is that you can focus on the end-result and design aspects, and spend a whole lot less time *working* on how to make it all happen.

Chrisg2014 · Jun 26, 2012

Basically this is Windows glass, which is coming to the iOS By the way. Oh also Android. Also you don't need a Apple TV, you won't need a PC either.

charlituna · Jun 26, 2012

Chrisg2014 said:
Basically this is Windows glass, which is coming to the iOS By the way. Oh also Android. Also you don't need a Apple TV, you won't need a PC either.

No but you will need an Xbox

And it's worth noting that both wii u and smart glass were done by AirPlay first.

Dionte · Jun 26, 2012

It looks really cool, I like the question on the screen answer on the ipad game. Multiple people could play that way. Would be good for a card game like Uno with multiple players at home.

rei101 · Jun 27, 2012

Too much codependency on a machine. That is just madness.

KnightWRX · Jun 27, 2012

hipnetic said:
I agree, and it's interesting because I've been recently thinking more seriously about learning to program for the iPhone. My past experience (sort of distant past now) is in developing with Visual Basic and a bit of .NET. Back in the day, I loved the instant gratification of VB. Being able to slap some objects (text box, command button, etc.) on the screen, double-click on some of them and add a bit of code, then click run and you could instantly play with it all. It made coding fun. I haven't started to delve into iPhone programming yet, but I'm a bit concerned that it's going to be a lot less "fun" and a lot more "work." The great thing about a an easy-to-use Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool (I don't think that terminology is used anymore) is that you can focus on the end-result and design aspects, and spend a whole lot less time *working* on how to make it all happen.

Interface builder and IBOutlets/IBActions is kind like RAD tools you know, with a bit of a steeper learning curve though (since you're going to manually be tying your code and Interface design, there is no "double click the button to go to btn1_onClick" here).

The language of course is quite a bit steeper than Basic, though these days with ARC being implemented and taking away most of the memory management stuff (zombies, leaks, when to release/retain) and the breadth of the iOS classes already implemented that do a lot of checking for you, you shouldn't quite have to grasp how not to shoot yourself in the foot like C can allow you to.

Proper typing and casting rules remains a challenge. Example :

Code:

int x = 1;
int y = 2;
float z = x / y;

/* what would this string contain ? */
NSString * result = [NSString stringWithFormat: @"%.1f", z];

You'd think z would contain 0.5 right ? It contains 0. That is because an operation involving 2 integer values returns an integer. When an operator causes an integer to have a fractional value, the return value is floored (not rounded).

Brightcove Makes it Easier to Develop Dual-Screen iOS and Apple TV Apps

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