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Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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Yesterday, we noted that an easter egg had been discovered in Elgato's EyeTV iPhone application that allowed users to stream live TV to their devices over 3G wireless networks. While the workaround had been present since the application's launch late last month, it hadn't gained significant publicity until yesterday, and Apple quickly moved to pull the application from the App Store due to its agreement with AT&T not to allow television signals to be "redirected" to mobile devices.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Elgato has issued a statement claiming that the feature was related to test code that the company failed to remove from the application prior to submitting it to Apple and noting that a revised version of the application lacking the functionality has been submitted for App Store review.
Apple's response, on AT&T's behalf, was swift. Elgato's Mike Evangelist told me the following in an e-mail just now:

"Some test code that enabled live TV streaming over the cellular network was accidentally left in the EyeTV app. Apple requested that we remove the code since their agreement with AT&T does not allow redirecting TV signals over the cellular network. The code was removed and a 1.0.1 version of the EyeTV app was submitted. We expect EyeTV to return to the App Store when the 1.0.1 version is approved."

Article Link: EyeTV iPhone App Pulled by Apple, Revised Version Submitted
 

Longey Nowze

macrumors regular
Apr 18, 2001
222
0
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

I don't understand why AT&T gets to decide, interfere with the choices and features available to iPhone users around the world! If my carrier is better equiped or even just less of a tyrrant why do we get to suffer?!

Don't developers have a choice where to offer their apps? I'm sorry to say this, but why don't they offer their Crippled apps just in the US store?! Why do we have to suffer?!
 

kolax

macrumors G3
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Got the work around to work - though it is pretty laggy. It'll play fine for 10 secs then stop, buffer for a minute or so.

It'd be great if it worked flawlessly!
 

hanpa

macrumors regular
Aug 27, 2009
100
7
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7A400 Safari/528.16)

I don't understand why AT&T gets to decide, interfere with the choices and features available to iPhone users around the world! If my carrier is better equiped or even just less of a tyrrant why do we get to suffer?!

Don't developers have a choice where to offer their apps? I'm sorry to say this, but why don't they offer their Crippled apps just in the US store?! Why do we have to suffer?!

I agree. The rest of the should not have crippled apps due to the agreement between Apple and AT&T. This is one of the reasons why jailbreaking using e.g. 3gunrestrictor is more or less required. I don't want to jailbreak but I probably will sooner or later. The agreement is not valid in my country!
 

RoboCop001

macrumors 68000
Oct 4, 2005
1,561
451
Toronto, Canada
They make restrictions, and we fall back.

They get rid of entire apps, and we fall back.

Well not again. The line must be drawn HEAH! This fahhh NO FAHHTHER!

And IIIIIIII will make them PAY for what they've done!!!!
 

knewsom

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2005
949
0
When the FCC finally clamps down and throws Apple and ATT in the slammer, I think I know who will be pitching and who will be catching in their shower-room encounters. :eek:
 

kas23

macrumors 603
Oct 28, 2007
5,629
288
This proves, beyond any reasonable dispute, that AT&T plays a significant role in the app approval process. This is in direct violation of the FCC's vision of net neutrality. I hope the FCC is privy to this latest move.
 

TraceyS/FL

macrumors 601
Jan 11, 2007
4,173
313
North Central Florida
I agree. The rest of the should not have crippled apps due to the agreement between Apple and AT&T. This is one of the reasons why jailbreaking using e.g. 3gunrestrictor is more or less required. I don't want to jailbreak but I probably will sooner or later. The agreement is not valid in my country!

I agree.... why should the rest of the world have to suffer because of AT&T? Bad enough the US has too.....
 

LoganT

macrumors 68020
Jan 9, 2007
2,382
134
Got the work around to work - though it is pretty laggy. It'll play fine for 10 secs then stop, buffer for a minute or so.

It'd be great if it worked flawlessly!

Change the quality of the stream. When you're in Live TV and looking at the guide press the gears button at the top right corner and slide the the kbps to a lower quality.
 

jordanh91

macrumors member
When the FCC finally clamps down and throws Apple and ATT in the slammer, I think I know who will be pitching and who will be catching in their shower-room encounters. :eek:
Yeah, AT&T doesn't need to be domineering Apple like this :( I'm sure someone has already said this, but isnt it rather redundant that AT&T isn't letting us stream video from an app store app, yet they allow YouTube to be accessed by thousands of users everyday?(rough estimate) :/

Man will I be glad when Apple and AT&T split. :D
 

Eddyisgreat

macrumors 601
Oct 24, 2007
4,851
2
Just great. Can we backup .ipa's if our phones aren't jail broken? I need to keep it just incase I hit update.
 

fpnc

macrumors 68000
Oct 30, 2002
1,979
133
San Diego, CA
Yeah, AT&T doesn't need to be domineering Apple like this :( I'm sure someone has already said this, but isnt it rather redundant that AT&T isn't letting us stream video from an app store app, yet they allow YouTube to be accessed by thousands of users everyday?(rough estimate)...
There are a lot of iPhone apps in the iTunes Store that allow video streaming. It's only live TV that can't be streamed. You can, however, stream TV that has been pre-recorded (i.e. time shifted).

I'm not certain why they make this distinction, but it could be because AT&T's legal team is afraid that they could get in trouble for enabling the rebroadcasting of live TV. Also, I suspect there could be a "crush" of users if breaking news occurred and everyone attempted to view CNN at the same moment on their iPhones.
 

jordanh91

macrumors member
There are a lot of iPhone apps in the iTunes Store that allow video streaming. It's only live TV that can't be streamed. You can, however, stream TV that has been pre-recorded (i.e. time shifted).
That's what I meant. :)

Still, it's not like watching streaming live tv (at low quality) is going to bring the whole network down, but then again, you can't be sure with AT&T. :D

edit: I suppose it could be due to legality as well. I don't see users selling iPhone quality streamed tv, though...
 

utazdevl

macrumors regular
Jul 18, 2008
148
103
Rights issue

I hate in any way shape or form to seem like I am defending AT&T, but it is possible that this is not an issue of streaming or clogging their network. It is possible that this is a rights issue, and AT&T might not have the ownership/rights to allow users to stream Live TV over their networks, or at least their concern is that some content on Live TV have independently sold rights to their product being shown live on the net (for example, the Sporting Leagues typically sell the rights to stream their games on the net to different companies than the networks that broadcast their games on TV and/or radio).

Wi-Fi is out of the AT&T network and streaming pre-recorded elements is basically just accessing your computer and its data you have recorded on the hard drive (which AT&T accepts no responsibility for). Streaming Live TV might get into a whole royalties issue with the networks and producers. This might explain Slingbox as well, as (correct me if I am wrong) that only allows you to stream on Wi-Fi.

This would be similar to the XM/Sirius application, that does not allow you to listen to things like MLB over the app, as XM/Sirius does not own the internet rights to the product, so they cannot distribute it.

I have no inside information or anything, so I might be talking out of my butt, but this might not be AT&T's fault.
 

kiljoy616

macrumors 68000
Apr 17, 2008
1,795
0
USA
Copy Rights anyone

I see more of copy right issues and problems with how copyrights work in today's world, until we resolve that this is going to be a problem we will see again.

But with ATT sucking and bitching about their network issues I can also see ATT saying if we allow this and many people start doing it say on the weekend we could see areas basically going down the tube when it comes to speed. Maybe all this will be resolve if we finally get real copyright legislation or 4G comes out and actually does what it promises, we can only wait and see what the next excuse will be.
 

SimonTheSoundMa

macrumors 65816
Aug 6, 2006
1,033
213
Birmingham, UK
I can’t wait for AT&T to loose their exclusivity. They are interfering with development because of their sub-standard network. The iPhone OS platform is being held back by them.

Apple need to get a grip and see what other platforms, phone operators and countries are doing.

3G in the UK is advertised as a network for video and audio streaming, iPhone is the only device which does not do this.

Anyone in the USA want to complain to the FCC?
 
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