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New Apple TV Allows App Installation, Needs Launcher

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Apr 12, 2001
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As reported by Gizmodo, developer Steven Troughton-Smith has discovered that iOS applications can in fact be installed on the new Apple TV with only slight modification of the applications required to identify them as Apple TV-compatible.

While the discovery is an important next step in developers' quest to run applications on the device, the applications are not yet usable, as the Apple TV lacks any sort of application launcher that would be required for an app to function.
According to Steven, while you can install apps after modifying its type, you just can't launch them. There's no built-in facility to do that, so someone has to do it. I bet the first ones will be the jailbreakers (hello, SNES and PlayStation 2 emulators!), but Apple will follow soon.
Click to expand...
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has hinted that Apple could launch an App Store for the Apple TV when the time is right, but many users are understandably interested in hurrying that process along, especially as Google prepares to launch its Google TV service offering several integrated applications at launch later this month and compatibility with Android Market applications by early next year.

Article Link: New Apple TV Allows App Installation, Needs Launcher
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/10/04/new-apple-tv-allows-app-installation-needs-launcher/
Yep it is gonna happen and happen soon.
Why do you think it has 8Gb of storage in it just like the low end Itouch 4?

For Apps!
 
Consultant said:
OMG the Apple Game Console!?
Click to expand...

this could easily happen...they could also release a controller like the Playstation move...there is a USB port on the back...could be used for a Camera. Does anybody know if there is a bluetooth antennae in the AppleTV?
 
home screen customization?

Do people think it's likely, when AppleTV finally gets apps, that users will be able to control how Apple TV's home screen is organized? For example, I have no interest in Netflix, so why do I need to see that "App" every time I boot AppleTV? By contrast, I'm not interested in clicking through computers/my itunes library/movies each time just to see my movie collection - would rather have this always accessible in one click.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

Apple tv killer apps: hulu, NES emulator. VLC.
 
99John said:
Do people think it's likely, when AppleTV finally gets apps, that users will be able to control how Apple TV's home screen is organized? For example, I have no interest in Netflix, so why do I need to see that "App" every time I boot AppleTV? By contrast, I'm not interested in clicking through computers/my itunes library/movies each time just to see my movie collection - would rather have this always accessible in one click.
Click to expand...


Oh man you are on to something here...A customizable AppleTv home screen!
Do it apple Do it!!!!!
 
What would be cool is if you could launch the apps from your iDevice (iPhone/iPad) and use it as a controller as well.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A306 Safari/6531.22.7)

tripjammer said:
Consultant said:
OMG the Apple Game Console!?
Click to expand...

this could easily happen...they could also release a controller like the Playstation move...there is a USB port on the back...could be used for a Camera. Does anybody know if there is a bluetooth antennae in the AppleTV?
Click to expand...

An iPhone or iPad could easily do that with it's accelerometers and wifi.
 
MacRumors said:
While the discovery is an important next step in developers' quest to run applications on the device, the applications are not yet usable, as the Apple TV lacks any sort of application launcher that would be required for an app to function.
Click to expand...

And after that is solved, standard iOS apps won't be accessible since there is no interface. Unless the shiny top is really a touchscreen?
DTphonehome said:
An iPhone or iPad could easily do that with it's accelerometers and wifi.
Click to expand...
How? Transfer the video back to the iPhone so you can see what you are doing? Why not just play on the iPhone?
 
A NES emulator? Really? When the **** are people going to get tired of playing ****ing 15-year-old games?

If I'm playing games on my TV I'd like them to be games designed for iOS and the A4 and a little remote or whatever, not a platform that went out of style before legwarmers.

And besides, the killer app for a jailbroken ATV will be more codecs... which is unlikely, since so far the best effort has been VLC for the iPad - an app whose performance is variable at best with anything more taxing than SD DivX content.
 
Of course there's no launcher. A graphic interface would have to be created to be able to select and launch the app with the remote or using the iPhone/iPod Remote app.
 
Why not just wait for Apple to release an official version?

Remember when Intel Macs came out, and everyone was trying to get Windows running on them? Apple came out with the official answer (Boot Camp) right in the middle of all the attempts.
 
JAT said:
And after that is solved, standard iOS apps won't be accessible since there is no interface. ...
How? Transfer the video back to the iPhone so you can see what you are doing? Why not just play on the iPhone?
Click to expand...

The other way 'round.

Transfer the touches from the iPhone to the Apple TV, similar to way the Remote app does it already.
 
Real potential unleashed @ WWDC 2011

There you go, I think this all but confirms it. I think that Apple was hoping to launch this next year @ WWDC but GoogleTV forced them to show their hand.

Everything about AppleTV 2 shows it's being launched prematurely:

- Apps not ready for launch

Everything points to tv2 being app ready and Steve uncharacteristically conceded that they likely will be available for their tv box.

- Cloud storage not completed

Apple couldn't have bet the farm on the rent only model. They have to have a back up plan in case the other networks don't concede to the 99¢ rent only model. Since tv has no onboard storage, they can't revert to the sofa-purchase model unless your media is kept stored in the cloud and by purchasing it, you're simply getting an unlimited "rent" license. A cloud iTunes will need to be launched for that to occur.

- AirPlay not yet available
The best new feature not yet available at launch tells me that they released the tv's ahead of their planned timeline. iOS4.2 will fix this but it's coming 2 months after the tv2 launch.

I think Apple were planning to launch tv2 @ WWDC2011. Why at a developers conference? Because of Apps.

The full potential of tv will be unleashed in a two part app strategy:

1 - An iOS user will be able to push the relevant content of an app to their TV. An iPad user could read the New York Times on their lap, while photos and video from the story display on their TV for example.
Developers will be given a new API that they can call up in their existing iPad/iPhone/iPod apps to designate certain content TV appropriate. Text and UI manipulation is best viewed near you. Video and photos look better on a TV.

2 - TV specific Apps that can be controlled with a highlight driven UI rather than a touch UI will be launched at WWDC2011. I don't think that a full browser would work well on a TV. People don't want to read extensive text across the room. News tickers, weather info, Twitter feeds would work. Full websites, not so much.
 
It is high time we could do something with our BIG screen TVs besides watch TV, or even surf the net a little. Where our TVs are concerned, we've got CHOICE, but we don't really have CONTROL. The networks, movie studios and service providers still more or less determine what we can see on our TVs.

All the TVs those AppleTVs are hooked up to are on the 'net. What could you do if you connected all those TV screens and the people watching them?

Some SERIOUS live interactive porn, for one thing...
 
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