Bites from the Apple: iPhone and Apple TV Get Updated

After a couple weeks of little exciting news, this week brought about a number of discussion-worthy items that range from new software updates for the iPhone/iPod touch and Apple TV and a kerfuffle over the discovery that High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) has been added to the new crop of MacBooks. Ars Technica reported that the HDCP copy protection prevents many movies downloaded from Apple's iTunes site from playing back on "non-compliant" TV monitors and projectors via a Mini DisplayPort-to-VGA adapter, throwing up an error dialog to let you know that your purchase will not work. Ars also notes that it's not a consistent spanner in the playback:

Strangely, only some iTunes Store movies appear to be HDCP-aware, as other purchased media like Stargate: Continuum and Heroes season 2 play through the projector just fine. Attempts to play Hellboy 2 or other HDCPed films through the projector via QuickTime also get denied.

Also noted in the Ars article, this has been an issue for Apple TV users who don't use a pure HDMI digital connection (component video output isn't covered by HDCP), as was discovered by Jeff Carlson as he was writing the second edition of his Apple TV Pocket Guide (which I helped out with). Michael Rose comments at TUAW:

In this case, 'compliant' means HDMI or recent-vintage DVI, but even monitors or TVs that support HDCP may not properly negotiate with the DisplayPort connector to give iTunes and QuickTime the all-clear signal (if so, quitting and relaunching iTunes once the display is hooked up may clear the playback hold). Equally annoying: HDCP is only supposed to apply to 'high-value' digital streams, meaning standard-def purchases and rentals on the iTunes store should be out of scope... but some reports indicate that both the HD and SD instances are flagged, blocking playback on anything but the laptop's internal display or a straight-thru HDMI connection.

Cory Doctrow over at Boing Boing chimes in:

But copyright law isn't violated when you watch a movie on an "unapproved" monitor. This isn't about enforcing copyright law, it's about giving a small handful of movie companies a veto over hardware designs.

Very early Friday morning, Apple released the long-awaited iPhone 2.2 OS update (also compatible for iPod touch models) with goodies including Maps enhancements (with Google Street View), over-the-air podcast downloads, and some functional additions such as the ability to turn on/off auto-correction in Keyboard settings. TidBITS has an excellent rundown of the new features, which was quite handy since I couldn't figure out how to get Street View working:

To use Street View, you must drop a pin, and then examine whether a tiny Street View icon - an orange person - is tinted fainter or at full intensity. If at full intensity, you tap the tiny icon, and the Maps application rotates into landscape view to display a navigable image.

A small circle shows the current cone of sight and street location. You can drag, pinch, and expand, while tapping an arrow moves the view to the next street slice. There's no warning when data runs out; an empty "holodeck" image appears instead.

As you can see from the screenshot that I captured, the street view image can be a bit fuzzy. I recently became a convert to Street View (after pooh-poohing it as just being an excessive wow feature) when I used it to determine a playground I was heading to (with toddler) did indeed have climbing equipment. (Unfortunately, if you're an iPod touch user, you don't get the Maps update, which also includes transit information and walking directions.) I also tried the OTA podcast download, and got a 6 MB file downloaded over my old-and-slow EDGE connection in just about 5 minutes. Note, however, that OTA downloading only pertains to podcasts (no music yet).

• As is customary with these updates, if you're an iPhone jailbreaker, you're cautioned to hold off on updating until the iPhone Dev team can come up with a workaround.

• Another big update release came for the Apple TV this week, which enables you to stream music stored on the Apple TV wirelessly via AirTunes Streaming to an Airport Express Wi-Fi plug-in (or to another Apple TV, just in case you have more than one), the addition of playlists (for movies, TV shows, music, and podcasts) and music volume control, and support for third-party remotes (in case the spartan Apple Remote isn't doing it for you). Over at iLounge, they've quickly put together one of their very detailed Instant Expert overviews of the new update, and included this tidbit about streaming:

  As an additional caveat, the Apple TV’s performance when streaming to remote AirTunes speakers can be extremely sluggish, even on a fast 802.11n or wired Ethernet connection between the devices. Playback performance is acceptable, but the remote control input seems to become unresponsive, making browsing the Apple TV while listening to content a frustrating experience at best.

• However... installing the 2.3 update will break the Boxee hack that Aric wrote about earlier this month. Check out the second half of this post at The Apple Blog for more info on what to do to keep Boxee running if you've installed it on your Apple TV (hint... don't install 2.3). I was hoping to install it last weekend, but toddler duty prevented my hacking, so I guess I'm glad that my time wasn't wasted. Hopefully the Boxee team will get a workaround available soon.

• Rumor Watch: The Macworld Expo is less than a month-and-a-half away, and rumors of new hardware releases are flitting about, with TUAW reporting that the iMac might get a quad-core processor boost. Also, based on a slide shown at the Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in San Diego last week, it looks like we might be seeing the release of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard in the first quarter of 2009 (via Macworld).

• Bad news on the Flash front from MacNN:

  The iPhone is unlikely to carry Flash even if its hardware technically supports it, a report claims. Although Flash is in widespread use on the Internet, running everything from animation to full applications, Wired notes that section 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK specifically prohibits the downloading and use of interpreted code in apps, unless the APIs and interpreters are already preloaded. This by definition bars third-party plug-ins, whether from Adobe or any other developer.

• According to iPodNN, Electronic Arts will release an iPhone version of SimCity.

• Cult of Mac is into DIY clip binder stands for the iPhone, and a reader submitted an even sturdier model than their inital stab (check Instructables for the step-by-step)

  

• And finally, how many apps do you have on your iPhone? At last count, I had 43, and was thinking I needed to pare that down a bit. But that's nothing compared to Flickr user Sigalokos, who has 8 screens (with a 9-screen limit) full of apps (via Textually).

  

--Agen G.N. Schmitz

Comments

[Tracy @ WSB on November 21, 2008 at 03:12 PM]

Embarrassed to say I have ... none. Well, we did briefly have the one that tells you the name of the song that's playing on the radio. And we're still having trouble making the WordPress app work well (which means fun times updating our WP-powered site via the standard app, on the iPhone, when absolutely necessary).

[Mister Snitch on November 22, 2008 at 04:43 PM]

Hmph. That slacker still has room for 23 more apps. Call yourself a 'power user', do ya?

[Hucbald on November 22, 2008 at 05:21 PM]

I also have no apps on my iPhone. After spending a bunch of time browsing on the App Store, THERE WAS NOTHING COMPELLING THAT I WANTED.

No surprise though, I guess. I've never used anything off of the bottom row - Phone, Mail, Safari, iPod - other than Settings and Camera anyway. I never, ever text, I know what the date is, I can see photos better on my 23" display, watching YouTube vids on an iPhone seems pointless, who watches stocks anymore? LOL!, I can't read maps that small, I know what the weather's like, I can calculate in my head, who would take notes on this thing?! (I used my Newton 110 and 120 to take notes all the way through graduate school), and why shop for tunes on the thing?

Frankly, if there was nothing but the bottom row and settings, I'd be fine, because the camera is a POS.

Oh, and the last video game I played was Centipede back in the 80's. ;^)

[wallace@yahoo.com on November 22, 2008 at 07:26 PM]

Wired notes that section 3.3.2 of the iPhone SDK specifically prohibits the downloading and use of interpreted code in apps, __unless the APIs and interpreters are already preloaded__.

That does not prevent Adobe from striking a deal with Apple to get Flash API preloaded. Time to grovel at Jobs' feet, Adobe. BTW, just a little suggestion to get a faster approval: put a higher priority on Mac apps for a better quality and performance. It shows that Adobe is still Apple's friend.

[darren on November 24, 2008 at 03:04 AM]

i want to post this

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