AirPlay

NBC’s iOS app now streams free shows to Apple TV

Christian Zibreg ∙ April 8, 2014

Cord-cutters are well aware that the National Broadcasting Company, or NBC, is one of the rare few broadcasters that allow for free streaming of their shows right after they've aired on television, no cable subscription required.

The company has a nice iOS application which has received an interesting little update earlier today with support for wireless content streaming to the Apple TV, via Apple's AirPlay technology.

As a result, you can now send such shows as The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Days of our Lives, The Blacklist and About a Boy to your big screen TV, through Apple's $99 media-streaming box...

Hidden AirPlay feature discovered in Apple TV 6.1

Cody Lee ∙ March 12, 2014

Apple released version 6.1 of its Apple TV software alongside iOS 7.1 on Monday. The update seemingly included little in the way of changes, outside of a new option that allows you to hide channel icons from the main menu.

But apparently there's a hidden feature in the new firmware that hasn't been talked about much, and it's actually a fairly big deal. According to a new report, ATV 6.1 enables you to discover AirPlay connections via Bluetooth...

New ‘AirPlay Recorder’ Mac app lets you save songs from iTunes Radio

Cody Lee ∙ February 17, 2014

DoubleTwist, the maker of the popular doubleTwist Media Player and AirSync, the app that lets you wirelessly sync your iTunes data, has released a new app for the Mac today. It's called AirPlay Recorder, and it's designed to record audio using AirPlay.

The app first appeared on Android back in January, and it essentially tricks iTunes into thinking it is an AirPlay device so that it will start streaming music. From there it records audio—including that from Apple's recently launched iTunes Radio service...

Pocket gains background AirPlay streaming and multitasking

Christian Zibreg ∙ January 22, 2014

Users of the popular read-later application Pocket (formerly Read It Later) are saving more than two million videos each week and now you can enjoy all those clips on your big screen TV thanks to newly-implemented support for AirPlay background video streaming in Pocket 5.0.2.

Now available free in the App Store, Pocket 5.0.2 also fixes an issue with sharing links to Facebook and another one pertaining to the Pocket bookmarklet, which should now work correctly when installed in Google's Chrome browser...

Apple airs new holiday-themed iPhone 5s TV ad

Cody Lee ∙ December 16, 2013

Apple has tonight begun airing its first new commercial in nearly a month. As you'd imagine in mid-December, the spot carries a holiday theme and focuses on the new iPhone 5s handset and its AirPlay feature.

The ad shows a teenage boy capturing his family participating in various holiday activities like decorating the Christmas tree and playing in the snow on his iPhone 5s, and then playing it for them on their TV set...

AllCast Android app streams content to Apple TV, Roku and other set-top streaming boxes

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

I'm loving my Apple TV and AirPlay, an Apple media technology which streams content from the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Mac devices to television sets through the company's $99 set-top box.

Unfortunately, AirPlay is a proprietary technology that only works with Apple hardware. Don't you just wish the industry finally settled on a single cross-platform streaming media standard?

That's the issue a new application for Android devices is attempting to tackle. Created by CyanogenMod developer Koushik Dutta, the AllCast app lets you stream online (Dropbox, Google Drive and so forth) or locally-stored content to your Apple TV, Roku and a number of other set-top boxes and DLNA-compatible devices such as the PlayStation 3 console.

Currently in beta, the software works surprisingly well and I've included a video to show it to you right after the break...

Slingbox gains AirPlay place-shifting, Blockbuster movies, plays nice with Mavericks

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated August 26, 2017

The Slingbox, a TV streaming media device made by Sling Media, has received a nice little firmware update earlier today bringing support for AirPlay, a technology from Apple that streams media from iOS devices and Macs to a TV set through the $99 Apple TV set-top box. It's a notable enhancement: with AirPlay, owners of Slingboxes can stream live television from their Slingbox-connected TV to any Apple TV-connected TV set.

In addition to AirPlay support, the firmware update brings on-demand high-definition movies from Blockbuster and support for Apple's just-released OS X Mavericks (a free upgrade on the Mac App Store). More on that in just a second...

Yahoo Screen update adds AirPlay multitasking

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated February 1, 2018

Yahoo last month posted a new iPhone and iPad app, Screen, pitched as a remote control for web video of sorts.

That's a tall order, I know, but keep in mind that the Internet giant hosts tons of original and licensed news, sports, food and entertainment video content from the likes of MLB, UFC, The Onion, Martha Stewart and others.

Deal breaker: AirPlay support was non-existent.

That's quite a bummer for yours truly as those juicy vids beg to be watched on my big screen TV. Luckily for me (and everyone else), Yahoo heard my pain and issued an update so I can now finally beam a clip to a TV through my $99 Apple TV box while using the app to browse Yahoo's Screen library. Cool!

New Netflix update adds iOS 7 compatibility, HD streaming, and AirPlay support

Jeff Benjamin ∙ Updated March 15, 2018

Netflix has updated its popular video streaming app with some much wanted features that are sure to make its users happy. First, the app now supports iOS 7, which means it brings more of the iOS 7 inspired design language to the table. You'll see that reflected in the fonts, the drop down menus, status bar, etc.

The next big thing you should notice is support for streaming HD content, if the content you wish to play has an HD feed available. To differentiate HD content, Netflix has added an "HD" symbol below the title of its shows. To go along with the new ability to stream HD, support has been added for proper AirPlay streaming to an Apple TV device.

All in all, it's a pretty huge update for fans of Netflix. It also means that you no longer have to look to workarounds when it comes to streaming your favorite shows to the big screen.

Apple pulls ATV 6.0 update following user complaints

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

I was met with disappointment yesterday, when I turned on my Apple TV to download and install the new 6.0 update. The set-top box, which is still running ATV software version 5.3, told me that my firmware was already up-to-date.

And apparently, I'm not the only one experiencing this issue. I guess in addition to support for iTunes Radio, AirPlay from iCloud, and iTunes music purchases, the software also included several bugs. Because Apple just pulled it...

Apple TV 6.0 is out: iTunes Radio, AirPlay from iCloud, iTunes music purchases, more

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 29, 2016

Following today's launch of the new iPhone 5s/5c and Wednesday's public release of iOS 7, Apple on Friday issued a major new software update to its "hobby project," the $99 Apple TV streaming set-top box. The company's been testing a companion Apple TV update since announcing iOS 7 at June's WWDC.

We previously caught glimpses of some of the new features such as AirPlay enhancements, automatic device configuration over Bluetooth, custom subtitles and Conference Room Mode for presenters. All of these goodies - and then some - are now readily available to Apple TV owners.

Go past the fold for the full details on iCloud Photos and Videos, iTunes Music Store purchases, Podcasts, AirPlay from iCloud and other Apple TV enhancements...

Amazon Instant Video iOS app now does AirPlay

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 17, 2013

Amazon released its Instant Video client for the iPhone and iPad in August 2012 as a way for Apple customers to access its growing library of movies and television shows from their iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices. The online retail giant hasn't been updating the software much, apart from June's update with visual tweaks and personal recommendations for movies and television shows based on your past viewing habits.

My biggest gripe with any type of software that does video is the absence of AirPlay streaming support. If you get your entertainment from Amazon, you should update your Amazon Instant Video installation to the latest version which not only enables Apple's AirPlay technology, but also includes a few other nice-to-haves...