The Airplay boundaries just keep falling today and now it looks like the XBMC project has Airplay running as a service on their product.
That is interesting news because services like Plex which will be the back end into LG televisions are based on AirPly. Long story short, AirPlay will probably be on every TV made in a year. Oh and Windows boxes too. Expand Expanding Close
Erica Sadun has put together a new Mac application called AirFlick . To put it simply, AirFlick lets you watch any video stored on your Mac or any video from the internet that is compatible with the AppleTV/iTunes ecosystem (.mov, mp4, etc.). Simply launch the application (screenshot after the break) drag a file path from your Mac or an internet video URL. As soon as you hit the play button the video will start playing on your TV via the Apple TV.
The first time we tried it we got an error message but then we left the error window and tried again and it worked. AirFlick is a bombshell piece of software for your Mac and if you’re like me you will find it extremely useful. AirFlick sort of turns your Apple TV into a video web browser as you are no longer limited to the built in YouTube or Netflix player. You get way more now.
Sadun notes that AirFlick is “quite alpha” with 0.01 as its version number. AirFlick has worked as it should so far for us, and you can give it a try here too. A third party developer has proved that the Apple TV can act as a “data server” and as an internet browser to a point. So why is it taking Apple so long?
Update: Erica Sadun figured out how to get AVIs streaming too. Video after the break.
We haven’t put the two head to head (been on Parallels exclusively for about a year personally), but the folks over at MacTech had a chance to run the latest versions of VMWare for Mac against Parallels 6 which was released just a few months ago (VMware Fusion 3.1.1 and Parallels Desktop 6.0.11828.615184) It appears that Parallels is the winner in both general and 3D tests.
COMPUTERWORLD: Apple is making Macs more touch-friendly when touch makes sense. Magic Trackpad is the touch interface for desktops, but how long will it be until we see the Mac keyboard replaced by a touch-sensitive, intelligent device? What would it do?
Some interesting survey results from Changewave today: While the iPad is mopping up in the enterprise today (satisfaction levels above) , it looks like next quarter is going to be even more lucrative for Apple, who have 80% of the market already..
A 1st Quarter Explosion in Corporate Tablet Demand
While 7% of business respondents say their company currently provide employees with tablet devices, an astonishing 14% of businesses report their company will be buying Tablets in 1st Quarter 2011.
In other words, the total number of companies making use of tablet devices is set to double in just the next three months – an explosive surge in demand going forward.
This release provides a number of important bug fixes, including:
• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not play on Macs equipped with NVIDIA GeForce 9400 or 9600 graphics.
• Resolves an issue where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when deleting a playlist that has the iTunes Sidebar showing.
• Fixes a problem where iTunes may unexpectedly quit when connecting an iPod to a Mac equipped with a PowerPC processor.
• Addresses an issue where some music videos may not sync to an iPod, iPhone, or iPad.
At 4:12 ET today Apple updated its AppleTV firmware. It should be hitting devices shortly or can be downloaded for fun below. There is no update list as of yet.
For those of us who still use a Mac Mini (or other Mac) as a MediaCenter connected to our TVs, today’s hack from Erica Sadun is a blessing. She created a Mac Application that can catch Airplay from iOS devices and output the video on the screen. For all intents, AirPlayer lets your Mac do what an AppleTV does naturally.
The interesting question is: Does Apple want us doing this? They make much more money selling Minis (and other Macs) than they do on AppleTV units. However, it would seem easy enough for Apple to include this type of Application with Mac OSX. So why does Sadun have to build it instead? Are we in for another cat and mouse chase?
(update: it is a .01 release and we did have some trouble getting it to work with a YouTube video over wifi) Expand Expanding Close
