Hasta La Gadget!

Sometimes minor-sounding events presage bigger things to come (and sometimes not), so Cupertino’s recent addition of a new subscription service app to Apple TV in Germany, Watchever, made our ears perk up. The service — which is still rolling out in the country and may not work on all devices, according to its Facebook page — offers Netflix-like streaming of movies and TV shows in dubbed German or original formats for €9 ($12) per month. More significantly, it marks one of the first times Apple TV has added programming specific to a single region on its streaming service, perhaps marking a new trend we could see elsewhere, too. Apple currently has paid subscription apps like NBA, MLB and WSJ from which it gets a nice cut, so a regional expansion would make financial sense — particularly in countries that don’t know a pop fly from a pop tune.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Apple

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Via: TNW

Source: Watchever (Facebook), (Twitter)

If you’re the early adopting type living in an Apple ecosystem, you probably upgraded to iTunes 11 almost as soon as the bits reached the servers. You might not have noticed that Apple gave its iOS Remote app and Apple TV firmware shots in the arm to match. Of the two, Remote 3.0 is the larger update and brings a simpler UI that also takes advantage of iTunes’ new Up Next feature to add or prune out songs in ongoing playlists on a host computer. iPad owners reap the most rewards — the album view now expands in place to quickly drill down to a specific track. Apple TV viewers aren’t quite so coddled, although they too get Up Next support for iTunes 11 (and iTunes Match) as well as the usual rounds of speed-ups and bug fixes; we imagine a solution to some of the troubles with 5.1 is part of the package. No matter which update fits into your vision of musical harmony, you’ll find details at the source links.

Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, Tablets, Mobile, Apple

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Via: Cult of Mac (1), (2)

Source: App Store, Apple

Tim Cook keeps saying it’s a hobby, but if Apple keeps selling its little TV hockey pucks at this rate, he may have to change his tune. On Apple’s Q4 earnings call today, the company revealed that it’s sold 1.3 million Apple TVs this past quarter, for a total of five million sold during this past fiscal year. Despite those sizable sales figures, Cook claimed on the call that the revenue generated by Apple TV is “quite small.” That said, his crew in Cupertino will continue to focus on improving the device for its customers — meaning we can look forward to getting more updates like the improved UI and 1080p support in the coming year.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Apple

Tim Cook: 1.3 million Apple TVs sold in Q4, 5 million for 2012 fiscal year originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 25 Oct 2012 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s a new Bang & Olufsen set in town. The BeoVision 11 Smart TV gives viewers access to the Web courtesy of a browser that can be navigated via remote, iPad or Android tablet. You can also check out apps like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube on the set. There’s DLNA enabled for media streaming, two USB ports, Ethernet, six HDMI sockets, six speakers and a cabinet in the back for storing your Apple TV. Aesthetically, the TV doesn’t look all too different from the BeoVision 10, though the company is calling this its “most ambitious television to date.” The 11 comes in 40-, 46- and 55-inch varieties and a slew of color options. You can pick one up (use your back) at B&O stores beginning today, priced at £4,995 (around $8,000). Stay tuned after the break for a press release and a video in which B&O’s CEO humbly calls it the best TV his company has ever made.

Continue reading Bang & Olufsen gets connected with BeoVision 11 Smart TV

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Bang & Olufsen gets connected with BeoVision 11 Smart TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a year since Hulu launched its streaming video service in Japan, and to celebrate it’s released its app on Apple TVs there. It hasn’t all been roses for the last twelve months, with a price drop in April — and we’re not seeing any celebration of subscriber figures in the blog post — despite including things like HBO that it seems unlikely we’ll see on Hulu domestically. Just like the Apple TV app that popped up over here, Japanese users should simply find it on their devices, while prospective subscribers are being enticed with one month free subscriptions if they sign up via their hockey puck.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

Hulu marks its first year in Japan by opening up access on Apple TV originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 02:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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