Hasta La Gadget!

Forget about installing a bunch of iOS apps that are designed for touch-screens. What you really want to do with your jailbroken AppleTV is to turn it into a proper media-center. That’s just what hacker Quiqueck has done, installing the OSX and iOS app Plex onto Apple’s diminutive media box.

Plex is a client and server app for organizing and watching movies. You keep the media on your Mac, and then watch it there, or streamed to your iDevice. Thanks to Quiqueck’s efforts, Plex now works as a (still rather janky) plugin for the new AppleTV, adding an extra section – Plex – to the AppleTV’s top-level menu. From here you can browse and watch any video you have in your Plex library.

But so what? You can already stream from your Mac to your AppleTV, right? Sure, but with Plex you can watch pretty much any format of video, including stuff you have ripped or downloaded into formats not natively supported by iOs.

The hack isn’t straight plug-and-play. You’ll need to get your hands dirty in the terminal to get things working, and there are still some kinks in the UI, and you can’t yet stream music or watch an image slideshow, but those are just details. The $99 AppleTV just got a whole lot more useful.

Plex Client for Apple TV (2G) [Plex Forums]

See Also:

• AppleTV Jailbroken, Ready for Apps
• Rebellious Coders Home In on Apple TV Hacks, App Store
• Video: AppleTV Already Jailbroken

Software upgrades are supposed to fix things, but sometimes they do the opposite.

Disgruntled about the effects of an operating system update on her iPhone, a customer wants to battle Apple in court with a class action lawsuit.

San Diego resident Bianca Wofford last week filed a lawsuit seeking class action status, alleging that Apple committed false advertising and unfair and deceptive business practices by encouraging iPhone 3G users to download iOS 4, the latest version of Apple’s mobile OS. Wofford claims that even though the iOS upgrade promises fixes and improvements, it made her second-generation iPhone unusable.

“The true fact of the matter … is that the iOS 4 is a substantial ‘downgrade’ for earlier iPhone devices and renders many of them virtually useless iBricks” (.pdf), Wofford’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple’s iOS operating system has received a major upgrade once a year, and the company has disclosed that some new features do not work with older handsets, because they carry less memory or slower processors. When Apple announced iOS 4, it said that multitasking would not work on the second-generation iPhone, for example, but it would be supported on newer handsets. Also, Apple said iOS 4 was not compatible with the original iPhone at all — but it was supposed to work with the more recent iPhone 3G.

However, when iOS 4 shipped in the summer, some iPhone 3G customers complained that the update caused performance to become very sluggish. Months later at Apple’s Apple TV press conference, Steve Jobs said iOS 4.1 would address performance issues on the iPhone 3G. Some tests showed that iOS 4.1 improved the iPhone 3G’s performance only slightly.

In her complaint, Wofford claims that Apple was aware that iOS 4 would cause degraded performance on older iPhones, and she accused Apple of purposely creating an incentive for customers to purchase newer iPhones.

“Apple has falsely, intentionally and repeatedly represented to owners and consumers of the iPhone 3G that its new operating system for the device, iOS4, was of a nature, quality, and a significant upgrade for the functionality of all iPhone devices, when in fact, the installation and use of the iOS4 on iPhone 3G resulted in the opposite — a device with little more use than that of a paperweight,” the complaint read.

Wofford’s suit, filed in state court in San Diego County, requires approval from a judge to gain class action status. If it became a class action suit and is won, Apple could be forced to pay damages to iPhone 3G customers.

See Also:

• Review: iPhone 3G Trades Battery Life for Interface, Software Awesomeness
• iPhone 3G Users Complain of Slowdown on Upgrade to iOS4
• Apple Launches iOS 4 for iPhone, iPod Touch
• Jobs: Software Fix for iPhone 3G Slowdown ‘Coming Soon’
• Apple Rolls Out iOS 4.1 Update for iPhone, iPod Touch

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Apple has released the “Gold Master” of iOS 4.2, and it is available for developers to download today. IOS 4.2 is the unifying version of iOS that will bring the same multitasking and UI features to all iDevices. This is most significant for the iPad, which has been waiting patiently for features that it is clearly desperate for. Apple has also asked developers to submit iOS 4.2 apps to the App Store.

“Gold Master” is software talk for “finished”. Barring any horrible last-minute discoveries, the GM is the same version that would, in the days of software on CD and DVD, be duplicated and then sent to stores. Apple promised iOS 4 for the iPad in November, which we took, as always with Apple, to mean the very last days of November. Could it be that it will be here sooner?

Aside from the multitasking and the folders which the iPad needs so much, the latest OS version brings a new multitask-bar, the little panel that is revealed with a double-tap on the home button:

Here you see that you have quick-access to volume and brightness (at last!) controls, as well as the standard music controls and a screen-orientation lock toggle. To the right of the media controls is the new AirPlay button. Press this and your media, be it audio or video, will then stream to compatible gear like the AirPort Express or the new AppleTV. AirPlay, as well as AirPrint, will also come to the iPhone and iPod Touch with this update.

Update 9:20 a.m. PT: Wired.com’s Brian Chen here, just chiming in with a few comments. While people lit streets on fire and threw beers at the cops last night in San Francisco, I had a chance to test iOS 4.2 GM on both the iPad and the iPhone. I just wanted to note that AirPlay video streaming doesn’t seem to work yet with the Apple TV, which kind of stinks, but I’m assuming Apple has to ship an iOS update for the Apple TV before AirPlay is fully functional.  Other than that, not much to say beyond our first look at iOS 4.2 beta posted weeks ago. We’ll have a more in-depth report once AirPlay is up and running.

Apple Releases iOS 4.2 Golden Master to Developers [MacRumors Forums]

iOS 4.2 iPad sneak peek [Apple]

See Also:

• iOS 4.2 First Look: iPad Gets Multitasking, Printing
• IOS 4.2 Beta Adds Tethering to iPad
• IOS 4.2 Changes iPad Screen-Lock Switch to Mute Button
• Apple Announces New Versions of iOS
• AirPlay Can Stream to Apple TV From Any iOS App – Not Just iTunes …

The iPad’s ticket to multitasking freedom — better known as iOS 4.2 — has moves past the beta phase and onto GM, which means retail units should be seeing it soon. Besides the iPad, Apple is also providing builds for the second, third, and fourth generations of the iPod touch, along with the iPhone 3G, 3GS, and 4… so if you’ve got a friend with an iPhone Developer Program subscription, now would be a great time to get cozy.

Update: Apple made some last minute tweaks that give fast access to brightness, volume, and AirPlay controls right in the multitasking bar (pictured after the break). Apple’s also on the verge of allowing MobileMe service logins using an Apple ID.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading iOS 4.2 goes gold, available now to developers (updated)

iOS 4.2 goes gold, available now to developers (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 19:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s always been tension between Apple’s tight control of the iOS App Store and the DRM-free license requirements of the GPL, and it seems like things are coming to a head over VLC, the open-source video player. As you’ll recall, VLC was just released for the iPad and iPhone in the past few months, but the port was done by a company called Applidium — not VLC developer VideoLAN, which holds the copyright and licenses the code under the GPL. VideoLAN now says that since VLC for iOS includes Apple’s FairPlay DRM, it’s in violation of the GPL and must be pulled — and that “concerned users are advised to look for applications on more open mobile platforms for the time being.” That’s certainly fair enough, although we do find it a bit sensationalist that the takedown notice was sent to Apple and not Applidium, since it’s technically Applidium that violated the GPL. Then again, the statement was written by VideoLAN developer Rémi Deni-Courmont, who is also senior MeeGo software engineer, so we can see why he’d be interested in promoting a “more open” project. Whatever the case, it doesn’t seem like VLC for iOS is long for this world — you’d best go grab it as quickly as possible. Like, now.

Update: It seems like there’s significant dissension in the VideoLAN ranks, as the project’s official Twitter page now says there are no problems and is linking to another forum post with some armchair legal analysis of Apple’s App Store Terms and Conditions. That sounds like we’re in for months of arguing, since huge GPL projects like VLC have layers upon layers of nested copyrights, and no one person can really pursue action without the consent of everyone else, but we’ll keep an eye on things. In the meantime, we’d suggest VideoLAN find a lawyer or two to give them a definitive answer on the GPL / App Store question — it’ll save everyone a lot of time and frustration.

VLC for iPhone and iPad may disappear thanks to GPL complaints — go get it now originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Nov 2010 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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