A couple of AppleTV firmware findings has raised some interesting possibilities with regard to Apple's new Apple TV and AirPlay streaming service. With the news that AppleTV was iOS based, everyone quickly jumped to the natural prediction that we will be able to run iOS apps on the Apple TV. But the converse to that is also true. Since the Apple TV is just an iOS device, users should be able to eventually run the Apple TV experience (called Lowtide.app) on an iPad. It seems Apple is already putting these pieces in place.
TUAW notes the Apple TV interface application has settings that indicate compatibility with the iPad as a hidden service.
Because of this setting, Lowtide would probably be run as silent service, presenting its interface only when its features were requested. The iPad's camera connection kit software works very much in this way, opening only when a DCIM camera is attached. The iPad would likely respond to streaming Airplay requests by opening Lowtide, if a future version of its OS included the application.
This means that you may eventually be able to start watching videos on your Apple TV or iTunes, and then finish watching it on your iPad. The Apple TV interface also allows you do to something new on iOS devices -- stream content straight from the iTunes Store. This streaming-only requirement of the new Apple TV was one of the big changes over the previous model. And given all the talk of Apple moving into cloud computing, it seems that this could naturally extend into remote wireless (3G) streaming. TUAW notes that the full Lowtide.app can't run on existing iOS devices due to missing frameworks, but one user has managed to install the Apple TV's airtunesd (AirTunes Daemon) component onto his iPhone 4, allowing him to stream audio to his phone from Airfoil or iTunes.
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 11:33 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by Juli Clover
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 6:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...
