Airplay

AirPlay private encryption keys cracked, AirPort meet Shairport

By Rene Ritchie, Monday, Apr 11, 2011 a 12:05 pm

Apple's video and audio streaming protocol, AirPlay, has had its private encryption key cracked which means in the future you might be able to get software, homebrew and open source alike, to do what requires proprietary or licensed devices like an Apple Airport Express or Apple TV to do today. James Laird is the one who reverse engineered the keys and has created an emulator called Shairport:

My girlfriend moved house, and her Airport Express no longer made it with her wireless access point. I figured it'd be easy to find an ApEx emulator - there are several open source apps out there to play to them. However, I was disappointed to find that Apple used a public-key crypto scheme, and there's a private key hiding inside the ApEx. So I took it apart (I still have scars from opening the glued case!), dumped the ROM, and reverse engineered the keys out of it. So, here is ShairPort, an open-source (Perl/C) replacement.

Daily Tip: How to stream AVI and MKV via iPhone or iPad to Apple TV

By Rene Ritchie, Thursday, Mar 10, 2011 a 2:49 pm

Last night I sat down with my iPhone running iOS 4.3, tapped on the freshly updated version of Air Video, connected to my Mac Pro running the beta version of Air Video server, cued up some AVI and MKV files, and streamed them flawlessly to my Apple TV via iOS 4.3's AirPlay. My iPhone wasn't Jailbroken. My Apple TV wasn't Jailbroken. But with a huge geeky grin plastered on my face I was finally watching all those old home videos and DVD rips that were never before supported, in any way, by Apple and their luddite Hollywood licensors.

iOS 4.3 might be a minor update in many ways but it's also a game changer for Apple and iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users. It turns every one of those devices into a media server (AirPlay) and viewing client (Home Sharing or apps like Air Video) at the same time. And it cuts the tether of iTunes and the shackles of sync to do it.

That an iPad or iPhone had to be the intermediary was cumbersome, that the setup required an on-PC server component was complex, but it was all doable and once done it just worked. If you want to try it out, follow on after the break.

iOS 4.3 features: Home Sharing

By Allyson Kazmucha, Friday, Mar 4, 2011 a 9:26 am

When iOS 4.3 launches, you will also be able to utilize Home Sharing from any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Home Sharing is a service that has been available between Macs for quite some time now. The Apple TV also supports it.

AirView enables AirPlay between iOS devices

By chrissyboy6969, Tuesday, Jan 18, 2011 a 3:57 pm

A new app called AirView has appeared in the App Store today, which enables you to use AirPlay from one iOS device to another. The two devices have to be on the same local network or you can stream direct from iTunes. AirView allows you to stream video from an iPhone to an iPad, iPod Touch or another iPhone or any combination of two.

All you have to do is install AirView on the device you wish to stream to, fire up the app then launch the video on the streaming device. When you play the video the usual AirPlay icon appears and you can select the device that you wish to stream it to. As if by magic, the video starts to play. This works with videos played in iTunes on a Mac or PC too.

iOS 4.3 beta for iPhone, iPad walkthrough

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Jan 15, 2011 a 1:10 am

Complete feature guide to Apple's iOS 4.3 software beta for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad

iOS 4.3 has just come out in beta with a rumored release date anywhere from February 10 (the Verizon iPhone release date) to March, 2011, and new features like Wi-Fi personal hotspot for iPhone and multitouch navigation gestures for iPad.

If you want a quick look at the new software but don't have a lot of time, check out the video above for everything you need to know about iOS 4.3 in just 5 minutes. For a more in-depth iOS 4.3 guide, read on after the break.

Note: We're combining iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad walkthroughs below since, post iOS 4.2 grand-unification the size of the updates are roughly similar. If it gets more complicated later, we'll split iPhone/iPod touch out from iPad like last time.

iOS 4.3 for iPad to test new multitouch gestures, AirPlay video for Apps,

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Jan 12, 2011 a 4:29 pm

In addition to AirPlay video for apps (finally) it looks like Apple is considering new multitouch gestures for iPad with the just-released iOS 4.3 beta, perhaps to better compete with RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook and Android 3.0 Honeycomb:

Apple Remote for iPhone updated to include Airplay support

By Leanna Lofte, Wednesday, Dec 22, 2010 a 5:39 pm

The Apple Remote for iPhone application has just been updated to include support for Airplay and Internet radio control. It also extends the ability to control iTunes.

AirPlay video support to control iTunes on your computer to stream videos to an Apple TV
Internet radio control to play thousands of internet radio streams in iTunes on your computer
The ability to control iTunes on your computer to play Movies and TV shows that are rented from the iTunes Store
Addresses issues connecting to an iTunes library or Apple TV
Includes stability and performance improvements

If you pick this up, let us know how it works for you!

AirPlay hacks: AirFlick, Air Video Server, XBMC, live conversion, DVDs, DRM, screencasts

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Dec 22, 2010 a 9:35 am

Erica Sadun from TUAW is relentlessly prosecuting her AirPlay and Apple TV hacks with a whole series of posts that include turning your Mac into an AirPlay server via the AirFlick app, transcoding AVI and other non-Apple supported videos for use with Airplay, running AirPlay on an XBMC Linux box, playing DVDs on Apple TV via AirPlay, playing iTunes FairPlay DRM protected videos, and sending Mac screencasts to Apple TV. Yeah. Phew.

A lot of this is strictly alpha and proofs of concept at this point and requires a good amount of ninja level skill to implement, but if that's the way you like your hacks, head on over and try them out:

Video after the break!

Apple updates Time Capsule, AirPort routers to fix AirPlay bugs

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Dec 17, 2010 a 12:02 am

Apple released firmware updates for both the AirPort Wi-Fi router and Time Capsule router + hard drive combo today to version 7.5.2, in part to fix AirPlay bugs that prevented some users from properly streaming content from their iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to their Apple TV.

General fixes to Wi-Fi base station stability
General fixes with USB interoperability including connection to external storage devices
Fixes some issues with NAT port mapping settings
Disables TKIP security with 802.11n rates per the Wi-Fi Alliance specifications

Apple also updated the Airport Utility for both Mac and Windows to version 5.5.2.

How to Airpl

By Rene Ritchie, Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010 a 3:03 pm

TUAW's Erica Sadun, if ever a wiz there was, has once again hacked away at Apple's iOS 4.2 AirPlay feature and created an app called AirPlayer that gets it to stream video from iPhone or iPad to the Mac.

What AirPlayer does is create and advertise a custom Bonjour AirPlay service that pretends to be an Apple TV. Bonjour is Apple's zero configuration networking solution for allowing devices and applications to communicate with each other over local area networks. When Apple created AirPlay, it basically set up a new way for Apple TV to interact with iOS using Bonjour communications.

She's not a Windows dev but says in theory the same thing should be possible on that platform and perhaps Linux as well.

You don't need to Jailbreak to try this out (the app runs on your Mac, not your iPhone or iPad) but if you're not Jailbroken and running AirVideoEnabler you'll be limited to YouTube and iPod/Videos for your streaming (AirVideoEnabler lets 3rd party apps stream AirPlay video as well).

If you want to try it out, you can get AirPlayer from Erica's website, below. Video after the break!

[AirPlayer, TUAW]