The fine folks from Firecore have been hard at work on their aTV Flash (black) package for jailbroken AppleTVs and have just released a new update that allows all-new firmware backup options, new localizations for our international readers, and playback enhancements.

The Apple TV is an incredibly inexpensive way to easily get all your iTunes music and videos onto your big screen HDTV, along with special channels like Netfix, but you only get support for Apple’s own file formats, and for channel partners they select. Jailbreaking and using aTV Flash (black) opens up entirely new worlds beyond Apple.

If you’re looking for the full change log, you’ll find it past the break. If you really don’t need the full details and just want to get yourself updated, version 1.3 is available now from the Firecore website

Need help jailbreaking your Apple TV 2? If so, be sure to check out our full how-to guide today!

Source – Firecore

Full Changelog

• Added automated firmware signature backups
• Added Danish, Dutch, French, Greek, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish translations
• Added support for advanced (learned) remote commands
• Added support for multiple external subtitles (movie.en.srt, movie.de.srt, etc…)
• Added support for folder based organization/playback
• Added support for embedded DVD chapters
• Added chapters section heading to Playback Menu
• Added global zoom setting
• Improved playback performance for movies with invalid timestamps
• Improved appearance of VobSub subtitles
• Improved metadata fetching for localized file names
• Improved audio track filtering
• Improved playback bar to match native player
• Improved metadata and bulk folder fetching stability
• Improved Media > Settings menu layout
• Resolved issues with folder name changing on metadata fetching
• Resolved issues with buffering
• Resolved rare DVD related crash
• Resolved floating AFP issue that was causing connection issues
• Resolved floating buffer overflow in software decoder
• Minor changes to Grid View appearance
• Minor UI improvements
• Other miscellaneous bug fixes

Following the hack that allows fullscreen apps to run on the Apple TV, developer Jack Perry, known as @Jackoplane on Twitter, decided to try porting his own apps to the bigger screen.

A quick preview of Frequencies for AppleTV… Waiting for @stroughtonsmith to test it on a real device.

The tweet was followed up by Steven Troughton-Smith showing the app running at full 720p on an actual Apple TV.

Some Beautiful AppleTV apps coming together right now; this one from @Jackoplane is nice.

The app, Frequencies, is a simple internet radio tuner, but demonstrates how the idea of fullscreen apps might work on the Apple TV. And it’s really quite exciting.

Source: @stroughtonsmith, @Jackoplane, Jackoplane Blog

In the latest iOS 5.1 Beta 2 it looks like Apple has taken steps to start hiding future iPhone, iPad and other iOS device model references from the bloggers and deep code divers who have previously delighted in finding and exposing them.

Mark Gurman of 9to5 Mac first noted the new, obviously obfuscating entries on Twitter, and now it seems that in the USBDeviceConfiguration.plist, Apple has thrown in over 100 entries have been added for everything from iPad10,1 to AppleTV9,2, and so on.

Interesting new move in the cat and mouse game, to say the least.

Source: Mark Gurman

Since Apple just recently launched their iTunes Match service for users in the United States, you might be curious how to subscribe? Luckily, subscribing to iTunes Match is just about as easy as making an App Store or iTunes music purchase. Once you’re all paid up — it’s $24.99 a year — and set up, you’ll be able to access an online version of your iTunes library via iCloud from devices such as your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and AppleTV without physically having a computer to stream from.

1. First launch iTunes on your computer and make sure you are running iTunes version 10.5.1 or higher.

2. Next you should see an iTunes Match section under Store in the left hand pane. Select it. (If you don’t see this, you can alternately go to the iTunes Store homepage and select iTunes Match from the Quick Links section on the right. This option was missing for me at first and then magically appeared… weird.)

3. Next you’ll need to click Subscribe to iTunes Match for $24.99. You’ll be asked to input your iTunes password. (You’ll only see the not taking subscriptions message when the servers are slammed. If you get this, just try subscribing later.)

4. Next click iTunes Match in the sidebar just like you did to purchase it and you should now see an option to add your computer. Do so by clicking the Add this Computer button.

5. iTunes will begin Step 1: Gathering information about your iTunes library. In this step Apple scans all your songs to see what’s in your library.
6. In Step 2: Matching your music to songs in the iTunes Store, Apple compares your library to the massive iTunes Catalog. Anything that already exists in the iTunes Catalog is immediately made available to you in standard iTunes format — 256Kbps AAC with metadata and album art.
8. Step 3: Uploading artwork and remaining songs takes any other music in your library — anything Apple couldn’t match with the iTunes Catalog — and uploads it to Apple’s servers so it will still be available to you from the cloud (albeit in its original format, if that format was worse than iTunes standard.)
9. That’s it, you’re all set up.

Troubleshooting iTunes Match

A few things you’ll want to pay special attention to:

• iTunes Match can only handle 25,000 songs. If your library is bigger than that, iTunes will refuse to match it. About all you can do right now is create a new iTunes library on the same computer with a subset of your songs — no more than 25,000 — and use that library to set up iTunes Match. (Just make sure you don’t copy your music into new folders, leave it in its existing folders or you’ll waste a lot of disk space.)
• iTunes Match isn’t currently doing a great job actually matching a lot of songs. It could be an issue with metadata, if the song information is really different between the iTunes Catalog copy and your local copy. You could try updating the metadata on your local copies before going through iTunes Match, but it can take a lot of time and results may still vary. (Anything iTunes doesn’t match gets uploaded to Apple’s servers, so you still have access to it, but in its original form, not the iTunes Catalog copy in 256Kbps AAC with “official” metadata)

That’s it! iTunes Match should be happily processing, matching, and uploading your library. In the meantime, let us know how the setup went for you, and if you have any issues, jump into our iTunes Match Forum and get some help!

• iTunes Match Forum thread

iTunes Replay is the rumored name of the rumored Apple subscription video streaming service rumored to compete with the likes of Netflix. Apple Insider reported on the rumors a while back, and now App Advice hears it might be coming soon.

There’s talk you’ll be able to stream content purchased as far back as January of 2009. We’re not sure what will happen to content purchased before that. There’s also talks of certain content only being available for re-downloaded five times. This lines up with Apple traditionally allowing 5 computers to be authorized to play purchased content under one iTunes account. If true, iTunes Replay would basically just extend what Apple is currently offering for re-downloading content via iCloud.

It should also be interesting to see if iTunes Match content will be integrated into iTunes Replay. If we can simply stream a lot of our content, it will free up precious storage space on our devices.

App Advice

According to AppleInsider, Apple could be looking to launch full 1080p HD video rentals through its iTunes software as early as September. Currently 1080p content has not been available on any Apple platform through iTunes, be that via a Mac or the Apple TV. This could soon change as “people familiar with the matter” have told AppleInsider that certain films are now being submitted to Apple in three formats; including 1080p.

One such film from 20th Century Fox was said to have arrived with encoding options for SD (480p), HD (720p), and a new, third format listed as HD+ (1080p). Similarly, a small number of upcoming releases from two of the other ‘big 5′ movie studios were submitted with optional resolutions of 1920×1080 and an average bitrate encoding of 10,000 kbps.

Another problem to consider is internet bandwidth; you would need a very fast download speed to enable streaming of 1080p content. I struggle to stream standard definition content with my connection!

[AppleInsider]

ipswDownloader is a shining example of a great utility that allows jailbreakers to download firmware (.ipsw) files easily and quickly. On top of that, it also tells you what jailbreak utility you should use in order to jailbreak (and/or unlock) your device. This is especially convenient if you’re using something like PwnageTool that requires you to have an ipsw file in order to create a custom firmware bundle. This is highly common among unlockers.

This can be great for beginner jailbreakers that may feel a bit overwhelmed by the amount of jailbreak tools available. “What jailbreak utility do I need to use?” is probably the number one question we get asked here at TiPb. I really think this tool will come in handy for anyone from beginners to advanced users that really just want an easy and convenient way to download firmware files. Hit the jump for a download link and a quick walk-through.

Download ipswDownloader

ipswDownloader (Mac only as of now) – Download Link

Choose your device and firmware

Simply choose your device and your current firmware version. ipswDownloader will quickly tell you if you can jailbreak, what tool you can use, and whether or not you can unlock. You’ll also see a download button in the bottom right hand corner. Click that if you’d like to download a copy of your firmware file to your computer. Choose your save location and you’re good to go!

Let us know in the comments if any of you plan on using ipswDownloader!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to news@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

Greenpois0n RC5, the latest Jailbreak for iOS 4.2.1 iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, has been updated to version 2, which should fix some of the issues users have been experiencing. Mainly the issue where your jailbreak will just sit at “Greenpois0n Initialized”. Hopefully this version will take care of that bug. I know a few people have been having issues even loading Greenpois0n.com. There are also several mirrors available, so keep checking the comments for the latest on those.

Also, some users have been noting that their Cydia icon is completely missing or they can’t get Cydia to install. You can alternately use redsn0w RC8 to install Cydia. Basically use Greenpois0n to jailbreak untethered and then run redsn0w just to install Cydia.

Let us know in the comments if the second version of Greenpois0n is working any better for you! If you need instructions on jailbreaking under iOS 4.2.1, check out our how to jailbreak via Greenpois0n walkthrough and if you need more help, our Jailbreak Forum.

[greenpois0n.com via (iPhone Download Blog - they also have a list of mirrors]

Greenpois0n RC5 now allows you to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 untethered on most devices including iPhone 4 and iPad. The best part? You won’t need any SHSH blobs saved. redsn0w beta required you to have 4.2b3 blobs saved (and it was pretty unstable). Hopefully greenpois0n is going to be a much smoother experience for you guys. Hit the jump for a walkthrough on how to jailbreak iOS 4.2.1 with greenpois0n and for the answers to some commonly asked questions.

What devices will greenpois0n RC5 jailbreak?

• iPhone 4/3GS
• iPad
• iPod Touch 2G/3G/4G
• AppleTV second generation

You’ll need to be running iOS 4.2.1 in order for this version of greenpois0n to work (4.1.1 for AppleTV second generation users).

Should I do a full stock restore first?

In short, most likely. If you’re already stock and haven’t been jailbroken, you’re fine. Still back up your phone first in case anything goes wrong.

If you are currently jailbroken on 4.1, yes. Do a full stock restore to 4.2.1 and restore as a new iPhone. After jailbreaking, I still don’t recommend restoring from a backup. Old jailbreak pieces can come with your backup and cause issues for you. Just my personal recommendation.

If you are currently tethered on 4.2.1 via redsn0w, you should be able to just run greepois0n right over your current jailbreak to untether. Some of the devs are saying if you have issues installing Cydia via greenpois0n after running it, simply run redsn0w again and let it re-install Cydia. Basically, as long as you aren’t running a Monte version jailbreak on 4.2.1, you should be able to run greenpois0n to untether.

Will this jailbreak iOS 4.3 beta?

No. You’ll have to wait a bit longer on a tested jailbreak for 4.3.

Jailbreaking iOS 4.2.1 via Greenpois0n

1. Download greenpois0n onto your Mac. (Some users have been reporting the servers being down. If you can’t get it to download right away, just be patient. Their servers are probably just lagging from all the traffic. There are a few mirrors out there so be sure to check the comments for the latest updates on those.
2. Plug your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, or AppleTV in via USB (make sure the power is off) and follow the on-screen instructions to enter DFU mode.

3. Greenpois0n will recognize when your phone is properly in DFU mode and start to do its thing. After it’s done, you’ll see a Loader icon on your homescreen. Tap it and install Cydia. (Note: This only differs for AppleTV jailbreakers. You’ll be done but need to continue accessing and installing apps via Terminal and SSH.)

4. You’re done! Restore all your stuff (if you choose to or were stock before) and enjoy being jailbroken!

Note: Some users in the comments have been reporting sometimes the initializing error is a result of not holding the home button long enough when entering DFU mode. Even when the text is not greyed out anymore, continue holding the home button if you’re getting the Initializing error even after trying Greenpois0n RC5 version 2.

If you guys have already used this version of greenpois0n, let us know how it’s going in the comments! Have other questions? Check our our Jailbreak Starters Guide and jailbreak forums!

Seas0nPass has just been released for jailbroken AppleTV users. Up until now, there hasn’t been easy to use jailbreak tools for the AppleTV. Hopefully Seas0nPass can change all that.

Seas0nPass offers some of the same basic functionality utilities like PwnageTool already offers iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad users. It will currently jailbreak the most current version of AppleTV iOS (4.2.1). Seas0nPass for AppleTV also offers an easier tethered boot option as well as an ability to create and restore from custom firmwares (IPSW) files. This will be nice for users on newer firmwares that may not offer an untethered option yet.

Currently Seas0nPass is only available for Mac users running Mac OS 10.6 or later but a Windows version should be coming soon.

Seas0nPass is available for free and the code is open source and available on Github now. If you give it a try, let us know how it works for you!

[Firecore]

The SHAtter exploit found by pod2g appears to have been leaked. Who leaked it and for what reason is still unclear. What is clear is that Apple will certainly find a way to patch the hardware if it did in fact leak. When Limera1n was released, it kept the SHAtter bootrom exploit safe for future jailbreaks as it would require a complete hardware revision to be done by Apple.

SHAtter basically used a hardware exploit in the A4 series of devices (iPhone 4, iPad, AppleTV 2nd generation, and iPod Touch 4G). You can bet Apple will make a hardware revision to patch SHAtter. It seems there is some drama between some members of the jailbreak community over who actually “leaked” the SHAtter exploit.

@P0isixninja of the Chronic Dev Team is pointing a blame finger to @Musclenerd. As Musclenerd concentrates on unlocks, it seems unreasonable to think he’d leak an exploit he would need in order to create an unlock. Click through for a response to the drama from @comex, who claims if it doesn’t stop, he’ll just e-mail the exploit directly to Apple. Not good news for the jailbreak community.

The part of Comex’s tweet that got me was where he said (the real) SHAtter. Digging further into Twitter shows that maybe a fake exploit was leaked on purpose. We’ll update when we know more.

What are you guys’ thoughts? It’s been a crazy evening for jailbreakers. First Comex stated the Christmas untethered deadline would be missed, and now a leaked exploit. Lend us your thoughts in the comments!

PwnageTool 4.1 was recently released and a lot of jailbreakers have been waiting for this one.  The main difference between some other methods and PwnageTool is that it preserves your baseband in most cases.  Meaning for unlockers, they’ll still be able to safely upgrade and keep their unlock.  We’ve covered how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 via limera1n and how to jailbreak iOS 4.1 via greenpois0n, and now we’ll look at how PwnageTool 4.1 differs and walk through this process as well.

PwnageTool 4.1 will jailbreak the following devices:

• iPhone 4, 3GS, and 3G
• iPod Touch 4G and 3G
• iPad
• Apple TV 2nd Generation

As usual, we take no responsibility for what you may or may not do to your phone.  If you’re okay with that, jump through for a regular and video walkthrough!

First you’ll need to download the torrent for PwnageTool 4.1 from the Dev-Team blog.  There is an official and a couple mirrors.  Once you’ve got it all unpacked, continue on.

When you first launch PwnageTool, you’ll be asked to select your iDevice model. You’ll also notice across the top you’ll have two modes, expert and simple.  Simple will install Cydia and a few common addons.  Expert will let you choose what custom applications and utilities you’d like to install.  For this example, we’ll just use simple mode on an iPhone 3GS.  If you guys have questions or need help with expert mode, jump over to our jailbreak forums and we’d be glad to help you out.

After you’ve selected your iDevice, you should click Next and be presented with a screen that asks you to select your firmware version.  PwnageTool is normally pretty good about bringing up the correct one, but if for some reason it doesn’t, you can always click browse and navigate to your chosen firmware version.  On the Mac, iTunes puts your firmware under Library\iTunes.  My iTunes has a mind of its own and sometimes firmware doesn’t show up. I use the following site for past and present firmware versions quite often:  iPhone Firmware Versions – Past and Present

Just make sure you select the correct firmware if more than one comes up.  You’ll then receive this message followed by one asking you if you activate normally.  If you’re unlocked, select no. Just follow all the prompts through and PwnageTool will then begin building a custom .ipsw for you that’ll save to your desktop.

Once that’s done, PwnageTool is going to walk you through putting your phone in DFU mode.  If you’re unsuccessful the first time, that’s ok, it’ll let you keep trying until you get it.  After that, you’ll simply open up iTunes and alt + option click on restore and navigate to your custom firmware on your desktop.

And that’s it! Once you’re iDevice reboots, you should be jailbroken!

What didn’t we get from Apple during their 2010 special music event? The iPod touch line got an extremely decent refresh, as well as the Nano.   iPhone is getting iOS 4.1 next week with some newly added features and some much needed bug fixes. The iPad will be getting iOS 4.2 – in November, but I’m sure some of us would have liked to see it sooner. And we got an overhauled iTunes. I personally wasn’t expecting a whole new iTunes, so that was the surprise of the day for me. AppleTV was pretty underwhelming in my book (as well as Rene’s).  Click through to see what us here at TiPb would have liked to see and let us know in the comments what you would have liked that just didn’t make the cut this time.

iPhone

iPhone will be getting iOS 4.1 next week. Along with general bug fixes (proximity issues anyone?), you’ll get Game Center and some welcome additions to the camera. I know I wasn’t the only staff member excited by the edition of HDR to the camera, but I would have liked to see maybe some contrast and saturation settings added. I’ve especially noticed it on the iPhone 4, but sometimes pictures in low light settings come out a little too warm (yellow-ish) in my opinion. It would be nice to be able to tweak some settings. Game Center is a welcome addition, but I’m not crazy about the whole carnival-esque layout. I much preferred the original layout from the original 4.0 betas.  I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of iPhone.  There were rumors flying around of a new iPhone, but I think we all know better than that around these parts.  Apple is predictable.  As long as their current business model works, I don’t see them changing that pattern.

iPad

The iPad will have to wait for November for iOS 4.2 – next week would have been nice. Why the hold up? El Jobso really didn’t have a lot to say about the iPad at the event. He seemed a bit rushed. Deep down, I was really hoping to hear about a potential iPad refresh, but I figured that wouldn’t happen until January or so. Did you guys expect anything iPad wise that you didn’t get?

iPods

As far as iPods go, I really have nothing to complain about. I think the shuffle combines the best of both previous generations now. The Nano now has a touchscreen! It contains everything the previous generations had, but aligns better with its sibling product lines. Chad noticed the absence of video on the Nano. I don’t really know if that would both me personally, as I wouldn’t want to watch movies or video on that tiny little screen. To me, this is simply Apple positioning themselves in the market. If you want an iPod with video, you’ll have to step up to the iPod touch now. Makes good business sense to me. Only peeve I have with the new iPod line at the current moment is the back material on the Touch. For the love of everything Jobs, PLEASE pick a better finish that doesn’t scratch when you set it on a pillow? That chrome is just screaming “Scratch me!” How about a frosted material next time guys?

iTunes

iTunes 10! This was the one thing I was somewhat excited about today. I don’t get too excited about iPods since I have an iPhone, so I really have no need for one. Ping sounds like a good concept, but we’ll see if it will catch on. I also like the idea of top 10 lists created by your friends, but you’ll also have to be selective about what friends you have on there. I have friends who listen to death metal, and I don’t want that in my top 10 suggestions lists. To me, that doesn’t sound very intuitive. Some people would have liked to see cloud-based syncing or some version of iTunes in the cloud. We previously speculated that this was why Apple acquired LaLa. Maybe not?  I would have liked to see some more intuitive ways to organize content.  I love coverflow and sometimes even if you group albums the same, you see duplicates in different views.  More than anything, I wanted to see more fine tuned controls.  If anyone sees anything new in iTunes 10 as far as organization I haven’t found yet, let us know in the comments.

Apple TV

I pretty much have the same feeling’s Rene does on this one, so we’ll let him take it from there. But if you’d like to rant or tell us your thoughts, let us know in the comments. Needless to say, I’ll probably be getting one. That may sound odd, but I didn’t have the first generation, or any generation AppleTV. At $99, I can stream all my movies from my iMac to the TV and stop fiddling with burning DVDs or hooking up an output device. And iTunes rentals are cheaper than rentals from Comcast. I’ve been waiting to pull the trigger on a new media device for our living room as we’ve been putting it off forever. I’d still have liked to see a LOT more features than what we got. Anyone else picking one up?

I also would have liked to see an update to MobileMe or something along the lines of adding new features.  Streaming would have been nice or the ability to store books or music wirelessly to your MobileMe iDisk.  Other than that, I didn’t expect that many “One more things”.

That about wraps it up, let us know all your thoughts in the comments!

Saw this one coming, didn’t you? Apple’s new App Store Remote app (FREE!) lets you control iTunes or Apple TV, and .Mac Galleries are now MobileMe Galleries, so that means Apple TV needs an update to.

Could Apple’s servers get any busier today? (And how ’bout ours! Yowzers!) Just fire up your Apple TV, go to Settings, General, Software Updates, and let it rip!

My Apple TV updated this morning, and Chad’s already thrown his old cable box out the window. Are you updating yet?

You’re out with a friend on Wednesday night and hear that, because of the “big game”, the season finale of NBC’s The Office will be airing later that same night instead of the next as usual.

Panic? Try to rush home? Call your mom and beg her to record it? Hope you can download it off the torrents without getting sued into oblivion?

Nope. You just whip out your trusty iPhone, touch your way through a simple, elegant interface and — boom! — EDGE/Wi-Fi sync a new recording schedule back to the DVR-equipped Apple TV in your living room.

When you get home, The Office is recorded and waiting to watch on the big screen. And if you’re too tired to finish watching it, you can just shift the content right back to your iPhone (or MacBook Air, or any other iTunes savvy device) and watch it on your way to work the next day.

Sounds like magic, doesn’t it? Not according to one of Apple’s latest patent filings…

Pick a Show. Any Show.

When asked about expanded functionality for the Apple TV, Master of prestidigitation Steven P. Jobs said the following:

The model will not extend to cable television, he insisted. “We’re not going to go there with the cable cards,” he said, referring to the relatively open cable industry connectors that are gradually allowing companies like TiVo to replace the standard set-top box. “That whole industry, their go-to-market strategy is pretty loopy, and it’s fractured,” he said. “Our model is like DVD.”

Yet while dazzling reporters with the Take 2 software update, he was simultaneously pocketing a very interesting patent:

“For example, program data for upcoming programs, e.g., for the next month, can be downloaded and stored on the remote control device,” Apple said. “Thereafter, a user of the remote control device can search programs that are to be broadcast and determine which programs to record. The recording settings can be programmed onto the remote control device, and then be provided to the video device when a data communication is established between the remote control device and the video device.”

(Note: it would seem logical that this functionality could also be integrated directly into the iPhone or iPod touch.)

Apple-Cadabra!

Classic Jobsian sleight-of-mouth involves knocking an industry or product model repeatedly until Apple unveils some fabulous new bit of tech to simply and elegantly revolutionize it. (The iPhone itself being a prime example).

So here again, Apple’s filing also covers various TiVO-style capabilities, turing the “DVD-model” Jobs mentioned into a full-on DVR (digital video recorder) solution with a far greater reach than we’ve ever seen before.

Hey NBC, Watch Steve Pull The Office Out of His Hat

If you remember, we used The Office as an example in our introduction. iTunes is often credited with helping people discover The Office and making it a hit. Steve Jobs even used it to show off the iPhone’s video capabilities during the universe-denting 2007 Macworld Keynote. Yet NBC pulled a hissy fit last year and yanked their content from iTunes. So, as of this writing, there’s no legal way to downloaded The Office to your iPhone even if you wanted to.

Sure, if you live in the US you could turn to NBC.com or Hulu, but not with anything approaching the living room or portable experience Apple’s iTunes ecosystem provides — they’re desktop browser window only for now. Even the torrents would entail searching, downloading, decompressing and assembling, transcoding — a lot of work!

And that’s the really interesting — and perhaps leverage providing — aspect of Apple’s new patent.

iTunes exists primarily to feed content to iPods and iPhones. Apple needs that content to help sell their devices. It’s easy, and (generally) priced fairly enough that purchases can become a no-brainer. Big Media (the movie studios, TV networks, and music producers), wants to charge more and is withholding content to try and hurt Apple… er… foster alternative channels. (Witness Amazon MP3 being given higher quality DRM-free content by all the major record labels.)

This patent not only allows Apple to sidestep Big Media, but to feed an almost limitless amount of cable TV (and potentially open HD) programming right into iTunes and, by extension, the iPhone.

Can Apple Make Old Media Ideas Disappear?

While the mainstream works on such innovative features as “disabling fast-forward to enhance consumer enjoyment of commercials” and “auto-deleting recorded movies after 24hrs to save your space” (we kid you not!), who knows what Apple’s DVR (which is not dependent on ad revenue from the networks or the pay-per-view greed of Big Media) will let users do?

We’ve already seen some cable companies misuse the broadcast flags (which can be set to “copy always”, “copy once”, “copy never” in terms of what they allow DVRs to record) to try and sabotage competing set-top solutions like Windows Media Center. Current US Law, however, mandates cable-cards, firewire ports, an unencrypted broadcast network programming.

What if Apple allowed (or threatened to allow) an easy way for users to edit out commercials? They own the power of Final Cut and QuickTime and made the drop-dead easy Ring Tone Maker and iMovie interfaces, after all. Would commercial free TV for your iPhone be any more difficult?

What if Apple applied the same fair (as in FairPlay DRM) policies that lets up to 5 devices share content? Big Media deeply, truly believes we should be paying for each and every use, if not view, of their content (and thank them for it). Letting us record once and easily stream/sync pretty much wherever and whenever we want would be a game changer. Warm up the Apple DVR and feed directly to the iMac in the kitchen and the two iPhone you and your spouse are getting ready to take on vacation!

And what if Apple uses another little patent filing that was discovered a while back to let us combine our various recordings into our own virtual channels, ready to watch where we want, when we want, whether that be on our Apple TV, Mac, iPhone, or Nano? Who would need traditional networks then?

The Greatest Trick of All

While it may seem like magic, it’s no mystery what this all means for the future of entertainment. Even the cable companies know it — the same cable companies who own many of the internet pipes that would feed the new download era. Think it’s a coincidence they started testing pay-per-GB tier rates the same week Steve Jobs introduced Apple TV Take 2?

Bottom line, however, patents like these are huge ammunition (or leverage) for Apple and we’re not alone in that thinking. Analysts like American Technology Research’s Shaw Wu are, as always, already counting the money:

“We believe adding the ability to watch and record live TV could turn this into a billion dollar, if not multi-billion dollar business.”

Presto.

Apple has released the software update for the Apple TV that was announced at MacWorld 2008. It offers new features like an improved interface, video rentals direct from the iTunes store, podcasting, and the ability to browse photos from Flickr and .Mac.

I just realized, though, that the update that would actually get me to buy the Apple TV is missing: some sort of real use for that USB port on the back of the device. While many would like it to support an external hard drive (and some have had success doing so with some hacking), that’s not the feature that I’d like to see.

What I’d like on the Apple TV is something that I do with my Mac on a daily basis – watch and listen to the media that’s stored on my iPhone. I keep my iTunes library at home and sync my music and movies to my iPhone. When I’m at work I plug my iPhone into my work machine and I’m able (since I manually manage my music) to access that media on my computer. Since the Apple TV is essentially a “Mac lite,” and can already access iTunes files (and iTunes DRM as well), the problem certainly isn’t incompatible media formats or an inability to read the iPod. It seems that the only real limitation here is one of interface. That seems like a fairly small limitation.

There are two other possible limitations, of course. The first is that it’s such a “niche” feature that Apple doesn’t want to waste resources enabling it. This seems unlikely to me, though, as it would be awfully convenient for my buddy to bring over his iPod or iPhone and we could watch a movie stored on it (granted, of course, that it may not be as high a resolution as we’d like) — it seems like the sort of thing that wouldn’t be that difficult to do and that Apple would happily tout as a feature. The second is that Apple is choosing not to develop this feature either to help Mac sales or because of pressure from music and movie industry execs.

You know what would be even nicer? The ability to transfer a rented movie from the AppleTV to an iPhone.

Jobs notes how everybody has tried and failed to get movies off the internet onto a widescreen TV. He admits that Apple TV was a miss as well, that people really want Movies, not an accessory for your computer.

“Apple TV Take 2: No Computer Required.”

• You can rent movies directly on Apple TV.
• Movies will be available in DVD and HD quality!
• Audio and Video podcasts
• Grab photos from Flickr and .Mac
• An entirely new user interface

The HD movies are a dollar more to rent.

The new interface on Apple TV is really slick – the shopping experience of looking for movies, music, and TV shows on your television seems very intuitive and fun. You can also browse and download any podcast in the iTunes podcast directory. Browsing photos is easy too – despite the fact that Flickr refused to serve up photos for Steve.

It’s a free software upgrade! …..AND they’re droped the price to $229. It will all be available in 2 weeks.

Jm Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of 20th Century Fox, has announced that going forward, their DVDs will come with a “digital copy” that you can use in iTunes or on your iPhone.

• 4.4.4 (untethered) – Mac, Windows
• 4.4 (tethered) – Mac, Windows
• 4.3 (untethered) – Mac, Windows