“The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) reader, Zeno, wrote in tonight from Switzerland, having just managed to get Front Row running on his Mac mini with a few ‘tweaks’ (it is currently only included with and supported on new iMacs),” C.K. Sample, III reports for TUAW.
He recorded a video as proof of his success, and included the following notes: “Details: – Front Row transition effects run smooooth on the Mac mini (keep in mind there’s no G5 in the mini and it only has 32MB of vram). First time you launch it, you’ll be blown away, that’s for sure. – Front Row can be controlled from the keyboard (4 arrow keys, space bar and escape) – As you can see in the video, I managed to remote-control Front Row from my SonyEricsson K700 via Bluetooth: using one of the built-in Bluetooth HID profile (no Salling Clicker needed, even if, of course, you could do that with Salling Clicker too) – Because of those ‘tweaks’ (ok, call them ‘hacks’) Front Row on the Mac mini is not working 100% properly (Videos and Photos were ok, but had some problems with DVD and Music).”
Sample writes, “The video is awesome, as you can really tell how completely stoked Zeno is about the whole thing.”
Among TUAW’s reader comments is this gem, “I just tried, works great on a new iBook 12inches. A bit slow on the video. Wanna hear something exciting? .. go to http://labs.divx.com/ and install the divx fusion codec beta 3 for mac (it now works with quicktime 7). Well I can confirm that FrontRow plays Divx in my iBook, most of them perfectly.”
Full article with video here.
Advertisement: The New iMac G5 – Built-in iSight camera and remote control with Front Row media experience. From $1299. Free shipping.
Other reports from around the bowels of the Web indicate that Front Row has hit the torrent sites. [UPDATE: 1:06pm ET: MacDailyNews has confirmed the existence of at least one torrent of a working copy of Front Row.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
New iMac G5 represents a step forward for Apple – October 24, 2005
NY Times’ Pogue: Apple’s iMac G5 with sleek, virus-free, spyware-free OS earns place in living room – October 20, 2005
Apple’s new iMac G5, iTunes 6, iPod video designed to bait Hollywood – October 13, 2005
Apple’s Front Row with Apple Remote and iMac G5: media center done right – October 12, 2005
Apple introduces new thinner iMac G5 with built-in iSight video camera, ‘Front Row’ media experience – October 12, 2005
I got it from mininova or demonoid
It’s working, although DVDs don’t play
Nice, that is very sweet. Now that all of the Macs have bluetooth, that would be a good, logical step.
Paul Thurrot gave a link to another site where you could download the information, now that link is inactive.
What? No comments yet on Apple lawyers going after them. Right after a story about lawyers going after Apple? What’s happening to this site? Its going downhill.
Anybody think that the next Mac Mini will be the first Intel based Mac with a version of Front Row installed on it? I think there is a big demand for a machine like that.
Tried it… really cool little program, especially with a bluetooth device. slick UI….. It’s really buggy though… i really hope they release this for all macs sometime… possibly iLife ’06?, that’d be sweet.
btw: the Photo Booth app is available if you search real good… that’s a fun time-wasting little distraction… love it.
I tried it on a mac mini I have here at work, it runs, well, okay I suppose. All the effects run clearly but a lot slower than on a new iMac. Well actually now that I’ve been messing with it.. it only seems to go into the different sections of the program more slowly the first time. I’d say it’s perfectly acceptable on a 1.25 mini mine has 512mb
Got it running on the wife’s PowerBook. I picked a great day to play hooky from work. The bugs really come out to play if you exit and try to run iTunes or QT, though.
Still… it’s a fun little project and makes me want the new iMac even more. My wallet thanks you, Steve.
Anyone concerned about how the DivX Fusion Beta 2 installer bypasses the usual security password to install? I am. I Just installed it and I was a little bit scared of that fact. I wonder if Apple knows about this. Might drop them an email real quick.
Has anyone experienced this as well?
I really do wonder if it will be released eventually as a download directly from Apple, as I was searching for something else in Mac Help, and found a reference to “Front Row”. Check it out: I have a relatively new PB 1.5ghz, running 10.4.2. Search for “dvd”, and about nine rows down in the results it says “Playing DVDs using Front Row”. When I show that help topic, there’s a whole page talking about Front Row and the Apple Remote.
Crazy monkeys.
i got it working on my 15″ PB – its very flakey as hell though!!!
I just downloaded it and installed it and it’s really fun. Since i broke my tivo, i’ve been downloding my episodes to shows like Arrested Development and Aqua teen. It’s nice to have a simple solution to all of this!
It works beautifully, except that it’s having a hard time interfacing with itunes and my airport express.
FYI, i’ve run this on both my powerbook (1.5, 64mb video, 1gig ram) and my mac mini (1.25, 32mb video, 512). works nice on the powerbook, a little lag on the mac mini, but definantly very nice.
works well on 2. gen iMac G5. everything checks out ok.
Like a few other people, I got mine working on my 12″ powerbook. It is a bit slow at first, and the iTunes interface is a bit buggy, but I think it’s amazing that we have it up and working! I’m star struck at the opening “panning desktop” effect. That alone is so worth it!
does anyone know if there are any visualizer options for iTunes from within Front Row? Seems like a major omission if there are not
Cute little app – runs decently on my PB 1.25, albeit somewhat inconsistently. I imagine it runs pretty clunkily on machines that can’t run Core Image stuff.
WOO HOO
got it working on my dual 2.5! i had to cut for work so i haven’t checked out everything but the itunes was kinda slow. oh well it works!!!
Alan i have to agree that the desktop –> Front Row and then back to Desktop transition is some of Apple’s best work.
I also just noticed that leaving Front Row running in the background uses next to no system resources. This means that one can switch into it on a whim — lovely. Well done Apple.
It is amazing to see how well they can incorporate these ‘disappearing’ functions into the OS (Dashboard, Front Row, Exposé, Fast User Switching)
Works for me on my TiPB! I didn’t realize I could get the music trailers online. They’re awesome. Photos don’t work for some reason.
Okay, now that the proof-of-concept is over, I guess I’ll have to remove it, now. Where are the instructions for that, again?
Everything I try to play in iTunes won’t play. I just get an “error encountered” message and taken back to the desktop.
Sad.
BTW: 1.8GHz G5, 10.4.2, iTunes 6.01
Does anyone know how he managed to save Steve’s Keynote?? (at least that’s how it looked…)
It’s an MP4 H264 stream which can’t be saved as yet, or so I thought.
Works on my 12″ iBook – beautiful little gimmick
Installed in Rev. B 12″ PowerBook and works great.
It is a bit buggy and sometimes slow.
lilaliend:
Got same error. Restarted Front Row and that solved it.
Do Movie Trailers work for anyone?
I get error: The movie trailer server is not responding.
Anyone?
@anon
Prolly with Snapz Pro.
Definite WOW factor in Front Row… love it!
However, I think I’ll wait till the official release of Front Row… this current version, admittedly hacked, is a very good effort, but a little too buggy for me to use consistently. The Movies section seems to stutter alot, and even when I got iTunes to play a song, exiting and re-entering Front Row scanned the playlist list indefinitely.
BTW, using Mac Mini 1.25Ghz, 1GB ram, 40GB drive, OSX 10.4.2, itunes 6.0.1
which one do you download to get Front Row on your computer?
Can you use the iphoto option?
i can get to the list – and theres a nice ‘square’ that shows the pictures besides the list but if i try to access an album nothing comes up!
anyone else?!
Apple have just tested the water… they always knew that FR would become public domain…
and now they know people are going crazy for the hacked version – they will go ahead and sell a packaged version for all mac users… the market is there – and now they have proof of it.
could someone take me step by step on how to put front row on my powerbook 12″?
Restarted Front Row, still not working. Will try restarting computer all together soon, after finishing up a job.
Photos works perfectly.
Videos works perfectly.
No DVD to test
iTunes just still giving me errors.
Anyone know if I can set up the bluetooth remote with a Motorola A630?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
EndlessElevationProductions –
download front row from one of the sites that has it mirrored – you can still get it here – http://eden.org/eric/uploads/front_row.zip
launch the front row app – it’ll appear in your dock – make sure FR is the front most app – then press escape! use left / right keys to navigate – simple!!!
although its a bit hit and miss in when it wants to work etc – but i got it working on my 15″ PB
Thanks a lot! I am going to download it.. my real name is Gregory.. I am a 12 year old Mac lover….EndlessElevationProductions is my production company…. check out my new nano commercial…. http://homepage.mac.com/margera/iMovieTheater13.html
just watched your vid/ad
nice work!
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
looks like we got a 12 year old entrepreneur here – more power to you gregory!
Working ok on a new iBook 12″. It starts iTunes and iPhoto in the background when you play music or watch pictures. Guess that´s why it´s slower the first time. If I exit, do something in iTunes and then enter again, the iTunes part dosn´t work.
Does anyone have a download link for Photo Booth?
MW: children… ha.. once my MW was Death
Hey if you cant get it to work with iTunes or iPhoto, make sure you quit those apps before you go into Front Row and it will open the apps itself and should work perfectly. I had the same problem earlier but the only thing that is broken is when i use it for iTunes, exit front row, and try to go back.
Hope that helps!
Oh, is Front Row an application. I thought it was part of the OS. Like Dashboard is part of Tiger. Thanks for the heads up MDN. Time to crank up Transmission.
Ssnx, Movie trailers work, full-screen, and are very cool.
“Apple have just tested the water… they always knew that FR would become public domain…
and now they know people are going crazy for the hacked version – they will go ahead and sell a packaged version for all mac users… the market is there – and now they have proof of it.”
Uh, why would they? Everyone would just pirate it and put it up on bittorrent. That’s the problem with a lot of people, they’d rather just leech (I won’t use the word ‘steal’) and not buy.
Toby, I believe that front row is more of an add on for Tiger. After all, they’d have to release an entirely new version of 10.4 just for the new iMac if it was integraded fully into the OS X itself. I think that’s why we’re able to get it to work on other OS X installs (is anyone running it on anything other than Tiger out there?). I’m sure someone with more know-how can clear this up, but that’s just what makes sense to me.
how do you set it up to work with a bluetooth phone? i have a sony ericcson t616..
thanks
deoes anyone know where I can download Photo Booth? ??????????
Front row without a remote= useless.
Who cares about the software if you cant use the remote on your non-iMacs. Apple should release it standalone for other Mac users. Bad form Apple.
works fine, no bugs
http://www.gadgetsonthego.net/2005/10/front-row-1st-thoughts-on-my-powerbook.html
Up and running on my powerbook.
Joewannamac….
just do a search for “front row” in the mac help… I found 12 help articles
in the apple help menu… I did a search for “front row”, came up with 12 listings… one of them is named “About Front Row” and is cryptically has this sentence in it.
“Front Row works on newer Macintosh computers equipped with an infrared (IR) receiver.”
newer mac computers, not IMacs……
anyone have the link for the download of Photo Booth yet?
put it on my g4 1ghz powerbook 15in….runs supper smooth….absoulutely awesome….all 4 functions work fine.
Photo Booth Download link yet????????????
the only thing I can’t get to work is DVD. How have you gotten it to work?
I just updated my site. I wanted a remote control to really make this cool. I am using my Treo 650 using an app called sailing clicker. It works to control music, and photos so far.
.
http://www.gadgetsonthego.net/2005/10/front-row-1st-thoughts-on-my-powerbook.html
EndlessElevationProductions/Gregory
Photo Booth Download link yet????????????
perhaps if you ask again, this time with more question marks, then one of us will tell you how to get it.
got it running on my mac mini 1.42, 512, but there are a ton of bugs
it screws up the album art in music, my pictures dont show up too well, and i couldnt get the dvd to work
im glad somebody got it working, but i think ill wait until apple decides to release it for all macs until i start putting it to good use
FrontRow really needs to run VIDEO_TS files.
Needs to run on panther; it don’t.
Geez… iTunes works fine at home, whether I have iTunes open before hand or not. Still just doesn’t work on G5 at work.
Photos work fine in both places, even have my library on an external drive.
Videos works fine on both.
DVD Player just says reading while DVD starts up in background and I hear the audio. Then after a couple minutes I get an error message telling me to exit Front Row, but I still hear the audio in the background. Then I can’t exit Front Row becuase it just sits unresponsive so I have to disconnect the power from my computer to turn it off and start it back up. (This all on my G4 iMac at home)
UGH!
I completely agree with boomboom too, needs to work with VIDEO_TS files. In fact, off topic, but does anyone know of a video player that can ‘catalog’ VIDEO_TS folders like the other iApps?
i have it running on my 800MHz eMac. the app itself works beautifully, although it “thinks” a long time when launching anything. iTunes and iPhoto work great; i haven’t tried to play a DVD or video yet. i have a new, loaded G5 iMac on order; with this taste of Front Row, i am really looking forward to receiving my new Mac now!
lilaliend:
There is app called Matinee that is a Video_TS launcher/Cataloger.
http://matinee.dizandat.com/
ArchAngelNix:
SAHWEET!! Thanks man. I gotta full 300GB external that’s been waitin’ for something like that
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
i think what we need to get the dvd function to work is the (must be) updated version of it thats on the new imac, or at least it’s framework as the itunes function requires 6.0.1 to work
I have a PowerBook G4 1.33 Ghz, 1.25 GB RAM, Mac OS X 10.3.9
I can’t make Front Row run!
I get this message in the console:
dyld: /Applications/Front Row.app/Contents/MacOS/Front Row can’t open library: /System/Library/Frameworks/DiskArbitration.framework/Versions/A/DiskArbitration (No such file or directory, errno = 2)
HELP!
Any suggestions???
Ok, I’m gonna ask now!
Photo Booth Download link yet???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????