“Apple has officially launched the app that will let you watch its March 21 event live on the Apple TV,” Don Reisinger reports for Fortune.
“Those running the new Apple TV will find an ‘Apple Events’ app is now available for download,” Reisinger reports. “The app is free and provides users the ability to watch the company’s March 21 event live from the comfort of their couch.”
“Apple has said it’s streaming the event live, but it’s not so easy for everyone to watch. Apple uses its own ‘HTTP Live Streaming’ (HLS) technology to stream its show. Would-be viewers will need an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 7.0 or later,” Reisinger reports. “On the Mac, users will be required to run Apple’s built-in Safari browser instead of a third-party alternative. In addition to the ‘Events’ app on the new Apple TV, the company has an app that will automatically populate its older-generation set-top boxes.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Might as well watch it on the big screen if you can!
How about some love for Apple TV 1st gen? Still works well.
I still use my Gen 1 ATV. It has a built in HD. I load it up with family movies. Then when I take to the grandparents, no internet required, no computer required. Just hook up the Gen 1 ATV and we can watch family movies and have slide shows of photos.
“On the Windows side, things are even more difficult for viewers. Apple says it will only stream its show to those running Windows 10 PCs. In addition, Windows 10 users will only be able to watch the show on Microsoft’s Edge browser.”
This is misleading. Apple will stream the event. It will be out there for anyone to grab. All that is needed is HLS compatibility, which Windows 10 has with the Edge browser. Other software, such as VLC, is compatible and available on almost all current computer/mobile/media platforms. Heck, it’s been supported by Flash for almost 5 years now.
Why HLS?
HTTP Live Steaming (HLS) was developed by Apple, but it has been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force for acceptance as a standard.
Unlike other streaming media protocols, it, as the name suggests, utilizes HTTP instead of others like UDP. This means it’s more likely to not have issues with corporate firewalls and will work well with proxy servers and content delivery networks.
TL;DR: As usual, Apple has chosen a format that work’s best for its needs. If you’re in the ecosystem, things will just work. If you’re outside the ecosystem, you may need to figure out what software to use and how to configure it. Apple’s been doing HLS since 2009. It’s nice to see Microsoft finally adding native support with Windows 10.
There’s good reason why the Apple TV 1 doesn’t get love these days. Generally no tech product has a longer life span than 5 years. Its way past end of life, regardless of use. Asking for love on something that is 10yrs + is really stretching it.
It’s a Apple product, not something from Dell.
My Xserver is 11 years old and still gets love, just not from Apple.
“Apple has said it’s streaming the event live, but it’s not so easy for everyone to watch.”
Yea, that sounds really, really hard! /s