Is the iPhone the new Apple TV?

I read a post on the iPhone Blog today about how an "iPhone HD" might be replacing the Apple TV. I certainly hope that this rumor dissipates into the ether for three main reasons.

First, I think it would be inconvenient. Either you have to keep a potentially clunky cable hookup near your television or you would have to purchase another dock. By having the iPhone docked to the TV, you would lose the ability to use it as a remote control, requiring some other device to be used for that purpose. Additionally, there would be further inconvenience in accessing your media. As it stands right now, I can watch a file copied to my iPhone while my partner either watches streamed or copied content on the AppleTV. If the iPhone replaces the AppleTV, it would make it harder to use files shared within a family and would require some design and engineering on Apple's part to handle situations when the phone is needed for a call, but the rest of the audience wants to continue watching a program.

Second, content updates would become difficult. My iMac and AppleTV sit at home, checking for new podcast episodes every hour or so. If my iPhone did the same thing, the battery would likely run out before the end of the day. Additionally, I would have to keep more of my library of podcasts on the phone than I do now.

Finally, it would involve not only Apple and its content providers in the policing of the device, as is the case currently with AppleTV, but also AT&T. I already have to tolerate service provider decision making when I use my cell phone. I don't want to have to deal with it in my living room. The maze of regulations from private entities is getting more and more convoluted.

Not only do I think replacing the AppleTV with a phone would be a bad move, I also think it is highly unlikely. There are so many problems that would come out of this, and Apple would have an even bigger bureaucratic nightmare to deal with if AT&T and other global cell phone carriers became involved your living room media center. At least for now, I think this is a rumor that we don't have to worry about.

Boxee Fixed!

Once I got home from an incredibly stressful day with my servers at work, I decided to attack the Boxee freezing problem. It was extremely easy to fix. The answer is here: http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=2383


To summarize:

1. Get your IP address in settings->network

2. SSH into the AppleTV:

ssh frontrow@[replace with ip address]

3. frontrow is the password

4 enter the following command:

rm /Users/frontrow/Library/Application\ Support/BOXEE/UserData/guisettings.xml

It's as easy as deleting a preference file. Thanks Boxee forums. I'm ashamed that I did not look there sooner.

Boxee upgrade - FAIL!

My attempt to upgrade Boxee on my Apple TV has failed. The install itself seems to have gone okay and the launcher and updater work just fine. However, once Boxee starts, the Apple TV stops responding to the remote and I am forced to reboot. I may have to restore the ATV and start over, which I am hesitant to do because it takes a lot of time. Instead, I will probably wait for the next Boxee update and try to install that using the updater. If that fails, I will restore and reinstall.

Boxee & Apple TV

I recently started to use Boxee on Apple TV and love it. It took multiple attempts to get the installer to run, but once it did, it worked flawlessly. I now am able to watch Hulu on my television set, which is incredible. I replaced cable with an Apple TV, so Boxee greatly expands my content options and without a service charge.

Currently, I have only noticed two problems with my new setup. First, Boxee's interface on the Apple TV can be a little sluggish. Sometimes it is hard to tell if the system has accepted input from the remote control. It would be wonderful if it could accept remote control commands from the iPhone (not that I am being greedy or expecting too much! ;) ) I imagine that will improve over time as Boxee is currently in alpha.

Also, I occasionally have problems watching content that Hulu flags as accessible only to those 18 and older. Sometimes when I try to watch a show, it will tell me that I have not verified my age. Unfortunately, there is no way to rectify that under the setup that I have currently installed.

The good news is that Boxee now has a version that works with Apple TV 2.3 software. This version allows users to use their own Hulu accounts, which should solve the age verification problem.

Overall, I am very excited about checking this out and will report back after I install the upgraded software. Boxee has a blog with details about their work here: http://blog.boxee.tv/

All mixed up

So, I'm bad at blogging, or at least at being consistent about it. In the spirit of getting back into it, I wanted to write a little about my iPhone woes. Recently, I noticed that it is mixing up the cover art for songs and podcasts. In some cases, it also builds the menus incorrectly, so that when I click on a podcast to get to the episodes, I get a list for another podcast. Everything is okay on iTunes, so I'm not sure what the problem is. So far, the only thing that I have found that consistently solves the problem is to restore the iPhone from a backup. I need to do that again. I sure miss the Apple of a few years ago. They must be having growing pains.