iPhone 4 Super Thread: iOS 4.2 Released. Find my iPhone now free

[Mango]

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

[Burninator]

Has anyone gotten the Airplay to work for video on the Apple TV? I could get pictures, but the Airplay button disappears when I go to a video. These are videos I recorded with my iPhone 4.

[Burninator]

So far I think the free find my iPhone is the best party of this new iOS release. I don't quite see the magic of Airplay. I guess it's useful if you are over at someone else's house that has an Apple TV. Otherwise it's a lazy to show off some content with syncing. I also think the new SMS tones are terrible. I much prefer a one or two note noise to some ridiculous 7 second annoying song.

[HotHotHeat]

Originally Posted by Burninator

Has anyone gotten the Airplay to work for video on the Apple TV? I could get pictures, but the Airplay button disappears when I go to a video. These are videos I recorded with my iPhone 4.

Update your Apple TV. Works great.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Update your Apple TV. Works great.

I did. That's how I was able to Airplay pictures to it. Unless there was another update yesterday.

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Burninator

I did. That's how I was able to Airplay pictures to it. Unless there was another update yesterday.

It's not possible to AirPlay videos taken with the iPhone 4 video camera - those clock in around 10 megabits per second, whereas the AppleTV wants to see something below 5 megabits.

You'd need to offload the video, crunch it down in Quicktime or whatever, and AirPlay that.

The technical limitation is that the iPhone doesn't have the cojones, nor the power budget, to do full h.264 encoding on the fly while recording videos, so it has to use a less compressed format.

[Igottago]

Now that Apple has this airplay thing going, I may pick up apple TV. I've always wanted a way to hold my ipod in my hand and be able to use it directly while listening to the songs on good speakers.

[Burninator]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

It's not possible to AirPlay videos taken with the iPhone 4 video camera - those clock in around 10 megabits per second, whereas the AppleTV wants to see something below 5 megabits.

You'd need to offload the video, crunch it down in Quicktime or whatever, and AirPlay that.

The technical limitation is that the iPhone doesn't have the cojones, nor the power budget, to do full h.264 encoding on the fly while recording videos, so it has to use a less compressed format.

Well that is disappointing. So I don't get the hype surround this then. That was pretty much my only use for it that I could think of. If I need to reduce the quality for playing on Apple TV I would just stream it to my Apple TV from my PC instead of Airplaying it. I just can't foresee a situation where I would have a video on my phone that I wouldn't have on my PC. Apart from being at someone else's house that has an Apple TV (which I don't).

[Ryan Coke]

I didn't realize airplay would allow playing of music through to a stereo. In that case, is there any chance it would work with an Apple airport? Seems like the same idea, and man would that work well for me (obviously I have an airport, but not an Apple TV).

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Ryan Coke

I didn't realize airplay would allow playing of music through to a stereo. In that case, is there any chance it would work with an Apple airport? Seems like the same idea, and man would that work well for me (obviously I have an airport, but not an Apple TV).

Works with Airport express, since that allows you to hook up speakers to it. Otherwise it will need an AirPlay compatible speaker set.

[Ryan Coke]

Thanks, I'll have to try it. Maybe it is an airport express, because I do have it hooked into a receiver/amp.

[Russic]

I have a couple airport expresses around my house and with them airplay has been a 90% success. Not having to use the remote app is kick ass because you don't need to wake up the phone from sleep and re-acquire a wifi signal to make volume or track changes. On the negative side though, you can only do 1 set of speakers at a time, so if I'm having a party or I just want music all around the house I need go stream from the computer.

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by Russic

I have a couple airport expresses around my house and with them airplay has been a 90% success. Not having to use the remote app is kick ass because you don't need to wake up the phone from sleep and re-acquire a wifi signal to make volume or track changes. On the negative side though, you can only do 1 set of speakers at a time, so if I'm having a party or I just want music all around the house I need go stream from the computer.

You do need to use the computer but as you mentioned the remote app will let you select multiple speakers so you dont actually have to go to the computer

[sclitheroe]

Originally Posted by Burninator

So I don't get the hype surround this then.

Maybe it's just not intended for you...the hype is that I can start a movie on say the iPad, watch part of it on the big screen, then pack up and resume where I left off, as an example. That's one use.

The bigger picture is that the digital media hub aspects of iTunes are coming home to roost on Apple's mobile products - in essence, Apple has skipped the home media server concept and put that functionality into their mobile devices. Couple that with a cloud storage solution, and you've got all your media in the remote control.

Another interesting aspect of AirPlay is that it more or less becomes the defacto method of putting apps on your TV. The iPhone or iPad displays the controls and handles the interactive part of the app, while the big screen handles the app's output. When I think of NHL Gamecenter live functioning this way, I start to drool.

So long term you not only have all your media in the remote control, but the remote control also becomes an infinitely adaptable and customizable interface to that content.

If you ask me, this completely leapfrogs the old-school approach that Google is taking with GoogleTV, which is much like the failed WebTV Microsoft attempted, where the interface is onscreen, and you've got to come up with a remote control with lots of buttons or a clumsy Wii like interface to interact with it. Not to mention that the brains are tied to a set top box that you can't take with you, and that can't shift its content from the big screen to a portable device, since its permanently tethered to the TV.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by silentsim

You do need to use the computer but as you mentioned the remote app will let you select multiple speakers so you dont actually have to go to the computer

But with the phone going to sleep it needs to be turned on, lock switch pulled, 4 digit code entered and wait 5 seconds for wifi to reconnect. meanwhile with music playing via airplay all you do is double tap the home button from the lock screen and your controls are right there. For volume you don't even need to wake the phone up.

Edit: SWEET! 4.2 fixed the bug where if you had an email account using exchange your ability to set the sleep to "never" was missing! At least I think that was the issue. Ok I'm not as bothered.

[Prototype]

AirPlay doesn't make too much sense for me, as I always have iTunes on as a server in the basement. The only benefit I could see I guess is being able to turn my computer off, and still watching the same content I have on my iPhone.

Taking it to a friends house and watching makes some sense too.

[sclitheroe]

Quick update on AirPlay of video recorded on the iPhone - seems like there could be a bug lurking here, as some people are reporting that synching a video off of the phone into iTunes, then back onto the iPhone, without conversion, results in a playable vid via AirStream.

[La Flames Fan]

Quick question...can you use an unused iPhone 4 on any network that supports it?

[silentsim]

Originally Posted by La Flames Fan

Quick question...can you use an unused iPhone 4 on any network that supports it?

If it's unlocked.

[La Flames Fan]

Originally Posted by silentsim

If it's unlocked.

Define unlocked? Thanks...