Filed under: iPod Family, Software Update, iPhone, Apple TV
Apple TV software update adds gesture support via Remote
Apple has quietly pushed out software updates for both the Apple TV and the Remote application for the iPhone and iPod touch. The update, identified as version 2.4 for the Apple TV, and version 1.3 (24) for the Remote app, adds gesture support for controlling Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod.Our in-house Apple TV geeks, Megan Lavey and Christina Warren, both installed the updates and gave them a try. Megan indicated the gestures were quick and responsive, and coupled with the ability to use the iPhone/iPod keyboard to search for shows, the new versions made it much less tedious to navigate through your shows.
Boxee users may wish to hold off on updating, however, as it seems that you may not be able to reinstall Boxee after completing the update. Also worth noting is that the new Remote app requires the 3.0 software update to be installed on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Gallery: Apple TV Remote Gestures
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
David Hildreth said 5:39PM on 6-24-2009
If the gesture support is all that they've added I'm in no hurry to update.
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steve said 5:55PM on 6-24-2009
What about support for front row and other programs that use the apple remote?
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ErnieP said 6:10PM on 6-24-2009
Kicking a dead horse...
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russ d said 6:24PM on 6-24-2009
Gesture support, as in the same thing the Boxee remote already has?
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Grant said 8:41PM on 6-24-2009
As if the Boxee remote app wasn't following the lead of the Apple remote app in the first place...
Marcos said 6:16PM on 6-24-2009
Wake me up when gestures work with iTunes.
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SCOTT said 6:20PM on 6-24-2009
my question is will this undo all of the hacking that I have on my appletv...because I have ssh'd quite a few files to the appletv for safe keeping...because at the time I was out of hard drive space...now I need to rethink this...
but I don't want to lose the ability to play different formats and using boxee/xbmc...and the other things that work great on the hacked appletv
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Michael Jones said 6:24PM on 6-24-2009
My understanding is that it will. Typically you can just reinstall Boxee with a patchstick, however, that didn't work well in our case. An updated stick may work, but the best thing to do in cases like this is wait until the community confirms whether or not you can safely update before trying it.
Zack said 5:02PM on 6-25-2009
I updated my apple tv with the latest 2.4 update. After the update, everything went back to stock settings (no xbmc/boxee menu options). I put my 8gig Sandisk Cruzer into my imac and downloaded the lastest version of atv-usbcreator, do a google search. It downloaded the lastest .dmg i needed and it worked beautifully. So now I have the latest update with the gesture support, which I will say is very useful if you just watch shows through itunes, on my atv. As far as I can tell, it saved all of my previous settings in these apps, but the actual programs themselves were not there anymore, so I had to re-download them. Remember to update the launcher first, because you will just get a black screen otherwise. Hope this helps.
SCOTT said 5:21PM on 6-25-2009
@zack...that really doesn’t help me because I have my apple tv hacked completely...so that it will play any video format, be used as SSH drive, usb port enabled, etc etc etc...so until I am able to update nito tv, and all of the other programs that go along with that...I am not willing to mess with it
boxee and xbmc is trivial if I don't have the other programs
thank you for the support and the thought of commenting to help
I appreciate it
Chris said 6:31PM on 6-24-2009
damn, just be happy people. its free!
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Charles Kirschner said 6:40PM on 6-24-2009
Looks like they have overhauledthe browsing in the Apple TV. You should update the gallery to reflect that. You can now browse by unwatched. Also, TV Seasons are now sorted in chronological order rather than reverse chronoligical (Season 1 at top) and that's a much welcome update in my opinion. Also, there are now the blue dots by the unwatched movies that go to half circles if partly watched. There are gray boxes around each selection also. I personally think that it looks much nicer. Now if only they would add coverflow to the music to use with the gesture support.
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Jason said 6:50PM on 6-24-2009
No joke people it's free and yet all I'm reading it whining...jeez is that what apple owners have turned into!?!
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Phil J Leitch said 6:45PM on 6-24-2009
I keep giving Boxee on Apple TV a chance but it hardly seems worth it as the quality, for me anyway, is really unwatchable. Netflix watch now works great on my Samsung Blu-ray player so I don't think bandwidth is an issue.
I think Apple TV just isn't built to handle it.
So, like every other time there is an update for it I'm going to immediately install the update and say bye to Boxee.
Until of course a month or two from now when I get the bug in my ass and try Boxee again.
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spmp said 7:31PM on 6-24-2009
Will the remote function on the iPhone work with on a Mac Mini?
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Michael Jones said 8:20PM on 6-24-2009
You can use the Remote app with iTunes on a Mac or PC. Works pretty well actually.
applefreak95 said 7:53PM on 6-24-2009
Unless I am mistaken this update also allows you to control volume with the standard Apple Remote that comes with the Apple TV.
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Duncan said 8:16PM on 6-24-2009
Did you really tag this "breaking news"?
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Michael Jones said 8:24PM on 6-24-2009
I didn't tag that when I posted it, so it was probably added later.
But judging by the sheer number of tips we received from readers letting us know that the update was available, coupled with the possibility that the update may break custom installs (Boxee, XBMC, etc), some readers may consider this to be important news, while others may not.
Victor Agreda Jr said 11:14PM on 6-24-2009
The breaking news tag helps us keep a story pinned up top, in that box to your right labeled "Breaking News"... normally we would use an invisible tag, but I don't think it's working. So we're gonna fix that. Thanks for pointing it out!