What You Need to Get Started

To start, you will also need an HDTV with an Apple TV attached, an iPhone 4S and a free Skype account. Why Skype and not FaceTime?  Well there are many more Skype users than FaceTime users. And quite frankly, it is much easier to get all members of the family up and running with a free Skype account than to initialize everyone’s iOS and Mac devices with FaceTime.

Prepare the Car Mount

Most iPhone docks are designed for someone sitting at a desk. What is needed is a better mount that can allow the iPhone to be better positioned for larger settings.  Take any decent smartphone car mount with a suction cup, like this one from Arkon for $15 on Amazon. The suction cup needs a smooth surface to attach to, so try mounting it to any household hand mirror. This set up gives extra stability to the video and the added ability to pass the camera in the mount around easily. The great thing about the car mount from Arkon is that it is just about infinitely adjustable, so no matter how or where you need to place the hand mirror you can angle the iPhone the way you want. And if you happen not to have anywhere to place the hand mirror, just tack up a nail and hang the hand mirror upside down on the wall.  Just don’t lock in the iPhone 4S before you make the video call. (The mount’s quick release allows one to attach and detach the iPhone quickly and easily.) Wait until after the call has been established before you put the iPhone into the car mount attached to the hand mirror.

Initiate the Video Call

Placing a video call on Skype with an iPhone is just as easy as chatting or placing a voice call.  To increase the quality of the video once the call is established, be sure to use the back camera of the iPhone. Then double click the phone’s Home button and swipe left twice to reveal the volume and Airplay buttons. To display the call on the big screen, just click on the Apple TV you want to use and turn on Mirroring. Once you’ve done that, mount the iPhone in the car mount and experience video calls on the big screen. As a side note, I have found that when placing Mac-to-iPhone Skype video calls, it is easier to establish a video connection when the call originates from the Mac.

If this solution works great for you, you can always shop around for a more attractive mounting solution.  You could even invest in a mountable surface that permanently affixes itself to the wall just above your HDTV. For instance, the top shelf of my main entertainment system is made of glass, so I don’t really need a mirror in that room of the house.  There are just as many car mounts on the market as there are solutions on how to mount them on or near an HDTV.

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Tank Riders ($1.99 Universal, $3.99 Mac) is a good cross between a maze, puzzle and third-person shooter game that can be really fun in the right circumstances on the right devices. Thanks to well-thought-out maps, Polarbit has done an amazing job at keeping the gameplay interesting enough in single-player mode, while also making multiplayer competitive and fun.

Tank Riders has just two basic controls: one for steering your tank, and one for shooting.  As the levels progress, you’re faced more challenging level puzzles barring your way to the finish line, and more bad guys trying to stop you from getting there. Along the way, you can pick up extra health and special weapons.  But with the start of each level, you get set back to your tank’s starting configuration.

As mentioned, the maps are what make this game shine. In single player mode, crumbling walls and crates that can be destroyed make for a delightfully changeable environment.

What’s great about multiplayer mode is that you can have multiple online accounts on your iPhone, iPad and Mac to play against visiting family and friends.  So if you happen to have more than one Apple device at your disposal, you can set up a tournament in the comfort of your own home.

Tank Riders isn’t without problems. On the iPhone in particular, the screen is just too small to spot the enemy, navigate your tank, and shoot your gun turret all at the same time. I did, however, find that using the iPhone like a traditional game controller while playing the game on my HDTV through my Apple TV over AirPlay was a perfect solution to that problem.  On the iPad and Mac, you won’t have the same problem, and the Mac’s controls make the experience far easier.  So if you plan on going head-to-head with your friends in multiplayer mode, get the Mac version to gain the competitive advantage.

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In a note issued Wednesday, Wu said Apple should enter the TV space in Sterne Agee’s opinion because it represents “the only major end market the company is not currently participating in a bigger way,” according to Wu’s note.  He  cites “several data points indicating activity from component makers to manufacturing partners,” as well as Apple’s own patents as reasons the firm expects Apple to throw-in with televisions.

Standing out in the market will depend on Apple doing two things, according to Wu. First, Apple “should produce both set-top box and integrated form factors,” something a supplier report from Tuesday suggested was indeed Apple’s planned course of action. By offering both options,  Apple stands to appeal to the broadest possible swatch of TV viewers. Set-top devices leverage existing HDTV hardware owned by consumers, while an integrated solution proves “a complete easy-to-use solution similar to an iMac, iPad and iPhone.”

I agree that such a solution makes sense for the reasons Wu gives, but Apple would also have to contend with the risk involved in offering a low-cost device with essentially the same feature set of a high-priced one, with the added challenge that its own integrated smart TV will come in a maximum size of 37-inches, if reports prove accurate. What incentive is there to opt for the Apple iTV over a set-top box in that situation? The answer, of course, may come in the form of some unreleased detail; local storage in a dedicated Apple set, for instance, or broad access to an App Store instead of a select number of hand-picked services, for instance.

Apps and content will be another crucial element to the device’s appeal, according to Wu. He echoes what we’ve been saying for a while now; an Apple TV set’s fortunes will depend heavily on what kind of content Apple can provide, and the way in which it presents that  content. Wu suggests IPTV might be one option for Apple to provide live broadcast television, but streaming app-based solutions for very specific verticals are also starting to emerge.

Finally, Wu says customized programming is something that Apple “would love” to offer its users. We’ve said before that a la carte offerings would indeed make the Apple iTV a truly disruptive device, but the challenge lies in convincing content partners that is indeed the way to go. Pick-and-choose programming is an idea that’s making inroads among cable providers, however, at least in some markets, so there’s hope we could see a high degree of content customization options in Apple’s offering, too.

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Quick and easy

Using Apple’s ability to connect to Flickr, as well as its Internet Radio features, you can easily have a stunning backdrop to your holiday events in three easy steps:

1. Choose your music. On your Apple TV, from the “Internet” find the “Radio” sub-section. To find a holiday station, first try looking under the categories “Religious” or “Golden Oldies,” but it’s likely a lot of radio stations are playing holiday tracks right around now.
2. Search Flickr photos. Once music is taken care of, also under the “Internet” section of the Apple TV you’ll find “Flickr.” Perform a search on Flickr for something very descriptive like “Glass Christmas Ornaments” for best results.
3. Start the slide show. After previewing your search results, change the default settings to shuffle images and allow the slide show to repeat itself once it’s shown every image. Be sure to select the “Holiday Mobile” transition theme before starting the slide show for bonus cheer.

A more personal touch

If you’re looking to show off your own photos rather than someone else’s, and you want to play your own music,too, then there’s a little more work involved. With the Apple TV, there are two ways to access your music library: Either via Home Sharing or iTunes Match. Here’s how to use Home Sharing, which is available free to all Apple TV owners:

1. Create a holiday photo album in iPhoto. In iPhoto, create a new album by highlighting the photos you want and choose ”New Album” from the File menu.
2. Create a holiday playlist in iTunes on your Mac. To quickly create a new playlist, highlight the music you want to listen to and select “New Playlist from Selection” from the File menu in iTunes.
3. Enable Home Sharing from your Mac. From the Advanced menu in iTunes, select “Turn on Home Sharing” and enter your iTunes account information to set up Home Sharing in iTunes on your Mac.
4. Add your iPhoto library to your Mac’s Home Sharing. You also need to add your iPhoto library to your Home Share. This is also done from the Advanced menu in iTunes, by picking “Choose Photos to Share…” and selecting iPhoto.
5. Enable Home Sharing on your Apple TV. Now that everything is set up and ready to go on your Mac, you need to be able to access Home Sharing from your Apple TV. Enable Home Sharing on the Apple TV using the same iTunes account information you used to turn it on with your Mac.
6. Play your shared playlist. Navigate to the “Computer” section and select the music library shared from your Mac. Go to the “Playlist” section under “Music” to select the holiday playlist you created on your Mac.
7. Start your shared slide show. Finally from the “Computer“ section on your Apple TV, pick “Photos.” Here you can select the Photo Album you created in iPhoto.

NOTE: To use iTunes Match rather than Home Sharing on your Mac and Apple TV, you just need to enable iTunes Match. Once you sync your iTunes Match library, the holiday playlist you create on your Mac will be available.

Holiday cheer anywhere with AirPlay

This third method requires only that you’re at somewhere with an Apple TV, and have an iPhone capable of AirPlay. From Spotify, to Google Music and Pandora, you can use whatever music source you choose with this method, as well as your own on-device iTunes library.

1. Ensure AirPlay is enabled on your Apple TV. You don’t need to log into your iTunes account on the target Apple TV with this method, but you do need to make sure AirPlay is enabled. Find AirPlay options under “Settings” on your Apple TV’s main menu.
2. Choose your favorite holiday music app. Most popular music apps in the App Store support streaming music over AirPlay. Choose one, and once the music is playing, simply tap on the AirPlay icon (usually located next to playback controls), and choose the Apple TV from the menu that comes up (note that both devices have to be on the same local Wi-Fi network for it to appear).
3. Pick a holiday-themed album from your device’s Photos app. If you haven’t synced any photos from your iTunes library or you don’t have any ready to go, you could just take some around the house of any decorations or trees, create a dedicated album for them, and use that.
4. Start the slide show. From your device’s Photos app, tap the AirPlay icon and choose the same Apple TV you’re using to stream music. You can stream both music and photos from the same iOS device at the same time.

That’s three easy ways to make your Apple TV part of the festive holiday action. Got any more suggestions? Let us know in the comments.

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Apple’s brand new 27-inch iMacs come with an interesting feature: the ability to act as a display for connected devices via the built-in DisplayPort connection. This means that, with the proper adaptors, you can connect an array of home theatre devices to the iMac, including Blu-Ray players. The screen has also moved to the HDTV standard 16:9 ratio and it’s wall mountable. All of this makes me think one thing, my next HDTV may be an iMac.

The setup would be relatively straightforward. The new iMacs already come with wireless mouse and keyboard, so controlling it from your couch isn’t a problem. Add a tuner attachment from Elgato to get your cable on the iMac, as well as DVR capabilities. Plug in your Blu-Ray player via DisplayPort and then install any of the plethora of multimedia interfaces available for the Mac. My personal favorite is Boxee.

None of this is particularly groundbreaking, you could have done something very similar with a bit more hackage the day before the new iMacs were announced. But it does lead one to start thinking in an interesting direction. There’s no doubt that the computer and the television are moving towards convergence. Apple’s made its first play for the digital living room with the Apple TV, to less than impressive results, as we’ve discussed before. It’s also a company that learns from its mistakes and has a history of taking small, evolutionary steps that can, in a few years, add up to some really exciting changes. Just look at how they’ve handled multitouch.

Combine these small steps with the slow death of desktop computers and Apple has to be thinking about what the future of the iMac will be. What would be the next steps toward a real iMac as HDTV? Well, you’d need to integrate the tuner, and you’d definitely have to offer a large range of sizes, while simultaneously dropping prices. This wouldn’t be quite as hard as you might imagine. The current 27-inch iMac is much more powerful than you really need, and the cost of LCD displays is quickly dropping. Integrate the Apple TV’s media interface and tweak OS X a bit to make it easier to control from ten feet away and you’re almost there.

Do I think this is definitely the direction Apple is moving with the iMac? Not necessarily, but its actions thus far have certainly got me thinking about it and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple make a strong play at the high-end of the HDTV market. In a few years you may be able to buy 30, 40 and 50 inch iMacs, at a premium over standard HDTVs, but with a lot more functionality built-in. It’s certainly Apple’s style to go into an industry and try to slice off the top 10 percent of market share, which also happens to include the lion’s share of the profits. It’s done it in computers, it’s done it with cell phones, why not with HDTVs?

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Like our own Liam Cassidy, Michael Wolf over at GigaOM Pro isn’t convinced (subscription required), for a few very good reasons. For one, he cites the high price tag and lack of subsidization, by comparing it to AT&T’s iPhone arrangement:

TVs would not have any such subsidization, nor would they have the fairly attainable prices of the iPhone (any Apple television would likely carry a price tag of $2,000 or more), putting it out of reach for many households.

Of course, that could be offset by a deal with a cable/satellite provider, but I think Apple’s FCC headaches over their relationship with AT&T will have them squeamish about such partnerships for a while to come.

What do you think? Will there be an Apple HDTV? What price point and features would make such a device attractive to you?

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Perhaps tired of notebooks hogging the spotlight lately, Apple TV is the subject of new rumors that surfaced this past weekend.

Jason Calacanis is making claims that Cupertino is developing a line of network-ready HDTV’s with built-in Apple TV functionality.  The TV’s would offer the same feature-set as the current Apple TV peripheral, but would cut out the extra hardware, offering the ability to stream your content directly from any Mac or PC on your local network.

In many ways this is a logical next step for Apple: Airport Express’ Air Tunes laid the groundwork, Front Row brought a showy but somewhat shallow adolescence, Apple TV showed a maturity but failed to provoke wide market interest. The Remote application for iPhone brings us tantalizingly close to a full, Apple-branded home theater solution (even provoking interest in Apple TV in people who’d taken a pass).  And then the return of NBC and the introduction of HD content?  How better to enjoy said content? Why, with your brand new Apple HDTV, that’s how!

Need more evidence? When did Apple last update their standard-setting line of professional cinema displays?  They obviously know what they’re doing when it comes to high-quality visuals, but only creative professionals are interested in spending $3,000 on a monitor. $3,000 for a television, however, is a different story.  People regularly spend that kind of money on HDTV’s, and if billed as two products in one (Apple TV included!), the price becomes even less prohibitive.  Combining the tech of Cinema displays and Apple TV is pretty much a textbook “product transition,” but it’s unlikely that we’ll see these beasts this Tuesday. If Apple is moving into the television market, it’ll merit its own fanfare.

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