Mac: AppleTV in Malaysia

Preamble: An internet signal is sufficient for the Apple TV to broadcast pre-loaded content. Broadband is only required to stream content from the internet. 

Apple does not have an official 'Apple Store' in Malaysia (although it has an online store). Still, seven days after a polite and obscure email from a Mac diehard to Tim Cook, the omitted Apple TV black appeared online (@ RM349.00 + RM59.00 for the HDMI cable) and thereafter on the resellers' shelves. Apple said it sold 2.5 million units in the first half of 2012, but the black box, despite its apparent bang for the buck, is still an unsung hero in Malaysia.

Observation:-  Even in the 21st century, it is expected for April to pack a PowerPoint file, stroll into the boardroom and stick the blue VGA cable into her VIAO. After her thing, she yanks out the VGA and slides it over to Joe, who sticks it into his Dell for his two cents, after which he passes the adaptor to Jill, who does her bit in front of some pleased fuddy-duddies. Everyone takes turns ravaging their bits and bytes through the Epson projector, the old dog sitting at the table's edge amidst the clutter of cables.

And with a 'flash of brilliance' from someone in IT going forward, April, Joe, and Jill play 'musical chairs' with their thumb drives on a single unit or, better still, pre-copy their files onto the hard drive, privacy and security issues notwithstanding, for a smoother delivery.

And after the (apparently 90s musical chairs) meeting, they walk out of the boardroom in warm bliss, not so much for the content they delivered, but because they 'kicked ass' with the most 'modern' of bits technology has on offer.

This is one of the reasons Jobs is smiling in his grave.

While beaming iOS devices are allowed, Macs made before mid-July 2011 do not support Airplay. Thankfully, Squirrels’ AirParrot steps in to bring older Macs and Windows machines running XP onwards to the Apple TV. 

Reflection is also a cross-platform application that turns any Mac or Windows machine into an external display. Beamer beams movies exclusively from a Mac to the Apple TV, but that's another story.

AirParrot for Macs and Windows 

Reflection for Macs and Windows 

Beamer for Mac

Another plus is that a wifi signal is sufficient for the Apple TV to broadcast pre-loaded content. Broadband is only required to stream from the internet. Wi-Fi 802.11 a, b, g or n is all you need for the Apple TV to connect to devices because they ‘see’ each other not over the Internet but over the LAN. Hence, in a boardroom, any old router that creates a personal hotspot is sufficient for a meeting configured for broadcasting rather than streaming content. 

Lastly, it is observed that the Apple TV occupies a crowded home but stands alone in the boardroom, which is bound to go wireless, despite the fearful Windows-centric IT manager who sticks to his ‘wired’ comfort zone.

A wifi signal is sufficient to broadcast

Setting up the Apple TV:-  With the router switched on, I HDMied the unit to the Bravia. After the initial setup, a colourful user interface with YouTube, Vimeo, and other media buttons on call was created. The meat, however, is iTunes with emphasis on Preview, Rent or Buy. Setting up the unit comes with some grief as it is only done with the bundled Apple Remote, but in the backdrop of a boardroom presentation, AirPlay Mirroring (for Macs from mid-2011 onwards) is a huge plus. Essentially, your Mac instantly dances on the big screen with documents, video, and audio without needing MDP or Thunderbolt adaptors or video or audio cables. 

I linked the Apple TV to the Macs via Home Sharing to show up the libraries on the Apple TV interface, but still, at that point, playing was done with the aluminium Apple Remote while navigating the old school Front Row type interface on a sub-menu. To set aside the Apple Remote, I downloaded Remote, a free app, onto the iPad and iPhone and linked Remote to the iTunes Libraries on the Macs to the AppleTV, enabling the iPad (or iPhone) to act as a glorified sofa operator. The difference between the Apple Remote and Remote on the iPad is that the latter displays movie and music covers on its 11-inch screen to tap control content displayed on the TV, and given that the Now Playing tab displays the current cover, scrubber and playing controls on a single page, the iPad takes on the job description of the Apple Remote. Note that the 1st generation iPad is still relevant in this regard.

Understandably, the Videos and Photos app on the iPad (and iPhone) display instantly, but when book aficionados discover that even iBooks can scroll pages on the big screen, they will adore the black box. Although Videos and Photos are enabled for all three generations of iPad, AirPlay for iBooks appears to be left out of the first generation. Double-click the Home button (on the first and second generation) and scroll to the left to enable AirPlay.

From the iPad, I displayed Word and PDF files via Docs HD ($0.99) while YouTube, Ted, Fox, BBC, ABC News, PJTV, Flipboard and Facebook media, SnagFilms, and Al-Jazeera all appeared on the big screen.

Postscript: The Apple TV is the route to minimizing hardware while maximizing output, simply by using a MacMini ‘headless’ as an iTunes server via Home Sharing. Macs and iOS devices jack in via Shared Libraries. The Mini is regarded as the back end to the Apple TV, which acts as the front end. Technically, for the minimalist, there is no need for a display, keyboard or mouse to run the 'headless' server, given that any iOS device or Mac on the network could jack in to control or update its library.

Words - Tommy Peters

The Apple TV @ the bicycle rack

Home setup of the MacMini 'Headless' iTunes Server