A celebration of Steve’s Life, a special event held on October 19, 2011 on Apple Campus.
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From the category archives:
Mac
With Steve Jobs’ passing, we have lost one of the greatest technological innovators of our time.
Once known as Silicon Valley’s enfant terrible, Steve Jobs had gained the status of an iconic visionary, after the unparalleled success of the iPod (with iTunes), the iPhone and more recently, the iPad.
Today, after bringing his company to the top and stepping down as CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs has died at age 56.
Here is the message that Tim Cook sent to all Apple employees:
Team,
I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.
Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.
We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com.
No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.
Tim
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One thing that iTunes has over Spotify’s online music service is its wireless connectivity to the Apple TV. But it is actually possible to get the same kind of connectivity with Spotify, and use it from any room in your house, with the addition of a classic Mac app and a couple of third-party iOS apps.
Step 1: Get Spotify
There are two ways to get a Spotify account: either by invitation for a free account, or by paying for premium or unlimited accounts. Once you have an account set up, you’ll need to download and install the Spotify OS X client application. Then just start browsing for music and create playlists. Just a few more steps, and you’ll turn your house into one big Spotify jukebox.
Step 2: Extend AirPlay to any Mac music app with Airfoil
Next you’ll need Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil for Mac. Airfoil has been around since long before Apple introduced AirPlay and the second generation Apple TV. Any audio application on the Mac (including Spotify), or even the Mac’s system output can be made accessible to AirPlay devices with Airfoil.
- Download and install Rogue Amoeba’s Airfoil for Mac.
- Choose Spotify in Airfoil as the application you want to play.
- Choose the AirPlay and/or Airfoil device(s) you want to connect to.
- Play music using Spotify.
Step 3: Extend your range with Airfoil speakers
One of the limitations of Apple’s AirPlay has been the fact that iOS devices themselves are not able to receive AirPlay streams, only send them. Luckily, Rogue Amoeba created an app called Airfoil Speakers Touch for iOS devices that allows Airfoil to play music on any and all iOS devices connected to your local network. This works great if you want to extend your playback to speakers that otherwise would not be connected. There’s also a version of Speakers for OS X (.zip file) that will allow you to extend your playback to all the Macs on your network. Keep in mind that you are limited to your local network, so this is not a workaround for taking your library on the go, which is only included in the premium and unlimited Spotify accounts.
Bonus: Remote control options to round it all off
Now that you’re playing music from Spotify around your house, how can you also control it remotely? There are two good third-party solutions to help with this: One will let you control Airfoil on your Mac, and the other will allow you to control Spotify.
- Reemote for Airfoil. Kai Aras’ Reemote lets turn on and off different combinations of Airfoil and AirPlay enabled devices on your network. You can even control their individual volumes, to some extent, and you can switch your audio source application on the host Mac. There is an iPhone as well as an iPad version of Reemote. To make this work, you’ll also need to download and install the Reemote Server application for Mac.
- Two Remotes for Spotify. To control what playlists you’re listening to from within Spotify on the Mac, there are two good solutions. Axel Moller’s Spot Remote and Anders O’s Remoteless. Both apps are universal, supporting both the iPhone and iPad. Both allow you to browse and start Spotify playlists, as well as search for tracks, artist and albums. Another thing they both share is the use of an open source library called SIMBL. The server software for Spot Remote as well as Remoteless requires that SIMBL be installed on the host Mac in order for either solution to work. SIMBL allows third-party developers to enhance the functionality of other applications from other developers. Unfortunately, while it seems to work for some, OS X Lion does not yet appear to be officially supported by either solution.
Since this does require a bit of setup, it isn’t quite as easy as just using iTunes and an Apple TV. But if you’re looking for an alternative that makes use of Spotify’s great new service, maybe this is the whole home music solution you’ve been waiting for.
(Via GigaOM.)
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The BBC’s popular on-demand catch up service iPlayer has been released to the international community for a monthly fee. The app itself is free to download but use of the service will cost users €6.99 per month or €49.99 for the entire year.
At present the service is only available in Europe in the following countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, The Republic of Ireland, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. It is understood that the service hopes to launch in the US soon, although no date has been set.
The service will provide users with on-demand access to top BBC television and radio shows, many of which are currently sold via services like iTunes on a per-episode basis. Downloads from these paid content providers has risen 45.7% through 2010-2011, and the BBC hopes to capitalize on this rising popularity with the subscription model iPad app.
Speaking to paidContent, the BBC revealed that this ‘global iPlayer’ will differ from the UK’s current version:
The global BBC iPlayer app will be a different proposition to the UK on-demand service, which is partly based around catch-up of the BBC’s linear channels. As such, programming will not automatically transfer to the global iPlayer – instead it will be an editorially curated mix of contemporary and classic programming.
In the UK, the BBC’s iPlayer service served 159 million requests in May 2011 alone.
(Via MakeUseOf.com.)
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