Tablet and Mobile

What seems like only months ago I purchased an Apple TV2 box and I’ve never looked back. The Apple TV2 box is a tiny, simple black box that allows you to stream music, pictures and video from your iTunes-equipped PC to the TV, either wirelessly (if you have fast wireless) or via a network cable.

Ok it’s not perfect, videos have to be in Apple format but it works reliably and the quality is superb. A couple of months ago I managed to jailbreak the unit and this was great, allowing the use of non-Apple format videos and indeed breaking free of the need to have a PC operating iTunes – but it came at a cost. Once you jailbreak an iOS4.2 unit you can’t then upgrade to iOS5 without losing the Jailbreak… why is that an issue? Well there are some features of iOS5 that are really good – like piping video etc from your iPhone or iPad to the TV wirelessly.

And so when some time ago the jailbreak failed (as happens – the software is written with the best will in the world by amateurs) I decided to re-flash the phone to iOS5. All was well, I lost my jailbreak stuff but I was back on the official operating system with the benefits that brings (like a guarantee for example!!)

All was well until yesterday, the unit was operating perfectly for ages, but I’m in the middle of upgrading my home network to 802.11n and the wired network to gigabit speeds and in the process I decided to try the AppleTV2 on wireless – I have to say I was surprised at how well it worked… but I had a nagging feeling that running too many things on the wireless at once might affect the smoothness of video and plugged the wired network back into the unit. WELL, that was the end of that, for reasons well beyond me it killed the Apple TV2 unit stone dead. As I’d recently installed iOS5 it certainly wasn’t software that caused the problem.

I’m not daft so I tried all the usual reset tricks before ringing support – nothing. I rang up the Apple store and instead of an Indian call centre (as you might expect with, say, Orange) I got a knowledgeable Irish fellow on the phone who checked the unit out with me and confirmed it was dead.

But don’t you just know it – the unit was 10 days our of warranty – I’d had it over a year… didn’t phase the chap AT ALL. “Don’t you worry sir, we’re not going to quibble about a few days” said he – and off he went for a reference number.  An hour or so later I found myself in the Apple store getting a full replacement unit complete with guarantee. Friendly, intelligent, helpful service – no wonder they’re winning the mobile battle!

And that’s it – I’m back in action, unfortunately it is no longer possible (easily) to Jailbreak Apple TV since the update to iOS5 so I’m stuck with converting videos to Apple format – HOWEVER – a couple of tools you might want to investigate make this very easy – HANDBRAKE and FREEMAKE VIDEO CONVERTER make light work of converting video to M4v format, suitable for Apple TV, iPhone and iPad.