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Best iOS Apps To Watch On Apple TV
Developers don’t have to wait for a fully baked version of Apple TV to come out to get a feel for
how their apps will play on the big screen.
Although an eco-system for Apple TV apps does not yet exist, there are dozens of quality iOS applications that are best consumed on an HDTV via AirPlay Mirroring. Creating apps specific to the leaned-back setting of the living room requires more than just supersizing titles originally conceived for smartphones or tablets. Successful Apple TV apps need to source and showcase entertainment, news and social activity in ways not currently possible via cable, satellite or video streaming providers.
Below are the 10 best iOS apps available on Apple TV today. Note that no games are featured here as that topic requires its own standalone assessment. I am also not including obvious titles like the pre-installed YouTube, as well as mainstream subscription-based services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. The apps showcased here provide a glimpse into what to expect in an app-enabled Apple television, and serve as models for any developer gearing up for the new platform.
Video Curation And Search
The 500-channel universe seems so passé. In a world with seemingly unlimited video options, these apps help surface clips and programs most important to you.
Showyou (iPhone, iPad: Free)
In many ways a Flipboard for video, Showyou elegantly displays clips shared by your social networks and other reliable sources. The app is currently divided into four distinct channels. In addition to showcasing videos shared by Facebook and Twitter contacts, Showyou has channels for overall popularity as well as for individuals and publishers you follow within the app. Notable members of Showyou include tech commentators Robert Scoble and John Gruber.
As well, from Funny or Die to Charlie Rose to NASA TV, there is a nice variety of publishers whose videos you may not otherwise see. To date, Showyou has tracked more than one billion social signals for approximately 40 million videos. Its video search engine is informed by all of this social behavior and is noticeably improving over time.
Visually, Showyou has a playful yet structured interface. The app displays streams of videos by channel in reverse chronological order starting at the top of the screen. More than even YouTube, Showyou is the best app for discovering new videos that are contextually relevant. It is also unlike any broadcast or cable network you will ever find.
Squrl Video Discovery (iPhone, iPad: Free)
Squrl categorizes videos from publishers better than Showyou and any other app optimized for AirPlay Mirroring. The app’s taxonomy for showcasing publishers is intuitive (Comedy = College Humor and Team Coco TV and Sports = Deadspin and The Bleacher Report, for instance). The app also has a faceted search layout, where results are sorted by relevancy within Squrl, how they appear on YouTube and where they are found within related YouTube playlists.
Squrl’s social integration, however, is lacking. Compared to Showyou, the shared videos from Facebook and Twitter contacts seemed delayed upon multiple viewings. As well, Squrl’s layout is a bit too cookie-cutter, making it more difficult to discover clips you didn’t even know you were interested in viewing. The app is still an extremely worthy download.
From The Broadcasters
Of course, it’s not wise to live off of curated YouTube clips alone. Here are the best examples of
how broadcasters are approaching apps for TV.
Touchtv (iPad: Free)
If you cut the cord from your cable or satellite provider but still want a taste of broadcast entertainment and mainstream news and sports coverage, Touchtv is your go-to app. Developed by the team behind news aggregation app SkyGrid, Touchtv airs short (on average three of four minutes) video clips from most major broadcast and cable networks. As Touchtv works in some capacity with each network it distributes, the production value of every clip is quite high (even if they leave you wanting more).
Touchtv has the slickest interface of all the video aggregation apps. You can select feeds from approximately 40 networks, which then appear as miniature squares on the homescreen. Tap a station like ESPN or Nickelodeon, and you see the most recent video. Scroll to the right to see the next video in line, or press the “Done” icon on the upper left part of the screen to see a more comprehensive directory.
The biggest complaint with Touchtv is that the videos are not full-length, and are essentially appetizers of programming still most easily accessed via cable or satellite providers. This is more of a licensing rather than a technological restraint, however. SkyGrid CEO Kevin Pomplun explained to Robert Scoble earlier this year that he is confident that the networks will eventually make all of their programming available via apps.
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how their apps will play on the big screen.
Although an eco-system for Apple TV apps does not yet exist, there are dozens of quality iOS applications that are best consumed on an HDTV via AirPlay Mirroring. Creating apps specific to the leaned-back setting of the living room requires more than just supersizing titles originally conceived for smartphones or tablets. Successful Apple TV apps need to source and showcase entertainment, news and social activity in ways not currently possible via cable, satellite or video streaming providers.
Below are the 10 best iOS apps available on Apple TV today. Note that no games are featured here as that topic requires its own standalone assessment. I am also not including obvious titles like the pre-installed YouTube, as well as mainstream subscription-based services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. The apps showcased here provide a glimpse into what to expect in an app-enabled Apple television, and serve as models for any developer gearing up for the new platform.
Video Curation And Search
The 500-channel universe seems so passé. In a world with seemingly unlimited video options, these apps help surface clips and programs most important to you.
Showyou (iPhone, iPad: Free)
In many ways a Flipboard for video, Showyou elegantly displays clips shared by your social networks and other reliable sources. The app is currently divided into four distinct channels. In addition to showcasing videos shared by Facebook and Twitter contacts, Showyou has channels for overall popularity as well as for individuals and publishers you follow within the app. Notable members of Showyou include tech commentators Robert Scoble and John Gruber.
As well, from Funny or Die to Charlie Rose to NASA TV, there is a nice variety of publishers whose videos you may not otherwise see. To date, Showyou has tracked more than one billion social signals for approximately 40 million videos. Its video search engine is informed by all of this social behavior and is noticeably improving over time.
Visually, Showyou has a playful yet structured interface. The app displays streams of videos by channel in reverse chronological order starting at the top of the screen. More than even YouTube, Showyou is the best app for discovering new videos that are contextually relevant. It is also unlike any broadcast or cable network you will ever find.
Squrl Video Discovery (iPhone, iPad: Free)
Squrl categorizes videos from publishers better than Showyou and any other app optimized for AirPlay Mirroring. The app’s taxonomy for showcasing publishers is intuitive (Comedy = College Humor and Team Coco TV and Sports = Deadspin and The Bleacher Report, for instance). The app also has a faceted search layout, where results are sorted by relevancy within Squrl, how they appear on YouTube and where they are found within related YouTube playlists.
Squrl’s social integration, however, is lacking. Compared to Showyou, the shared videos from Facebook and Twitter contacts seemed delayed upon multiple viewings. As well, Squrl’s layout is a bit too cookie-cutter, making it more difficult to discover clips you didn’t even know you were interested in viewing. The app is still an extremely worthy download.
From The Broadcasters
Of course, it’s not wise to live off of curated YouTube clips alone. Here are the best examples of
how broadcasters are approaching apps for TV.
Touchtv (iPad: Free)
If you cut the cord from your cable or satellite provider but still want a taste of broadcast entertainment and mainstream news and sports coverage, Touchtv is your go-to app. Developed by the team behind news aggregation app SkyGrid, Touchtv airs short (on average three of four minutes) video clips from most major broadcast and cable networks. As Touchtv works in some capacity with each network it distributes, the production value of every clip is quite high (even if they leave you wanting more).
Touchtv has the slickest interface of all the video aggregation apps. You can select feeds from approximately 40 networks, which then appear as miniature squares on the homescreen. Tap a station like ESPN or Nickelodeon, and you see the most recent video. Scroll to the right to see the next video in line, or press the “Done” icon on the upper left part of the screen to see a more comprehensive directory.
The biggest complaint with Touchtv is that the videos are not full-length, and are essentially appetizers of programming still most easily accessed via cable or satellite providers. This is more of a licensing rather than a technological restraint, however. SkyGrid CEO Kevin Pomplun explained to Robert Scoble earlier this year that he is confident that the networks will eventually make all of their programming available via apps.
Mod converter
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