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Samsung Smart TVs Will Support Apple AirPlay 2 and iTunes Videos in Spring 2019 (venturebeat.com)
If the late 2018 deal that brought Apple Music to Amazon Echo speakers wasn't surprising enough, Samsung today announced a similar partnership with Apple for 2018 and 2019 Samsung Smart TVs: support for iTunes movies, iTunes TV shows, and AirPlay 2 will be coming in spring 2019. From a report: The deal is all but unprecedented for Apple, which has historically restricted playback of iTunes videos solely to its own devices, including Apple TVs, iPods, iPhones, iPads, and Macs, with no support for competing media players such as Roku, or various smart TV platforms. That said, PCs running iTunes have been able to play iTunes videos, and the company has allowed third-parties to license both AirPlay and AirPlay 2 for years. According to Samsung, a firmware update to 2018 Smart TVs will add a new iTunes Movies and TV Shows app in more than 100 countries. AirPlay 2 will become available on Samsung Smart TVs in 190 countries around the world. There are lots of unanswered questions about this iTunes deal. The Verge: Is Apple going to allow Samsung's smart TV tracking to snoop on iTunes viewers? Smart TVs are notorious for tracking what people watch, but Apple's entire brand is privacy. What usage data will Samsung see from the iTunes app?
Samsung smart TVs run Tizen, Samsung's wacky custom operating system. Is Apple building a Tizen iTunes app? Is there a Tizen team inside Apple? Or is Samsung building this app? Who will be in charge of updating it and fixing bugs? Smart TV apps are not known for being updated well or very often.
Samsung smart TVs run Tizen, Samsung's wacky custom operating system. Is Apple building a Tizen iTunes app? Is there a Tizen team inside Apple? Or is Samsung building this app? Who will be in charge of updating it and fixing bugs? Smart TV apps are not known for being updated well or very often.
The only thing I want to know is what guarantee both Samsung and Apple give me that this will keep working for the lifetime of the TV, lets say 10 years? Also considering future altercations between them, that may, or may not, end up in court.
>"Samsung smart TVs run Tizen, Samsung's wacky custom operating system."
Um, it isn't "wacky" nor really "custom". It is a Linux distro developed by the Linux Foundation. You know, one of the most important supporting organizations for one of the most important and widely used operating systems in the world.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Tizen can also run Android apps (with a compatibility layer). It is true that Samsung is the only one who is making LOTS of use of it right now. And since Apple already supports Android for iTunes, it shouldn't be a huge feat to make it run in Tizen.
https://support.apple.com/en-u...
Not that I am a fan of iTunes, but I can see where having such support would benefit both Samsung and Apple.
This reminds me of the situation with Apple’s Time Machine network backups - they allowed third-party support, then eventually killed off the Airport line of routers (which had Time Machine support baked in).
If Apple is loosening the reins on its AirPlay streaming, it makes me wonder if they’re planning to kill off the Apple TV soon.
#DeleteChrome
Apple doesn't build TVs. So they are not going to lose customers to Samsung with this. On the other hand, it improves the value of MacOS and iOS and their usefulness for Apple's customers. I can't see any reason why Apple wouldn't do this.
Is it [Samsung smart TV] indeed listening?
Indeed it is (and it doesn't even need AirPlay for this). I posted this before, but here's how you can disable some spyware - until they change this in the next mandatory update (for your own good, of course).
Note that even the most restrictive settings won't disable all snooping - if your TV is connected to the Internet it will report on you.