How to watch TV and movies on your Apple iPad

Whether you own the original Apple iPad or the new thinner iPad 2, one of its best less-talked about uses is to watch films and television on.

Everybody knows how great Apple’s tablet device is for music, apps and surfing the internet but tuning in to movies and TV shows on the move brings a whole extra world of entertainment.

Now you must remember that if you are watching television on your iPad, you need a TV Licence to do so. As long as you have one for your household telly, then you're fine. But you can't get away with only owning an iPad and no TV at home. All digital TV watching whether through this gadget or on your PC or laptop needs an official TV Licence.

But it's well worth it as there are plenty of websites and apps out there to help you make the most of the iPad’s video capabilities. Below are some of my favourites to get you started.

Television

The first port of call has to be the BBC iPlayer – just like you would with your computer.

It is available both through the Safari browser or now as an official BBC iPlayer app – just type ‘iPlayer’ in the App Store – and you can catch up on seven days’ worth of shows from all the BBC’s channels, in stunning HD quality. You can also watch the various channels live and it is so simple to use.

In fact, a child could use it, so it's handy for keeping the kids quiet in front of CBeebies.

Unfortunately, it's not as easy with the other key terrestrial stations but luckily Channel 4 has just released an app for its 4oD catch-up service, free for a limited time.

There is also a website called TVcatchup.com to fill the void. Just go to http://ipad.tvcatchup.com on your tablet and hit ‘sign up’. It’s completely free to anyone in the UK as long as your ISP is compatible, which almost all are.

You can then choose from 50 channels – made up of pretty much the same selection you get on Freeview – which stream live. The only drawback I’ve found as an iPlayer fanatic is that the picture quality and buffering times don’t live up to the BBC standard-bearer.

For those who like their premium sporting content on TV, it’s all about Sky for the iPad.

The satellite provider’s Sky Mobile TV app allows you to watch Sky Sports 1, 2, 3 and 4, Sky Sports News and Sky News on any Apple device.

There is a monthly cost however – ranging from £5 for a current Sky Sports subscriber to £35 for a non-customer.

The new Sky News for iPad app however is free and brings you a live stream from the channel as well as archived video reports.

Movies

The most obvious, and easiest, way to watch a movie on your iPad is to simply press the ‘iTunes’ button on your desktop or on the iPad itself and then either search for the flick of your choice or hit the ‘Films’ tab for a selection.

Films are available to buy or rent, with rentals staying on the iPad for 30 days with a 48 hour period to complete viewing once you’ve started watching.

As you’d expect the quality is excellent, and the download process simplicity itself, however the pricing certainly takes those two facts into account. It can cost up to £13.99 to buy an HD movie and anywhere from £2.49-4.49 to rent one.

A cheaper option is to simply stream the films you already own on your PC or Mac direct to the iPad via Wi-Fi by downloading an app called ‘Air Video’ and the corresponding software for your desktop fromwww.inmethod.com/air-video/download.html.

A simple sync and you can now watch all the videos from your computer on your iPad – no matter what format they are stored in – thus saving the time, effort and, most importantly, the hard drive space that it would take to transfer them over.

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iPad 3, iPhone 5 launch

The iPad 3 and iPhone 5 are almost certainly coming in 2012, but what else does Apple have planned? Check out our look at the top Apple tech trends to watch out for in 2012.

Apple iPad 3 set to launch in 2012?

A new year, a new iPad. Surely it will come in 2012? Perhaps with all the elements most tablet users are crying out for this time – like a USB key and an LED lightbar. A bit of a complaint among iPad 2 customers, the issue of brightness is certainly one Apple need to address. Rumours are of dual-LED lightbar technology to brighten up the iPad’s display, which will be even more vital given the iPad 3’s expected 2048x1536 display. 3G for free would be great, too.

Apple iPhone 5 set to launch in 2012?

Unless there is a major technology disaster when it comes to production, or BlackBerry/Samsung/Nokia/HTC create a smartphone in the next few months so advanced that it can transport users Star Trek style to make ‘calls’ face-to-face, the Apple iPhone 5 will be with us in 2012. What will it include? A better camera, better processor and more storage hopefully.

Apple Siri to get serious in 2012

It’s the gadget of the moment for sure – capable of doing everything from starting a car to creating a media storm around abortion, but one thing is certain; Siri means business. Expect plenty more Siri hacks and interesting developments as Apple utilise and perfect the technology for the future. But the real question for 2012 and Siri remains – will it be able to decipher the hidden meaning of the Scottish accent?

Will Apple go 3D in 2012?

This will largely focus on the iPad 3, for sure, where given the competition in the tablet market even something as supposedly innovative as Retina Display isn't a big enough deal to keep the iPad 3 ahead of the competition.

Unfortunately producing large screen auto-3D is difficult. Every plane of depth you create robs the screen of resolution. To bring out a large no-glasses display you have to use a next generation 4K2K panel - that's 8 million pixels give or take.

Today's 1920 x 1080 Full HD screens are 2 million pixels. So to produce a no-glasses 3D panel requires four times the resolution as a flat picture - which is exactly the same PPI bump that Apple's 78 micrometers pixel technology allows. Could this technique be used give the iPad no-glasses 3D? The numbers seem to add up. But could we see 3D iPhones? 2012 will tell.

End of the iPod?

Could 2012 be the year that Apple kiss goodbye to the product that kick started their tech renaissance? While Apple seem to be running plenty of updates and innovations with the iPod Touch and iPod Nano, where there is still a big potential market, with the iPhone doing the same – and a whole lot more – as the Classic iPod, do we still need it? Figures from April show a 17 per cent decline in sales of iPods from the same time in 2010 – so could the number be up for the iPod Classic in 2012?

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Intel Says Android 4.0 for Smartphones, Tablets Ready

The company had a version of Android 4.0 for Medfield up and running within a day of Google open sourcing the OS, and now packages for smartphones and tablets with Medfield drivers are available to device makers, said Alec Gefrides, head of the Google Program Office at Intel.

Intel is working with device makers to optimize and fine-tune the OS for specific platforms and products based on Medfield chips. While the OS is expected to be ready in time for the product releases, it will be up to the device makers to decide whether they want to implement the OS in smartphones or tablets.

"We'll see products next year on Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich and Honeycomb," Gefrides said, referring to Android versions 2.3, 4.0 and 3.x. "Every OEM has to put a stake in the ground to get a product delivered."

Intel in September said that the first Intel-inside smartphones would reach the market in the first half next year. Intel also said it was working closely with Google to optimize Android to work on upcoming smartphones and tablets with Medfield chips. The chipmaker showed off a Medfield smartphone running on Android 2.3 and a tablet running on Android 3.x at the Intel Developer Forum trade show in San Francisco that month.

The ability to run Android 4.0 on mobile devices is important for Intel, which has no presence in the smartphone market and a minor presence in the tablet market. Intel is trying to establish a beachhead in a market dominated by ARM, whose processors are found in most smartphones and tablets.

Intel's efforts to bring Android 4.0 to future Atom-based handheld devices is parallel to other efforts to port the OS to the x86 architecture. Earlier this week, volunteer developers of theAndroid-X86 open-source project ported the OS to work on a tablet with x86 processors from Advanced Micro Devices. AMD supported the project with engineering support and donated devices, said Chih-Wei Huang, an open-source developer, in an email.

"Intel continues ignoring us. I've tried to contact Intel many times, but they are not interested in helping us," Huang said.

Intel is grateful that developers are working on Android 4.0 for x86, but Gefrides said drivers will be released to the open-source community only with device releases. Intel wants to ensure the OS works properly on Intel-based devices, and wants to try and prevent Android from getting fragmented.

"Intel has to focus resources on building products, not experiments," Gefrides said.

Complaints about lack of early access to Intel code is reminiscent of the open-source community complaining about Google not releasing Honeycomb code, which was made available only to certain vendors, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates.

If Intel did release the drivers prematurely, the user experience on smartphones and tablets could be inconsistent, Gold said. Intel wants to ensure a consistent and functional Android OS on devices, which is critical given the chipmaker is just starting off in the tablet and smartphone markets.

Intel usually optimizes code for its chipset, bus systems and other components to ensure applications take full advantage of hardware for tasks like multimedia, Web browsing or multicore processing. Those capabilities could go awry on faulty code and hurt the user experience, so Intel is trying to standardize the drivers ahead of a wider open-source release.

"Intel wants to avoid people doing weird things in weird ways that makes their platform look bad," Gold said.

But the open-source community is vocal and wants to commence development as soon as possible, for which they need Intel's cooperation.

"It's damned if you do, damned if you don't," Gold said. "I'd have to weigh in on Intel on getting the user experience right."

Intel submits x86 code to the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), which is run by Google. Intel has already been an active participant in Android development for the past two years, submitting more than 200 core patches to AOSP, which have carried over to Ice Cream Sandwich.

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Android, Samsung Smartphones Popular, iPhone 4S Boosts Apple

An Android-based Samsung smartphone is the device to beat, according to Friday stats from comScore.

Of the 3,000 people surveyed by comScore, 25.5 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. had a Samsung device, and 46.3 percent of smartphones were running the Android OS in the three-month period ending Oct. 31.

Samsung's share, however, doesn't represent any sort of increase. It had 25.5 percent back in July, too. The only handset maker to see an increase was Apple, which came in at number four with 10.8 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, up 1.3 percent. Apple's latest smartphone, the iPhone 4S, hit store shelves on Oct. 14.

LG was in second place with 20.6 percent, followed by Motorola with 13.6 percent. RIM rounded out the top five with 6.6 percent, a 1 percent drop.

Google's Android OS saw a 4.4 percent increase in the U.S., though, jumping from 41.9 percent to 46.3 percent between July and October. Apple's iOS came in second with a 1 percent increase to 28.1 percent.

RIM, Microsoft, and Symbian made the top five, but all three saw a market share drop, the largest of which went to RIM with a 4.5 percent decline to 17.2 percent.

About 90 million people in the U.S. had smartphones between July and October, a 10 percent increase from the previous three months.

What were they doing with those devices? Texting was the most popular activity, with 71.8 percent people participating. That was followed by using the browser (44 percent), using downloaded apps (43.8 percent), accessing a social networking site or blog (32.3 percent), playing games (29.2 percent), and listening to music (21.2 percent).

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