Admit it, you’re not necessarily a fan of all Apple’s products. Some are life changers for sure – you’ll have to pry my iPhone out of my cold, dead hands. Others are maybe more, ‘meh’. iTunes falls into that latter category for a lot of people. While it was groundbreaking back in the day, these days it is more of an unkempt warehouse for Apple to cram things into. So how do you maintain your love for your Apple TV, while hating iTunes and not using it?

The big problem is that your Apple TV requires you to fully incorporate all your media (music, photos and video) into your iTunes catalog, if you want to connect that media to your Apple TV. This is easy if you’re buying all your stuff in iTunes. But if you’re like a lot of people, your media comes from a lot of different places – ripped CDs/DVDs, downloads from Amazon, friends, etc. Not all this is quickly or cleanly imported into iTunes, ignoring that many of us just don’t remember to do it all the time.

younity makes it easy to use your Apple TV for all your media, even if it is not in iTunes. When you install younity on your computer, it indexes your hard drive for all your video, music and photos. When it discovers all of it, it reads the file metadata (stuff like the artist name, album, song, movie title, etc.). If your content is in iTunes, younity will have all your library categorization, like your playlists; but for all your media not in iTunes, younity will automatically organize it into the same type of sections for Artist, Album, Songs, etc.

younity turns your computer into a personal media server, so you can stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad without having to sync. This means you can carry all your digital content around with you, without taking up any storage on your mobile devices. When you want to access something, younity streams it from your computer to your mobile device.

Of course, younity also uses AirPlay, which means that you can stream everything on any of your computers directly to your Apple TV – with or without using iTunes. You can still browse your music library by Artist, Album, Playlist, etc., because younity will read all your media’s metadata and recreate those lists for you – no importing required.

You can also use younity to access all your computers at once , instead of one at a time, to stream any of your content to your Apple TV.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to love your Apple TV and hate iTunes, successfully (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

At one point or another, we’ve all been visiting family or friends and wish we could watch a movie stored back on our home computer while we’re at their house. Or listen to a favorite playlist at someone else’s backyard party, or show off our latest GoPro video on a friend’s big screen.

While the Apple TV lets you stream video, music, and photos from your computer to your TV, what about when you want to stream stuff from your computer to someone else’s Apple TV?

This has previously been impossible because the Apple TV only connects to a computer on the same WiFi network – if your computer was back at home (on another network), it was off limits.

With younity you can take all your media with you to stream to any Apple TV, or even share your media with friends for them to stream on-demand when you’re not around. younity turns every computer you install it on into a personal media server, similar to Plex. It’s easy to set up and free.

How to install younity:

1. Install younity on each computer you want to access and let it index that content (about 5-30 minutes, depending on how much stuff you have).
2. Install the iOS app on your iPhone or iPad.

If you install younity on more than one computer, it will unify all of your files into a single list within the younity iOS app.

Not only does younity let you connect to all your computers at once, it lets you stream all your video, music and photos to your iPhone or iPad no matter where you are in the world. This means that the next time you’re at your friend’s house you can easily stream anything you have at home to their Apple TV using AirPlay.

How to stream a video to your friend’s Apple TV:

1. Start playing avideo in younity
2. Pull up the Apple menu from the bottom of your iPhone. If an Airplay-enabled device is nearby then the AirPlay option will appear.
3. Click on AirPlay
4. Select the device you want to connect to, and your video will stream.

You can also share videos, photos, and music with friends or family through the younity app. Just find what you want to share and choose your friend’s email address of Facebook account and they’ll be allowed to stream your content from your computer to their mobile device or Apple TV.

Whether it’s taking your media with you or sharing it with friends for them to watch on their TV, younity is a simple, unlimited and free way to always have access to your stuff.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to stream your content to your friend’s Apple TV (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

In the same way my house has more than one TV, it has more than one computer – many more, in fact. There’s the iMac we share, a few laptops (mine and my wife’s) and the home media server. For some reason, however, Apple has enforced a 1-to-1 relationship between the Apple TV and my computers. Being able to connect the Apple TV to only one computer at a time is a real pain – each time I switch between computers is time consuming and frustrating.

The problem with this is that our content (music, video and photos) is spread across these computers. Certainly, the media server captures most of it, but there are a lot of home videos and photos that get stuck on other computers. What’s worse is that most of the time I’m not sure which computer has the content I’m looking for – the media server has our movies, but our GoPro video is on the iMac; music is spread all over. So how am I supposed to easily find that video to stream to the TV when friends are over or switch between music playlists on different computers?

younity is a fast, easy way to search and stream content stored across multiple computers right to your Apple TV. By installing younity on all of your computers, you are able to unify all your content right onto your smartphone and tablet – no browsing files by devices, just all your content in one place.

Much like Plex, younity turns each computer into a sort of media server, however it also unifies all the content across all your devices. While Plex is intended as an alternative to an Apple TV, younity is its compliment.

By installing younity on your computers, it will discover all the music, photos and videos across each computer. All that metadata is then organized into a single, easy to browse menu on your iPhone or iPad.

It can differentiate your movies from your home videos and even your GoPro video. That way you can easily find the video you’re looking for and push it to the nearest Apple TV using AirPlay.

There’s no complicated setup, configuration or management. You don’t browse by individual devices and can even search across all devices at one. It’s sort of like a peer-to-peer iCloud, built from your computers. Only it’s easy, secure and free.

younity integrates with iTunes and even merges multiple libraries  across your computers into one simple catalog of music. It also includes all your music not in iTunes and plays media types that the Apple TV doesn’t like, like lossless formats.

This way we can switch from streaming music on my laptop to a playlist on my wife’s computer without having to go into the Apple TV’s settings to connect to a different computer.

Away from your house (and your computers), but still want to access your content? younity streams all your stuff to your phone or tablet. But we’ll save that for our next post.

Click here to learn more about younity.

Throughout our series on hacking your Apple TV with younity we’re giving away FIVE Apple TV 4s! Enter below until 10/31 for your chance to win.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post How to access all your computers at once on your Apple TV (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

The Apple TV is a pretty awesome little device. The supremely portable hardware enables us to stream content from our computer, or from several pre-installed channels like Netflix, directly to our TV/stereo/home theater. For about the price of a month’s worth of Starbucks lattes, you can easily watch all your favorite content on the big screen.

While that’s cool and all, no product is without its frustrations. With limitations ranging from connecting to one computer at a time to the requirement to use Apple’s iTunes, Apple TV is no exception. In a series of posts, we’ll describe how one free application can offer a variety of ways you can side-step many limitations and make your Apple TV even better.

younity is a simple service that connects your devices together, so they can access each other’s content. Have a computer or two at home, but want to access files stored on them via your iPhone or iPad? younity does that. Easily. And for free.

You may be thinking, “hey, can’t I sync my phone to each computer to get some of my
stuff?” Yep, you can do that. Just find that trusty cable, plug it in, launch iTunes, find the content (wait, is it on my desktop computer or laptop computer?) then get iTunes to fit it on the phone. Whoops, out of storage. Sorry – you’re out of luck.

Then there’s that guy next to me telling me to just put all my stuff in the cloud. Only after I upload 1.2TB of files (which takes about 3 months) and shell out between $100-200/year, do I then realize that it can’t read my iTunes catalog, nor my photo albums in Lightroom, nor stream my HD video (it’s got my docs covered though!). Weak.

Alternatively, you can install younity on your computer and your mobile devices and just access all your stuff via your iPhone or iPad as if it were stored locally. No storage? No problem – younity streams content by default (don’t fret, you can download files if you know you’ll be offline). Better yet, install it on several computers and it will unify all your music, photos and video onto your smartphone or tablet.

Have a giant music collection stored on a bunch of hard drives from college? No worries, younity creates your own private version of Apple Music and streams your music (even your playlists) right to your phone (without destroying the library you worked so hard on creating). Want to access your massive video library, ranging from your GoPro to your movie collection? Easy-peasy, younity turns your computer into a private Netflix.

Ever wish you could access all those photos and photo albums (you know, the photos you really care about and not the 739 photos of your dinner or dog or whatever you shoot with your phone) no matter where you are in the world? Yup, younity lets you have all those too. All as if they were on your phone, via one simple app.

If you want to get all technical, younity actually creates your own cloud by building one out of your computers (like your laptop and your desktop). So that cool cloud thing can be yours, but also free and private (nothing gets uploaded or stored online). While you do have to keep your computers on to access their content (similar to Plex), by not storing your files online the service can remain free.

By now you’re thinking, “get to the Swiss Army-like features this thing has for my Apple TV.” We’re getting there! Ever wish you could connect all the computers in your house to your Apple TV  at once? Hate using iTunes, but love your Apple TV ? Wish you could play content stored on your computer when you are at (using their Apple TV)? Ever wish you could take the Apple TV on vacation  with you to use, even though all your stuff is stored back on the home computer?

Stay tuned- over the next month we’re giving you four new tricks on how to hack your Apple TV with younity.

Click here to learn more about younity.

We’re giving away FIVE brand new Apple TV 4s! Check out all our upcoming tips on hacking your Apple TV with younity to enter to win. Enter below for your first chance!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

younity is a simple easy and free app that enables your computer to work like a home media server, giving you access to all your media files on your computer from your iPhone or iPad.

The post Hacking your Apple TV with younity (and Apple TV 4 giveaway!) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.