You are probably already familiar with Motion Tennis for Apple TV, an app that brings Wii-style gaming to Apple TV. Thanks to Rolocule Games and its award-winning rolomotion technology, your iOS device turns into a tennis racket while the grand slam tournament takes place on your television via Apple TV. You can read our in-depth review of Motion Tennis here.

Celebrating yesterday’s Djokovic’s great victory in Wimbledon (as well as last week’s Independence Day…), Rolocule has reduced the price of Motion Tennis from $7.99 to ZERO, so go and grab your free copy of the game now, as this amazing offer may not last long.

Watch this video to learn more about Motion Tennis.

Rolocule is currently in the process of adding some final touches to its next motion powered game, Dance Party. Their rolomotion technology has been vastly improved and the developers are boasting console quality precision and performance for their new release.

Dance Party is a multiplayer game where users can dance along with an on-screen artist while your iPhone or iPod touch analyses how well you’re doing. The best dancer wins, but all users will get a count of the calories they burned during the last dubstep.

In short, its a mix of game, dance and workout:

Dance Party is set to be released on the App Store in the second half of July but you can already sign up here for an early free access.

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Rolocule Games, the company behind Motion Tennis for Apple TV, is currently in the process of adding some final touches to its next motion powered game, Dance Party. Their award-winning rolomotion technology has been vastly improved and the developers are boasting console quality precision and performance for their new release.

Dance Party is basically a multiplayer game where users can dance along with an on-screen artist while your iPhone or iPod touch analyses how well you’re doing. Of course, the best dancer wins but all users will get a count of the calories they burned during the last dubstep. In short, its a mix of game, dance and workout.

Watch the video below for a better idea:

Dance Party is a multiplayer rhythm game where users mimic the movements of onscreen dancers using their iPhone or iPod Touch, while rolomotion precisely tracks their movements to provide real time feedback. [..]

Dance Party allows users to connect multiple iOS devices together and dance simultaneously in front of big screens like HD TV, Mac or PC using AirPlay Mirroring. Moreover, all personal statistics like calories burnt etc. of each user during multiplayer dance will stay on their iPhone as opposed to traditional motion controllers, which are merely used for detecting gestures.

Besides huge performance improvements to motion gaming, Rolocule also confirmed that they’re working on enabling iOS 8’s peer-to-peer gameplay for Apple TV and integration with the HealthKit.

Dance Party will also feature turn based multiplayer for local dance tournaments, blind mode for expert dancers, single player mode to just dance and online dance offs.

The game is set to be released on the App Store in July but you can already sign up here for an early free access.

The game will support iPhone 4S and up or iPod touch 5 with Apple TV 2nd or 3rd gen. So if your devices are supported, head over to Dance Party’s official website for more info and a free copy.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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You might remember our huge coverage (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3) of iOS games that allow dual screen AirPlay mirroring with Apple TV, turning your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch into the controller, while the HDTV becomes the game arena. However, there is an app that not only does dual screen mirroring but actually brings motion gaming to your iOS device using Apple TV. Here is a complete review of this one-of-its-kind game, Motion Tennis for Apple TV.

As you might have already figured out, Motion Tennis turns your iPhone or iPod touch into the tennis racket while the grand slam tournament takes place on your television via Apple TV.

Swish your hand in the air and give your wrist some exercise to score aces in this spectacular game. The developers at Rolocule promise “the most immersive tennis experience ever on iOS”. But does it really live up to all the hype? Let’s see.

Getting Motion Tennis connected to the Apple TV

The first thing you need to know before purchasing this 8 bucks game is that you have to own an Apple TV to make any good out of it. Don’t expect to start an idle match directly on your iPhone while travelling or in the bedroom, because there is no provision for an in-device display of the gameplay.

Unlike other dual screen games, AirPlay is not just an optional feature in Motion Tennis, but rather the only way of playing the game – you won’t be even able to have a glimpse of the home-screen without connecting to an Apple TV.

The process of connecting to the Apple TV is as usual and fairly straight forward. Pull up the Control Center -> tap on the AirPlay button -> choose the Apple TV -> toggle on Mirroring.

Once you set up mirroring and fire up the app, you’ll see large banners on the Apple TV and their miniature versions on your iPhone or iPod touch, prompting that the dual screen gaming has been activated. A few taps into the game, a short tutorial and some calibration and you’re holding the virtual tennis racket similar to Nintendo Wii games.  At the same time, the beautiful 80 ft. court pops on your television.

The gameplay

Raise the iPhone above your head to serve the ball and the game starts with a smash. Of course, the automated second player will have the green ball flying back to your side. Use the device just as a bat and thrash it back in any direction or height you want.

As you would expect, your TV avatar would replicate your gestures. Fortunately, you don’t have to do any of the running up and down the court. You’ll be automatically placed at the best positions and all you have to do is decide the side and type of the shot you need to play.

You already know the rules and point system, no surprises there. The real eye popper is the different kinds of shots you’ll be able to execute just using your wrist movements – you can do standard, slice or lob shots depending on the angle at which you hold the device.

Once you score the game point, your performance is measured in stars and, more importantly, you get an approximate count of the calories you just burned while playing the digital tennis. Obviously it is not accurate, but to know that you’re contributing to your health and not just wasting time with silly games, it’s hilariously comforting.

The game has single player, survival and multiplayer modes. The first one lets you rally with the ‘A chip’ of your iPhone and has various difficulty modes. The survival mode is analogous to the endless modes and goes on till you lose a point. Finally, in multiplayer mode you can ask one of your friends to join you in a doubles match against the CPU.

The verdict

To be honest, Motion Tennis scores the most by being unique and nothing like anything else we’ve ever seen – no complaints there. However, the gameplay as a whole feels buggy or, more correctly, a bit automated, at most times. Your digital form seems to play the perfect shots even if you completely screw up the swing or timing. Sometimes you shoot to the right and the ball bounces to the left and gets you a point.

Also, you hardly score any outs or faults while the guys on the other side of the net has plenty of them. Overall, it all seems a bit biased for me.

Motion Tennis is a great app to be showcased when you have some friends over or to test the power of your iDevice – Apple TV combo. But you won’t find yourself playing it everyday nor will it replace your gym.

It sure shows a lot of potential to grow into a more realistic game someday in the future and when that happens, it’ll be undoubtedly a must buy.

Get Motion Tennis for Apple TV from the App Store ($7.99) and try it out yourself.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

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In our last post, we came across some stunning implementation of the dual screen AirPlay functionality of iOS – showing different screens on your Apple TV (the gameplay) and your handheld (the controls). In case you din’t catch that one, you can read it here. Thanks to a few tips from our readers and some digging from our part, we’ve come across more dual screen games you can play on your Apple TV. In fact, we think the games in this post are better that the last one, at some points. So lets dive in!

• Sky Gamblers : Rise of Glory ($2.99)

Similar to Metal Storm: Online about which we talked last time, Sky Gamblers is all about a bunch of planes shooting each other down in an online atmospheric-battlefield. But unlike the former, this game is more deep, variable and realistic. The visuals streamed perfectly well with negligible stutters and showed awesome cut scenes while I was busy configuring the game on the iPad. The controller at hand is dynamic with speed and altitude meters, game stats, camera view and of course, the trigger. The gameplay was perfectly smooth with no lag and hence, seems to be great showcase for the feature.

On TV Screen:

On iOS device:

• Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour ($6.99)

Here is another one from the celebrity developer club (Gameloft) showing below par performance. MC4 is the best FPS game ever on iOS but on dual screen airplaying, had far too many drooped frames for one. And for a hardcore game like this, that’d soon result in a blown head, literally! As always, I think the iPad Air and iPhone 5s should be able to pull this one without much trouble. Also the controls-hood though very effective, was too plain to attract but shouldn’t be a deal breaker since you’d rarely need to look at it. If you can get these hiccups out of the way, I feel that the graphics it offers is worth admiring on the 16:9 screen.

(A big wave to freemdom for tipping us this game.)

On TV Screen:

On iOS device:

• Asphalt 7: Heat ($0.99)

I had tested Asphalt 8: Airborne for this feature but remember being disappointed. But as one of our readers (thanks, Mauro Turcatti!) pointed out, the earlier titles, namely Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Asphalt 7: Heat, does support it. But to be honest, it din’t fair very well in our trials. The dual screen mirrored video looked far less from HD as it was mostly pixelated and seemed like a 1994 game. Even with such mediocre graphics, the game often crashed and gave frequent dropped frames. There were even times when the game was totally unplayable. But the controls-board on iPad is one of the best in business. With a dynamic map, alternate camera views, controls, speed, position and a rear view mirror, it sets the reference bar for similar games.

On TV Screen:

On iOS device:

• Touch Tanks 5 Online (Free)

It is basically an online tank battle game, with an eagle-eye camera view. You’ve to maneuvre your 1000-tonner through the maps, plan tactically, coordinate with team meambers, hide in strategic spots and take out enemy panzers; Simple as that! At any point of time, you’ll have enough players for the game and hence Touch Tanks 5 is aways quick to get connected. AirPlay worked perfectly well with sensible controls and sufficient graphics. The only bug is when you need to call for an airstrike – you’re presented with a faulty screen and you’ve to guess your target’s position on the iPad. It is not that hard to do anyway and hopefully will get rectified soon too.

On TV Screen:

On iOS device:

• Pinball HD ($1.99)

Though the gameplay is unchanged from centuries, seeing it live on the 1080p screen is a pleasure. Streaming has minimal or no dropped framed while the contol hub is simple and effective. The cut scenes, slow motion effects and the occaional zoomed-in views are spectacular. The controls, on the other hand, support both landscape and portrait modes. But there is short lag time between tapping of controls and flapping of the pedel. And for a game like pinball, this messes up your timing bigtime and the ball is raining into the hole. Though you might get used to the lag after a few rounds, it spoils a major chunk of fun.

On TV Screen:

On iOS device:

• TouchGrind BMX ($4.99) and Rage HD ($1.99)

These two were rated by some of our readers as the best implementation of the dual screen functionality. And of course, I got them to be tested. But unfortunately for some reasons, they donot go full screen on my TV nor give way to controls on the iPad, when I mirror them. I did some googling and found that these games indeed support dual screen mirroring (apologies for doubting our readers). You can check their demonstrarion videos below. I looked for any toggles or settings to enable, but in vain. It would be highly appreciated if any of you guys have a possible solution or explanation for this. Also let me know if either of them works well for you!

So those were the best 10 (part 1 and part 2) dual screen AirPlay-enabled iOS games you can enjoy on your Apple TV. This part of the series, as you might’ve noticed, was made with the help of some user suggestions and hence, we believe that there are more such games to be discovered. If you know any, make sure to leave a comment below.

Note: Dual screen apps will only work on:

• iPhone 4S or later
• iPad 2 or later
• iPad mini and mini with Retina
• iPod touch 5th gen.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

Also read: 5 best AirPlay-enabled dual screen games for Apple TV

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This setup is particularly useful for games. Imagine the game getting displayed on the 1080p screen and your iPod has all the controls. Your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch + Apple TV combo can very well replace your console. And the advantages of this over plain mirroring of games are:

• First, the black pillars on the sides of the screen will vanish (i.e. full screen gaming)
• Secondly, the gameplay will be a lot more smoother as your A5 chip doesn’t have to power two displays in two aspect ratios, simultaneously
• Lastly, it is annoying and distracting to have both devices running the same game together.

Despite the advantages, there is a real dearth of dual screen airplay enabled games at the App Store. In fact, I could only come up with about five worth mentioning in this article. Whatever the reason for that might be, if you’re looking for a console-like gameplay with your Apple devices but don’t want to spend for that MFi controller, here are the games to get.

• Real Racing 2 ($4.99)

This penultimate title in the Real Racing series would be the smoothest dual screen AirPlay game of all. It was real easy to get connected, no lags whatsoever and incredibly perfect controls. My TV showed awesome cut scenes while I was configuring the race and as soon as the whistle blew, it was HD rubber burns. In the meantime, my iPad displayed a mini map of the track, my position, laps, time and speed. The controls vary according to your settings of accelerometer or button controls. I was amazed at the flawless full screen quality of the game, despite using an iPad mini and keeps me wondering why Real Racing 3 didn’t include the feature.

TV screen:

iOS device screen:

• MetalStorm : Online (free)

This is the game which really gives some sense to dual screen AirPlay. Sporting only accelerometer controls, MetalStorm on iPad would’ve wanted your eyes to go in circles while maneuvering your fighter plane. Sending the display to the 1080p screen makes you enjoy the visuals of the game while your hands does all the twisting. Though not as intensive as RR2, MetalStorm gives a pretty decent graphics with no chokes at all. The controls hub (below) is one of the most realistic ones and they work seamlessly while AirPlaying.

TV screen:

iOS device screen:

• Race Illegal High Speed 3D ($0.99)

This one from Chillingo is another perfect execution of the dual screen functionality. The game has three levels of graphics and even the ‘high’ one doesn’t have any stutters. The game also has multiple modes of controls and different camera views to be set and they too work like charm. The control board at hand is simple with sticks (or blank for accelerometer controls), a map, the speedometer, the brake and a unique rear-view mirror too. You can also change the music track and camera angle here. Now that we think about it, it is comparable to Real Racing in its execution, keeping aside Unreal Engine graphics and the street racing theme.

TV Screen:

iOS Device screen:

• N.O.V.A. 3 ($6.99)

To tell the truth, I had high hopes for this game. An FPS game seems to be a perfect fit for dual screen gaming as you seldom need to look at the controls for using stick controls. And for the most part, N.O.V.A. 3 faired well too. But the game seems to be streaming at 15 frames per seconds or so. Yeah, there are so much dropped frames that at times, you wouldn’t even realize where you’re going. There is a high chance that it is due to my under-powered iPad mini but Real Racing 2 performed very well on the same device. So I would like my iPad Air friends to clarify this part for me.

TV screen:

iOS device screen:

• Beat Hazard Ultra ($4.99)

I took up the game just for this review, but once I did, I couldn’t drop it for an hour. It is a simple old-school Space shooter themed game in its core but on the outside, its spectacular and colorful. A techno beat plays in the background while your weapons vary with the tempo in its type, strength, colors and frequency of bullets. A minute into the game and it’ll light up all the pixels on your TV with those 16 million shades. Both single-stick controls with auto aim and dual-stick controls are available for the too simple iOS screen and the latter seems more challenging and addictive. Though the frame rates never took any hits, the sounds (the essence of the game) consistently takes some time to get going. Often the game starts with a mute but in about 3 seconds or so, it comes back on and what you have is a cracker-party!

TV screen (sorry about the glare, it’s so flashy, this is the best I could get and to put up a non-flashy snap would be an injustice to the game!):

iOS Device screen:

So these were some of the best dual screen AirPlay compatible games for iPhone and iPad. I wonder why such a great feature is utilized so little by the developers. Even giants like Gameloft and Electronic Arts aren’t seen to be implementing dual screen functionality in their games. Hopefully, there’ll be more such games in the future and we’ll make it sure to let you know.

Also read: 5 more great AirPlay-enabled dual screen games for Apple TV

Note: Dual screen apps will only work on:

• iPhone 4S or later
• iPad 2 or later
• iPad mini and mini with Retina
• iPod touch 5th gen.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

UPDATE: We did some deep digging and found a few more dual screen games. We’ll put up a new post soon. So stick around! Here it comes: 5 more great AirPlay-enabled dual screen games for Apple TV

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Apple TV sure has alot of apps/channels but unfortunately a web-browser isn’t one of them. And with good reason too. Ever tried to use the browsers in so called Smart-TVs? Well I have and can assure that using the remote as a pointer for surfing is annoying and is “injurious” to your forearm. Well, now thanks to AirWeb, anyone having an AirPlay Mirroring-enabled iOS device will be able to browse smoothly on their 40-incher.

Simply put, AirWeb is an AirPlay compatible browser for your iPad and iPhone. Tap on the TV icon and your tabs just pop up on the big screen. The unique stuff actually comes after that. The screen on the iDevice gets turned into a multi-touch enabled trackpad. Pan to move the cursor, tap to click, double tap to zoom, pull from edges to go back or forward and two finger slide to scroll.

However this app is not for everyone, as it is available only to iDevices that support AirPlay Mirroring, and that would be the iPhone 4S and above, iPad 2 and above, iPad Mini both generations and the iPod touch 5th gen. iPhone 4 is also said to support the app provided a wired TV-out is taken from the phone (haven’t tested it yet). And on the other side of the connection, Apple TV 2 and above are supported.

The app is perfect for showcasing your website or sharing your Picasa albums or just for the fun to browse on that king screen. AirWeb is normally a 2 dollar app but is currently available at a New Year offer price of 99 cents. If you’ve been looking for something like this, now seems to be the best time.

Get AirWeb from the App Store.

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Have you ever been jealous of that Nintendo Wii controller or Playstation Move? It is really cool use a hand controller as a baseball stick or a lightsaber and jump into action. Feels much more realistic than common controls, too. Well now, with an Apple TV and an iPhone, you could have that too. This is not a hack, but an awesome concept in the form of an app.

Thanks to an India-based company Rolocule Games, and its rolomotion technology, your iOS device turns into a wii style controller while the AirPlay mirroring makes your Apple TV the screen. Proud as the first app of its kind, Motion Tennis rushed into the App Store yesterday, promising to rock your drawing rooms.

Connect the game wirelessly to your Apple TV. Load the Motion Tennis game, enable AirPlay. And just serve, literally! Use your iPhone or iPod as a racket and serve aces, do backhands and pretty much everything you would in real life.

There is more. If your friend shows up, you can pair up and dive into a doubles match. With Wimbledon going on, you can have a little action of your own.

Motion Tennis is now available in the App Store for $7.99. Device requirements are also important as iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and iPod touch 5 are only supported and you’ll need an Apple TV, too. There is no need for extra sensory and gaming hardware.

Hopefully, Motion Tennis is only the first of a lot. The developers promise that “more games using this technology, specifically developed for Apple platform, will soon change the way you look at your Apple TV.” Oh, I can’t wait to use my iPhone as the sword in Infinity Blade!

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With the introduction of iPad 2 and Apple A5 processor in March 2011 Apple TV fans got an amazing new feature called AirPlay Mirroring. A5 was powerful enough not only to send a separate picture or video to an HDTV via Apple TV (AirPlay), but also to wirelessly display everything what’s on the iPad 2 screen right on the HDTV, allowing to stream apps and play games on the big screen TV (AirPlay Mirroring). Since then, all the iDevices that got A5 chip or one of its more powerful brothers (A5X, A6) supported AirPlay Mirroring. Yesterday, A5-powered iPad mini and A6X-powered 4^th gen. iPad joined the family of devices that support one of the iOS coolest features.

Here is a complete list of iOS devices that support AirPlay Mirroring:

• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPad 2
• iPad 3
• iPad 4
• iPad mini
• iPod touch 5^th gen.

AirPlay Mirroring is also supported on OS X Mountain Lion.

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During today’s conference at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, along with a brand new iPhone 5, Apple introduced a fifth generation iPod touch that now supports AirPlay Mirroring that lets you wirelessly stream what’s on your iPod touch to your HDTV and speakers via Apple TV. This makes a new generation iPod touch a fifth Apple’s device that supports AirPlay Mirrorng: up until now the feature has been available on iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and iPad 3. It will also be supported on the iPhone 5.

The new iPod touch is the thinnest iPod touch ever and features a 4-inch Retina display; a 5 megapixel iSight camera with 1080p HD video recording; Apple’s A5 chip; Siri and iOS 6. The fifth generation iPod touch will be available in October for a suggested price of $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 for the 64GB model.

To use AirPlay Mirroring, tap the AirPlay icon from the app you’re in — such as Photos, Music, Videos, or Safari — and everything on your small screen plays on your big screen. You can also stream music to any AirPlay-enabled speakers or AirPort Express-connected speakers.

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Great news for all Remote HD fans – the plugin is back on the Apple TV 2. Remote HD has been updated for 5.0.x compatibility and it’s now available in the Manage Extras menu via aTV Flash (black). For those who don’t have aTV Flash (black) installed, the plugin should be soon available to download from Remote HD website. Before the installation, you may want to check FireCore forums, as users report that there are some issues with the updated Remote HD plugin.

Remote HD is an Apple TV plugin and iOS app that lets you control your Apple TV from your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch and even brings your Apple TV′s display to your iDevice allowing you to control your little black box from far away, even with the TV turned off.

Other features include:

• Full keyboard support in 3rd party plugins (including in XBMC)
• Global playback controls: skip songs without needing to first navigate to Now Playing.
• Dedicated Now Playing button designed to take you straight to the Now Playing view (pressing the menu button brings you back where you were)
• Touch integration with AppleTV’s interface
• Quick Launch
• Trackpad support in CouchSurfer

Check out Remote HD website for more details.

Remote HD iOS app is available on the App Store for $7.99.

Note: Remote HD only works on jailbroken Apple TVs.

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