Released in November 2007 with Mac OS X v10.5 (Leopard), version two of Front Row included the new features introduced with the Apple TV (except for the YouTube viewer), a different opening transition, ending AirTunes functionality, and a launcher application in addition to the Command+Escape keyboard shortcut.įront Row 2 has an undocumented plug-in architecture, for which various third-party plugins are now available, based on reverse-engineering the Front Row environment. In the summer of 2007, Apple released an update adding streaming of YouTube videos. Among the features added were more prominent podcasts and TV show menus, trailer streaming, a settings menu, streaming content from computers on the local network, and album and video art for local media. The next incarnation, released in the original Apple TV software in March 2007, was a complete, stand alone application that played content directly from libraries. įront Row v1.3.1 running on Tiger Apple TV This new version of Front Row could stream media from other computers on the local network. The model's media center features were reviewed positively by PC World. In 2006, Front Row was added to the first Intel Mac Mini, which also gained a built-in infrared sensor and Apple Remote. The software was billed as an alternative interface for playing and running iPhoto, DVD Player, and iTunes ( Internet radio stations could play by adding the station into a playlist in iTunes). Versions Introduction įront Row was first unveiled on Octowith the new iMac G5 (along with the built-in iSight camera, the Apple Remote, and Photo Booth). Front Row was removed and discontinued in Mac OS X 10.7. The first version was released in October 2005, with two major revisions since. The software relies on iTunes and iPhoto and is controlled by an Apple Remote or the keyboard function keys. What’s more, like the Genie effect as you minimize windows to the Dock, it’s a terrific example of how the sorts of animations and transitions that Apple haters like to mock as indulgent fripperies are actually hugely valuable and highly considered cues to help you understand what’s happening on screen.Front Row is a discontinued media center software application for Apple's Macintosh computers and Apple TV for navigating and viewing video, photos, podcasts and music from a computer, optical disc or the Internet through a 10-foot user interface (similar to Kodi and Windows Media Center). Like the cube transition of Fast User Switching before it, it made me realize that the familiar, apparently immutable desktop I’d been staring at in one form or another for a decade or so was just one way of presenting my data, and one way of understanding what my computer was doing. Still, though, that whooummm as Front Row spins into place is hugely evocative. The Mac mini was relegated to server duty-which it performed admirably-and with the addition of Air Video Server to transcode non-standard codecs on the fly via my iPhone and AirPlay, there was no doubt that I sacrificed little and gained a huge amount of sanity and robustness in ditching my media center Mac mini for an Apple TV. And truth be told, when I finally broke and bought my first Apple TV-I’d held out until the third generation-I was quietly, secretly pleased to be relieved of the burden of ministering to a full computer playing the part of a media server. (Sorry about the choppiness of the video below it was the best my screen capture software could manage.)įront Row, sadly, doesn’t exist any more it wasĭropped by Apple in OS X 10.7, partly because its “digital hub” strategy was being deprecated, and partly, presumably, because the Apple TV was becoming Apple’s focus. The way it swung and twirled onto screen whenever you pressed Menu on the remote or hit Command-Escape on the keyboard looked impressive, and the little sound effects as you span it round and picked menu options were perfect. (It could get easily lost, mind, but my little hack for dealing with that was matching Velcro pads on the remote and on the edge of our coffee table.) Plus, there was endless prank potential in pressing the Menu button in an office full of Macs to trigger Front Row to appear-since by default, Macs would accept the IR command from any remote.įor me, the version of Front Row that came with supported Macs running Mac OS X 10.4 was the One True Version. The simple little remote control was a cinch to use by feel alone, and didn’t distract or confuse you with a splatter of extraneous buttons. With it, it was trivial to pick tunes to play from my Library on my Mac, from my wife’s Library on her Mac, or our communal Library on the Mac mini itself, and watching DVDs-quaint though that sounds now-was simple and reliable. ![]() It was Front Row, though, that was the real star.
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