Introduction Front Row was first unveiled on October 12, 2005 with the new
iMac G5 (along with the built-in iSight camera, the
Apple Remote, and
Photo Booth). 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). In 2006, Front Row was added to the
first Intel Mac Mini, which also gained a built-in infrared sensor and Apple Remote. The model's media center features were reviewed positively by
PC World. This new version of Front Row could stream media from other computers on the
local network.
Apple TV 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. 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. In the summer of 2007, Apple released an update adding streaming of
YouTube videos.
Version two 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. Front 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. Because it uses
QuickTime to render video,
Front Row can utilize any codec installed in QuickTime, including
DivX,
Xvid and
WMV, and play DVD images copied to the hard disk. However, because
Front Row does not use
QuickTime X, it lacks support for certain codec features like Sample Aspect Ratio.
"Take 2" In January 2008, Apple announced an update branded "Apple TV Take Two" for
Apple TV Software. In addition to the prominent addition of direct downloads for movies, TV episodes, and podcasts via the
iTunes Store, movie rentals, the ability to view online photos from
Flickr or
iCloud (branded
.Mac at the time), and the ability to stream audio to
AirTunes were added. This update did away with
Front Row and introduced a new interface for the original Apple TV in which content was organized into six categories, all of which appeared in a large square box on the screen upon startup (movies, TV shows, music,
YouTube, podcasts and photos) and presented in the initial menu, along with a "Settings" option for configuration, including software updates.
Discontinuation Front Row was discontinued with the July 2011 release of
Mac OS X Lion (v 10.7). The software appeared in neither the early Developer Previews nor the final version. While it was initially possible to reinstall
Front Row by copying the frameworks and application into OS X Lion,
iTunes v 10.4 on 22 July 2011 broke compatibility, causing those who updated iTunes to lose access to their music through
Front Row. ==References==