Sweet! Am I the only one who gets REALLY excited for new iOS releases?

iOS SDK 4.3 will offer new capabilities that you can start adding to your apps including the ability to stream video to Apple TV using AirPlay, iAd full screen banners, and HTTP Live Streaming statistics.

 

AirPlay Video Support

Support for playing video using AirPlay is included in the MPMoviePlayerController class. This support allows you to play video-based content on AirPlay–enabled hardware such as Apple TV. When the allowsAirPlay property of an active MPMoviePlayerController object is set to YES and the device is in range of AirPlay–enabled hardware, the movie player presents the user with a control for sending the video to that hardware.

You must explicitly opt-in to AirPlay playback for any movie players you create. The allowsAirPlay property of MPMoviePlayerController is set to NO by default.

 

Framework Enhancements

The following sections highlight the significant changes to frameworks and technologies in iOS 4.3.

 

AV Foundation

The AV Foundation framework includes the following enhancements:

• The AV Foundation framework added the AVPlayerItem, AVPlayerItemAccessLogEvent, and AVPlayerItemErrorLogEvent classes for tracking network playback statistics.

• The AVMetadataItem class added support for loading key data asynchronously.

 

Core Audio Frameworks

The Audio Unit and Audio Toolbox frameworks include the following enhancements:

• The AudioUnitParameterHistoryInfo struct (in the Audio Unit framework) along with supporting audio unit properties adds the ability to track and use parameter automation history.

• The ExtendedAudioFormatInfo struct (in the Audio Toolbox framework) lets you specify which codec to use when accessing the kAudioFormatProperty_FormatList property.

• The kAFInfoDictionary_SourceBitDepth dictionary key and the kAudioFilePropertySourceBitDepth property (in the Audio Toolbox framework) provide access to the bit depth of an audio stream.

• The kAudioConverterErr_NoHardwarePermission result code (in the Audio Toolbox framework) indicates that a request to create a new audio converter object cannot be satisfied because the application does not have permission to use the requested hardware codec.

 

iAd

The ADInterstitialView class is a view that you can use to embed advertisements more directly into your content. You present an interstitial view modally or as part of a transition from one page of content to another. For example, you might use this type of view to incorporate full-page ads into a page-based magazine layout.

 

Media Player

The Media Player framework includes the following enhancements:

• The MPMoviePlayerController class supports playback of video content using AirPlay; see “AirPlay Video Support.”

• The MPMovieAccessLog, MPMovieErrorLog, MPMovieAccessLogEvent, and MPMovieErrorLogEvent classes allow you to track network playback statistics.

• The MPMoviePlayerController class now includes properties for accessing log information.

 

UIKit

The UIViewController class added the disablesAutomaticKeyboardDismissal method, which you can use to override the default input view dismissal behavior.