The HBO Go app for iPhone and iPad scored a long-overdue update on Tuesday. As HBO’s co-president Eric Kessler promised at the Dive Into D conference, the app—along with Cinemax’s Max Go app—can now stream video wirelessly to the Apple TV.
HBO Go is a free offering included with a paid subscription to HBO, though it’s not available in all cable markets. When your cable company does support it, you can use the service to stream HBO’s catalog of television shows, including its current lineup, along with a selection of movies. The iOS app works great for watching HBO content, but up until now, it has blocked the use of AirPlay or AirPlay mirroring to send that premium content to your Apple TV-connected television.
That changes with version 2.0 of the app, which makes good sense. Mountain Lion users could already use AirPlay mirroring on recent Macs to get HBO Go content on their televisions, and HBO also offers an HBO Go app on the TV-connected Roku.
One wonders whether an official Apple TV channel for HBO Go may be in the offing—“We will get on Apple TV, as we’ve said all along,” Kessler said at the Dive Into D event—but maybe one shouldn’t get too greedy, either.
Author: Lex Friedman, Senior Contributor
Lex is a former writer for Macworld. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and three kids.