IMAGE: PLEX
One of the most important updates in Apple's newly launched Apple TV is its own app store, offering third-party developers the ability to deliver dedicated apps for the platform.
Among those developers is Plex, a multimedia streaming player/server combo which is slowly but surely becoming one of the most feature-packed independent platforms out there. On Monday, the company announced its Apple TV app is available in the app store.
If you're not familiar with Plex, think of it as a complete software suite for your home multimedia needs. You run a server instance on a home NAS or even a regular computer that holds your media files, and install as many client instances as you like on your devices — laptops, mobiles and tablets (Plex supports nearly everything out there, from smart TVs, iPhones, Android phones to PlayStation, Xbox and Roku). You can then reach your music, videos and photos on all those devices through a fancy user interface, even when you're away from your home network.
In a blog post, Plex explains its struggles with the Apple TV, which originally only supported Apple's apps. After the second generation of the platform was jailbroken in 2010, an independent team of developers created a simple Plex app but it was complicated to install and thus didn't exactly offer a smooth user experience.
After Apple started offering tools to developers to create official apps for the platform, the Plex team jumped on the opportunity to launch an official app immediately after Apple TV becomes available, which happened last week.
IMAGE: PLEX
Now that it's finally available, the Apple TV Plex app offers a clean, elegant UI for organizing and viewing your multimedia collection. It also automatically pulls artwork, trailers and reviews for your media.
The app is free to download, but enabling streaming playback will cost you $4.99.
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