The AirPlay/Apple TV stranglehold on iOS devices has finally been loosened. The popular media streaming app, AllCast, debuted in the Apple App Store today, allowing iPhone and iPad users to take advantage of one of the easiest ways to transmit media from iOS devices to the TV.
The AllCast app became available for Android a year ago in December, so it’s been a long wait for the Apple faithful. The iOS version of AllCast does not offer as many media options as its older Android counterpart, however it does support streaming from Dropbox, Google+, Google Drive and Instagram. Before AllCast, there was no single app that allowed iOS devices to stream media from their devices and cloud storage accounts to devices outside the Apple eco-system like Rokus, Amazon’s Fire TV, Xbox, and Chromecast.
While boasting the most robust feature list, AllCast is not the first iOS app to allow for media streaming from cloud storage services. DBCast is an iOS app which allows for streaming from Dropbox to the Chromecast and Apple TV. Like AllCast, DBCast also allows sharing of images locally stored on an iOS device’s Photo Roll. That’s where the comparisons end, however, as DBCast does not offer compatibility with Roku devices, Amazon Fire TV and Micorosoft Xbox.
The free version of AllCast is littered with ads and only allows for five minute viewings of any video, so those looking for a competent video solution will want to download the free version from iTunes, and then opt for the Premium version add-on, which removes the ads as well as the video limit for just $5.
