iview

Australia’s national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (more affectionately known as the ABC, or Auntie) has finally brought its much-loved iView service to the Android platform. What you’re seeing above is a screenshot of iView running on a Nexus 7. Finally, it’s here!

Using iView, for those who aren’t familiar, allows users to catch up on ABC TV in an ad-free, free to use form. Many (if not most) of ABC’s programs are added to iView shortly after broadcast and remain available for up to 14 days. You can catch up on news, sport, drama, current affairs, and even political commentary (if that’s your thing), and now you can do it with the convenience of your (selected) Android devices.

Features include instant and unlimited access to favourite ABC TV programs, live streaming of ABC News 24, adaptive video quality to adjust to available bandwidth and network conditions, a watchlist which allows you to keep tabs on your favourite series’, and various discovery, sharing and parental control options.

Sadly, iView isn’t available for everyone. ABC advises that because this is the first release of the application, it will only run on limited devices, as set out below:

  • Samsung Galaxy S2, S3 & S4
  • Samsung Galaxy Note and Note 2
  • LG Nexus 4
  • Google Nexus 5
  • HTC One
  • Sony Xperia Z

Beyond these phones, you can also experience iView on the following tablets:

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab (7.7)
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) & (10.1)
  • Samsung Galaxy Note (8.0) & (10.1)
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 (7.0), (8.0) & (10.1)
  • Nexus 7 (2012 & 2013)
  • Nexus 10
  • Sony Xperia Tablet Z

If you have one of these devices, and you’re in Australia, you can check out the iView application today. Due to rights issues, ABC content isn’t available through iView outside Australia. There are certain occasions where ABC does make its News 24 broadcast available outside Australia though.

Update: It seems people haven’t wasted time grabbing the APK from a supported device and making it available on the web. If you’re unsupported and want to give iView a try, you can grab the APK here (Mega). We’ve tested it and confirmed it works, but your mileage may vary.

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    eviladrian

    I’ve been using “aview” on my Nexus 7 for some time, it’s worked well and might be worth a spin for anyone who can’t get the ABC app yet: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.github.aview.app

    Andrew Williams

    Installed it on my Android MK808 TV dongle and it works a treat…YES! (downloaded APK from MEGA)

    geoff

    Enjoying this app on my Nexus 7. Very nice indeed.

    Andrew Williams

    woohooo… works on my ASUS TF101

    Craig

    Installed on my HTC ONE XL 4.2.2 from playstore no problems. Works well.

    archit jha

    Think I prefer the unofficial aview app for this!

    Charlie

    Any Chromecast support? If not, I’m curious, how hard would it be for them to add Chromecast support to the app?

    Chris

    There’s no Chromecast support at present. This could change in future though.

    Alexei Watson

    I want this, it’s all down to google whitelisting devs atm.

    mrjayviper

    or install Koush’s mirroring app

    Danny!

    Followed the link to the play store and it allowed me to install it to my HTC one GE 4.4.2

    mrjayviper

    Working nicely on my tablet z. Thanks for the heads up

    Anon

    Disappointing to see them requesting the incredibly invasive permission to read log data… that should NOT be in production code! This app can pretty much see everything you do on your device via the logs. This includes, but is not limited to: * What apps you use * How long you spend in each activity (each part of each app) * What your background services are doing (e.g. a dropbox sync) * Cell network type, signal strength, provider, whether you are roaming, whether you have access to emergency calls only… * Changes in auto-brightness on your display * Whether your… Read more »

    Anon

    Forgot to mention… lots of poorly-designed apps (such as the official facebook app) have in the past been found to leak usernames, passwords, and auth tokens into the device log

    Have fun with the iView app 🙂

    mrjayviper

    App ops FTW

    JeniSkunk

    With Google doing what it can to inhume that facility, what can you use to tame the excessive permissions an app goes after?

    mrjayviper

    I’m running cm11 so I suppose one can install any aosp-based ROM? But I believe there’s an app ops equivalent before Google even released it. Not sure of the name though

    Anon

    There are several alternatives for rooted users, however that still leaves all unrooted devices at risk here Logs provide massive amounts of information about your device, how it is used, what is used on it, and even where it is used. There is easily enough data in there to build up identifiable profiles on people even without other apps leaking sensitive information there There is *NO* good reason for ABC to have this permission on a release build. It is useful for app development however it should not be on a release build. So people should ask themselves, how are… Read more »

    Jamie Krisanski

    No Galaxy Note 3 support? Why are they so specific with devices? Surely they can just say 4.3 and up? Or just let people have a go.
    This annoys me…
    *googles iview apk*

    frente69

    Working on my nexus 5.

    steelbytes

    installed (from Play Store) and working on CM11 on Nexus5 and Nexus7(2012)

    Alexei Watson

    Gah, no Nexus 5.
    APK anyone?

    Paul Walker

    Disappointing considering the Nexus models are otherwise well supported.

    Martin Conway

    Installed and worked fine on my Nexus 5 as well.

    AdamM

    I installed the app from the Play Store before I read the list of devices that it was meant to work on.

    Installed and working fine on my Nexus 5.

    Alexei Watson

    Weird, it didn’t allow me to install, not compatible. Yours modified? 4.4.2?

    AdamM

    Yep, 4.4.2, otherwise unmodified, not rooted, etc.

    Alexei Watson

    Ah, they’ve updated the listing, nexus 5 now supported. Installed fine 🙂

    Paul Walker

    Will this be unmetered on iiNet like it is in the browser?

    Darren Ferguson

    I would assume so, it should still be coming from the same place.

    Paul Walker

    Are you sure? I’d heard that iFads etc don’t count as unmetered.

    Darren Ferguson

    Sorry, looks like I’m wrong. I guess the ISP can tell what device you are using and charge.

    nicholas

    it generally has to do with the device. ie, my blu-ray has a warning that the content isn’t unmetered

    James Hector

    Usually unmetered content is based on the traffic. So if it was from the same location I would imagine it would be fine. Only ABC and iinet know for sure though.

    Anyone ripped an APK yet? No Nexus 5 support is a bold strategy?

    BeauGiles

    Nope.
    “Watching iview on any Android device is metered regardless of your ISP”
    As listed right there in the Google Play description.

    Paul Walker

    Thanks.