Watch on one half, browse on the other
Stand iPhone Duo half open while something plays and Kanema splits the screen at the fold. The film or channel keeps one half to itself, with nothing over it. The other half is for browsing: what’s playing and its controls, then more to watch, from the next episode to every channel and film in your library. Pick something and it takes the picture’s place. Closed, the Duo gets the iPhone app; open flat, the iPad layout.
Coming soon to the App Store
Demo playlist: the films are Blender open movies (credits) and the channels are made up. Kanema comes with nothing to watch.
The half you hold
At the top of the browsing half is what’s playing: its title, Channels on a live channel, AirPlay and Chromecast, the scrubber, and back, play or pause, forward, Reload, previous channel and the options for audio, subtitles, aspect ratio, speed and the sleep timer. They stay up the whole time, since here they cover nothing.
Under them are buttons for Live TV, Films, Series and Discover, with the one for what’s playing first, and then the shelves. A film brings More like this, Continue watching and Recently added. A channel brings On now, starting with the channels in its own category and then your favourites, and Starting soon, what begins in the next hour.
Pick something without stopping the picture
Tap a poster and its page opens in the browsing half: artwork, year, genre, length, rating and the story, with Play or Resume and Watch later. Play puts it in the picture half and the browsing half goes back to the top, now about the new title. Tap a channel and the picture changes channel while the list stays where it is, ready for the next one.
A series, episode by episode
While an episode plays, its season comes first, with the one on screen marked Playing. Starting an episode from there carries on from where you left it, and the rest of the series is lined up to play next.
The whole library, one level down
Live TV, Films, Series and Discover open your whole catalogue inside the browsing half: Live TV’s categories with favourites first and a filter, the channels in each, every film and series by category, Discover’s genres with its sorting, and a title’s full page. Changing channel from a list leaves the list open; starting a film or an episode brings the browsing half back to the top.
A category behind the parental lock asks for its code here too.
Like a book or like a laptop
Held like a book, with the fold upright, the picture is on the left and the browsing half on the right. Stood like a laptop, the picture is on the half standing up and the browsing half lies flat, where a keyboard would be. Lay the Duo flat or close it and the ordinary player is back, controls up for a moment and the stream untouched. Stand it again and the browsing half returns at the top.
Panels that rise from the bottom of the screen, like the playlist switcher, move to one side of the fold rather than straddling it, and so does the screen that shows a new playlist downloading.
Closed: the iPhone app
On the outer display Kanema uses its iPhone layout, with tabs for Home, Live TV and Library, and Catch-up too when your provider records channels. The Duo puts the tabs, Search and Settings in its bar down the side of the display. Each of Kanema’s buttons has a name as well as a symbol, so anything the bar can’t fit still turns up, by name, in its overflow menu.
A film’s page puts Play, Watch later and Open in another app in one row. Turn the closed Duo on its side and the artwork gets shorter, so Play is on screen without scrolling.
The player beside the bar
Where the Duo keeps its bar down the side, the player puts AirPlay, Chromecast and Channels in that column, under the camera or the status pill, and runs its controls across the full width. When the row of buttons leaves too little room for the title, the title moves underneath and takes the full width, instead of shrinking to a few letters.
Open: the iPad layout
Unfold it and the tabs give way to the sidebar Kanema uses on iPad: Live TV, the TV Guide, Starting soon, Films, Series, Discover, Favourites, Watch later and more, each a tap away. Live TV lists your categories on one side and the channels in them on the other, so going from one category to the next takes a single tap. Discover fits as many genre tiles across the screen as there’s room for. You can change the order of the sidebar’s groups in Settings while the Duo is open.
Fold and unfold without losing your place
Kanema keeps track of where you are in terms both layouts share. Close the Duo on Series and you’re on the Library tab with Series chosen; open it on Live TV and the sidebar has Live TV selected. The iPhone layout keeps pages such as Favourites, Watch later and Recently watched under Settings, so closing the Duo on one of them opens Settings at that same page. The TV Guide has no tab of its own: close the Duo on it and you see Live TV, and if you open it again without moving on, the guide comes back.
A channel or film playing full screen stays put through the fold. The player sits above both layouts, so swapping one for the other doesn’t close it. The playlist switcher stays open on the page it was showing as well. If you’ve set Kanema to open where you left off, it finds that page whether the Duo was open or closed when you left it.
Multi-view across the fold
Multi-view, part of Kanema Pro, plays two or four channels at once. On the outer display it covers the tabs, the way the player does. On the inner display it’s a page in the sidebar, with each channel’s name under its picture. Fold or unfold while it plays and the same channels carry on in the other layout without restarting. Full screen belongs to the layout you started it on, so a fold takes you back to the Multi-view page, channels still playing.
The Kanema Pro sheet is one scrolling column on the outer display and a two-column panel on the inner one. Every Pro feature on iPhone and iPad is on the Duo too. Watching and browsing half open is in the free version.
It doesn’t come with channels
Kanema plays the playlist you add from your own provider, and nothing else. Only add services you’re entitled to use.
More on Kanema, by device and playlist
- Apple TVLive TV, the guide and films with the Siri Remote.
- MacA Mac app in its own right, made for the keyboard.
- iPhone and iPadPause live TV, multi-view and widgets, iPhone Duo included.
- Apple Vision ProA window you place anywhere in the room.
- M3U playlistsPaste the playlist link and watch.
- Xtream CodesChannels, films, series and catch-up from one login.
- PlexYour Plex films and series beside your live channels.
- Jellyfin and EmbyYour own server’s films and series, played as they are.