iPhone 5 For Dummies, 6th Edition

Air Video ($2.99)

We both have more than 100GB of movies and TV shows in our iTunes library, so an iPhone with 32GB or even 64GB of storage just doesn’t cut it. Having to decide which movies and TV shows to sync to our iPhones makes us crazy — we want all our movies and TV shows available on our iPhones all the time.

Well, with Air Video, we can. Air Video lets you stream video from your Mac or PC to your iPhone. It works over a cellular or Wi-Fi connection. You can use it with almost all common video formats, and you can convert most formats on-the-fly, so you can usually start watching your video immediately after you select it.

If you’re thinking this sounds a bit like Apple’s AirPlay or Home Sharing, you’re right. The big deal is that AirPlay and Home Sharing work only with devices on the same Wi-Fi network. Air Video works over any Wi-Fi or cellular data connection, so you can watch movies stored on your computer regardless of where in the world you happen to be.

If you don’t have an unlimited wireless data plan, be careful about watching movies because streaming video consumes data at an alarming rate. If you’re iPhone is using a 3G or 4G network, watching a movie could cost you more than you expect. We recommend connecting via Wi-Fi before you stream a movie in this or any other app so you won’t have to worry about exceeding your wireless data plan’s cap.

After you’ve purchased ...