Apple TV gets RSS plugin, game emulation and $1000 bounty for external media drive support
Oh it's on now. Engadget posted some more juicy bits for those thirsty to hack their Apple TV to do everything from read RSS to solving the holy grail of complaints: support for using an external USB drive as the media drive, thereby circumventing the limit of the device's pathetic 40GB drive.First up is a slick RSS plugin for the Apple TV (pictured) that allows you to download and read news and blogs via RSS. Created by twenty08, the installation sounds fairly simple, as is editing the actual RSS file to add whatever feeds you like. Plenty more is on the way for this plugin, however, including extracting images from feeds and playing embedded videos right in the RSS item itself. Since the Apple TV and the very hackable technology that runs it are still shiny and new to everyone, twenty08 reminds us that hacks like this merely need a little time to develop and mature.
Another more bizarre hack is support for Apple TV game emulation, with YouTube user WildRoosterFilms posting a video of Super Mario Brothers running on the device with a hack that enables an N64 controller to drive the game. Check out the AwkwardTV wiki for more details on how to get this up and running.
Last but in no way least is Apple TV Hacks' announcement of a $1000 bounty to whoever can enable support for using an external USB drive for the Apple TV's media storage. While plenty of Apple TV users are happy to stream some of their content that the device's puny drive can't hold, this bounty clearly shows an interest from plenty of other users who are excited to have more on-device space for storing everything locally on the Apple TV itself. There are a number of criteria that must be met before the cash is handed over, however, so check out the rules if you think you have a shot at answering the prayers of claustrophobic Apple TV owners.

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Adam Coates said 10:04AM on 4-10-2007
Surely you can just stick a bigger drive in there...?
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motech said 6:24PM on 4-09-2007
em
i love tuaw and check it daily . .
but why are you guys always a day behind on news?
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Word Diggity said 6:32PM on 4-09-2007
Adam, not everyone wants to void the warranty by replacing the drive.
motech, where's your Apple blog that's ahead of the news curve?
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Andrew said 7:01PM on 4-09-2007
Word Diggity,
It was on engadget yesterday...which this article links to for no apparent reason. Anyone else tired of blogs linking to blogs that originally linked to blogs?
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GR said 7:35AM on 4-10-2007
I come to TUAW for apple news, not Engadget. Apple TV just happens to be a "gadget" of sorts, so they cover it. To be honest Andrew, I'm more tired of people complaining about something so meaningless as blogs linking to other blogs. Life is short, stop bitching.
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Dave said 4:05PM on 7-09-2007
As to the contest for the usb external drive, I currently use an external usb drive which contains all my media. What I had to do to recognize it was very simple. Using ATVfiles which looks in the Movies folder for local content, so in the Movies folder I created a symlink (with Xray-free/shareware) to my external media. Everything works perfect.
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