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apple tv hacks posts

Filed under: Hardware, OS, Hacks, Mods, Blogs, Apple TV

Apple TV Hacks calls for help to polish the USB drive hack

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jul 29th, 2007

Two days after Apple TV Hacks published the much sought-after USB hard drive hack for the Apple TV, the site is making a call for help to polish the modification. For now, the hack isn't for the faint of heart - it requires some mucking around at the command line, not to mention an Intel Mac to apply the patch (i.e. - PowerPC Mac and Windows owners seem to be out of luck for now). It also appears that the hack is confirmed to not work on Apple TVs that have had their software updated to the 1.1 YouTube edition.

Specifically, Apple TV Hacks is looking for help to simplify the hack's process and, ideally, bundle it in a GUI to make it a lot easier for all users to apply. Compatibility with the 1.1 Apple TV software is also on the todo list, since reverting one's Apple TV back to the original software and losing all the new features isn't the first thing most users want to do.

If you have any skills with helping out on hacks or bundling them into a GUI, or if you know a developer who might, send them over to the Apple TV Hacks post to see if they can lend a hand.

Tags: apple tv, apple tv hacks, AppleTv, AppleTvHacks, external storage, ExternalStorage, hacks, hard drive, HardDrive, mods, usb drive, UsbDrive

Filed under: Hacks, Apple TV

Apple TV USB hard drive patch has arrived!

by David Chartier (RSS feed) on Jul 28th, 2007

We are very pleased to report that Apple TV Hacks has published the long-anticipated USB hard drive hack for the Apple TV, allowing users to plug in an external hard drive to overcome the device's disappointing storage limitations. As with any hacks of this nature, however, the same 'hacker beware' policy applies: while the steps involved don't sound too difficult and this hack deals entirely with software (one of the rules of the contest that started all this was that the Apple TV case would not need to be opened to apply the patch), it is entirely possible that tinkering in this way could somehow void your warranty (though I would imagine you could simply use the device's menu option to reset all settings and software to original manufacturer status to clean up evidence you've been tinkering).

Still, if any of you try this, be sure to chime in with your experience. The hack was designed and tested on the original 1.0 Apple TV software, so the crew isn't sure if it'll work with the current 1.1 YouTube edition released in June.

Tags: apple tv, apple tv hacks, AppleTv, AppleTvHacks, hacks, patches, usb drive, UsbDrive

Filed under: Hardware, Hacks, Developer, Apple TV

Apple TV hacks coming fast and furious: VLC, SSH, VNC, Apache and more

by Mat Lu (RSS feed) on Mar 26th, 2007


The Apple TV hacks are coming fast and furious as recorded on both the Something Awful thread we already told you about, and at the Apple TV Hacks blog. Over at Something Awful, user macado shows the Apple TV successfully decoding a 720p XviD clip using the open source VLC player (though only for 6 minutes). Other users have demonstrated Firefox and iTunes running on an Apple TV as well. Meanwhile at Apple TV Hacks, there are already tutorials up on getting SSH and AFP access and even setting up Remote Desktop (VNC) and Apache.

In short, the Apple TV has been busted wide open and is well on its way to being hacked into a general purpose (if rather underpowered) mini Mac mini (Mac nano, perhaps?), running OS X 10.4.7 as you can see above. For those of you with a hankering to break your warranties, it looks like the Apple TV is eminently hackable and has a lot of potential.

[Via Apple TV Hacks]

Update: the 6 minute thing has to do with the fact that the Apple TV automatically resets after 6 minutes (see the comments below).

Tags: AFP, Apache, Apple TV, apple tv hacks, AppleTv, AppleTvHacks, iTunes, SSH, VLC, VNC

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