Apple TV OS loosed into the wilds

It was just a matter of time until the eminently hackable Apple TV OS was released into the wild. After all, the OS and internal disk drive has already been ripped from the svelte chassis, mixed in with higher density disks, and burned back into Apple's set top box. Of course, the 200MB Apple TV OS image is likely locked to Apple TV hardware and runs on Intel procs only, but these are just minor annoyances as we've seen before. Given its mach kernel and BSD origins, it won't be long before Apple TV becomes the homebrew happy-hacking platform of choice. Hear that team XMBC, there's a new sheriff in town. Now please, somebody enable that goofy USB port for something a bit more useful than "service," mkay?

[Olivier @ Mar 26th 2007 6:55AM]

Somebody is hosting this a direct link? Not even a Torrent?
This is like throwing a sheep (this webmaster) in the lion's arena (Apple's lawyers playground).

The only positive thing about all this is that Apple will now consider giving the market what it wants (DIVx, 5.1 audio, larger HD etc..).

I just hope XBMC ports their project to Apple TV and Apple OS goes the way of the dodo.

Please XBMC team, can you port your beautifull OS /app on Apple TV?

[Revrant2394 @ Mar 26th 2007 6:56AM]

Interesting, this isn't that great compared to other services though, I'm not sure why they're making such a weak debut in such a touchy market though, I'm getting some Zuneesque deja vu here.

[Argot @ Mar 26th 2007 6:58AM]

Thomas Ricker seems to be an unbiased and fair "writer" and not an Apple fanboy at all. Bahahaha!

[Nick @ Mar 26th 2007 7:38AM]

Grow up.

[Scooter @ Mar 26th 2007 6:59AM]

@Thomas: "eminently" hackable, please. Unless you meant "imminently" but, since it has already happened...

[Kip HT @ Mar 26th 2007 7:25AM]

Oh, links down, cant find it on bt

[humpty @ Mar 26th 2007 7:31AM]

Why would you want that?

[Thomas Ricker @ Mar 26th 2007 7:40AM]

Argot, I happen to be an XBMC fanboy but thanks for playing anyway.

Thomas

[Gates4President @ Mar 26th 2007 8:04AM]

How much is Apple paying engadget for all of this adverting?

I could see how if you owned a Mac, you might consider buying an AppleTV, but it truly is a terrible product. It requires a widescreen hdtv (unless you have one of the 3 people who own component 4:3 tvs), and the only content that makes sense to watch on it is video content made to watch on your iPod (podcasts, itunes videos ect.), which are inherently low res. Its not just that the 360 has the same capabilities as the AppleTV, its that it has SO much more, integrating with an MCE/Vista box for DVR, DVD/HDDVD drive for movie watching, 360 gaming, Movie download service. The AppleTV is nothing more then an expensive wireless dongle for people with a Mac, and a lot of ipod video to watch.

We can all pray for the XBMC crew to unlock the power of the XNA platform, but you definately don't need XBMC to unlock the full potential of your 360 : http://www.microsoftisawesome.com/2007/03/using-your-xbox-360-as-media-hub.html

[JL @ Mar 26th 2007 8:26AM]

Thomas,

Are you hoping for what I think you are hoping for?
that the XBMC team rip apart AppleTV and port XBMC to it?

Now that would be nice, and would definitely open
up the box to be used with other than Apple applications!

At least that's the impression I got from the article.
If i'm wrong, so be it..

[Ben @ Mar 26th 2007 8:50AM]

WTF is going on with all the smack talk on engadget bloggers?

You reckon they are biased in the topics they choose? These people know what people want to read. That's why this is a popular site. That's why you're here.

You reckon they're biased towards/against some products? Well maybe there are good reasons.

And finally, can everyone PLEASE stop with the "You're a fanboy", "No I'm not - your a fanboy" schoolyard crap. It's driving me freakin' insane!

Arrgggghhhh!

[shelterpaw @ Mar 26th 2007 12:55PM]

I agree, it's very petty.

I'm admit that I'm an Apple Fanboy, but I like Windows XP. I like the xbox, wii and PS3. Not sure why people feel they have to side with one platform or another or bash someone for liking a specific platform. What's the point of doing that? It just makes people look immature and jealous.

They're inanimate objects and add little value to who you are as a person. There' no reason to get overly exited over who loves one product or another. It's best to be objective and judge a product by it's merits. I think engadet does a good job of this.

[KYDS3K @ Mar 26th 2007 9:20AM]

@ Scooter:

look up the definition of "eminent". one use of it is " conspicuous, signal, or noteworthy: eminent fairness." I believe Thomas' use is correct. in fact, your use would seem to imply that it will soon be hackable, when the link in this post shows that it already IS hackable . . .

[Scooter @ Mar 26th 2007 12:10PM]

@KYDS3K please read my comment again more carefully. I was correcting Thomas on a grammatical error. He then fixed the error, hence your apparent confusion. He is also welcome to delete my comments.

[EatingPie @ Mar 26th 2007 11:04AM]

So much smack talk, so much wasted time!

What I wanna see in a hack is full-blown 1080i/p support. That may be a hardware limitation though. To me this is a deal killer for the stupid thing.

-Pie

[Chris @ Mar 26th 2007 1:16PM]

to run XBMC on the apple tv he OS image won't help, you'd need the hardware and bootloader, though it's likely the same bootloader that apple uses on all its Intel based PCs. XBMC would just need compiled for x86 and the appletv hardware and the bootloader configured to launch it.

[Jack Chance @ Mar 26th 2007 2:44PM]

I know Thomas, and he totally is a mac fan boy.

[KYDS3K @ Mar 26th 2007 3:31PM]

@ Scooter:

ahh. i suppose i shouldn't grammar check after a 19-hour road trip . . . =)

[Tom @ Mar 26th 2007 4:29PM]

because the source for apple tv OS is readily available to modify.

the XBMC developers donate their time and source code, and for this, XBMC is still the best media centre program out there.

end of discussion.

[brett @ Mar 27th 2007 8:05PM]

Now that this is available, would it be theoretically possible to run AppleTVOS as an app on a Mac Mini (with some resourceful hacking)? The main caveats of AppleTV would be sidelined. You could play actual DVDs, buy iTMS content from your couch, have a bigger HD (and upgrade without losing your warranty), among other things I haven't thought of yet.

Thoughts?

[whiskey @ Mar 29th 2007 5:26PM]

Think of getting one of those UMPC running this...
Think of getting this running on another hand based player...
there are a lot of possibilities here.

[docsharp01 @ Mar 31st 2008 10:18PM]

I enjoyed reading the comments about Apple TV.
http://www.1-satellite-tv-facts.com