Apple TV running full version of OS X

We all knew it was just a matter of time until someone figured out how to run a full blown version of OS X on an Apple TV, but who'd a guessed it would only take eight days? Semthex from hackint0sh has wrote a "processor emulation for the kernel", which was necessary to "sidestep" Apple's hardware locks. Semthex's only problem was he didn't have an Apple TV, so with some help from Apple TV Hacks, they recruited some testers and a day later they were in business. This effectively creates the least expensive Mac ever made -- at $299 -- and with a better video card than a mini to boot. While we doubt anyone will want to use a computer with only 256 MB of RAM as their main machine, MythTV frontends and other media centric applications should run nicely.

Read - How to run OS X on an Apple TV
Watch - Google video of OS X running on an Apple TV

[Jon @ Mar 31st 2007 10:24PM]

WHOOO! FINALLY! A cheap ~legal~ machine to run OSX!

[D.B. @ Mar 31st 2007 11:05PM]

Cheap legal machines have been available for years... they're called used Macs. You can find a 1 Ghz G4 for less than the cost of that contraption, and you don't have to hack the crap out of it to run OS X.

[Jon Clement @ Mar 31st 2007 11:12PM]

@D.B.

Perhaps I should have put "a legal RECENT machine" instead of "legal machine." Sure, there are older Macintosh machines which can operate the current version of OSX, BUT I don't want an non-recent machine.

Saying "I modded my Apple TV to run the most recent version of OSX" is way cooler [in my opinion] than saying, "Yeah.. I installed the most recent version of OSX on a.. well.. G4..."

I suppose I should have omited "WHOOOOO" and "FINALLY!" from my prior statement, though. Good point D.B. I commend you on your ability to observe. I apologize to you and all who read this for being so 'unclear.'

[Steven Hartig @ Mar 31st 2007 10:25PM]

Video is no longer available? April Fools?

[derek @ Mar 31st 2007 10:29PM]

Apple should lower the price of the after this... they must be charging double the price it takes to make it! As a Mac user, this makes me kind of disappointed...

[Peter @ Mar 31st 2007 10:36PM]

Apple always charges double the price for everything

[Mitch R. @ Mar 31st 2007 11:19PM]

Lower the price? Are you kidding me?

This is a very good price. You get a 1GHZ CPU, 256MB of RAM, 40GB HD, Pretty decent GPU, Component/HDMI outputs.

I'm surprised Apple is making any moeny at the price it's at.

[Rick Lyon @ Apr 1st 2007 8:57AM]

Wow an ignorant comment bashing Apple from a pc-lover.

[ASart @ Mar 31st 2007 10:40PM]

April fools most likely, since if you click to the source it list the article as from April 1, 2007.

[Matt @ Mar 31st 2007 10:42PM]

no i think its real here is a direct link to the vid not the youtube one.


http://www.markandjo.com/markblog/wp-content/aTV_OS_X.mov

[Josh Warner @ Mar 31st 2007 10:59PM]

Sorry, but it's not legal. It's mac hardware, but obviously you have to provide your own copy of OSX - which bought at retail pushes the overall (legal) price to nearly the same as a Mini, which includes the full OS.

I would appreciate the video card, but realize that if you use fully legal components (not usually the case in a project like this...) there isn't a large price advantage over the Core (2?) Duo equipped Mini.

It's still cool.

[LukeA @ Apr 1st 2007 9:06AM]

Exactly how much do you think a copy of Tiger costs?

$79US.

That deosn't put the cost near to the Mac Mini at all.

[Leonard Nimrod @ Mar 31st 2007 11:15PM]

True, and I'd also like to add that the "Apollo 6" 7445 and 7455--the 1GHZ PPC chips--are substanially faster than a 1GHz Intel Celeron.

The only problems with using an old Mac are:
- it's large, ergo doesn't fit well with your media appliances.
- The GPU won't handle H;264 well at all. Quicktime will have to do the work in software and that will unfortunately be much worse than using the AppleTV appliance.

[Leonard Nimrod @ Mar 31st 2007 11:06PM]

EXCELLENT!
The best part of this ability is that now you can have the AppleTV auto-login as a regular user and auto-start Front Row, iPhoto and iTunes.

I'm also guessing that now we can use the USB port for an External HDD and/or an external DVR. WIth some External HDDS offering a built-in USB hub it may even be possible to have both, assuming that the processor and port bus can handle it.


Gour things we still need to make this device perfect:
1) A way to access the AppleTV via the USB's backdoor without first taking the appliance apart.
2) The ability to play DVDs from remotely connected computers.

[crescentdavid @ Mar 31st 2007 11:06PM]

Apple's not the only company that does this sort of thing- engineer deliberately dumbed down products to fill discrete marketing niches (Vista anyone?) but it is sort of dispiriting to realize, by choice, a corporation serves to limit functionality in order to gain profit wise.

[Zadillo @ Mar 31st 2007 11:12PM]

I don't know.... can the AppleTV's RAM be upgraded? I am just thinking that once you did upgrade the RAM and put more useable storage in, you'd be getting fairly close to Mac mini prices anyway - and you'd still be lacking an optical drive, etc. This seems potentially cool, but I think I'd rather just spend a bit more and go ahead and get a Mac mini.

[uclatommy @ Mar 31st 2007 11:47PM]

This is the conversation that I imagine happened between Steve Jobs and Apple Engineers:

Engineer: Mr. Jobs, we should make AppleTV support alternative media formats such as Xvid and Divx. This would give the product appeal to a wider audience.

Steve: No, that would piss off the movie studios and music labels that are using iTunes as a media distribution channel. We need media companies on board iTunes because its a major source of revenue and opening up support for pirate formats would hurt our relations.

Engineer: But your majesty, no one's gonna to buy AppleTV if it's closed format.

Steve: Okay, I understand your concern. Make it hackable. That way, tech savy customers as well as the average Joe will be happy with it and we wouldn't piss off our media partners.

... and thus the AppleTV was born.

[Jeff @ Apr 1st 2007 12:13AM]

This device is a homerun, an ATV on every HD in every home. aTV art
installations, instant messaging + TV, Web Video Aggregation, Digg
Swarm, GoogleMapMashups with GooTube video.
its all a part of what this appleTV can be in a device when viewed as
a platform. Think OS X dashboard while watching TV.

people complain and say why would i want another computer? that's silly
do you render movies while you play games?

I can't wait to see the SecondLife on aTV with WiiMote. Apple's keen
vision with gestures on iPhone and previously with Expose present a wild
new scene that is coming quick.

thanks so much apple.

[The Monitor @ Apr 1st 2007 12:16AM]

But how did he move the mouse if there was none plugged in?


I want a cookie.

[Jamar @ Apr 1st 2007 12:21AM]

Remember when they made the USB port work for more than just "service"?

[consolation @ Apr 1st 2007 1:50AM]

err.... a mac keyboard has usb ports in the back where the mouse plugs in....

[orvtech @ Apr 1st 2007 12:26AM]

256 of ram is enough. i am currently running a file sever with only 32 MB of ram and a proc of 266 Mhz. remeber that you can use swap space. actually im running a couple of services there, you can see it at http://www.orvtech.com

[george @ Apr 1st 2007 12:28AM]

It needs to play Divx w/o hacks!

[BRUNOJLB @ Apr 1st 2007 2:01AM]

Is the Ram Upgradeable? What exactly does the apple TV do.. is it a DVR?

[johnbognet @ Apr 1st 2007 2:03AM]

Can you upgrade the ram? What exactly is apple tv is it like a dvr?

[John Doe @ Apr 1st 2007 5:55AM]

"Can you upgrade the ram? What exactly is apple tv is it like a dvr?"

No and no. Its a linked device to iTunes on your desktop. Music and movies from the desktop are streamed to the Apple TV. Video needs to be encoded in either H.264 or MPEG4 for Apple TV to read it. You can either do this yourself or you are going to have to buy media off of Apple iTMS site. RAM is onboard the mobo and can not to removed or upgraded.

[John Doe @ Apr 1st 2007 5:53AM]

Yah umm guys OS X is going to run like ass on 256MB of RAM. seriously it's going to be slooooooow. Apple trimmed down the OS for a reason. OS X with its various services has a shit load of overhead by default. Why oh why couldn't Apple have sprung for a DIMM slot on the motherboard. The geeks of the world would be in a mad ass rush to get their hands on one of those puppies. 200GB + and upgrade to 1GB of RAM + a 64MB Vcard + WIFI N == Nice Media Center PC.

[strider_mt2k @ Apr 1st 2007 7:08AM]

Little hint for ya, Art:

When you are so far behind on serious projects, it's probably not good to be seen screwing around.

People might think you aren't serious and it could hurt your credibility.

-and that account is already dwindling.

[strider_mt2k @ Apr 1st 2007 7:09AM]

Oh dear I've commented in the wrong post.

My mistake everyone, sorry!

[irregulara @ Apr 1st 2007 10:11AM]

Red Flag #1

FWIW, I don't believe those Dell monitors have HDMI. (they use HDCP over DVI?)

[Ben @ Apr 1st 2007 10:33AM]

irregulara,
HDCP works fine over and has for years before HDMI came out.

Either way it doesn't matter since the Apple TV has never been reported or verified to even support HDCP.

[irregulara @ Apr 1st 2007 11:18AM]

Sorry. I was a little vague. What I meant to say was that the guy claims to be hooking up the Apple TV to the Dell monitor via HDMI. From what I understand, those Dell monitors do not have an HDMI port.

[Ben @ Apr 1st 2007 11:19AM]

Thanks for your comments, but the guy who made the video is a friend of mine and I assure you it is real. You can hit the IRC channel at irc.hackint0sh.org for few guys that are doing this right now. No April fools here.

[tiuk @ Apr 1st 2007 7:12PM]

HDMI is just DVI with extra pins for audio. You can buy HDMI-to-DVI cables/adapters.

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Apr 1st 2007 11:31AM]

I'd love to know /why/ it has even remotely high specs.
My ancient (and CHEAP!) 450 mHz Compaq with integrated Intel Extreme Graphics (i810), under 200 MB RAM and running Linux (Ubuntu's Feisty release) can stream encoded videos over the network at 1280x1024 resolution with a full frame rate.

Why the blazes does Apple TV need even the hardware that it has? Granted, it does output to TVs, but it is also specifically tailored for video / music playback and presumably its interface is as sleek under the hood as it looks on top. It also only does 2 video formats, so there's some more room to optimize which my desktop computer can't have.

Okay they didn't totally overdo it, but the Apple TV is clearly less efficient than my trusty PC.

[Kyle Kennedy @ Apr 1st 2007 7:31PM]

"Why the blazes does Apple TV need even the hardware that it has? "



Erm, last time I checked "HDMI/Component" outputs = High Definition media-oriented. While your laptop may be powerful enough to process whatever you claim, decoding h.264 High Definition content (likely from iTunes in the future), isn't for the faint of hardware. I highly doubt your 450mhz computer could pull that off - not even the 700mhz Xbox Celeron CPU can handle that at a reasonable framerate.

[Joshua @ Apr 1st 2007 10:23PM]

Dont you people get it? The primary reason people hack machines like the appleTV is just for the hell of it....to take on a challenge....to see what we (and the hardware) are able to do, it doesnt always have to be super-duper beneficiary I think its very interesting.

[Charles @ Apr 2nd 2007 10:57AM]

April Fools!

The page (and the whole website) is now gone.

The whole internet gets stupider every year on Apr 1.

[joey @ Apr 2nd 2007 11:44AM]

Illegal or not who gives a sight Fuc*, a police man is not just fg just gonna walk right in to your house , look at your apple tv box turn it on and wait for it to boot, notice MAC OSX and say why the FUC* is your MACOSX runnin on youre apple tv!? thats in youre commin with me to the station!