Apple TV hacked for RSS and emulation, plus bounty for USB drive support

The Apple TV has received two new abilities in its second week of availability thanks to a couple of new hacks: one, a fully functional and integrated RSS reader, and two, video game emulation for NES, SNES, N64, and Sega Genesis game consoles. The RSS reader comes courtesy of the bloggers over at twenty08, who've managed to put together a plugin that adds an option to read RSS1.x/2.x feeds right alongside your Media and Photos. (Might we be so bold to suggest a few feeds?). The video game emulation isn't quite as clear cut, with a Wiki over at AwkwardTV saying that several popular emulators from Richard Bannister work on the Apple TV OS with the addition of SSH. Fortunately, we don't have to take the editors of the Wiki's word for it, because there's also a link to a YouTube video which shows an Apple TV playing a NES emulator with an attached N64 controller. We've embedded the video after the break, so take a look. Finally, a look at what could be next for the totally ok to hack, as long as you watch the warranty Apple TV: a $1000 bounty for a hack that enables external drive support through the USB port. Will it be enough of a motivation for all the hackers out there?

Read - Apple TV RSS hack
Read - Apple TV game emulation
Read - $1000 bounty offered for USB drive hack

[Boof @ Apr 8th 2007 9:01PM]

@Bulged Eyes

What has this got to do with this thread? Is it another example of someone using engadget's reader base to advertise their own rubbish. Or did you bizarrely think this had something to do with this topic?

I no likesies

[Gustavo @ Apr 8th 2007 7:44PM]

wow i hate apple products but for the things that it could do its awsome i could make an arcade with this and much more i think for its price am starting to be convinced

[catachip @ Apr 8th 2007 8:06PM]

I never understood what a comment like "I hate apple products" is supposed to mean. It really discredits anything reasonable you have to say. In all likelihood you have an unjustified bias again things apple because of A) a bad experience, B) insuffient funds for a higher starting price point or C) are a MS fanboy. Either way, I do appreciate you new realization that Apple does indeed make some excellent products, perhaps you should give others a try.

[Gustavo @ Apr 8th 2007 8:52PM]

well yea i see potential of the product thats why am giving an change with the apple products i mean ya am kinda a microsoft fan boy but am willing to give apple a chance

[darkstar @ Apr 8th 2007 8:47PM]

i never liked apple either. especially in the school days in 1990's. their machines were way overpriced n tons of other reasons. im not the only one with this stigma of apple, im sure!
but when i saw the ipod 5g, this was clearly a superb product in terms of cost to benefit ratio!!! no other products on the market came close to the ipod. style, cost, easy of use. others were ugly, big, bulky, even the Zune looks fugly, no matter what colors they come out for it.

[bobgorila @ Apr 8th 2007 9:00PM]

I'm not that impressed, to be honest.

I mean, now it can be made to run regular OSX then this kind of stuff is pretty easy. What's next "web browser on Apple TV"?

I will be pretty impressed when somebody makes a backrow plugin that lets you browse a folder of roms and open them in the emulator directly. Yet more so if someone can get drivers working for a bluetooth dongle, then play emulated titles with a Wiimote.

[Bulged Eyes @ Apr 8th 2007 9:26PM]

Dude, nothing to advertise. I just thought how senseless it was that people are kind of abusing what Mr. Jobs did with the Apple TV. Let's just let the little bugger do what it was supposed to do: play our files on our big screens. Like in that video, I empathize with Steve Jobs being 'slammed to the wall' with users tapping functionality beyond what the Apple TV was meant to perform. Actually, I just ate a whole bowl of skittles at this spring break party, and I don't really know what it is I'm saying. Will probably regret this tomorrow. Probably regret it later tonight.

[Ayle @ Apr 8th 2007 10:44PM]

You sire will probably get buried....

[ssuk @ Apr 9th 2007 9:49AM]

Yeah, damn those skittles for changing our mind state to post retarded comments!

[Tavis Veighey @ Apr 8th 2007 10:05PM]

I am impressed, the Apple TV is now a gaming console!

However so far I see no need for me personally to get one. I already have a heavily modded XBOX that can already stream video's, Internet radio, and play emulated games.

[michael @ Apr 8th 2007 10:13PM]

I still prefer my Windows Media Center on my Xbox. There are also a whole lot of hacks that I found for Windows Media Center. I also found a RSS hack for my WMC. And if you didn't notice, the Xbox 360 plays a lot of games too. Exactly why I (and most people) still prefer their Xbox 360 + Windows Media Center.

[Ryan @ Apr 8th 2007 11:03PM]

Does this only work on a Mac system? Can't seem to figure out how to install it via Windows at all?

[DWAnderson @ Apr 8th 2007 11:51PM]

I thought this was pretty cool (and I am a die hard user of Xbox 360 as Media Center Extender). It is nice to see another media playing solution that people can modify.

See my full post at http://thunor.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!71C238B5E0E3724D!233.entry

[Raju Vegesna @ Apr 9th 2007 2:48AM]

I wish there is a hack for streaming internet video content (from sites like YouTube) directly into my Apple TV.

[mike @ Apr 9th 2007 3:32AM]

i never liked apple either. especially in the school days in 1990's. their machines were way overpriced n tons of other reasons. im not the only one with this stigma of apple, im sure!
-

Jesus Christ, what year is this? Mac users have been saying this for years. The 90's sucked. You wanna know how bad they sucked? OS 9 was worse than Windows 95. That's how bad it sucked. It took Apple years to get OS 10 out the door, 2001.

Your bias against Apple was that... you ... never owned one before.. Go use a Mac, and give it a chance. You really owe it to yourself. OS X is about to be updated big time in June... which will just embarrass Vista (I'm sorry).

It just irks me that people are saying.. because of this Apple TV, which is essentially a media hub-- that Apple is 'improving'...

Where were you when Apple released the Mac mini? It's 500 bucks. Macs haven't been overpriced for about 10 years now...

AppleTV is interesting, the iPod is interesting, the iPhone is pretty sexy, but nothing --NOTHING-- compares to Mac OS X in importance to Apple. That is the best thing Apple has ever done.

[blkdragon @ Apr 9th 2007 4:56AM]

Bravo, Mike!

I completely, utterly, agree.

[aaron @ Apr 9th 2007 8:43AM]

@ mike:
couldn't have said it better myself

[Hyram H. @ Apr 9th 2007 9:00AM]

Blah, blah blah Apple blah blah, Microsoft blah Apple blah blah blah. Blah 90's blah blah blah, blah, blah Apple blah Microsoft blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah 'bad dog Fido' blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah!

Blah?

Blah blah AppleTV blah XBox blah, blah blah blah blah, blah blah OSX blah blah fart blah blah blah blah blah money blah blah blah.

... in my books, anyway.

[coxis_scratcher @ Apr 9th 2007 9:02AM]

mac osx can be all the cool you want but i think is meant for certain type of users.. my mac is not just slow is a snail..besides i open some webpages and the system just can handle more and is pretty useless for browsing..
so mac can be vey modern and complete but is not for users who like to try many programs while browsing..
and yeah ill put more ram and tell you if im using it..meanwhile i just use my win machine with pirate windows wich just kick ass

plus im afraid of a company who has such importance on copyright isues..is like playing with your enemy.. just today i read from a windows spokeman that they prefer pirates to pirate his OS than other OS from the competency.. just because they want us to use it?

[Galley @ Apr 9th 2007 9:07AM]

I'd much rather have real 720p casual gaming content like Bejeweled 2 and Tetris.

[mike k. @ Apr 9th 2007 9:08AM]

@ coxis_scratcher: if you can't speak i tend to think your computer being slow "is a snail" ... may, just maybe, not be apple's fault.

unix has multitask just as good, if not better, than any modern windows machine. just because you have old hardware and operator headspace doesn't mean apple will always be good. you need to give a little to get a lot and it sounds like you are looking for complete handouts.

[mattstl77 @ Apr 9th 2007 9:15AM]

If Apple would have put the alleged "hacks" in their incomplete system the first time, they wouldn't have to worry about people hacking their hardware!

[Mike @ Apr 9th 2007 12:12PM]

This is fake. The documentation states this was done inside the AppleTV OS with SSH support. The video shows it on OSX. Even though we see all that with the AppleTV, we don't see it connecting to the TV, there could be a laptop off screen that we don't see, we someone pressing buttons at the same time... We never see the controller while the game is being played either...

It got them publicity at least...

Good for them...

[GBaz @ Apr 9th 2007 2:49PM]

How about a hack to make it work with Folding@Home?

[lexter @ Apr 9th 2007 5:09PM]

[rant]
Will you people please take 2 minutes of your life and proof read your comments before adding them. There are at least 3 comments here that are almost completely incoherent.
[/rant]

[mehmetbayat @ Apr 9th 2007 9:56PM]

mehmetbayat
afurkan76

[Jerry Brace @ Apr 10th 2007 7:49AM]

I've been doing all of this with my Mac mini since the Core Duo minis came out. I'd say pay the extra few dollars and get a mini - that solves all of your problems. Also install RemoteBuddy for launching all of the games via the Apple Remote...

[rp @ Apr 12th 2007 7:35PM]

Umm, OS 9 was substantially better than Windows 95 and 98. I worked in Windows IT at the time and was absolutely thrilled to go home and use OS 9 just to get away from the crappiness of 95/98. Sure, 9 crashed, but not as much as Windows did. Also, OS 9 and below were very easy to fix if you knew what you were doing. There was not a time during those operating systems where I ever had to do a reinstall to get things working again when it would crap out. How many Windows users can say that?

[mehmetbayat @ May 2nd 2007 7:13PM]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/