Apple TV jailbreak coming soon
The new Apple TV has just shipped and is barely available in anyones hands, but the devices firmware has already been exploited using the SHAtter jailbreak, according to the iPhone Dev Team’s blog:
It’s looking like SHAtter is going to be the gift that keeps on giving. Even though the new AppleTV isn’t yet in people’s homes, the firmware is available on Apple’s normal public distribution servers and SHAtter has been used to decrypt its keys!
This is exciting news for the mod and jailbreak community, as the Apple TV will undoubtedly be a hackers hit. The device is largely thought to be a reconfigured iPod Touch, but until a full tear-down is completed nobody knows the machines innards for sure.
The new Apple TV runs iOS 4.1, although it is a modified version of the operating system minus the Springboard application. Springboard is the classic iPhone touch-based user interface that has become synonymous with iOS, and in it’s place is something called LowTide, which is practically identical to the FrontRow application running within Mac OS X.
Thoughts on an Apple TV Jailbreak
So here’s my prediction: Apple TV jailbreak will be released soon, the Springboard application will be run (despite the lack of touch), and you’ll be able to use all your favorite apps on the jailbroken Apple TV in the near future, perhaps using another touch-based iOS device as the controller.
I also think that Apple is going to pay close attention to how the mod community handles the Apple TV, and may even implement changes based on their findings. Other than the obvious game of cat-and-mouse that involves closing the various jailbreak exploits, I think Apple learns from the jailbreak community and uses the best of their ideas in future products. I have a hunch that Apple TV will follow this example. Much like Installer.app and Cydia are thought to have gave rise to the official App Store, it’s quite possible that the best functionality of the jailbroken Apple TV will make an official appearance down the road.
In the meantime, this will all be done unofficially through the jailbreak/hacker community, so don’t expect any love from Apple (although jailbreaking is legal, it is said to void your Apple warranty).
[…] and release them all at once.So here you go.Lowtide: Apple TV OS cracked to run on an iPod TouchApple’s iOS 4.1 for Apple TV got beat down by the Dev-Team and SHAtter’d in a couple of …, leaving behind the complete Apple TV iOS framework. What did they find? Well, a nice little […]
I definitely agree with you. Check out this piece on TUAW
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/09/28/appletv-under-the-hood-first-look/
it dives into some of the intricacies of the Apple TV firmware, it truly is just iOS, which is just Mac OS X.
Also cool that someone has already hacked the iPhone to use AirPlay which will finally lead to streaming to the iPhone which makes a lot more sense than carrying around 200gb of music and video, just stream to your palm!