Our recent review of the Apple TV came to the conclusion that whilst the content you can access on iTunes is great, the device itself is hampered by its close integration with Apple’s media store, a lack of expandability and an inability to access content on multiple devices on the network.
All’s not lost however. A thriving community of developers has sprung up around the Apple TV, seeking ways to enhance its core features with a range of hacks. Sites such as Apple TV Hacks and AwkwardTV monitor and chart developments as an increasing number of new applications open up support for the product. To date, Apple have resisted closing these hacks as aggressively as they try to block the Palm Pre’s support of iTunes, for instance – perhaps a tacit admittance of guilt concerning a lack of feature support from Cupertino perhaps?
There are a variety of methods for hacking the Apple TV, all of which require the use of a USB “patchstick” to be created, which is used to install software via the Apple TV’s USB socket. You’ll find a plethora of guides and wikis on the Internet which will walk you through the steps required to create the patchstick and then install new applications for the Apple TV in the form of plugins. Hacking the Apple TV using these guides is straightforward for the more experienced amongst you – however, those less experienced or more lazy may appreciate aTV Flash – a commercial ($49.99) patchstick package which not only hacks the Apple TV with ease, but also deploys a number of plugin applications which integrate neatly with the device.
In the spirit of discovering just what Apple TV can do when let loose in the wild, we paid our dues and downloaded aTV Flash.
Hacking the Apple TV
The first step to hacking the Apple TV with aTV Flash is downloading the patchstick application – the latest version, 4.0 is a 61MB download. The file is a self-extracting executable which creates your patchstick folder containing an installer, binary folder and installation guide.
Insert a USB memory stick into your computer and run the aTV Flash installer.
Point the installer to your USB drive, and you’re ready to go.
Well, almost. The installer needs to reappropriate an Apple TV software update file – if one exists on your computer (just by chance) then you can point the installer to it, otherwise, click Download File and a copy will download to your PC, directly from Apple.
At 234MB, it’ll take a few minutes to download… after which, the installation to your USB drive continues.
With the patchstick prepared, it’s almost time to hack the Apple TV! Before we let loose with the stick, we’ll need to ensure we’re running the latest version of the Apple TV software. That means an update from v2.4 to Apple’s 3.0.1 software.
With the latest software on board, let’s get started. Unplug the Apple TV and insert the patchstick. Then, power on and the installation will begin automatically.
The installation takes a few minutes, and following a reboot, your freshly hacked Apple TV will be back showing you its main menu. It’s really that easy. Once hacked, the next job is to download and install all of the new features and applications which are now available to you.
