Apple TV Hacked to Run iOS Apps at Full Screen

[MacRumors]

Safari running on Apple TV

Over the past few days, iOS developers Steven Troughton-Smith and TheMudKip have managed to hack the 2nd generation Apple TV to run iOS apps at full resolution. The feat was accomplished using a custom Springboard (Home Screen) written by TheMudKip on a jailbroken Apple TV. Troughton-Smith has since been making progress running iPhone and iPad apps at full resolution.

Many existing apps seem to run well on the Apple TV, which is known to be an iOS device using an A4 processor. When this generation of the Apple TV was released, we noted that Apple may have had plans to incorporate native applications all along. In fact, Jobs said that an Apple TV App Store could launch when the time is right.

This video shows the Apple TV in action, running apps under the custom springboard:

The hack isn't available publicly yet, and remains more of a proof of concept at this time. It's feasible that such a hack could be released to the public at some point to encourage Apple TV specific apps that might be designed to work with the remote interface in mind.

Readers should note that the original iPhone jailbreaks enabled native iOS apps well ahead of Apple's official App Store launch. Lights Off was the first native iOS game, released for jailbroken iPhones in August 2007. The official App Store wouldn't launch for another 10 months.

Article Link: Apple TV Hacked to Run iOS Apps at Full Screen

[dewser35]

Bring on the ATV apps!

[Ulf1103]

I can see that this is something quite interesting...
But I guess we'll be using iDevices as the controller for the Apple TV games?

[odedia]

This is REALLY cool.

[dokujaryu]

I'm very excited about Apple reducing the fragmentation (THAT'S RIGHT, I SAID IT) of their products. I want full app enabled iOS for Apple TV and iPod Nano Watch. Perhaps these kinds of hacks will force Apple's hand.

On the other hand, if I had an iPod Nano watch,iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV that all shared apps, I might run out of device authorizations for iTunes pretty fast!

[sammich]

Love how the Apps fill the screen without modification.

[justperry]

Now thats what I call COOOOOL

[gramirez2012]

That's awesome!

[justperry]

Good if I want to play games full screen on My LCD but there are many apps which won't work-there is a lot of hardware missing on the AppleTv like camera, and many other sensors.
But, if they release that hack I will buy one.

[dazzer21]

I would feel MORE than comfortable using these features on an TV connected to my bog-standard TV set - rather than have to go out and buy an expensive Apple-branded TV set to experience it exclusively!

[expectdelay]

it seems to me like apple created a 100$ "computer" that could handle many many average user's needs. they may have realized the effect of this on sales of other products and decided to delay releasing that functionality. having IOS apps run on an appleTV2 with a wireless keyboard would IMHO be a revolutionary change in the PC market.

[justperry]

Originally Posted by dazzer21

I would feel MORE than comfortable using these features on an TV connected to my bog-standard TV set - rather than have to go out and buy an expensive Apple-branded TV set to experience it exclusively!

I completely agree with you, I have a LG LCD with smart options but its not only slow its also awkward to use.

[JoeSixPack]

Nooo! I can't have my wife taking over the big screen with her Angry Birds until football season is over!

(Though the crashing sounds might be pretty cool if the come through in 5.1)

[GeekLawyer]

I've been hoping to see some development in this direction. Sort of reminds me of the time before iOS 2 when devs were figuring out how to get apps onto iPhones before the app store was announced/released.

[balamw]

Apple introduced Boot Camp shortly after onmac figured out how to run Windows natively. Cydia and the JB scene preceded the iOS SDK.

So hopefully the App Store for TV is just around the corner...

The ground work to handle with the 8 GB fixed storage is set with iTunes in the Cloud.

B

[bossxii]

No way to control the apps without an iPhone or IPad...which is what AirPlay does. I really don't see the point here. Improve the AirPlay to full HD seems more useful than trying to put apps solely on the ATV. They would also need to put more storage back on the ATV, don't see this happening with the current hardware.

[npro1464]

This would break me to buy an Apple Tv if the TBS app, HBO Go, and MAX GO work without a hitch.

[irmongoose]

Originally Posted by dokujaryu

I want full app enabled iOS for Apple TV and iPod Nano Watch.

Sorry, buddy. The iPod nano does not, in fact, run iOS. It's actually either the old iPod OS or something like it skinned to look and work like iOS, but I gather the nano just doesn't have the hardware to handle iOS itself.



irmongoose

[arn]

Originally Posted by bossxii

No way to control the apps without an iPhone or IPad...which is what AirPlay does. I really don't see the point here. Improve the AirPlay to full HD seems more useful than trying to put apps solely on the ATV. They would also need to put more storage back on the ATV, don't see this happening with the current hardware.

The point of this particular hack is more proof of concept. The point of official native Apple TV Apps? These would be optimized for Apple TV and interfaced with the remote. Like the Apple TV MLB or Netflix "apps" that come bundled with the Apple TV.

arn

[Digitalclips]

Who on earth would ever want a computer for $99 ... oh wait a minute ...

[leukotriene]

Originally Posted by bossxii

No way to control the apps without an iPhone or IPad...which is what AirPlay does. I really don't see the point here. Improve the AirPlay to full HD seems more useful than trying to put apps solely on the ATV. They would also need to put more storage back on the ATV, don't see this happening with the current hardware.

I sort of see where you're coming from, but having the app run straight off the AppleTV reduces lag, which is really important for gaming.

How about a compromise? Here's what I think Apple has planned: You download a game off the App Store onto your iPad, and when you're ready to "AirPlay" it onto your TV, your iPad beams the binary over to the AppleTV first, then the binary runs off the AppleTV itself rather than the iPad. (I put AirPlay in quotes because in this scenario, you're not actually streaming anything)

AirPlay mirroring today is laggy for gaming because it's streaming the entire picture of your iOS device over wifi. With a hybrid solution (a la Amazon's Silk "split browser") however, the heavy stuff can be done off the AppleTV and the low-latency signals required for gaming can be transmitted over an ad-hoc peer to peer network like Bluetooth 4.0.

Boom: Apple enters the console market with a $99 device.

[Tilpots]

Awesome! Been waiting for this for a long time. Can't wait to see how Apple incorporates this into an official release. Apps on the TV has got to be how they conquer the living room.

[Les Kern]

Originally Posted by Digitalclips

Who on earth would ever want a computer for $99 ... oh wait a minute ...

That's exactly why this won't happen. Expect Apple to update the firmware to put a halt to this very soon.

[leukotriene]

Originally Posted by Les Kern

That's exactly why this won't happen. Expect Apple to update the firmware to put a halt to this very soon.

So just curious, you don't think Apple will ever put the App Store on AppleTV?

[gkarris]

Originally Posted by Les Kern

That's exactly why this won't happen. Expect Apple to update the firmware to put a halt to this very soon.

Get The Woz on it...


A $99 Apple Computer?

*runs off screaming*

btw - People scoffed at the possibility of a $999 Macintosh....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOKE0SiDcjI