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AppleTV Runs iOS, Already Jailbroken
Wired has noted that "Soon, thanks to the tireless efforts of the iPhone Dev Team, you will be able to install apps on your AppleTV. An upcoming Jailbreak tool, called SHAtter, has already been used to unlock the new Apple TV's firmware." The units are supposedly now shipping. I have a lot of questions about the device (like how will it handle the photo screen saver if your local machines are offline) but hacking it might make the thing more usable (divx please, and how about letting my screen share my desktop to my TV?).
It's only "already jailbroken" because the same iOS 4.1 issue used with the iOS 4.1 jailbreak that has already been developed works on this device, which is also running iOS 4.1.
i have it set up with the photo screen saver and when local sources are offline it displays a black screen with small white text in the middle explaining the source is not available.
A small percentage of users will hack their device. Apple knows this and has procedures in place for denying support for modified devices. Ultimately this is free R&D for Apple. Let the hackers see what the device can do and include that capability in a future release.
What next, RealMedia and VQF support?
There's basically zero legal sources for DivX files, so why would Apple support that old format? H.264/AAC is the standard and has been for a few years already.
Even Handbrake dropped DivX support, for crying out loud.
I don't understand why Apple gets a free pass on everything from many otherwise intelligent people on here whereas MS gets demonized regardless of what they do.
This space for rent.
Worldwide sales:
PS3 ~ 38 million units
Xbox 360 ~ 41 million units
iPhone ~ 51 million units
Wii ~ 71 million units
The iPhone only has a third more sales than the PS3.
So when I ripped a good portion of my DVD collection to Xvid awhile back, that was illegal? I sure as hell don't think so.
The SHAtter exploit was used on an iPod touch to decrypt the AppleTV firmware. The AppleTV device has not yet been exploited - although it is likely susceptible to the same exploit. Once hackers get their hands on the device, they can try to use the exploit, then try to run jailbroken firmware on it. At this point, without knowing details of the SHAtter exploit, it's unclear to me whether/not that particular piece of code comes into play during a normal firmware update (since we don't know how the mini-USB port can be used yet - presumably "normal" code updates are done via wifi/Ethernet).