News tagged ‘Apple TV’
New Apple TV's Component Cost Pegged at $64
Research firm iSuppli estimated the component costs for the new Apple TV at under $64, representing a 35% margin on the new device before accounting for such expenses as research and development, software, patent royalties, marketing costs. The most expensive components in the new Apple TV are the A4 processor that powers the device ($16.55) and the 8 GB NAND flash memory chip ($14.00). It is worthwhile to say that Intel’s Pentium Chip ($40) plus the chipset ($28) on the previous model alone cost more than the whole new AppleTV today ($99 new vs. $299 old).
New Apple TV Allows App Installation, Needs Launcher
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith found out that iOS applications can installed on the new Apple TV. You only need to slightly modify the applications to identify them as Apple TV-compatible. Of course, Steven’s discovery is an important step in developers' quest to run applications on the device, but the applications are not yet usable, as the Apple TV doesn’t have any application launcher that would be required for an app to function.
The Apple TV has just been jailbroken
Today the new Apple TV has been jailbroken by hacker MuscleNerd from DevTeam. He used the SHAtter exploit. This means that hackers were able to gain full access to the device. Here is MuscleNerd's comment on twitter:
AppleTV 2G SHAttered and jailbroken (not quite sure how to run apps yet!)
MuscleNerd and the rest of the Dev-Team will probably create a public release of some utility soon. Here is a youtube video showing off the jailbroken device:
CNet video: AppleTV review
CNet reviewd the new Apple TV 2-nd generation. Here's what they think of it:
The good: Costs $99; rent movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store; 99-cent HD TV show rentals on some Fox and ABC shows; supports Netflix streaming; incredibly small design; outstanding user interface; can be controlled by iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch; streams music and videos from PCs and Macs running iTunes; promising future AirPlay functionality should be available in November.
The bad: Very limited selection of TV shows, especially compared with Amazon Video On Demand; confusion between what's available on Apple TV iTunes Store and PC-based iTunes store; doesn't support the full suite of media apps (Pandora, etc.) available on the iPhone and iPad; can't connect to older, pre-HDMI TVs.
The bottom line: The Apple TV's new low $99 price makes it an easy impulse buy for Apple fans looking to bring Netflix into the living room, but you may want to wait until more content--or Apple's forthcoming AirPlay update--becomes available.
Watch the video below:
Jailbreaking of New Apple TV Eased by iTunes Restore Capabilities
Twitter user with nickname StealthBravo recently confirmed that the new Apple TV can be restored in iTunes as well as any iOS device, easing the way for jailbreakers to bring new functionality to the set-top box. This means that the hackers soon be able to offer us tools, as they currently do for other iOS devices, to save SHSH blobs, jailbreak the Apple TV, and install 3rd party software.
Moreover, Apple TV offers a Micro-USB port for connectivity, but the port also offers a means for users to physically connect the device to computers to employ the techniques required for jailbreak of operating system.
Apple TV teardown
The experts at iFixit torn down the new Apple TV. Here some interesting info they managed to find out inside the new Apple’s set-top box:
Apple TV in action video
New AppleTV unboxing photos
Apple posted new Apple TV manuals
The Apple TV 2nd generation is finally shipping to customers homes, so Apple has uploaded the new manuals to their support website.
You can take a look at
Apple TV software ported to iPod Touch
The developer Dustin Howett has managed to port AppleTV software called Lowtide to an iPod Touch and run it under iOS 4.1. You can see it on a demo video below. It's really amazing how compatible these new systems are.
Here are comments from the developer:
This is FrontRow, as shipped with the AppleTV 2 (ARM), running on the iPod touch, 4th Generation. It doesn't respond well to touch input, nor does it like the resolution of the device.
Future iPhone's were found in the AppleTV firmware
The Apple TV firmware has some new information about future Apple devices. 9to5Mac reports that this firmware has presented two new iPhones and an «unknown» device.
The iPhone 4 is referred to as «iPhone 3,1». The firmware has traces of two devices known as «iPhone 3,2» and «iPhone 3,3». Additionally an «unknownHardware» is also present within the Apple TV iOS. The iPad, several versions of iPod and older versions of iPhone are also there (see screenshot above).
So, what is it? Verizon iPhone? A new antenna design? And, what about the «unknown» device? Some future version of the iPad?
Apple TV iOS 4.1 firmware is available for download
iPhone developer, chpwn has just provided a very interesting link via Twitter, a download for the Apple TV iOS 4.1 firmware.
You can download
Confirmed: Apple TV runs iOS 4.1
If you still had any doubt that the new Apple TV runs iOS, this will surely make you a believer. Apple has already placed iOS 4.1 for the 2nd-gen Apple TV on their servers and yeah… get downloading!
iProd2,1 Confirmed to Be New Apple TV, Not Next-Generation iPad
Configuration files within the new iOS 4.2 beta reveal that Apple's "iProd2,1" device that had been spotted in earlier iOS versions and presumed to be the next-generation iPad is actually the company's forthcoming Apple TV revision.
Video: iOS 4.2 on the iPad
AppAdvice posted a quick video walk-through of the first beta of iOS 4.2 for iPad, which was released just a few hours ago. The primary feature shown off is multitasking. The iPad users will be able view 7 applications in the multitasking tray in landscape mode and 6 apps in portrait mode.
The other additions are:
- The external switch is acting as a mute switch again.
- Users can create folders (containing up to 20 apps).
- You can activate AirPlay from the photo app (to stream photos to the new Apple TV).
Watch the video: