An enterprising hacker has managed to coax the $99 Apple TV set-top box into running full screen iOS apps.

Steve Troughton-Smith’s hack lets users run iPhone and iPad apps on a big-screen TV at an eye-massagingly lovely 720p 1280 x 720 resolution. In various demonstrations posted to YouTube (one of which you can is embedded below), Troughton-Smith shows apps such as Safari, Facebook and Angry Birds running on a cracked Apple TV box with the help of witchcraft some clever coding.

Apple has so far not enabled full screen iOS apps on the Apple TV box, or granted access to the App Store through the device. It has been known from the beginning that Apple TV can run iOS apps, but Apple has limited this capability, for obvious reasons – the Apple TV box is a mere $99, somewhat cheaper than an iPad or iPhone.

Below you can watch Troughton-Smith himself showing off his handiwork. Also, the hacker has since finished work on a hack that adds Apple IR remote control support to iOS apps!

[Via Slashgear]

Apple TV Hacked to Run iOS Apps [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple released a small updated version of iOS 5.0.1 for the iPhone 4S today as well as the also small 4.4.4 update for Apple TV.

Despite releasing the updated version of iOS 5.0.1, users who had already updated their iPhone 4S to 5.0.1 won’t be prompted for an update; but if you haven’t updated your iPhone 4S in awhile, you’ll be able to download the updated version.

Apple didn’t provide any release notes for what the updated version of iOS 5.0.1 changed or added, but an iOS hacker noticed that the updated version has decrypted RAM disks, meaning that, if you were so inclined (and capable), you could extract the files necessary to legally port Siri to another device, iDownloadBlog reports.

The Apple TV 4.4.4 update is less exciting, but it does add in “general performance and stability improvements, including a fix for an issue that displayed an error when playing some video content,” according to the changelog.

Apple is said to be hard at work on iOS 5.1, but the company has yet to provide a timeline on when that will be rolled out to the general public.

iOS 5.0.1 updated for iPhone 4S, Apple TV updated to 4.4.4 is a post from: The Inquisitr

Software engineer Jeff Robbin, best known for his creation of the Apple iTunes program and help developing the iPod has been tapped to build Apple’s first standalone TV.

A source close to the project told Bloomberg on Tuesday that Apple hopes to have the project completed and ready for sale by early 2012.

The news comes after Steve Jobs told his biographer early this month that he “finally cracked” how to build a TV consumers would want while integrating all of their media into one spot. According to Jobs the TV was to have “the simplest user interface you could imagine.”

The project is said to have a search function that can search all of a users media streams including cable, Netflix, Hulu and other sources simultaneously, although some content providers have not been participating with that search initiative.

Jeff Robbin was so important to Steve Jobs that at one point he would not mention his name in the media for fear that they would jump ship when poached by another company.

Would you be willing to purchase a TV manufacturer with Apple if the search functionality and user stream information is as good as Steve Jobs has promised? One thing is for certain it will probably look amazing like all the rest of their hardware.

iTunes Creator Working On TV For Apple, Could Arrive Next Year is a post from: The Inquisitr

Despite a big push to make TV rentals one of the strongest selling points of the Apple TV, Apple has decided to pull the plug on the 99-cent TV rental service previously available on the iTunes Store. Instead, users will now have to purchase the episodes.

The reason, Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr explained to AllThingsDigital, is that customers rather overwhelmingly preferred to purchase individual episodes, or a season pass, rather than going for the cheaper rental alternative.

“iTunes customers have shown they overwhelmingly prefer buying TV shows,” Neumayr said. “iTunes in the Cloud lets customers download and watch their past TV purchases from their iOS devices, Apple TV, Mac or PC allowing them to enjoy their programming whenever and however they choose.”

Consumers weren’t the only group that the TV rentals service didn’t catch on with. A statement from Fox suggests they weren’t quite on board, either.

“After carefully considering the results of the rental trial, it became clear that content ownership is a more attractive long-term value proposition both for iTunes customers and for our business. To further enhance the value of ownership, we are working with Apple to make content available within their new cloud-based service.”

If Apple doesn’t have something up their sleeve to replace TV rentals, I’d be wholly surprised. Perhaps it has something to do with the newly-resurfaced Apple HDTV rumors?

Source: AllThingsDigital (via Engadget)

Apple TV, iTunes lose TV rental option is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple Announces One Million Apple TV’s Sold is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple released a major update to its little loved (by Apple that is) Apple TV this morning, and despite some nifty new features, it still doesn’t offer nearly as much as it should.

Apple TV 3.0 includes a massively redesigned main menu that offers a vertical menu with subsections below it. Oddly the change only applies to the main menu, but you can’t have everything. The update also offers Genius mixes for the box, and on a positive note (and something I’ve wanted since I purchased mine) internet streaming radio. Support is also included for Apple’s new iTunes Extra album…..yawn….format….yawn.

The update was free and quick on my 40gb nearly two year old Apple TV over a 24mbps ADSL 2+ connection in Australia, although naturally it killed the Boxee hack. It’s hard to qualify with solid numbers, but play for streaming content appears to be noticeably quicker as well.

A quick hands on video with Apple TV 3.0 as follows; did intend to do a longer video, however as is typical someone came to the front door as I was filming it. Video via an iPhone 3GS, although the YouTube quality isn’t great. I’ll try uploading it again, so apologies in advance.

Quick Hands On Video With Apple TV 3.0 is a post from: The Inquisitr

We last wrote about Boxee in August after I had seen them demo at Gnomedex. It was, and still is a beautiful product with a great use case, but my query today remains as it did back then: I just don’t see a solid business model, least not yet.

The key though is getting Boxee licensed onto set top boxes, despite the fact that the platform is currently offered for free and is open source. The $4 million is to do exactly that, and we can only presume that there will be value adding on top of what is being offered now, and that’s where the money will come in.

Boxee is still in private beta, so you’ll need to put your name down and wait for an invite. You can even use a hack to install it on an Apple TV which I did…only to find 3 days later that the Apple TV auto-updated and wiped the hack. I must get around to reinstalling it.

Here’s their presentation from Gnomedex:

(via VentureBeat)

Boxee takes $4 millon is a post from: The Inquisitr

We’ve speculated previously what the next generation of Apple TV needs, and top of that list was a DVD/ Bluray player to make the box more appealing. I made the following observation as to why the Apple TV needed to do more:

With most TV manufacturers launching internet enabled TV sets in 2009, the use case for the Apple TV diminishes, after all, why buy a box from Apple when your TV will offer many of the same features built in.

I’d presumed that the problem of Internet enabled televisions (see our full post on the rapid coming of Internet enabled television here) meant that Apple needed to more with the Apple TV box. The problem in that mix though was always going to be Apple’s preference for digital content delivery over support for physical mediums; offering DVD support means customers have a choice other than the iTunes store. But what if the solution to the coming of Internet enabled televisions isn’t an improved Apple TV box, but an actual Apple manufactured HD LCD Television with the functionality of the Apple TV box built in as standard?

New market, new player

Apple entering the television space may seem a little far fetched, after all, it’s a market place with many existing competitors, entrenched brands, and often savage price cutting. Lets swap television with mobile phone, and it’s the same argument we heard prior to the iPhone being launched.

Apple has proven that it can enter new markets and take significant marketshare with the iPhone, and they can do the same here.

Unlike mobile phones though, internet enabled televisions are a new market within a market. There are no established internet enabled televisions on the market today, and Sony, Samsung, Panasonic and Phillips are all slated to launch their sets in 2009.

Clear and present danger

The entry of most of the top television makers into the internet television space presents a clear and present danger to Apple. We don’t know all the details of who will offer what (or how open the sets will be), but we do know that some manufacturers are doing content deals that will see services offered exclusively instead of others. Every internet enabled television sold that offers premium content from stores other than iTunes is a threat to Apple’s leadership position in the future. The market for the Apple TV box will dry up as people buy internet enabled television sets, and don’t need Apple to buy or rent movies from their lounge rooms.

The market today for premium digital content (outside of music) may be small, but once you overcome the delivery issue through internet enabled televisions, the market will boom. It will be the last stake in the death of broadcast television, but who will benefit from this?

Apple wants to maintain its leadership in premium digital content delivery where ever people are in the home. If Apple is not in the lounge room, it doesn’t get its share of the boom to come. Worse still, if a competitor such as Amazon is offered by other players, those customers may not only end up renting movies from Amazon, they become Amazon digital content customers and there may well be a switch away from the iTunes store for music as well…and the flow on affects could also deliver a hit to Apple’s iPod/ iPhone franchise.

Apple needs to be in the lounge room, and the Apple TV box can’t compete against internet enabled television sets. The only way to tackle this risk is for Apple to offer its own range of televisions, tied into the existing Apple content and product ecosystem. Naturally they also need to be better than the competition, but this is one part of the mix Apple is good at.

Why Apple selling HD Televisions makes sense is a post from: The Inquisitr

The two major changes are support for MobileMe, the dotMac replacement, and support for the iPhone 3G remote application. It was with the latter that I discovered the update, as I tried in vain to find the menu option on the earlier software. Also included in the release is a range of security upgrades.

The iPhone remote application is worth the upgrade alone. Gone is the need to use Apple’s minimalist remote control, and replacing it is a full color touch sensitive remote that would put a Logitec all-in-one unit to shame (although of course it won’t work my TV). For Apple TV fans, bliss.

Apple TV updated, support for MobileMe, Remote is a post from: The Inquisitr

CEO Glenn Britt tells Reuters his company is building a new wireless cable modem that’ll let customers hook their whole homes up to the net. He describes it as equipment that will “allow you to network everything in your house.”

“Within a relatively short time … it’s going to be very easy to get Internet TV on your big screen TV,” he explained to Reuters at a conference in New York today.

Britt didn’t elaborate as to exactly how the network would work or when it’d be launched.

Time Warner Cable won’t be the first company trying to bring the net to the tube. Netflix released its Roku Netflix Player earlier this month. The box lets you watch video content from Netflix on your television via a Wi-Fi or cable connection. Apple has a similar service with its Apple TV, letting you rent movies and stream other online content through your TV.

Cable Company Looking At Web-TV Technology is a post from: The Inquisitr