Apple’s TV set top box, the Apple TV is almost a forgotten device at this point. Apple themselves famously once called the iTunes streaming box a "hobby," but we all thought that may change with the redesign that brought us the Apple TV 2G and an iOS-based operating system.
While the move to iOS has not yielded the ability to install applications as we had hopes, it has made the jailbreak community really take to the little black box, with modding and tweaking becoming one of the main reasons to puck up the $99 device.
Now things have really taken a turn for the better in the world of the Apple TV, with a video being released which shows what has been the holy grail of Apple TV hacking – iOS apps on the big screen.
Coming courtesy of developers Steve Troughton-Smith and "TheMudKip," the video appears to show everyone’s favorite iOS apps from the world of the iPhone, running merrily on a big screen attached to an Apple TV. Awesome. So Awesome! And we mean it from the bottom of our heart.
In order to get this magic to happen, the pair had to rewrite the SpringBoard – the desktop of iOS devices where all your pesky apps and tweaks reside. What this does mean, is the jailbroken Apple TV also has a party trick up its sleeve, and that is the ability to run multiple apps side-by-side, on the same screen. That could open up all kinds of opportunities. Imagine, if you will, running a news app on one side of the screen and having live TV stream on the other. Or, maybe having Twitter scrolling away on one side while watching, if you really must, the X Factor. Don’t do it kids!
This development has the potential to change the way we all use our Apple TVs, though we can’t help but think that things would be even cooler if Apple added official support for such things. Why haven’t they already? They must have had the intention of bringing apps to the Apple TV at some point, else why move the platform across to iOS?
C’mon Apple, what are you playing at?!
(via 9to5Mac)
You may also like to check out:
- How to Install XBMC Media Center on Apple TV 2G [Guide]
- Plex Has Been Ported to Jailbroken Apple TV 2G ! [VIDEO]
- How to Install NitoTV Weather and RSS App on Apple TV 2G [Jailbreak]
- Apple TV 2G Gets Web Browser and Last.fm Apps via aTV Flash [Video]
- Exposed VNC Server Plugin Enables Remote Access On Apple TV 2G
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