I haven’t been paying much attention to the Apple TV.

Don’t get me wrong - it appears to be a cool product - but I just don’t ever watch television, so the whole idea goes right over my head which is usually pointed at a computer display or buried in a book.

But something very interesting has happened to this device in the few short weeks since it began shipping - geeks have hacked it. There are a pile of DIGG links to stories of folks who have been running LINUX on it, or have downloaded the “OSxLite” operating system.

Here’s an example:

“Far from being a hack, but useful nonetheless, is confirmation that Apple TV does indeed work with non-HDTVs. All you need is a TV with component inputs.”

This means there is a very real possibility of the AppleTV becoming a $300 computer, or at the very least a very powerful media center PC with greater capabilities than the the original product. Someone even replaced the paltry 40gig drive with a 120gig monster. And there is still a USB 2.0 socket where yet another drive can be hung.

My question is whether anyone has tried to plug in a keyboard and mouse. That would nail down the last plank.

LINKS:

• Boot Apple TV from an External USB Drive [Get USB Info]
• Get Apple TV to Run XviD Files [Gizmodo]
• Up Apple TV’s Hard Drive [Gizmodo]
• Make FrontRow Look Like Apple TV [Winnopeg]
• Get Apple TV to Work on Your Old Boob Tube [Apple TV Hacks]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 8:07 am and is filed under Apple, News, Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.