"Instead of having to re-create and re-patch your AppleTV every time there is an update, we provide a smart update process and additional functionality. Works for Mac AND Windows."
If you have an Apple TV and haven’t heard about Boxee you need to listen up. Boxee is an open source project (free) which will greatly expand the capabilities of your Apple TV. You can run Boxee on other systems but the compact size and cool styling of the Apple TV make it a great option. If you are currently paying for cable you will be wondering why after Boxee is installed.
"An Apple TV is the cheapest, easiest way to put the Boxee experience onto your television, unless you happen to have a spare Mac Mini, or another computer with great A/V hook-ups. Out of the box, an Apple TV can connect to your TV through component or HDMI cables, supporting resolutions up to 1080p (though Boxee can sometimes only handle 720p, with marginally noticeable difference), and offers optical or RCA audio out. It hooks into your home network wirelessly or through an ethernet port, and comes with its own remote."
Brandon Holland has developed some software that will allow you to make Skype calls using your Apple TV! He has made the software available for free and has some demo videos of it in action on his site.
Put SSH onto your Apple TV, then some crafty hacks will allow you to play your DivX (and other format) movies.
Video after the jump.
“In this season finale episode of Hak5 Paul cracks open the Apple TV for a little hacking, Wess shows us how to virtualize physical servers, Mubix joins us to show off some goodies for your USB drives, Darren benchmarks budget home servers, and we tread into web two-oh mashup territory. Plus more janky products for your rofling enjoyment, deets on the LAN party, trivia, poll, web 1.0 fan site contest, and info on a new show pilot.”
For this hack you don’t even have to crack open the Apple TV box.
Video after the jump.
“We can now boot an unmodified and unopened AppleTV from an external USB hard drive. We’re running the same modified OS as in my last video, but this time it’s on an external USB hard drive with a modified partition type and one small file change.”
“First off, let’s go over what you need to already have in order to properly pull this off.
* A Modded Xbox - There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. XBMC just won’t run on a stock console.
* Xbox Media Center - I can not provide a copy of this due to legal reasons, but you should be able to find the latest edition of it here.
* The xTV Skin - Download this here or grab the latest copy from SVN from here.
* Apple TV Intro Movie - mayamaniac over at the Xbox-Scene Forums has modified the official Apple TV intro movie to fit the theme of this mod.”