Apple Movie Junkie | Archive

Hacking the AppleTV: Get Your Boxee On

Posted February 25th, 2009 in How-To by Bill G.

Update – With the latest Apple TV update breaking Boxee users install of the media center software, I thought it would be a good time to re-run our popular post on installing Boxee on your Apple TV, enjoy.

“Hacking” the Apple TV probably can’t get any easier that it is right now. I put quotes around the word hacking because you are really adding software to the Apple TV and all it’s current functions remain intact and untouched. Also, a factory restore will put your precious Apple TV back to as good as new. I prefer the term “patching”.

In the past the choice has been to go to the various sites such as AwkwardTV or Apple TV Hacks and do it yourself or buy the install image and “how to” from a commercial site. I’ve tried the commercial offering and I prefer not to mention names but I’ll just say it’s not good value for money, more so now. Thanks to the folks at the atvusb-creator project on Google code, creating a patchstick is really easy. A patchstick is really a USB thumb drive or “key” that contains a boot image for the AppleTV that installs applications on its hard drive. The AppleTV is designed to boot from it’s USB port when powering up and if a suitable image is found it boots the USB image instead of the hard drive. The image created on the patchstick is written there by the atvusb-creator application – it’s really as simple as plugging in the USB key and running the program.
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New 99p rental for the UK plus two new HD TV shows.

Posted February 25th, 2009 in HD TV Shows by Sam M.

This weeks new 99p rental is the film Saved! from MGM. A story about a christian school and teenagers staring Macaulay Culkin and Mandy Moore.

Natures great events and The Beast have also been added to the HD TV shows.

Daily HD Rental Update: 02-25-09

Posted February 25th, 2009 in Movies by Eddie V.

Below is the list of new HD Rentals that have been added to Apple TV.

American Dragons
Benny & Joon
Born Romantic
Death Wish 3
Everyone’s Hero
Flawless
Hoodlum
The Apartment
The Curse of Inferno
The Gene Generation
The Lucky Ones
The New World
Undertow (2004)

Head on over to the HD Rentals page to see this weeks entire list of new titles.

Software Update Now Available For The Apple TV

Posted February 25th, 2009 in News by Eddie V.

Update 2 – As CHASH mentions in our comments, it appears as though Apple has added a Network Test under Settings>General>Network. This test sends information about your internet connection to Apple in order to help improve download performance.

Update – Not a whole lot to report on the update other then the version number is confirmed at 2.3.1. I find it strange that there are no visible changes to the Apple TV software and that Apple has not updated the Apple TV support page with what was included in the update. I do sense that there could be more coming with this update then we realize, or that could be wishful thinking.

A software update is now available for the Apple TV tonight, we are currently downloading and will report back once the update is complete. There is no word from Apple yet on what the update contains. Apparently it is version 2.3.1.