The newfangled Apple TV could be Steve Jobs ’ good sleight - of - hand trick yet .
During his modest introduction of the gadget , Jobs bid the Apple television “ one more pursuit . ” But a closer flavour at the code and thehardwarepowering the Apple TV reveals that there ’s a spate more break down on under the lens hood than the chief executive officer shared .
Interestingly , Jobs did n’t mention that Apple TV run iOS , the same operating arrangement running on its flagship product , the iPhone , and some other big striking – the iPod Touch and iPad . And there ’s more , too : The Apple TV ’s software may already be jailbroken , and some hidden software should finally allow you to share the Apple TV ’s media with other iOS gimmick .

These secret ingredients could be the formula Apple needs to shake up the television diligence . For days , Apple executives have labeled the mark - top box a “ hobby ” product because of its mild success liken to blockbuster sellers like the iPhone and iPod . Now that Apple TV has been revamp into a streaming rental inspection and repair with an armory of stealth features , perchance Apple has a probability tochange the television receiver business – if not today , perhaps later .
“ The most important hint of Apple ’s real ambitions in the life elbow room fare from AirPlay , which put iPhones and iPads in the driver ’s buttocks and produce the television receiver just an output gadget for the Apple ecosystem , ” say James McQuivey , a Forrester analyst , in a recent e - chain armor statement . “ bear Apple to gradually promote more and more in that direction , but as of this present moment in 2010 , Apple has not yet made a significant play for ascendancy of the TV . ”
Here , we snipe up the toothsome tidbits we ’ve heard about Apple ’s cryptical new set - top box .

iOS and third-party app support
There ’s more than enough grounds proving that the Apple TV lean Io . Dispelling any doubts , Apple lately posted a form ofiOS 4.1 specifically for the Apple TV .
This composition of information about iOS is important because of a newfeature call AirPlay , which swarm culture medium from your iPad , iPhone or iPod Touch to the Apple TV . When Jobs demonstrate AirPlay , he only showed the feature of speech act with an iPad ’s built - in video player , pic app and euphony library . Now that we fuck Apple TV runs iOS , it ’s probable that third - party apps such as MLB at Bat or ABC Player will be able stream media to the set - top box , too .
DaringFireball bloggerJohn Gruber confirmedthat an AirPlay button is point up in the MLB at Bat app , and he summate that apps using the built - in media controller will be able to integrate AirPlay .

farseeing level short , you ’ll be able to wirelessly rain buckets medium from some third - party apps straight to your Apple telly with an AirPlay push button . AirPlay is shape up to be Apple ’s cloak-and-dagger arm to reshape home entertainment .
In addition to AirPlay , the fact that Apple TV is run iOS intend that – in precept , at least – it may someday be able to run applications from the iTunes App Store . For now , that capableness is not include in Apple telecasting , but the underlying operating system certainly indorse it , so Apple might open a TV App Store in a future software package update .
Jailbreaking hacks
Third - party app support will probably be limited for the Apple TV , but that ’s where the jailbreakers come up in . In the same fashion that we ’re able to reverse restriction on the iPhone , iPad or iPod Touch with a jailbreak , we should be able to run unauthorized apps on the Apple tv set – something Jobs would never advertise , of row .
In fact , hackers already have a head start , because atool prognosticate Shatter , which was used to jailbreak the fresh iPod Touch , already works with the Apple TV , according to the iPhone Dev Team . That mean we should be gestate hack to code some unauthorised apps soon to unlock extra capableness such as video conferencing via your Apple TV .
On top of that , existing hacks for the honest-to-goodness Apple TV should work , too . Dev Team memberWill Strafachexplained that “ the Modern AppleTV OS seems to be a mashup of the old AppleTV OS and iOS , ” mean “ frappliances , ” ballyhoo - ins that add functionality to the older Apple TV , should work as well .

‘Lowtide’ app
The Unofficial Apple Weblog ’s Erica Sadun , a popular iOS programmer , assume a close look at the Apple TV ’s software system and discovered that it unravel anapplication called Lowtide – the software system containing the pose - top boxful ’s culture medium interface .
Sadun dug deeper and found lines of code that suggest that Lowtide might eventually be extended to other iOS devices . In other wrangle , you should be able to share media from the Apple TV to your iPhone , iPod Touch or iPad , whereas originally we recall we ’d only be able-bodied to do the converse with AirPlay . This functionality would be comparable to aSlingboxor anEyeTV .
Lowtide is n’t readily available for Apple ’s iOS mobile gimmick yet , but iOS developerDustin Howetthas already managed to stretch Lowtide on an iPod touch run iOS 4.1 , demonstrated in the video above . He recommended against doing it yourself , though , unless you ’re quick to reformat your iPhone on a regular basis just to wrench it back into a phone .

Photo : Jon Snyder / Wired.com
Wired.com has been boom the hive mind with applied science , science and geek civilization tidings since 1995 .
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