More of my sites

WinInfo Daily News
SuperSite for Windows
Windows IT Pro Magazine
Connected Home
Thurrott Dot Com
Windows Weekly at TWIT


About this site

For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul



Thursday, March 29, 2007

Apple TV hacks hackers

If this is true, Apple has just caused my rethinking of Apple TV to be quite temporary:
We thought it was too good to be true. Mysterious goings-on have put an end to happy hackers' tinkering with Apple TV.

Just days after intrepid telly addicts ripped open Apple TV's innards to install larger drives and extra file support, the guys at Tutorial Ninjas a reporting they've had their boxes remotely reset to remove any additional features they've shoehorned in.

According to their website, the Ninja's awoke to find their freshly hacked TV boxes had several features disabled overnight ... Apple TV is repairing itself overnight using a scheduled reset tool, known as a 'chronjob.'
Sigh.

Well, that's a shame. After writing my Apple TV review and being, frankly, unimpressed by the device, the quick rise in Apple TV hacks had me believing, briefly, that Apple actually had a master plan with the Apple TV: Slip a tiny OS X-based box into the world's living rooms and let the hackers go nuts. Overnight, this device would become so much more useful because an amazing ecosystem would arise around it.

Too bad it's not true. As it stands, Apple TV is what I said it was originally: An overpriced way to to get iTunes video content into your den. And it's unclear that there's a huge market for that, especially when you consider the lack of content on Apple's service. My guess is that this is all about making the Apple TV appear "safe" to content makers.

Related: Apple vs Apple TV Mod’rs

Labels: , , ,

[ Posted at 11:19 AM | Permalink ]

 



Nexus Home | Nexus Archives | Email Paul
Copyright © 2001-2008 Paul Thurrott. All Rights Reserved.