aryayush
Aspiring Novelist
Hello! 
I think most people would agree with me when I say this that the Apple TV is a very simple and highly under powered device. It has extremely huge potential but for reasons unknown, Apple has sqashed it all and made the device a very basic way to get limited content from your computer to your TV. Yes, it is the simplest way to do it and has a beautiful interface to go along, but for the extremely limited set of things it does, it should have been a lot cheaper.
But, of course, Apple couldn't have made it cheaper because it is not just a set-top box. Under the hood, it is a computer running a fairly full fledged version of Mac OS X, the world's most advanced operating system. It ships complete with a processor, hard drive, motherboard, USB ports, Wi-fi, etc.
This brings us back to the problem of its being under-powered. So it is logical to surmise that if it were somehow possible to make the Apple TV do a lot more than it is capable of in its out-of-the-box state, but still retain its simplicity for those who are technologically challenged - it would strike a cord with a large number of consumers.
Turns out, this has already started happening. Since the Apple TV runs on a variation of OS X and is a full-fledged computer under the hood, it is infinitely hackable. As of this writing, the Apple TV already runs with standard television sets, the hard drive can be upgraded to facilitate a larger one and it can be controlled with the television remote. But the real improvements, the ones that can also be done by regular users of the machine, have been achieved on the software side.
Apple TV can run VLC media player which basically means that it can play just about every multimedia format out there. You can enable SSH and AFP, which are already present in the system, so that you can control it remotely. You can run Apache on it, though it sounds downright useless to turn your Apple TV into a web server. It is now possible to boot your Apple TV from an external USB drive. You can even run Joost, allowing you to get your TV shows onto the machine without needing to purchase them from the iTunes Store. I am sure that Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player) will soon be running on the Apple TV as well allowing you to get all sorts of video content through the BitTorrent network. There is a plug-in that allows the Apple TV to play non-iTunes content so you can store your media directly onto the hard drive and play them on the TV without the need to convert and import them into iTunes. And the latest development is that the Apple TV now has full support for external USB devices.
The best thing about these software hacks is that most of them do not even make you void your warranty. It has hardly been a month since the Apple TV was launched and it is doing a lot more than it was intended to already. It seems only a matter of time that Apple will also jump into the fray with software and firmware updates that could take the Apple TV above and beyond what it is capable of doing today.
Apple, like most other companies, suffers from the problem that the first generation of any product line is generally severely flawed. So it is hardly a strect to predict that the second generation of the Apple TV will be a lot better than its predecessor. But even right now, it is a very powerful machine that is very simple for people who want to get things done without any fuss, and is a veritable haven for those who are into all sorts of geekery and want to juice out every last drop of functionality out of the small box. Once these hacks are refined and made to work with perfection, the Apple TV will gain a lot more patrons and might start flying off the shelves, if the humungous amount of interest in the product even in its default state is any indication.
Taking all this into account, don't be surprised if it turns out that Apple purposely crammed in OS X into the device and made it very easy to open it up and mess with the hardware. This way, they have made sure than the Apple TV is a simple device that just works and also that the huge potential of the mahine does not remain untapped. The way I see it, the sky is the limit and the future is only brighter.
Please let me know your opinions.
Update: Apple TV can now be hacked to run the full fledged version of Mac OS X.
*blog.wired.com/cultofmac/mac-nano-tm.jpg
I think most people would agree with me when I say this that the Apple TV is a very simple and highly under powered device. It has extremely huge potential but for reasons unknown, Apple has sqashed it all and made the device a very basic way to get limited content from your computer to your TV. Yes, it is the simplest way to do it and has a beautiful interface to go along, but for the extremely limited set of things it does, it should have been a lot cheaper.
But, of course, Apple couldn't have made it cheaper because it is not just a set-top box. Under the hood, it is a computer running a fairly full fledged version of Mac OS X, the world's most advanced operating system. It ships complete with a processor, hard drive, motherboard, USB ports, Wi-fi, etc.
This brings us back to the problem of its being under-powered. So it is logical to surmise that if it were somehow possible to make the Apple TV do a lot more than it is capable of in its out-of-the-box state, but still retain its simplicity for those who are technologically challenged - it would strike a cord with a large number of consumers.
Turns out, this has already started happening. Since the Apple TV runs on a variation of OS X and is a full-fledged computer under the hood, it is infinitely hackable. As of this writing, the Apple TV already runs with standard television sets, the hard drive can be upgraded to facilitate a larger one and it can be controlled with the television remote. But the real improvements, the ones that can also be done by regular users of the machine, have been achieved on the software side.
Apple TV can run VLC media player which basically means that it can play just about every multimedia format out there. You can enable SSH and AFP, which are already present in the system, so that you can control it remotely. You can run Apache on it, though it sounds downright useless to turn your Apple TV into a web server. It is now possible to boot your Apple TV from an external USB drive. You can even run Joost, allowing you to get your TV shows onto the machine without needing to purchase them from the iTunes Store. I am sure that Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player) will soon be running on the Apple TV as well allowing you to get all sorts of video content through the BitTorrent network. There is a plug-in that allows the Apple TV to play non-iTunes content so you can store your media directly onto the hard drive and play them on the TV without the need to convert and import them into iTunes. And the latest development is that the Apple TV now has full support for external USB devices.
The best thing about these software hacks is that most of them do not even make you void your warranty. It has hardly been a month since the Apple TV was launched and it is doing a lot more than it was intended to already. It seems only a matter of time that Apple will also jump into the fray with software and firmware updates that could take the Apple TV above and beyond what it is capable of doing today.
Apple, like most other companies, suffers from the problem that the first generation of any product line is generally severely flawed. So it is hardly a strect to predict that the second generation of the Apple TV will be a lot better than its predecessor. But even right now, it is a very powerful machine that is very simple for people who want to get things done without any fuss, and is a veritable haven for those who are into all sorts of geekery and want to juice out every last drop of functionality out of the small box. Once these hacks are refined and made to work with perfection, the Apple TV will gain a lot more patrons and might start flying off the shelves, if the humungous amount of interest in the product even in its default state is any indication.
Taking all this into account, don't be surprised if it turns out that Apple purposely crammed in OS X into the device and made it very easy to open it up and mess with the hardware. This way, they have made sure than the Apple TV is a simple device that just works and also that the huge potential of the mahine does not remain untapped. The way I see it, the sky is the limit and the future is only brighter.
Please let me know your opinions.
Update: Apple TV can now be hacked to run the full fledged version of Mac OS X.
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