AwkwardTV

Apple will finally integrate functionality into Apple TV that has been available from 3rd-party developers (AwkwardTV plug-ins directory) since May 20.

Back when the Apple TV was launched this March, AwkwardTV stated: “No company in the world can build all the features into a product that users might want right from the beginning. But given Apple’s proven track record of building great improvements right into the next version, we see enormous potential.” And boom! Indeed, Apple is following 3rd-party development closely.

Also, AwkwardTV stated back in March, “In this spirit, we hope that Apple will eventually release a developer kit, or a guide for embedded applications. Especially since the Apple TV stands on the shoulders of giants.” Again, the community was faster.

What will we see next?

To round out an exciting week here at AwkwardTV we have some news that will bring joy to the hearts of all AppleTV plugin authors: The BackRow Developers’ Kit has now been released.

There is more information on the AwkwardTV wiki and on the author’s site.

There is a video tutorial available at the Internet Archive, and AwkwardTV member datafr0g has posted a link to a torrent version on the forums.

…it’s A Series Of Tubes!

Newcomer Xdog of the AwkwardTV community made one hell of a surprise entry. He created “A Series of Tubes” (or ASOT in short), which is a frappliance (plugin) that plays YouTube movies. We already posted a preview of it, but now you can grab it yourself.

Please see the wiki entry for more info, and use the forums to ask questions or thank Xdog

EDIT: due to a small bug, version 1.0.1 got released. Grab it here.

alanquatermain presents a video featuring “A Series of Tubes”, a plug-in by Xdog that brings YouTube to the Apple TV. Watch the AwkwardTV plug-in directory for its appearance, which can be expected to be soon.

This just in:

|bile| from the AwkwardTV community just gave us a preview of his “nitoTV” plugin. It plays movies using mplayer.

It’s been a little while since the news of the AwkwardTV Loader plugin was first released, but I’m very pleased to say that the item itself is now available.

This version provides the ability to download and install plugins listed at the AwkwardTV Plugins Directory, along with the ability to enable and disable AFP and SSH access to the AppleTV.

Future plans include a plugin manager/uninstaller feature, and support for installing QuickTime codecs and AppleTV screensavers.

More information can be found on the author’s site or on the wiki, and any comments, requests, bug reports, and so on can be posted in the ATV Loader forum.

Thanks go out to Dakaix and macTijn for testing, and to BigBaconAndEggs for marvellous artwork.

After a quiet period we finally have some good news again! Our good member Dakaix just released a plugin that’ll rock your world. No, really. It’s called Streamer, and it is the 1st plugin that can play streaming media on your AppleTV.

According to Dakaix, it’s based on mplayer. This means that this plugin creates a ton of potential for other media formats to be supported on the AppleTV.

So far, Streamer is tested on Real streams. Your mileage may vary. Please put your comments, requests, bug reports etc. in the Streamer forum.

Oh, Dakaix told me that he wanted to give a big thanks to Alan for his support during the initial development period.