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.
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.
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.
Alan_quatermain presents the AwkwardTV Loader, a plug-in that displays all available third-party plug-ins right on the Apple TV and lets you install them from the Net on-the-fly.
Closed beta testing for a limited number of people is underway. Potential testers can keep an eye out for information on the #awkwardtv channel or the wiki.
TUAW reports: Over at the #awkwardtv IRC channel, poster “Beyond” just announced that he’s gotten Gentoo Linux installed and running on his Apple TV. He used the mach_linux_kernel maker from mactel_linux (aka Gimli’s loader). The OS (2.6.20.6 with the AppleTV patch) seems to be up and working after a few initial problems (now solved) with repeating characters.
Finally, the screen saver problem has been solved too!
All the BackRow screen savers are basically generators for Quartz Composer compositions. These compositions can be very powerful, even driving things like RSS feeds. In fact, that’s the example we’ll use in the AwkwardTV FRScreenSaver 101 tutorial.
Be sure to post your plug-ins and screensavers on the Apple TV Plug-in Directory, so that people can find them!
AwkwardTV contributor bholland has released IRKeyboardEmu, a Mac OS X kernel extension for emulating HID command reports sent by an Apple Remote. This gives you the ability to control OS X and FrontRow via keyboard. Apple Wireless Keyboard on the Apple TV, anyone?
Jon Lech Johansenwonders on his blog why the packaging of his Apple TV gives credit to the National Nuclear Security Administration/Nevada Site Office. Wait a second, “DVD-Jon” got an Apple TV? What will happen next? Be sure to check the ever-growing list of file formats working on Apple TV.
