Developer Steven Troughton-Smith found out that iOS applications can installed on the new Apple TV. You only need to slightly modify the applications to identify them as Apple TV-compatible. Of course, Steven’s discovery is an important step in developers’ quest to run applications on the device, but the applications are not yet usable, as the Apple TV doesn’t have any application launcher that would be required for an app to function.
Today the new Apple TV has been jailbroken by hacker MuscleNerd from DevTeam. He used the SHAtter exploit. This means that hackers were able to gain full access to the device. Here is MuscleNerd’s comment on twitter:
AppleTV 2G SHAttered and jailbroken (not quite sure how to run apps yet!)
MuscleNerd and the rest of the Dev-Team will probably create a public release of some utility soon. Here is a youtube video showing off the jailbroken device:
Twitter user with nickname StealthBravo recently confirmed that the new Apple TV can be restored in iTunes as well as any iOS device, easing the way for jailbreakers to bring new functionality to the set-top box. This means that the hackers soon be able to offer us tools, as they currently do for other iOS devices, to save SHSH blobs, jailbreak the Apple TV, and install 3rd party software.
Moreover, Apple TV offers a Micro-USB port for connectivity, but the port also offers a means for users to physically connect the device to computers to employ the techniques required for jailbreak of operating system.
The new exploit is called SHAtter. It was developed by hacker pod2g a few months after hacker p0sixninja from the Chronic Dev Team discovered the crash. The same exploit can be used to jailbreak and iPad with new firmwares. So iOS 4.1 and maybe even iOS 4.2 is not a problem any more. Soon we will see the utilities from DevTeam to perform the jailbreak.
The DevTeam published a video if a jailbroken iPod Touch 4G. Take a look:
DevTeam recently released new version of redsn0w to jailbreak iOS 4.1. New RedSn0w 0.9.6 b1 supports iOS 4.0 and iOS 4.1 running on iPhone 3G or iPod touch 2G.
There is only Mac OS X x86 version, that you can download .
Redsn0w is easy to use:
As usual DevTeam reminds us:
IF YOU USE THE ULTRASN0W UNLOCK, PLEASE WAIT FOR PWNAGETOOL TO SUPPORT 4.1. DO NOT USE REDSN0W
That’s because to use redsn0w at 4.1, you need to already have updated to official 4.1 from Apple. If you do that, you lose the ultrasn0w unlock (possibly forever).
If you’re interested in theming your iPhone/iPod touch, but don’t want to jailbreak your device, there is now a solution. Using iPhone Explorer, you can now change an app’s icon to something you like better. Best of all, the software is free!
You cannot use JailBreakMe method to jailbreak and unlock iOS 4.0.2 on iPhone 3G. However you can still jailbreak and unlock iPhone 3G using redsn0w. Here are the instructions:
Are you looking forward to add a very popular HDR feature to your old iPhone? Do not worry! If you have a jailbroken (or ready to jailbreak) iPhone 3GS or 3G that runs on iOS 4.1, you can enable HDR photos. Here is a quick tutorial:
DisplayOut, is a a very powerful little jailbreak tweak that lets you output anything that’s on your iDevice’s screen to a TV. The folks over at iSpazio gave it a try today and unsurprisingly, it works just great with FaceTime.
As you’ll see in their video, it scales very well and besides the sound issues due to the iPhone’s limited connectivity (which could be worked around), it looks like a totally viable alternative to those entreprise video-conferencing solutions some companies are spending big dollars on these days.
Cydia, the jailbreak App Store, is without a doubt the symbol of jailbreaking. Rock, a second App Store, has had some success of its own over its 18 months of existence. Well, times have changed. Saurik, Cydia’s creator, has now acquired Rock and will merge it into Cydia. As a result, all apps, licenses and so on will be moved from Rock to Cydia over the next couple of days. This will bring the total number of available jailbreak apps, themes and extensions to over 20,000. As for Rock, it will be shut down.