There's no getting away from the fact that Tim Cook once described Apple TV as a "hobby," but with once-rampant speculation of the company's connected TV plans having apparently died down, it's fair to say that the understated set-top box has been treated with a little more respect by its overlord during the past few months. A plethora of updates have seen various content arrive from a host of Apple's partners, and now, it looks as though a looming update could also bring gaming to the party.
New version of Seas0nPass is out which brings untethered jailbreak for Apple TV 5.3 firmware running on the second generation Apple TV hardware. What’s more, FireCore promises that progress has been made on Apple TV 6.0+, and more news will follow in the days to come.
Some analysts, as well as many general Apple fans, have been under the impression that the fruit company would, at some stage, come through with its own connected TV effort, unofficially referred to as 'iTV.' The name itself probably wouldn't hold; at least, not in the UK, where it is the name of one of the foremost broadcasting services, and by the lack of any tangible activity or evidence to suggest otherwise, it doesn't seem as though iTV is anywhere near the top of Apple's to-do list. The substantial improvements to the range of Apple TV content suggests that the little black box is doing just fine for now, and if Jony Ive and his design minions did feel like revamping the OS in the image of iOS 7, perhaps the concept below, dreamed up by designer Andrew Ambrosino, offers us something of a preview.
Sky has been flogging its NOW TV set-top services in the United Kingdom for a while now, and with Apple TV being the subject of frequent updates just lately, it should be no surprise to see the Sky Sports channels hit Apple's very own set-top box. NOW TV, for the unfamiliar, is owned by Sky's parent company, and has provided some of the familiar Sky channels to the NOW TV set-top in different packages. Rather than pay the monthly subscription, NOW TV lets you pay as you watch, and the same model is now available for Sky Sports on Apple TV.
Apple's TV push may not be as grandiose as some analysts have touted over the past few years, but the Cupertino's treasured hobby has certainly gotten more respect and attention over the last few months. Following on from the wide range of services and content recently added to the little black box, Yahoo has brought its Screen app to Apple TV following the release of the AirPlay-enabled app for iOS early this fall. Details, as ever, can be seen after the jump.
Apple is a company constantly shrouded in mystery, and thus, speculation. For a great deal of time, it has been said that the Cupertino would be looking to expand upon the Apple TV set-top box with a more grandiose delve into the television market, but while many an analyst has stepped forward and suggested that this will be the case, the little black box famously coined as a "hobby" by Tim Cook remains the iPad maker's sole contribution.
As with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, there are plenty of hack-minded folks out there trying to push the boundaries of Apple TV, and although it's been a long time since we've seen a jailbreak for Apple TV, many modders and devs have been trying, often in vain, to find exploits with Apple's little black box. Yet while we cannot, unfortunately, report on a new jailbreak for Apple TV 3 just now, casual hacker David Schuetz has discovered a fairly cool "Add Site" feature, potentially enabling one to add custom sites to the home screen. Although it's by no means a refined, or even immediately accessible feature, it is fairly promising, and you can check out the details after the break.
Rumors have been ongoing for some time, perhaps even years, in the suggestion that Apple would be ditching the little black Apple TV box in favor of something more substantial, like a connected TV. But while certain analysts seem adamant that this will be the case, the time has not yet come, and for the time being, we're to make do with the device that Steve Jobs once described as "hobby." Yet, while there hasn't been much by way of updates in the past couple of years, the short period of time following WWDC has seen quite a bit of new Apple TV content added, and as well as Disney, ESPN and a plethora of others, it looks as though soccer and Disney fans now have something to shout about.
After a lot of speculation, the mythical Apple TV software update has finally been released by Apple, after keeping it in beta for a long time. The update features a lot of notable changes which we’ve outlined in this post along with the direct download links for the update.
While we might have been entirely engrossed in the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c launch, and while the keynote yesterday would’ve made it sound like these are the only two Apple devices in existence that are worth any mention, that doesn’t mean that the company itself has forgotten its other lineups altogether. Earlier, we reported that new Apple TV iOS 7 update will be available Sept. 18, just alongside iOS 7, and now, thanks to a tweet from MG Siegler, it appears that the set top box itself will be seeing a new iteration next month.
