Apple TV hacked into running iOS apps

Last time when we heard about Steve Troughton-Smith was when he unveiled the internal codenames behind a number of iOS releases. He is also famous for his work on porting Siri to the iPhone 4. Are you curious about what he is keeping himself occupied with now? More hacking, of course!

With some help from fellow iOS expert The Mudkip, Troughton-Smith successfully hacked an Apple TV into running iOS applications. And in case you are wondering, AirPlay is not used in the process – the apps run on the Apple TV itself and are scaled up to 720p resolution. Jailbreaking the device was necessary in order for the hack to be pulled off, as well as installing some custom software that allows iPhone and iPad applications to be launched. As demonstrated, app like Safari, Facebook, YouTube and Maps work fairly well, although using them is tricky due to the lack of touchscreen input. What is used instead is a keyboard connected over VNC and the Apple IR remote control.

The video embedded below shows the hack in action, so feel free to check it out if you are interested. Of course, do not hesitate to share your thoughts with us in the comments.

source: MacDaddyNews via Engadget