14 DAY TRIAL // The people behind the Boxee media center have announced that the Boxee Beta is again supported on the set-top-box Apple considers a mere hobby still. Those interested in “pwn”-ing their Apple TV units are offered complete instructions and download links, although Softpedia would advice against using hacks with any Apple product.
“Last week, shortly after Avner’s post on the updated Beta version and the unfortunate lack of AppleTV support (unless you have your SSH teeth fully grown in), the powers that be resurrected the atvusb-creator for Mac,” Tom Sella writes for the Boxee blog. “Yep. You can now, once more, pwn your AppleTV following these super simple instructions, and get the Boxee Beta on that shiny Apple box. In fact, if you already have Boxee Alpha installed, you should be able to just update Launcher and then update Boxee to achieve the same result,” he explains.
Sella considers it is imperative to properly credit the people making all this possible, saying, “Kudos to JimWiley and hillbilly1980 from the Boxee forum for making the original update script, and Amet, davilla and stephan.diederich from Team XBMC and atvusb-creator for fixing the Launcher, SoftwareMenu and the Creator itself, permitting this goodness.” He also advises users to thank the hackers by leaving a comment.
For those who aren’t familiar with Boxee, the software acts like a social media center allowing Apple TV owners to extend the functionality of their set-top-box by playing videos and music from their computer, local network, and the Internet. The social part of the software permits users to share with their friends what albums they're listening to, what movies and TV shows they're watching, send recommendations, and more. The software is currently available for Ubuntu Linux (Karmic and Jaunty), Mac OS X (Intel-based Snow Leopard, Leopard and Tiger), the Apple TV and Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista and 7).
If you’re starting from scratch, there are quite a few steps to follow, in order to get Boxee on your Apple TV. If you're going to do it, full instructions are available here. However (we cannot stress this enough), installing Boxee on your Apple TV is not an activity condoned by Apple, therefore Softpedia would advise against it. This article has been posted strictly for informational purposes.