Jailbroken AppleTV might shed light on future of Apple computers

Seth Weintraub


Original Mac Mini vs. new AppleTV

We’ve been able to verify that the Limera1n does work on AppleTVs (TUAW also) though no apps run on it and OpenSSH isn’t yet available. But soon, you’ll be able to punch though into your AppleTV box and have a pretty basic Unix machine with a command line interface and a significantly powerful GPU.

So what kind of computer do you get for $99 (and $64 for Apple’s N+1).

…or what fun toys does this have inside to exploit?  From the teardown we know it has Bluetooth and FM.   We also know from its specs that it has 10/100 Ethernet, Wifi N, USB and 720P HDMI video out (1280×720) which also carries digital audio.  Internally it has a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8, 256MB of RAM and 8GB of storage.

With some significant hacking, these could make fantastic little DNS servers or Firewall/VPN/Routers.  It shouldn’t be too hard to turn an Ethernet wired AppleTV into an Airport base station for instance.  It might be a bit harder (or not) to turn it into a fantastic little NAS with the USB port on the back.  At $99/ea these are going to be great hacking toys.

But why stop there?   Read more

Angry Birds get even angrier at Microsoft. Tweet fury

Seth Weintraub

We’re less than 24 hours away from the launch of Windows Phone 7 and we already have a minor controversy.  It seems Microsoft has been advertising that they’ll be carrying the uber-popular Angry Birds game on their platform.  (Available on iOS and Android currently).

The only problem is that not only isn’t Angry Birds not available for Microsoft Phone 7, the developers aren’t even working on it.  Actually they hadn’t even planned on working on it according to an ….errrrm… Tweet from the developers:

Interestingly, we’ve been getting word from some App Store developers that Microsoft is aggressively hounding them to build their apps for the Windows Phone 7 platform, even offering cash incentives ($99) in the case below (Thanks Jesse!): Read more

Limera1n iOS jailbreak released, Windows only for now

Mark Gurman

Geohot is back, and has just released the latest iOS jailbreak. The jailbreak is untethered which means you don’t need to plug it in everytime you want to turn it on. It works for iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch 3G, iPad, iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G on iOS 4.0, 4.01 and everything after that.

The jailbreak is sort of still in beta and doesn’t include that one-click-jailbreak feature from past releases. Oh, and it’s only for Windows at this time – Mac and Linux coming soon. If you really want to jailbreak you may want to wait for Chronic’s Green Poison. The Chronic dev-team has let us know that the untethering feature is “unstable right now” so take caution. You can download Limera1n here.

Apple forces Meizu to stop sales of iPhone lookalike, M8

Mark Gurman

Meizu, the infamous copy cats of the iPhone, have been mimicking the iPhone’s design and features since way back in 2007 and today they are announcing they are stopping sales of their M8 device. On Meizu’s online forums today, Meizu CEO Jack Wong announced that sales of their M8 will cease indefinitely due to pressure from Apple. Additionally, future devices in development, like the M9, may be cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future.


Image via CultofMac.com (thx commenter)

Apple initially had Meizu to agree to cease development of future devices so this news shows Apple’s change of plans. It looks like Meizu is complying but they are upset that Apple brought China’s Intellectual Property department into the ordeal as a form of pressure. This government office has the right to shut down Meizu’s factory without a formal order from the courts so it looks like Meizu is doing all they can to prevent that.

Update: Here’s a likely fake e-mail from Jobs stating his views on the M8.

Apple confirms where FaceTime isn't available [Updated]

Mark Gurman

On a support document on their technical support website (via SaudiMac), Apple has officially confirmed and outlined where their FaceTime video calling service is not available. When looking at the chart, every country and carrier with a footmark of ’4′ does not support FaceTime.

If you look through the entire support article you will find that five Middle Eastern countries, cropped out and shown above, are the only ones that do not support FaceTime. These are Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. Oh, and Apple is very clear to say “FaceTime is not available on this CARRIER.” — Saying it’s the carrier’s decision?

Update: We missed Egypt:

Read more