Last week XBMC released the beta 3 of their next major update – XBMC 13.0 Gotham that was released back in March with a support for 3D movies, improved UPnP capabilities, “dramatic” Audio Engine improvements and various visual changes that improve usability and logic (check out the full list of changes). Here is a tutorial on how to install XBMC Gotham (beta 3) on Apple TV 2.

Note: XBMC 13.0 will only works on jailbroken Apple TV 2 (latest jailbreakable Apple TV firmware is 5.3). If you have an Apple TV 1 and want XBMC badly, you can find out how to do it here.

Requirements

• Jailbroken ATV 2 running firmware 5.3 or older
• Mac computer (use Terminal app)  or Windows PC (use PuTTY app)

Step 1: Install the latest stable version of XBMC – XBMC Frodo (12.3). If you already have Frodo installed, go directly to Step 2.

• Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.
• Ensure that your computer and your Apple TV are on the same network.
• Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

Example: ssh root@192.168.2.18
This can be found under General/Network on your ATV’s main menu

Note: Should you receive an “Authentication Error,” copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window and press Enter, then continue.

rm ~/.ssh/known_hosts

• Agree to any security prompts by typing “yes” (without quotations), then press enter.
• When prompted for a password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.

• Copy and paste the following commands into your Terminal or PuTTY app, pressing the Enter key after each. It’s important that you wait for each one to finish before moving onto the next. Don’t worry… you will know when each line is finished.

apt-get install wget

wget -O- https://apt.awkwardtv.org/awkwardtv.pub | apt-key add -

echo "deb https://apt.awkwardtv.org/ stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/awkwardtv.list

echo "deb https://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/atv2 ./" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xbmc.list

apt-get update

mkdir -p /Applications/AppleTV.app/Appliances

apt-get install org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2

mkdir -p /Applications/XBMC.frappliance

reboot

Step 2: Install XBMC 13.0 Gotham beta 3

• Launch the “Terminal” or “PuTTY” application.
• Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following commands.

ssh root@[Your Apple TV’s I.P. Address]

• When prompted for a password, type the word “alpine” (without quotations) then press Enter.
• Copy and paste the following commands:

rm -f *xbmc*.deb

wget https://mirrors.xbmc.org/apt/pre-release/atv2/deb/org.xbmc.xbmc-atv2_13.0-0~b3_iphoneos-arm.deb

dpkg -i *xbmc*.deb

rm *xbmc*.deb

Done! You should now have the beta 3 of XBMC 13.0 Gotham installed on your Apple TV.

To ensure the new build fits your screen:

• Launch XBMC from the main menu on Apple TV
• Enter the “Settings” sub menu under the “SYSTEM” heading.
• Select the “Appearance” tab from the left menu bar.
• Change “Settings level” from Standard (default) to Advanced

• Under the “Skin” menu,you’ll now want to choose “-4%” for the “Zoom” field so that your XBMC configuration will properly fit your television display.

Depending on the television, you might have to play around with this, but it should work flawlessly at the “-4%” setting. Press “MENU” on your remote to return back one level once this is done.

Congratulations! Your Apple TV now has XBMC 13.0 Gotham installed on it, and fitting on your screen.

Now, check out Top 10 best XBMC addons for Apple TV 1 and Apple TV 2

More on XBMC:

• How to change skins in XBMC on Apple TV
• How to clone the XBMC installation
• Use XBMC to extend your Apple TV’s hard drive

.. and more.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post How to install XBMC 13.0 Gotham on Apple TV 2 appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

So you didn’t update your Apple TV 2 firmware to version 6.0 (iOS 7) when it came in September, hoping for a jailbreak for 5.3 software (iOS 6.1.4 – 10B809) to come sooner or later? The wait is finally over as an updated version of FireCore‘s Seas0nPass now allows for an untethered jailbreak of Apple TV 5.3 (Apple TV 2 only).

The update was possible thanks to the help from @iH8sn0w, @winocm, and @SquiffyPwn.

FireCore also revealed that “there has been some encouraging progress made on Apple TV 6.0+” (thanks to the work of @evad3rs and @nitoTV) and they hope to have more news available “soon”.

If you’re on 6.0.x but have the SHSH blobs saved for 5.3, you can use Seas0nPass to first downgrade and then jailbreak your atv2.

Here is how to jailbreak (instructions provided by FireCore):

Option 1 – if you’re already running 5.3

1. On the ATV2, navigate to Maintenance > Manage Extras
2. Install the Maintenance (2.4) update and the Click to Untether (1.2) items – restart the Apple TV when prompted.

Option 2 – to update or reinstall 5.3

1. (Optional) Navigate to Maintenance > Settings > Manage Backups and create a new backup. Double-check to ensure the backup is listed in the Restore From Backups menu.
2. Download the latest version of Seas0nPass.
3. Open and run Seas0nPass normally, to update the Apple TV to 5.3 untethered.
4. Download and run the new 2.4 version of aTV Flash (black) to reinstall.

If you’re new to aTV Flash (black) you can read our full review here.

Note: The current version of Seas0nPass doesn’t provide a jailbreak for the Apple TV 3.

Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.

The post Untethered jailbreak for Apple TV 2 5.3 released appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to tether jailbreak Apple TV 2 5.2.1 using Seas0nPass:

NOTE: This is a TETHERED jailbreak. This means every time there is a need to reboot your Apple TV, you have to connect it to a computer. Functionally, both tethered and untethered jailbreak are identical.

NOTE 2: The current version of Seas0nPass doesn’t provide a jailbreak for the Apple TV 3.

Pre-launch checklist

1. Download and install the latest version of iTunes (check for updates through Software Update located in Apple menu).
2. Download Seas0nPass for Mac [10.6 or later] or Windows [XP or later].
3. A micro USB cable will be required to complete the jailbreak.
4. Disconnect any iPods, iPhones, and iPads from your computer.

Jailbreaking

Step 1: Unzip the ‘Seas0nPass.zip’ file and launch Seas0nPass.

Step 2: Select the ‘Create IPSW’ button to start the jailbreak process.

Step 3: The latest Apple TV software will be downloaded and used to create a custom ‘jailbroken’ software file.

Step 4: When prompted, connect your Apple TV using a micro-USB cable (leave power disconnected).

Once the light on the front of the Apple TV begins to flash rapidly, point the remote at the AppleTV and hold both the MENU and PLAY/PAUSE buttons for 7 seven seconds.

Note: This step will require the silver (aluminum) Apple TV remote that was included with the ATV2. The older, white (plastic) remotes will not work.

Step 5: iTunes will open automatically and start the restore process.

The post How to jailbreak Apple TV 2 5.2.1 (iOS 6.1.3) using Seas0nPass (tethered; Mac & Windows) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

aTV Flash (black) seems to be almost ready for 5.2 but there is still a lot of work ahead for the developers of other Apple TV software/plugins:

Please keep in mind that while the FireCore plugins will work on Apple TV 5.1, a few minor adjustments (which are currently in progress) are needed to ensure things continue to run smoothly on Apple TV 5.2. Things like Plex and XBMC do not yet work on Apple TV 5.1 and later, and will likely require A LOT of work by their respective developers in order to be compatible.

@thomashw, the developer of Plex client for Apple TV, has already confirmed on Plex forum that he will work on getting Plex working on the latest Apple TV software.

You can jailbreak your Apple TV 2 running software version 5.2 using recently updated Sn0wbreeze 2.9.8 but jailbreaking is a bit pointless at this moment as most of the plugins are still not combatible with the latest Apple TV firmware.

We will let you know once any of ATV tweaks/plugins is updated for iOS 6 and available.

The post FireCore working on updating Seas0nPass to support Apple TV 2 5.2 (iOS 6.1) jailbreak appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Most of the software like XBMC, aTV Flash (black), Plex, etc. is not yet compatible with Apple TV 5.1 – 5.2 and the device constantly crashes when attempting to install additional software from nitoTV, so we definitely don’t recommend updating to iOS 6.x.

Other known bug/issues:

• First boot on an AppleTV 2 for 5.1/5.2 firmwares has funky glitches. Should be fixed by updates pushed via repos.

If for some reason you still wan’t to update to iOS 6 and then jailbreak using Sn0wbreeze, you can download it from here (Windows only).

We will let you know once any of ATV tweaks/plugins is updated for iOS 6 and available.

Sn0wbreeze doesn’t support Apple TV 3.

The post Sn0wbreeze 2.9.8 released with support for untethered iOS 6.x jailbreak on Apple TV 2 (confirmed) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

UPDATE: Although it has been confirmed by @MuscleNerd that evasi0n would support Apple TV 2, it seems that it doesn’t. Based on earlier news from evad3rs team, we believed their jailbreak was compatible with Apple TV 2 when publishing the below post just a few minutes after evasi0n went live. We are very sorry for causing confusion. We now have to wait for Seas0nPass to be updated with iOS 6.x support for Apple TV 2. We believe it won’t take long.

UPDATE 2: How to jailbreak Apple TV 2 5.2 (iOS 6.1) using Seas0nPass (untethered; Mac & Windows)

Evad3rs, a group of four top iOS hackers (@pod2g, @musclenerd, @pimskeks and @planetbeing) has just released a long-awaited evasi0n jailbreak for all iDevices running iOS 6.0 through 6.1, that include Apple TV 2 running software version 5.1, 5.1.1 or the latest 5.2. This is an untethered jailbreak, meaning you will be able to reboot your Apple TV without attaching it to a computer. Evasi0n jailbreak doesn’t support Apple TV 3 (however, there is some hope that it will in the future).

Here are the direct download links:

• evasi0n jailbreak for Mac OS X
• evasi0n jailbreak for Windows
• evasi0n jailbreak for Linux

Official mirrors.

Requirements:

• 5 minutes of your time
• A computer running Windows (XP minimum), Mac OS X (10.5 minimum) or Linux (x86 / x86_64)
• An Apple TV 2 running iOS 6.0 through 6.1 (Apple TV firmware 5.1 through 5.2)
• A micro USB cable to connect ATV to the computer

Apple TV 2 running iOS 5.x (atv software version 5.0.2 and earlier) can be jailbroken using Seas0npass.

The post Evasi0n iOS 6.x untethered jailbreak for Apple TV 2 released (updated) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Apple has just released Apple TV software update 5.2 for the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TV, adding Bluetooth keyboard support, iTunes in the Cloud and AirPlay audio for videos. The update also includes some performance and stability improvements with the iTunes Store, AirPlay, Netflix, iTunes Match, and wired Ethernet connections.

Apple TV 2 users waiting for iOS 6.1 jailbreak should not upgrade until evad3rs team says the update is safe. We will keep you updated.

Here is what’s new in 5.2:

• iTunes in the Cloud: Browse and play your purchased iTunes music directly from iCloud.
• Bluetooth keyboard: Use your Apple Wireless Keyboard to control your Apple TV. See this article for more information.
• AirPlay audio for videos: Send stereo audio from movies, TV shows, and other videos on Apple TV to AirPlay-enabled speakers and devices (including AirPort Express and other Apple TVs).
• Stability and performance: Includes performance and stability improvements with the iTunes Store, AirPlay, Netflix, iTunes Match, and wired Ethernet connections.

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to be first to know when the untethered jailbreak for Apple TV 2 5.2 comes out.

The post Apple TV software update 5.2 brings Bluetooth keyboard support, iTunes in the Cloud and AirPlay audio for videos appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Update: MuscleNerd has just confirmed that Apple TV 2 will be covered by the iOS 6.1 jailbreak.

iOS hacker @MuscleNerd has confirmed on Twitter that the upcoming untethered iOS 6.1 jailbreak will support all iOS 6.1 compatible devices, except Apple TV 3. If Apple releases a software update for Apple TV 2 in time, which MuscleNerd claims is very likely, this device will also be supported. Untethered jailbreak for iOS 6.1 is expected to be released by evad3rs team just after Apple releases the latest version of its mobile OS to the public.

Asked if the upcoming iOS 6.1 jailbreak will support Apple TV 3, MuscleNerd responded:

@arovik nope, sorry. In fact unless Apple pushes a final atv2 in time, it may not apply there either (*very* likely they will though)

— MuscleNerd (@MuscleNerd) January 28, 2013

@unicornhacker yes, every other 6.1 device variation will be supported. All TWENTY-TWO of them (omg!). Plus atv2 if it’s out in time.

— MuscleNerd (@MuscleNerd) January 28, 2013

Hopefully, according to the hacker, there is still some hope for those desperately waiting for the Apple TV 3 jailbreak:

@arovik not necessarily.Although atv3 uses far fewer services that can be tampered with, it’s not isolated.But it can’t use this next JB

— MuscleNerd (@MuscleNerd) January 28, 2013

@sigboe that’s a valid area to be looking for atv3.And it certainly uses WebKit too for iTunes Store, Hulu logins etc.More esoteric tho

— MuscleNerd (@MuscleNerd) January 28, 2013

@sigboe my gut feeling though is that the code behind Photo Stream is riddled with bugs that might be useful on atv3

— MuscleNerd (@MuscleNerd) January 28, 2013

Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Google+ to be first to know when the untethered iOS 6.1 jailbreak and Apple TV 3 jailbreak come out.

The post Untethered iOS 6.1 jailbreak will most likely support Apple TV 2, Apple TV 3 still waiting for its turn but there’s some hope (updated) appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

FireCore released aTV Flash (black) 2.0 for the 2nd generation Apple TV. Version 2.0 adds a ton of new features “that make browsing and watching media on the Apple TV more enjoyable than ever.” aTV Flash (black) 2.0 adds new Library View, fully integrated search, trakt.tv syncing, Last.fm scrobbling and much more. Version 2.0 is a free update for all current aTV Flash (black) users.

Library View

The new Library View now indexes all your media (even if stored on multiple devices) and automatically organizes movies, TV shows and music into easy to use categories. TV shows will also be group by series/season automatically. The original file/folder based browsing will remain intact and working as an alternative option.

Fully integrated search

The new integrated search tool allows you to search by movie, TV series/episode, song, artist, album or filename. Just start typing and the results will start being displayed instantly.

Trakt.tv syncing

This is a great feature if you’re trying to keep multiple Apple TVs in sync, as if you watch a movie on the first device it will also appear as watched on the 2nd. Additionally, if you manually mark a movie or show as watched on trakt.tv, it will automatically get marked as watched on the Apple TV.

Last.fm scrobbling

Last.fm scrobbling allows you track music plays in your Last.fm profile.

Here is a full changelog for aTV Flash (black) 2.0:

• Added all-new Library View
• Added integrated media search
• Added trakt.tv 2-way syncing
• Added Last.fm scrobbling
• Added genre/artist based playlists
• Added Recently Added display option
• Improved handling of WTV files
• Improved handling of DVD audio tracks
• Improved AFP connections
• Improved filename recognition
• Improved subtitle handling
• Resolved various navigation issues
• Resolved rare DVD playback issues
• Resolved rare subtitles positioning issue
• Many other minor improvements and fixes

aTV Flash 2.0 doesn’t work on the 3rd gen Apple TV. According to FireCore and according to what we reported back in August, work is still ongoing on the Apple TV 3 jailbreak.

If you’re already running a version of aTV Flash (black), the new 2.0 version can be installed through the Maintenance –> Manage Extras menu. Links for the new version can also be found in your FireCore account under the Downloads tab.

If you’re not yet using aTV Flash (black) you can get started here.

Here is a tutorial on how to install aTV Flash (black) on your jailbroken Apple TV 2.

IMPORTANT: Once the Apple TV 3 jailbreak is available your aTV Flash (black) license will cover both Apple TV 2 and Apple TV 3.

The post aTV Flash (black) 2.0 for Apple TV 2 released appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.

Also known as “the game console for Mac/PC”, AirServer lets you mirror multiple iOS devices simultaneously in multiplayer split-screen mode so you can play iOS games against your friends.

AirServer comes with an impressive frame rate of 70+ FPS and features on-the-fly video post processing which means that the entire post processing happens in the GPU of the Mac and there is no loss in frame-rates. Picture quality setting are customizable and give you control over the sharpening, brightness, contrast, saturation and hue.

AirServer is the first software that can mirror your iPhone/iPad to your Windows PC.

AirServer also supports AirPlay streaming to Mac from Android devices running doubleTwist+AirTwist.

Read our review of AirServer to find out more about this great piece of software.

AirServer is sold at $14.99 for Mac version or $7.99 for Windows version (there is also free 7 day trial) and you can get it from here.

The post AirServer update adds Mountain Lion desktop mirroring support appeared first on Apple TV Hacks.