K66AP

This is the Apple TV 2G.

Introduction

The second-generation Apple TV, a digital media receiver made and sold by Apple Inc., was unveiled during an Apple press conference on September 1, 2010. It is a small form factor network appliance designed to play digital content originating from the iTunes Store, Netflix, YouTube, Flickr, MobileMe or any Mac OS X or Windows computer running iTunes onto an enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen television, and will accept music, video and photo streams from other iOS devices using Airplay in 4.2. It sold 250,000 in it's first two weeks available.

Application Processor

It uses the S5L8930 application processor.

Specifications

Size: 23 mm (0.9 inches) (h), 98 mm (3.9 inches) (w), 98 mm (3.9 inches) (d)
Weight: 0.6 pounds
I/O: HDMI, Optical audio, 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, IR receiver, Micro-USB port
Storage Capacity: 8 Gigabytes (Not directly usable)

• Samsung K9LCG08U1M 8GB NAND Flash chip
• 256 MB RAM
• Apple 343S0479 1005 005BB
• M430 F2350 TI E03K C0GP G4
• SMSC 8710A-EZK B1023-A2 (10/100 Ethernet Transceiver)
• TXC MUGT 27.000
• TXCPCUM3 50.000
• Apple 338S0891

The Apple TV uses the dual-band BCM4329 for Wi-Fi communications; it supports 802.11 a/b/g/n on both frequencies (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz).

Packaged iOS Software

Lowtide is the application running on the AppleTV. It is essentially an updated "FrontRow" system that handles all user interaction, video playback, streaming, etc. It has been shown to run on other iOS hardware such as the iPod Touch.

Dock Connector

The Apple TV 2G has a predetermined spot that is apparently for a 30-pin dock connector. This is most probably here for Apple's in-house developer units.

The default Apple TV hardware does not allow you to use the HDMI port and the micro-USB port at the same time. Adding a dock to the spot will bypass this hardware restriction, allowing both hacking and viewing.

Soldering to the dock terminals on pins 2 and 3 failed to get analog audio out. It is not know if this is because of a hardware or software limitation. Sound was able to be produced out of the HDMI port but no sound came out of the dock pins corresponding to audio out on other iOS devices.

Useful Links

• Complete Proper Headers for OS 4.1
• Sample frappliance template
• New and Improved Sample frappliance
• Dustin Howett's beigelist
• iFixit Teardown
• How to save SHSH blob
• dyldcache listing
• Buildable / linkable sample project for ATV-2 via NitoTV

Jailbreak Status

PwnageTool 4.1.2 uses the limera1n exploit to jailbreak as well as auto-install Cydia, SSH and afc2.

Currently, Cydia's Graphical User Interface has not been ported to the Backrow Frappliance model, however the Command Line tools such as 'apt-get' are fully intact and functional.

As all iOS-devices are concerned, SSH exposes full access to your devices. As such, it is important to make sure that you change your root password ('alpine') as soon as possible.

Currently, the vast majority of GUI Applications provided by Cydia will not run on the AppleTV due to missing libraries and lacking a launcher. Several developers have committed to updating their Applications to run on the AppleTV and make use of the Remote as a valid Input Device.

Tests show that Applications that support a hardware keyboard (Bluetooth or the iPad Dock) can make use of the Apple IR Remote.

Greenp0ison also makes use of the limera1n exploit. RC5 is being prepared to have Apple TV support. Preview screenshots have been posted by Chronic Dev showing altered menus and a software injector. [1]

Older Developments:

• SHAtter: pod2g's SHAtter exploit has been showcased by MuscleNerd and posixninja as capable of jailbreaking the Apple TV 2G, but this exploit will not be released for a while due to the release of limera1n's exploit. It is mentioned here mainly for posterity.

• limera1n: geohot released the limera1n exploit which is capable of jailbreaking the AppleTV, but as of right now it doesn't install AFC2 or SSH so it is of little practical use for any average Apple TV user, or even most Apple TV seasoned hackers. It never mounts or installs anything, ostensibly not making any changes at all to the Apple TV filesystem.

3rd Party Apple TV iOS Software

• Fire Core, a software development group who have released software for the Apple TV (1st Gen), is actively working on a product aTV Flash black and a corresponding SDK.

• NitoTV, a popular application for the original Apple TV. NitoTV is the first publicly disclosed Application running on the AppleTV 2.

NitoTV is a standard set of tools to enhance the functionality provided by the Apple TV Platform.

Currently, the NitoTV Take 3 release for the current generation Apple TV provides a Weather Forecast and an RSS Reader application within it's own Frappliance wrapper. Its developer has stated that these first two applications were intended as Proof-of-Concepts, as well as serve as a testbed for further development for the iOS-Based Apple TV.

For more information regarding the state of development, as well as get an installation guide for installing NitoTV to your AppleTV 2, please see: http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/NitoTV_Take_3