mike_barton
Editor

Check: Mac OS X on Apple TV

news
Apr 2, 20072 mins

It should comes as no surprise that it is so, given our sister publication Macworld’s finding that Apple TV’s limited functionality is not so limited with a little hacking: Mac OS X has been sighted on an Apple TV.

First it was USB support, now comes full OS X, say reports, which all link to this how-to, which is down at last check just after 10 a.m. Monday Pacific.

Fear not for proof(?): Gizmodo has a video showing Mac OS X booting on an Apple TV.

Will Apple clamp down on this, and save its sales of Mac mini (which has FireWire, a bigger HD, etc.)? I think not. At $299, the Apple TV is not even aimed at the Mac-hack people — it’s digital home types who do not want to open up their Apple TVs any more than their fridge.

And by the time you upgrade the Apple TV’s Lilliputian hard drive, as some vendors are doing for a fee, you’ll be within about $100 range of the Mac mini, with its better expandability and included OS X.

Still, if you want to earn your stripes in the Mac hack community, or are seeking how-low-can-you-go status for cost, it is conceivable a full Mac OS X machine can be had for what two years ago would seem impossible.

What do you think? Is it stupid to put the effort into hacking the Apple TV? How about a one-Mac-per-child effort at this price, for disadvantaged kids and schools in the U.S.?

mike_barton

Mike Barton started out in online slinging HTML for CNET.com in the late 1990s and began his editorial career at New Media magazine shortly thereafter. In his early days, he was an editor at Ziff-Davis's PC Computing and ZDNet.com before heading Down Under, where he produced and edited the business and technology sections of The Sydney Morning Herald online. After returning to the States in 2006, he has worked for IDG's Infoworld, PCWorld, Computerworld, and CSO Online. He currently edits and produces WIRED.com's Innovation Insights, and is a contributing editor at ITworld.

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