Chances are, you are aware of FireCore and their work with a product known as aTV Flash. As everyone scrambles to get the jailbreak set for the Apple TV 3, the FireCore team is still hard at work getting the Apple TV 2 software to the best it can possibly be. For those of you who have not yet jumped on board with FireCore, aTV Flash (black), recently updated to version 1.6, offers some great features and extras that you should know about.

Included Software

For me, the real magic offered with aTV Flash (black) is the software that is bundled and installable via their tools they add to your Apple TV Menu. This collection of software takes a (potentially) pointless little black box and turns into a powerhouse of entertainment! Some of the software included in version 1.6:

• Couch Surfer Pro

A Powerful Browser that enables you to surf the web and stream content from an endless supply of websites. For those who do not utilize the XBMC feature, this is your best chance to stream random video content from the web.

• Last.fm

This is a great iteration of the Last.fm system. Once installed you can simply log in and listen to your stations. As an added bonus, you are given the option to view scrolling photos related to the artists you are listening to. This gives the feel of a digital jukebox on your television.

• Maintenance

This is the location where you can install any, and all, of the extra software that is available in the aTV Flash software. With an easy interface you can navigate to each item and choose to install or uninstall. For those of you who have installed these items before, using SSH… you will see that they have really streamlined this process greatly.

• Media Player

The latest iteration of their Media Player is easily the best yet. With an endless list of formats for your audio and video you are able to stream anything and everything from your hard drive network drive to your ATV2. Seriously, if you own content that this system cannot play you need to throw it in the garbage and update your stuff! Current formats that are supported:

The Media Player is designed to work with your Network Media Services. If you have a NAS, another Apple TV that is sharing a library, or even a laptop with movies on it you can get them streaming to your ATV with little to no effort. Simply open the player and it will scan automatically for shared sources. As soon as they are found you can test the connection and then save it.

To make a good experience better, the team over at FireCore has taken a page for the XBMC playbook and given some great new view options for displaying your content. This makes the browsing experience that much more enjoyable! Truly a sit back, relax, and browse kind of setup.

• RSS Feeds

Simple and effective! I am not one to utilize RSS Feeds on my ATV, but if you are… you will like what you get. It is clean, and simple to understand.

• Weather

Weather is another simple little add-on, but it is very polished. The graphics and the interface as a whole are both fantastically pleasant on the eyes.

• nitoTV

This option holds a lot of extras that you can put into your Apple TV. There are to many great extras to get into them here… but if you have an Apple TV, you should have nitoTV installed.

• PLEX Client

And the goodies just keep on rolling! Yes folks, this is a PLEX Client. Now you can stream everything from your PLEX setup directly to the Apple TV. Making things even better… you have some great options on how to display the content.

Note: Plex client does work on Apple TV 5.0 (iOS 5.1) but it’s unreliable. Check out Plex forum for more details.

• Remote HD

Have you ever wanted to use your iPhone or iPsd to control your ATV2? Ever wanted to mirror your ATV2 to your phone or iPad wirelessly? Congratulations, Remote HD is a great feature that enables a host of new features and abilities between your iOS device. I will warn you though… once you get this feature set up, you may never go back.

Note: Remote HD doesn’t work on Apple TV 5.0. Remote HD has been updated for Apple TV 5.0.x compatibility.

• XBMC

The installation process of XBMC could not be made any easier. Simply click, install, and enjoy. I can get long winded regarding XBMC and its features so I would encourage you to check our other articles for more info regarding XBMC.

There is one new feature that FireCore has made a real point to share as a stand out feature of this release. With that in mind, I will let them tell you all about it:

Integrated Subtitle Downloads

By popular request we’ve added one-click subtitle downloads, courtesy of OpenSubtitles.org. Now instead of spending hours searching for the right subtitles they can be easily downloaded right from your Apple TV in a matter of seconds.

The Bad?

The title of this section is a bit misleading. In the end, I found nothing bad with this release. However, I had two “hick-ups” that I would be remiss to exclude them. In a total of two hours of use, I had the following issues:

• Repeated “Disconnected” error on my HDTV. This only happened after some time was spent in Couch Surfer. This eventually went away.

• Couch Surfer, though it is a fantastic piece of software, falls victim to the same issues I find in the PS3, and Boxee browsers. They all fall victim to the infamous POP UPS. Anytime I visited a streaming site that used POP UPS it would take over the browser and I could not find anyway to close those windows specifically.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you own an Apple TV 2 and you are not one who likes to mess with SSH, terminal Commands, or anything else that techy… THIS IS FOR YOU! This software makes it amazingly easy to install all of the tools you need to get the most out of your little black back!

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

We will be running a giveaway of aTV Flash (black) soon. Stay tuned! We are giving away 10 free copies of aTV Flash (black). Get it now!

Installation Process

FireCore could not have made the process of installing this software any easier! Once you have downloaded the aTV Flash 1.6 you will have two simple requirements:

1) Ensure that the Apple TV 2 is Jailbroken.

2) Ensure that the Apple TV 2 is plugged in.

Simply open the software package, once it is installed on your system, and locate your Apple TV form the drop down menu on the right. If you have multiple Apple TVs in your home, the devices will be listed with their IP address:

Once you have selected your device simply click continue. That is it. You will soon see a Completion Screen followed by your Apple TV rebooting. Once done you will want to start installing software.

umOuch (Andrew Brasher)

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FireCore’s Seas0nPass has been updated to provide a tethered jailbreak for Apple TV 2 5.0.1 (iOS 5.1.1). Tethered jailbreak means that every time there is a need to reboot your Apple TV, you will have to connect it to a computer. Functionally, both tethered and untethered jailbreak are identical.

Plex and Remote HD plugins are not yet working on Apple TV 5.0.1. XBMC, Media Player, Couch Surfer, nitoTV, Rowmote, Last.fm, Weather, RSS Feeds and Maintenance are already supported. Non-working items require an author update for 5.0 compatibility.

The current version of Seas0nPass doesn’t provide a jailbreak for the Apple TV 3. You can learn more on Apple TV 3 jailbreak status here.

Here is a tutorial on how to use Seas0nPass to jailbreak and tether boot your Apple TV 2 on firmware 5.0.1:

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) AppleTV 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.

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FireCore’s Seas0nPass jailbreaking tool has been updated for Apple TV 2 running latest firmware 5.0. It’s still a tethered jailbreak, meaning every time there is a need to reboot your Apple TV, you will have to connect it to a computer. XBMC, Plex, Remote HD, Rowmote and Overflow plugins are not yet working on AppleTV 5.0. Media Player, Couch Surfer, nitoTV, Last.fm, Weather, RSS Feeds and Maintenance are already supported. Non-working items require an author update for 5.0 compatibility.

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

Our tutorial on how to jailbreak Apple TV 2 5.0 with Seas0nPass can be found here. 

You may also want to read:
nitoTV: Apple TV 3 jailbreak will be an uphill battle
XBMC 11.0 Eden for Apple TV – Review
Yet Another Patent Hints at Apple Preparing a Standalone HDTV

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

aTV Flash (black) Beta4 for Apple TV 2 has just been released. According to Firecore, in terms of features, this is the most substantial release since Beta1 first became available in early December 2010. The latest version of aTV Flash features an ‘alpha preview’ version of a brand new Media Player that has been under development for the past few months. This player enables the playback of non-iTunes media (streamed from a network source) on the Apple TV with no special software or transcoding required.

What’s new in Beta4?

General

• Added ‘alpha preview’ version of new Media Player
• Added native Weather and RSS apps (will appear under Internet menu when installed)
• Added support for Remote HD iPhone/iPad app
• Added option to restart ‘Lowtide’ via Maintenance menu
• Added support for AppleTV 4.2.1 (iOS 4.3)

Couch Surfer Pro

• Added Google search suggestions to Search menu (iOS 4.3+ only)
• Added ability to delete bookmarks
• Improved animations, HTML5 and CSS3 support
• Improve iPhone/iPad Remote app navigation
• Improved text box handling
• Resolved issues related to Facebook and similar sites
• Many other performance improvements

What can I do with the new Media Player?

What’s included in this version

• Support for many non-iTunes media file types (MKV, AVI, MP4, etc…)
• Native VIDEO_TS (VOB) file playback (with menus)
• AFP network streaming (Mac, TimeCapsule, AirPort Extreme, etc…)
• Automated cover art/metadata fetching
• Basic subtitle support for VOB files
• 5.1 AAC audio
• Watched, unwatched and partially watched markers (includes resume support)
• Volume control (up/down arrows during playback)

Firecore is still working on:

• Better support for HD video files
• SMB network streaming
• 5.1 sound
• Chapter controls
• Video playlists
• Subtitles (.srt)
• Alternative file browsing options
• Photo slideshows
• Improved memory management
• Countless other bug fixes and performance improvements

A brief demo of the Media Player in action can be seen here.

You may also want to read:
Win a copy of Remote HD
How to Watch Hulu on Apple TV 2
How to jailbreak Apple TV 2 with greenpois0n rc6

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Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!

Fire Core has finally released the first beta version of aTV Flash (black) for the Apple TV 2G. It gives you a web browser with HTML5 support (not all HTML5 sites are supported yet), a Plex client that lets you stream nearly any kind of video from Plex Server running on your Mac, Last.fm access and some info on demand (current weather and news feeds). Fire Core promises to enable additional media formats such as AVI, MP4, MKV, DVD files and to support media streaming from most NAS devices (including Airport Extreme and Time Capsule) in the near future. You don’t need to be worry about the original Apple TV features, they will all remain fully operational.

The new aTV Flash is compatible with the 4.0 Apple TV software only. The new 4.1 software requires a few adjustments and the company plans to have compatible version available soon.

Note: before installing aTV Flash (black) your atv will need to be jailbroken!

Currently the software is for Mac only. Windows compatible version is expected to be available within the next few days.

For the current users aTV Flash is available as a free upgrade.
(Some instructions from the developer: After logging into your account you will have an extra download link for aTV Flash (black). Your normal aTV Flash license and download links will remain unchanged. Additionally any available renewal specials can also be found in your account.)

For the new users the software is available at the discounted price of $19.95 during the beta (pre-order) phase. Once the final version is ready for release the price will return to the normal level of $29.95.

The original aTV Flash is also being reduced to $39.95.

GIVEAWAY

We have 10 licenses of aTV Flash (black) to give away! Follow @appletvhacks, retweet the contest message and join us on Facebook for your chance to win. The winners will be announced on Monday (December 6^th).

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Visit What's on iPhone for the best iPad and iPhone app reviews!
Do you want to feel like a wizard? Check the Kymera wand in Amazon: You can control your Apple TV waving a wand!