I can host websites on my Apple TV! Jealous? It is no secret that with a lot of tinkering, your little gadgets (iPhones, iPods, iPads, and even your Apple TV’s) can be converted into a great many things, including servers. You can take one of your extra Apple TV’s 2 and, with a bit of tinkering, get it set up as your very own, private, web based server for hosting websites and much more.

This is not a new idea, necessarily, but it has always been a bit of a long process to enable these types of features, and/or functionalities, on your device. Well, that was until now. We were recently informed of a new package – iOS-WebStack, which is now available in Cydia, that makes this process as easy as one repo, and one install. So, before I go on, let’s hear from the developer - Jason Anrugas – himself:

Because I would like host some web content with my jailbroken Apple TV 2, I 
have compiled a whole web stack composition with Lighttpd, PHP and MySQL. 
Regarding security issues and restrictions on software dependencies, all 
the software packages are up to date.

With this iOS WebStack I can host web content like on an Linux server. I 
don’t have unresolved dependencies as with the packages from the major 
repositories. Like XAMPP or LAMP you can install my Lighttpd/PHP/MySQL iOS WebStack with 
one click in Cydia or NitoTV.

The 99$ AppleTV mutated into a full web server. 
The iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch can also be used.

Now you can host own Cloud, WordPress, TYPO3, Contao, WebsiteBaker, 
myPhpAdmin, GetSimple, Dokuwiki, all on your iDevice. User can have their own personal wiki, hobbyists can run their own cheap 
web server, web designer can work without an internet connection.

To take advantage of this release you will simply need to add http://ios-webstack.tk/cydia to your Cydia installation. For the Apple TV users, simply make sure your Apple TV 2 is already jailbroken and you have NitoTV installed. This will enable you to add this address into Cydia with three easy steps:

1. Launch the Terminal app (Mac) or PuTTY (Windows)

2. Connect to your Apple TV via SSH using the following command

ssh root@apple-tv.local

echo “deb http://ios-webstack.tk/cydia/ ./” > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ios-webstack.list

apt-get update

For more details, visit the developer’s official support site, where you can find a  detailed GETTING STARTED guide.

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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!

It’s been a few days since this hack came out, but there is a chance you’ve missed it focused on your Thanksgiving and Black Friday activities: a jailbreak app called AirVideoEnabler can push out video from any iOS app (including Safari) to the Apple TV 2G via AirPlay. Developed by TUAW commenter Zone-MR, the app runs on every jailbroken iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad with iOS 4.2 (or greater) installed and can be downloaded from Cydia for free. According to Lifehacker, you may need to restart your iOS device for the hack to work, but then you can stream supported video (meaning most MPEG4/H.264 files) from any app that supports video out. Users report that thanks to AirVideoEnabler they were also able to stream live TV to the Apple TV via AirPlay.

Here is the AirVideoEnabler in action

And here is live TV being streamed from FilmOn.com app running on the iPad

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!