Original Apple TV got a lot of love yesterday. Soon after App Dynamic released Remote HD plugin 5.0 for the 1^st generation Apple TV, Firecore announced the release of aTV Flash version 4.4 for your original shiny box of joy. Apart from the support for the new Remote HD features (iOS 5 AirPlay streaming, support for playing DRM protected media, support for doubleTwist + AirTwist add-on), the new update includes support for Mac OS X Lion and NFS file streaming.

What’s new in aTV Flash 4.4?

• Added support for Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)
• Added NFS file streaming (Lion compatible)
• Remote HD: Added support for iOS 5 AirPlay streaming
• Remote HD: Added support for playing DRM protected media from iOS devices and iTunes via AirPlay
• Remote HD: Added support for doubleTwist + AirTwist add-on (AirPlay from Android devices)
• Remote HD: Added supports enhanced slideshows with music when streaming via AirPlay
• Updated metadata scrapers
• Resolved VPN setup issues
• Other miscellaneous fixes

Full details on setting up NFS streaming from Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) can be found here.

aTV Flash version 4.4 is available through the Downloads tab in your account. If you’re already running aTV Flash on your AppleTV you can update through the Maintenance –> Manage Plugins menu.

You may also want to read:
Remote HD 5.0 plugin keeps old Apple TV kicking with iOS 5 support
Installing and Configuring a FTP Server in Your Apple TV 1st Generation
aTV Flash (black) RC1 for Apple TV 2 Now Available

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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!

App Dynamic, the company that brought AirPlay to the 1st generation Apple TV, has just released Remote HD plugin 5.0 featuring an all new AirPlay upgrade. The 5.0 plugin breathes new life back into your old Apple TV with iOS 5 and iTunes DRM-encrypted video support. The update does not include mirroring or HTTP live streaming over AirPlay.

What’s new in Remote HD’s 5.0 plugin:

• Added support for iOS 5
• Plays DRM protected Movies, TV Shows, Podcasts, Trailers, Music from iOS devices or iTunes on Mac/PC
• Added support for doubleTwist+AirTwist add-on; AirPlay from Android
• Optimizations for iPhone 4S added
• Support enhanced slideshows with music
• Added support for Camera for Apple TV iOS app
• Fixed iPhone 3GS photo-orientation bug

You can download the new Remote HD 5.0 plugin from here.

Here is how to install it on your old Apple TV:

1. If you are not using the latest Apple TV Software (version 3.0.2), update the Apple TV software from Settings > General > Update Software.

2. Unlock your Apple TV using opensource atvusb-creator. Step by step instructions can be found here and here.

3. Connect to your Apple TV using your preferred SSH client:

Host: appletv.local
Username: frontrow
Password: frontrow

Recommended SSH clients are:
OS X: Use the buit-in SSH command line client using Terminal.app
Windows: Putty

Here’s an example of how to connect to the Apple TV using Terminal.app on OS X:
ssh frontrow@appletv.local
Password: frontrow

4. Once connected, run these 3 commands one by one.

These 3 commands will download, uncompress, install/upgrade Remote HD plugin and restart the Apple TV interface.

scp ssh.remotehd.com:RemoteHelper.tar RemoteHelper.tar;
tar xvf RemoteHelper.tar;
./install-RemoteHelper

“frontrow” is the default password.

If prompted with a security prompt to confirm connecting, type in yes.

Thats it, you’re done! Now grab your device and have Remote HD scan for available connections. Your Apple TV should show up in the list of available WiFi-connections – just tap to connect!

The default password is empty.

Head over to the App Store and purchase a copy of Remote HD iOS app to activate the plugin.

Existing Remote HD users get all this for free.

For more information, visit Remote HD website.

You may also want to read:
AirPlay Streaming Hacked into the Old Apple TV
AirPlay Implementation on the Old Apple TV is Now Complete
AirServer 3.0 brings AirPlay to your Mac

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!

It’s been a few days since Apple released its 2.4 software update. Time to sum all the rumours up! But first, let’s take a look at new features that come to our ATV devices:

Remote app directional control: Control your Apple TV with simple finger gestures via the Remote app. This feature requires Remote 1.3 running on an iPhone or iPod touch with iPhone OS 3.0.

Flickr Search: Search Flickr photo tags to find recently updated photos of interest. Save searches to quickly find new photos or use as a screen saver for Apple TV.

New view options: View movies By Genre, By Movie, or Unwatched. View TV Shows and Podcasts By Date, By Show, or Unwatched.

Updated transport and chapter modes:During video playback, click right or left to fast forward or rewind. Additional clicks increase the speed. Click down to show chapter markers.

Updating Apple TV software is more than easy. Check it out here.

Certainly the most important feature is a support for controlling Apple TV from your iPhone or iPod. You can control audio or video playback by flicking left or right to rewind or fast forward. Flick down to show chapter markers when watching video and then flick left or right to skip. You can also tap the screen to play/pause either video or audio.

As TUAW reports, their in-house Apple TV geeks, Megan Lavey and Christina Warren, both installed the updates and gave them a try. “Megan indicated the gestures were quick and responsive, and coupled with the ability to use the iPhone/iPod keyboard to search for shows, the new versions made it much less tedious to navigate through your shows¨.

This video seems to confirm these observations.

The main question for many ATV users was if boxee will be running on the device after updating? Boxee quickly responded to that kind of doubts, tweeting: “if you upgraded your Apple TV to 2.4: run patchstick again, update launcher, download latest boxee and you’ll be back boxeeing” (http://twitter.com/boxee). They also reposted a short tutorial ‘so how do i get boxee on atv?’ on their forum.

On various forums users confirmed the full boxee functionality on ATV.

According to awkwardTV, 2.4 update works fine also with XBMC Media Center 9.04, NitoTV Take 2 0.7.6+ (but isn’t able to install Perian) and LaunchMore. But they also reports some problems:

• Divx (Perian) has no audio when installed like this or by this article “Install_Perian” (it’s maybe related to “fooled” files);
• SoftwareMenu right from atvusb-creator (mac b10) causes Finder to crash, had to ssh and remove frappliance, then downloaded latest version and it is OK now;
• ATVFiles (Version 1.2.0 (479)) crashes when browsing files.

We’ll be following all 2.4 update-connected news and will inform you immediately.

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!