Writing apps for the Apple TV 2G

Question

My company (a mobile dev house) has a number of HD TVs that we purchased some Apple TV 2Gs for (which are jailbroken). We use them to display slideshows of products, information, etc, as well as video playback.

Since we develop iOS apps as part of our business I'd really like to have a go at writing something for the Apple TV to use on our internal monitors. What I don't have is any idea of where to start - for obvious reasons the majority of our work is writing apps for app store distribution, so developing software for jailbroken iOS is new to me.

Also, the majority of resources out there are for developing jailbroken apps are for iPad/iPhone devices - I guess not many people are interested in writing apps for the ATV2, probably because not many jailbroken ATVs are out in the wild. Does anyone have any good starting points for me to begin with - an experienced iOS developer wanting to look into writing apps for jailbroken devices, especially the Apple TV? More in terms of general approach.

Answer 1

To develops 'apps' for Apple TV2, you will need to build them in a frappliance. It can be done with a Xcode template. Download your helloWorld template here or direct from Bile’s github (new version) : https://github.com/lechium/HelloWorld_ATVBlack/downloads Xcode is line by line explained in : http://greenpois0n.com/2011/04/16/27/

Another HelloWorld base can be found here https://github.com/b0bben/Plex-ATV-Plugin (Base for Plex created by b0bboen)

A more recent HelloWorld from Michael Gile can be found here https://github.com/mgile/atvHelloWorld

Or just another one here : https://github.com/lzell/AppleTVProjectTemplate

I also tried to create some simple frappliances here : http://imho.nu/Home/

Good luck developing

Gr. MACasuba

Answer 2

Maybe the source for the Apple TV client for Plex can help with example code:

Plex ATV plugin

(More info on usage, not development though, in the Plex wiki)

Answer 3

According to this report, you can actually install normal iOS apps on your AppleTV. Here's what I would do:

1. Begin creating a normal iOS app (maybe some kind of hello, world app)
2. Try to install it on the Apple TV
3. If it works, then you can manipulate your views in XCode to look right on the ATV.