“Just days after intrepid telly addicts ripped open Apple TV’s innards to install larger drives and extra file support, the guys at Tutorial Ninjas a reporting they’ve had their boxes remotely reset to remove any additional features they’ve shoehorned in,” T3 reports.
T3 reports, “According to their website, the Ninja’s awoke to find their freshly hacked TV boxes had several features disabled overnight. Quick to accuse Apple of remotely resetting the streamers, they recommend changing Apple TV’s password and disabling internet access to avoid Apple gaining access through a ‘network breach.'”
“So far, so exciting. However, popular consensus amongst others on the site is that Apple haven’t been hacking the hackers at all, but that Apple TV is repairing itself overnight using a scheduled reset tool, known as a ‘chronjob’ [sic: cron job; see also: launchd],” T3 reports.
Full article with links here.
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How much for a chronjob?
The paranoid idiots just assume Apple is hacking into their boxes and resetting them. ” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” /> Obviously these hackers “ninjas” don’t know nearly as much about the Apple TV as they think they do.
Whatever the cause, those plucky hackers will find there way around this sooner or later.
Well that is what Unix does. It repairs itself during the night.
This is actually funny thing because that this “crhonjob” also kind of protects TV, from possible viruses when it is connected to PC and PC iTunes. Funny indeed.
Oh boy, they call themselves hackers and don’t know what a cronjob is?
And please don’t misspell it: it’s cronjob (which should be replaced by launchd anyway).
What a bunch of morons…
I thought a cronjob was a middle of the night rebooty call.
I love it.
So rather then pulling some Big Brother act and remotely tapping into your system and changing things, they seem to have pre-built an anti-hack method of an overnight self system restore.
Apple = Innovation.
But if I load the tweaks I need to watch my pr0n and tv has an auto-reset “feature” that disables those thweaks I’d be pretty upset.
Now I haven’t purchased an tv yet, but the only reason I’d want one is to stream my pr0n from my computer to my bedroom. I have digital cable, thus no need for watching iTunes downloads. If iTunes downloads are the only things I can watch then tv is an utter waste of money.
No cronjob for you. Too boocoo.
A automatic reset is necessary for the establishment of stringent DRM for Apple to eventually sell High Definition movies through iTMS.
Of course there isn’t any HDCP chips present, so I fail to see how far that would go.
Is selling video content on iTMS a subsitute for no BlueRay DVD playback capabilities on Mac’s ever?
@Tommy Boy
Too much information, dude.
MDN word: “coming” — Oh, the irony.
Chronjob? No.:.Karl Rove, of course…
I don’t like the content industry messing with my hardware just as I don’t like the hardware industry messing with my content. I’m staying away from this puppy until it barks for me.
TT… no, it’s not Karl. It’s that vast right wing conspiracy!
So now they have to hack the cronjob/launchd. If they are real hackers, that’s no biggie. Or set different protections on the stuff they’ve added.
It’ll take a while, but I think the hackers will eventually win.
Folks, a cronjob is FREAKING STANDARD UNIX stuff. The hackers probably modified the permissions on directories, and an automated “repair permissions” script would reset perms, effectively disabling their hacks. This is most likely nothing and I’m really surprised that the folks who know so much about OS X fail to see how an OS X-lite box works. What the freak, guys?
That’s pretty funny that they would suspect Apple of connecting in remotely rather than the OS doing it locally.
Hey SkullsOfIdiots,
We’re way ahead of you, buddy. Try to keep up.
” . . . then tv is an utter waste of money.
WHEW!
The first time I read that I thought it said “utter waste of monkey.”
you never want to waste a good monkey
Never, EVER
Are chronjobs legal in all 50 states?
Just wonderin’
The system goes on-line August 4th, 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic defense. Skynet begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
“In a panic, they try to pull the plug.”
Didn’t Dvorak recommend that? He’ll be a dead, smug bastard.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue wink” style=”border:0;” />
For a quick chronjob, check out craigslist.org. You can ge the best ones there.