We recently wrote about the plethora of unnoficial AppleTV hacks to have surfaced on the Internet, including a plug-in that brought YouTube access to Apple’s set-top-box. As of today that particular hacker can take a well earned rest (or move onto another cool project) because Apple will soon release an update which enables the device to browse, search, and playback YouTube content.

From the press release:

Beginning in mid-June, Apple TV will wirelessly stream videos directly from YouTube and play them on a user’s widescreen TV. Using Apple TV’s elegant interface and simple Apple Remote, viewers can easily browse, find and watch free videos from YouTube in the comfort of their living room.

Also of note is that users will be able to log-in to their YouTube accounts from the AppleTV so that they’ll be able to view and save their favorite videos.

YouTube support on the AppleTV is something that I’ve called for right from the start, and in many ways I’m not surprised to see Apple add this new feature. One of the reasons that the hackers have had so much joy developing unofficial add-ons is because the AppleTV’s software already has a plug-in architecture — suggesting that Apple always intended to roll out new functionality. (What upgrades do you think we’ll see next? Let us know in the comments.)

In more AppleTV-related news, Apple now offers a build-to-order version of its set-top-box with the option of a 160GB hard drive — priced at an extra $100 ($399). Nice!

In a recent post titled ‘When will Steve Jobs open up the AppleTV?‘, I looked at what the future may hold for Apple’s set-top-box, noting the progress being made by hackers who continue to add new functionality. Today, AwkwardTV reports on the release of an unofficial AppleTV development kit which should significantly speed up the time it takes for third-parties to create new plug-in applications for the device.

Written by Mac developer, Alan Quatermain, the kit includes a template for Apple’s Xcode development software, as well as an AppleTV ‘simulator’ for testing purposes.

YouTube’s embeddable flash video player is being given a makeover that adds improvements to its user interface, along with some additional functionality. The unofficial Google blog, Google Operating System, discovered some instances of the new player, and has published screen shots and further details.

New functionality includes the ability to skip forward to any point in the video, even before it’s finished loading (something inherited from Google Video). The new version of the player also improves the way it handles recommendations; hover your mouse over the video and a Mac OSX-like dock pops up, offering thumbnails of related videos.

Accessing the embed code has also become easier. Click on the menu button and you’re given two options: grab the embed code for the video or the URL of the YouTube page that displays the video.

With an ever greater amount of video being consumed online, many Internet users are in for a shock. There’s a dirty little secret in the broadband industry: Internet Service Providers (ISPs) don’t have the capacity to deliver the bandwidth that they claim to offer. One way ISPs attempt to conceal this problem is to place a cap of say 1GB per-month per user, something which is common in the UK for many of the lower-cost broadband packages on the market. Considering that a mere three hours viewing of Joost (the new online video service from the founders of Skype — see our review) would all but use up this monthly allowance, it’s clear that lots of Internet users aren’t invited to the party.

But what about those who (like me) pay more for ‘unlimited’ broadband access? There shouldn’t be a problem, right? Wrong. Continue reading »