A few months ago, Apple changed their policy to no longer require membership in their $99 developer program in order to test apps on Apple devices. This means anyone can sideload apps onto iOS devices without having to pay Apple or jailbreak their device. The new Apple TV runs tvOS which is heavily based off of iOS, so it’s likely these same new lax rules for loading unofficial apps also apply to the new Apple TV. This may mean that it will be possible to sideload Kodi onto the new Apple TV without jailbreaking.
If sideloading Kodi onto the new Apple TV is possible, the process will be significantly more difficult than sideloading Kodi onto the Fire TV or Fire TV Stick. For starters, it will only be possible with an Apple computer. You will need to use Xcode, Apple’s development software, and compile Kodi yourself using the app’s source code. Even if you have the required Apple hardware and the proficiency to compile your own Apple TV software, there’s no guarantee the current iOS version of Kodi will work for the new Apple TV. If that’s the case, I’d imagine that supporting a device with such a difficult installation path wouldn’t be high on the Kodi team’s list of priorities.
@AFTVnews
AFTVnews
Is this ATVnews or AFTVnews?
Fire tv talk has slowed to a crawl if you visit other forums. I welcome the discussion of all things streaming. Great job Elias. Keep it coming!
Agreed, Elias has done a great job and I think it’s very cool that AFTVnews is branching out to casting. I tell any Fire TV or Stick owners I meet about AFTVnews. I just noticed a couple posts today about Apple TV and thought ‘?!’. I guess a ;) was in order.
Give the guy a break. There won’t be much AFTV news until the new one is announced.
I was going to post that
Oh, didn’t you know? “AFTVnews” stands for “Apple & Fire TV news” ;-P
Tech news always slows to a crawl any week Apple holds an event. Fridays of those weeks are especially slow. Hence the few Apple TV articles I’ve written.
I’ve always said that this site will occasionally branch off and cover non-Fire TV Amazon news and TV gadget news (i.e., Fire TV alternatives) when there isn’t enough Fire TV news to fill my time.
Thanks to everyone who chimed in backing up my decision to cover the Apple TV a bit. I really appreciate it.
Pssh…please don’t criticize! I love this site!
Why bother going to all that trouble when it’s so easy to sideload Kodi onto a Fire TV or stick?
Well said in previous comments; Besides knowing the latest and greatest about AFTV, I like to know about other, similar devices to know where the one I love (hint: AFTV) stands among all the rest in capabilities, apps, price, etc.
Having only one piece doesn’t give you the whole picture. And this article is ESPECIALLY relevant, given that MANY of us are such avid AFTV fans BECAUSE of KODI. Nice to know other KODI developments. Keep the news coming!
Well Elias, I am one of those apple enthusiast I have the apple hardware and I have Xcode, the problem will be Kodi, support hopefully one of the other branches of the KODI, platform will support the ATV.
Hehe,
Everybody is talking about how to get Kody on ApplTV,
But nobody is talking about the missing Web Browser on the Box.
I had some hope that this won’t be just another ‘Streamer’ for
Netflix and the standard Apps.
I mean even the PS3 has a Web Browser, and is nice to check the News when you want or search something direct on TV.
And with this ‘new’ Remote you could in theory also controll a Mouse (like on lg WebOS and any AndroidBox) either with the touchpad or as AirMouse (with the Gyro-Accelerometer sensors)
I was waiting to see what Appl has to offer before buying a new TVBox, to replace my older AndroidBox, but unill now none of the Boxes has all the Ports i need like: 3,5mm Audio Out, Ethernet, USB.
But let’s see what Fire TV2 would look like. (Analog Audio Out?)
With so ‘many’ devices that either are missing important Ports or importand features is hard to decide wich is the right one to buy when none is offering the ‘full package’.
Good observation (and strange that no one else seemed to notice including myself).
I rarely use a browser on aftv. Im a creature of habit and always have a phone in hand that I can use to download and send files to aftv. But for some people the web browser is how they install apks among other stuff. Its one more thing to add to the list. I want to like this box but I cant realistically say its better than the shield and probably not better aftv gen 2.
U guys are great w how to get Kodi on ATV4! That’s all we want. It would b nice if Apple wasn’t so anal-as it seems to b they r easing restrictions in realizing that brilliant hackers are worth more than gold…
have you tried it?