State of the Apple TV jailbreak [updated]

After going weeks without hearing any news regarding the jailbreak status of Apple’s latest gadgets, we are finally starting to get some information. Earlier this morning we gave you an update on the iOS 5.1 jailbreak, and now we have news on the Apple TV.

Infamous ATV hacker and Chronic Dev Team member Bile published a blog post yesterday explaining the current state of the ATV jailbreak. He notes that while things look good for ATV 2 owners, they don’t look so good for the new ATV 3…

“I’m sure many reading this post are aware that with the geohots A4 limera1n exploit it’s always possible (and quite simple) to jailbreak each new version that is released with relative ease. What isn’t easy is finding a vulnerability for an untethered exploit…

…The tethered jailbreak is only part of the problem, right now we are still busy sorting out  legacy and compatibility issues to make sure all roads still go through beigelist when loading third party appliances. I’m not certain how long it will take to merge the differences between beigelist and espresso, hopefully, not much longer.”

This is great news for folks with second-generation Apple TVs that want to upgrade to the new ATV interface, but don’t want to lose their jailbreak. Bile adds that nitoTV works about 95%, and the folks at FireCore are also progressing along nicely.

But the new Apple TV won’t be so easy to crack:

“I’m not saying the Apple TV 3 is hopeless, however, without an A5 bootrom exploit being found, each Apple TV 3 jailbreak (after the first one happens) will be an uphill battle. Nothing earth shattering here, wish I had better news on this front.”

It’s safe to say that, as with other iOS devices, we’ll see the ATV 2 (A4) jailbreak long before we’ll see one for the ATV 3 (A5). If you’re wondering what all of the fuss is about, be sure to check out our post on the benefits of jailbreaking the Apple TV.

Update: Shortly after we published this post, FireCore released a new version of Seas0nPass that will allow you to jailbreak your ATV 2 on iOS 5.1. Click here for more information.