There have been many AppleTV hacks floating around for awhile now, and while some have been very well done, many have been hard to implement for the average user. It usually involves the process of some programming knowledge in order to create a patchstick, which will then enable SSH on the AppleTV, which will then lead to you being able to install some hacks. However, there is a new program out titled “atvusb-creator” which allows you to easily create (using a GUI) an AppleTV USB patchstick with XBMC and Boxee on it.
The whole process is very simple, as I did it myself in just minutes the other night. Simply insert a USB drive into your computer, run the program following the instructions on their Google Code site, and you will have XBMC up on your AppleTV in no time. It will simply be a new option under your main AppleTV menu.
So what are the benefits of having XBMC on your AppleTV? Well, the main reason I really wanted it is so that I can run many different formats straight on my ATV now, which had been a bit limited before. Files such as XviD and DivX will now play with no conversion necessary. It also boasts a ton of others features such as weather, plugin support, last.fm support, many different plugins/visualizers and much more. Check out their site for all the cool features that they offer.