Apple TV Runs iOS, Opening Door to Apps, Jailbreaking

There have been two mysteries about the new Apple TV. 1) Was it still running the old Apple TV’s “Back Row” version of OS X? 2) Just how small is its new pared-down hard drive? Mystery #1 has been solved: just like the iPhone and iPad, Apple TV is now running iOS 4.

This is important for two reasons:

Right now, there are no apps (and no app marketplace) for Apple TV. Now we know there could be — and not on some imagined next-generation device, but this one, in the not-too-distant future.

The new Apple TV could be amenable to the same jailbreaking techniques that have worked on the iPhone and iPad — so even if Apple doesn’t start a TV app store, someone could start their own if they’re willing to live on the wild side.

Both of these consequences, though, are still a teensy bit dependent on the answer to that other mystery. Until we get a teardown, nobody’s sure exactly how much storage the new Apple TV is packing. If it’s extremely small (like say, a gig or two), there might not be room enough to store a whole bunch of apps, even if you could sideload them through that teensy micro-USB port. But even if it were a mere 16 gigs like the standard iPhone, it would probably serve third-party apps just fine, since most iOS video apps rely on streaming data from the internet.