Google TV jailbroken -- underlying Android system exposed

Google TV has successfully been jailbroken using a hardware-software double-team hack. Spurred on by Android developer Howard Harte's $1000 bounty for the first successful jailbreak, a group calling themselves GTVhacker dev team rose to the challenge, and released a 6-minute video of the their work to prove it (included after the break).

What's the big deal? Well, in Harte's own words: "What this means is that we now have a complete Android development environment for the Google TV." The jailbreak has exposed the underlying Android system, which essentially means Android on a TV, complete with the ability to run Android apps.

Don't get your hopes up too soon for a user-land jailbreak however. The process requires opening up the Logitech Revue, a bit of soldering, and a pretty involved software hack -- not something your average Joe wanting Hulu on his Google TV is likely to manage. But it's a step in the right direction, and with a bit of luck an end-user software-only jailbreak will be forthcoming. Still, for the time being, Harte is pretty stoked because he and other developers can now get started on Google TV-based applications, while Google has yet to release any development tools.

Hit the break to watch the GTVhacker dev team in action.

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Google TV jailbroken -- underlying Android system exposed originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 11 Jan 2011 04:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/01/11/google-tv-jailbroken-underlying-android-system-exposed/

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