Developer Offers $1,000 for First Google TV Hack

Howard Harte is so eager to begin porting his apps to Google TV that he’s offering a $1,000 bounty to the first person that can show him how to root it.

Google TV has been on the market for just over a month in a handful of hardware formats, but Harte is looking for the key to them all and he says it’s not only for his own benefit, but for the Google TV platform as a whole.

Sponsor

Harte lists the rules of the game on MagicAndroidApps, stating that $1,000 will go to the first person that produces a fully software-based hack of Google TV that results in "the end-user having the ability to install third-party apps." The hack "must be applicable to production versions of Google TV devices" and delivered before Google "officially unveils third-party App development support for the Google TV." If the rules weren’t clear enough, Harte emphasized that the reward is not “for *a* rooted Google TV, it’s $1,000 for the knowledge to be able to root any Google TV.”

Harte says that his first goal is to get his app, Better Terminal Emulator Pro, working on Google TV.

"I’d like to get a jump on porting my Android apps to Google TV," Harte told us. "Unlike many Android apps, most of mine make use of native code, so [they] are dependent on the type of CPU.  I have ported Better Terminal Emulator Pro to the x86 CPU, but have not yet been able to test on an official Google platform, so having an open Google TV will help in that regard.  All other Android devices to date are ARM-based, which is why I want a rooted Google TV."

Beyond his own purpose, however, Harte says that rooting Google TV could be good for the platform.

"As we’ve seen in the phone segment, having competition from custom ROMs helps push the mainstream Android development envelope," explained Harte. "I think ROM developers getting behind Google TV will give the platform the shot in the arm that it needs to flourish."

Whether you’re in it for the good of the Google TV developer community or the cool grand, we say get to hacking…and if you stumble across a hardware-based method along the way, Harte might have $500 for you too.

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