The XBMC team has posted a finished version of its comprehensive 11.0 Eden update. The version is the first fully updated version to simultaneously reach both desktop platforms as well as jailbreak-based implementations on the second-generation Apple TV and iOS. Every platform now lets an XBMC device serve as an AirPlay target for video and more.
In a rare first ahead of more official outlets, XBMC forum member aicjofs has posted a teardown of the newer 1080p-capable Apple TV that shows a number of changes. As suspected, it has upgraded from an A4 to an A5, although it's now using a slight variant on the iPad 2/iPhone 4S version with an APL2498 part number. Apple's media hub now has 512MB of RAM as well, which along with a second core should improve performance across the device, not just in the higher resolution video.
The $25 to $35 Raspberry Pi computer is closing in on its first shipments. The micro PC was expected to ship today, but that now has slipped a few days until Thursday or Friday. When it does ship, the Pi will come loaded with Fedora Remix, now considered the 'blessed' version of Linux for the system.
Having just shown its hardware running AirPlay, the Raspberry Pi team has shown the $25 and sometimes $35 micro PC running XBMC (video below). The hardware, even at its price, can still run the full interface smoothly. It also plays back 1080p through the use of Open Max to give a hardware accelerated boost to the video and audio sides.
XBMC recently rolled out a significant revision of its home theater software, 11.0 Eden Beta 1, for download. Its makers say there are too many improvements to list, but the main ones include speed boosts, add-on update rollbacks, and improvements to the Confluence default skin. iOS users also now get AirPlay support with stable in-sync performance.
The team behind the Xbox Media Center has released two versions of the software for jailbroken iOS devices. XBMC is a more flexible media center platform, for instance supporting audio and video formats either omitted or deliberately blocked by hardware manufacturers. In the case of iOS devices users are also no longer limited to sharing via iTunes; the second-generation Apple TV becomes capable of streaming video in 1080p, suggesting that the standard 720p limit is artificially imposed.
