Apple TV can finally play games, courtesy of HTML5

A number of set-top boxes allow for all sorts of wonderful things on a television. Games and applications abound, but typically not for the Apple TV, at least not until now. Games are indeed possible on Apple’s oft-forgotten device, but not through the App Store.
The game that proves this is blackjack, and much to Jobs’ delight, it is HTML5-based. Given the breadth of Apple’s App Store, it is strange that the first game for Apple TV comes to the general public through a jailbroken device. Granted, it’s only one game, if a relatively simple one, but it shows the potential of Cupertino’s set-top box.
HTML5 is the latest generation of HTML, hypertext markup language in long form. It introduces a range of features that make creating games without the need for a plug-in like Adobe Flash a reality. It’s already being taken advantage of with Biolab Disaster being a great example of what’s possible in game form, and browser developers are trying to take full advantage of it with every new release.
Cupertino has acknowledged that Apple TV is simply a hobby. It receives nowhere near as much press as the iDevices: the iPad and iPhone among them. Apple TV, it seems, is an untapped resource. The potential is there, but Apple is too busy in other departments to really devote any time to it.
There are, however, rumored updates for Apple TV which suggests that it isn’t dead yet. There might even be an Apple HDTV in the pipeline. How Apple will move forward with it isn’t yet clear as a great deal of time has been devoted to OS X Lion, iCloud, and iOS 5. With iCloud on the horizon, Apple TV could see a spike in popularity.

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