As people are waiting for the 1080p Apple TV to be jailbroken, the prices of the already jailbroken 720p Apple TV have risen immensely, the older Apple TV (new in box) is going for as much as $230 on Amazon and eBay, while the newer model with 1080p is going for as little as $90, on some sites. Those who want more features on their Apple TV are apparent willing to pay significantly more for an older version.
It does however seem as if there might be hope for 1080p Apple TV owners who are after the jailbreak features, according to someone within the jailbreak community a jailbreak for the third-generation Apple TV is indeed in the works. Additionally, James Abeler of FireCore told 9to5Mac.com the following:
There is a group of very bright and talented individuals working on a lead that could result in a usable jailbreak for the 3rd gen Apple TV. While there is no telling how long this process could take, we remain optimistic that a jailbreak for this device will be available in the future. For the record, no one at FireCore is involved in the jailbreak discovery process.
We find it interesting that people are willing to pay three times the money for older hardware just so they can jailbreak it, what do you think? would you pay $230 just so you could jailbreak your Apple TV?
Hands down this is the most important value these AppleTVs have. Without the third party apps the AppleTV is merely an iTunes store gateway with a few handy additions like AirPlay. Ironically using the AirPlay feature in essence makes AppleTV have apps, but it’s really not even close to the same usability as when it’s jailbroken and utilizing a network attached HDD. Direct access of your archived content is much better, with true DTS digital surround sound audio and capability to decode higher bit-rate video. Accessing network drives is essential.
I would argue the one exceedingly depressing feature missing from iOS is a native file browsing and network attached storage features. This applies to all iOS devices including AppleTV.