At last! The Apple TV has finally been hacked to use a USB mass storage device, eliminating the need to open it up to install a bigger hard drive. The hack is pretty straightforward. You'll need an Intel Mac and also SSH enabled on your Apple TV, so you can "dial in" over the network. After that, you need to install the patch, but that only involves typing one line in the Terminal, the Mac's Unix command line application.
After that, wait for the Apple TV to restart and you're good to go. Plug in the USB drive and it will now be used as the main storage for music and movies. Looks like Apple was being a little optimistic in this FAQ item:
The usual disclaimers apply: Back everything up first, etc. The patch comes with an uninstaller, and only works with the original v1.0 Apple TV software. Terabyte-tastic!
USB patch released. HALLELUJAH! [Apple TV Hacks]
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