we posted instructions on how to get boxee running on Apple TV 2.3 manually, but it was a bit hackish (you had to open a Terminal, ssh into your Apple TV and run a few commands), which means fun for some of us, and a serious no-go for most of us.

so it was great to see Scott Davilla and Stephan Diederich to act quickly and come up with a new version of the USB Creator. now it is as easy as before to get boxee/xbmc on the Apple TV.  ~ 35,000 people have already done it! (maybe more). Scott and Stephan deserve all the credit for making it happen. and making it so easy.

a quick reminder, once you download the latest version of the USB Creator follow these steps:

1. insert a bootable USB key (1GB) to one of your USB slots and run the USB Creator (disconnect any external USB drives connected to your laptop to avoid crying once you discovered you just formatted a 1TB drive with all your media..). see a video how-to guide.
2. plug the patchstick into your Apple TV and reboot it (i.e. disconnect and reconnect power cord), you’ll see a penguin. this is good. now wait till it finishes the install.
3. take out the patchstick and reboot
4. you’ll see a new option in the Apple TV menu ‘xbmc/boxee’, go to Update and choose ‘Boxee’. let it do its thing.

that’s it. you’re done. now you can run boxee and start playing MKVs, streaming from last.fm, Hulu, etc.

known bug: sometimes when launching boxee you’ll see a blackscreen (instead of boxee’s login screen). click Menu (back) on your Apple Remote, and try again. Scott & Stephan are working on a new launcher that will eliminate this bug once and for all.

known bug 2: if freezing at boxee login screen, please see this forum thread. its a geeky solution, but beats factory restoring your atv.. our next release will take care of this, so the fix will no longer be necessary.