AwkwardTV announced that there is now a 3rd party Apple TV Plug-In Installer, the application is currently in private beta testing.

The link above contains a youtube video where you can see how the interface of this plug-in installer looks. The AwkwardTV Loader can install 3rd party plug-ins for the Apple TV without need to download the plug-ins beforehand.

Available Plug-Ins for Apple TV:

ATVFiles - Simple file browser plugin

Applications Menu Plugin - Allows you to run any app on ATV from a menu

ATVWakeOnLan - Wakes up remote media servers

Apple TV Closer - Quit Apple TV interface with remote control

AppleTV RSS Plugin - RSS Feed Reader

Sports Scores - Display sports scores

Weather - Gives you a weather report

Perlbin - Run any perl script

Perian - The swiss army-knife of QuickTime components

aTV-ShareMounter - Automatic mounting of shares on bootup

One of my biggest complaints of the Apple TV is that it seems to be mostly designed for iTunes Store customers. This plugin loader is what the Apple TV needs to really gain popularity with users who have video content in varying formats.

This is certainly an impressive amount of work to have been done for the Apple TV all within the last month and a half. It’s sort of exciting to a watch a product like this get molded into what the geek public really wants.