Slashdot Mirror
Hacking the iPod Firmware
skreuzer writes "Earlier in the week, someone figured out how to get all the fonts and graphics off the iPod's firmware. Today, Engadget has an article that details on how to mod your own iPod's firmware and display just about any graphic for icons such as power, battery, status, etc."
Hardly modding the firmware! Isn't there some way of programming your own apps on the thing?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Please forgive my ignorance, but why was parent modded as funny?
When I came to choose a digital music player the choice for me was obviously an iRiver. Since I have an extensive collection of Ogg files and I generally rip CDs in Ogg format, an Ogg player was the best choice.
I'm sure I'm not alone in my decision and my situation, so giving the iPod Ogg support would have meant me buying that instead of the iRiver.
Having said that, the HP-120 is great and I highly recommend it to anyone with an extensive Ogg collection.
THE HONOUR OF THE KNIGHTS - CC Licensed Sci-Fi Novel
As far as I can tell, this can't damage the iPod's hardware, can it? I hope that companies grow more "hacker friendly" in the future--offer stronger warranties, and allow (even encourage) tinkering.
Also, I'd be more interested in hacks like this if I weren't so happy with Apple's nice default UI. Don't get me wrong--it's a wonderful technical achievement that these guys have hacked the iPod's firmware. I just think that most iPod owners are happy with the default graphics.
Raj Against the Machine! http://social-butterfly.appspot.com/
"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft."
- H.G. Wells
Your argument is predicated on the nonsensical idea that the only reason anyone ever buys an iPod is to be seen having an iPod. That only élite, Hollywood types can afford such a device is simply untrue-I own one, my cousin is getting one for Christmas, and I know a few other people who have one. None of us is what you'd call rich.
I'd gladly pay another three hundred dollars for a new one, because the iPod is, quite simply, the most useful device I've bought in ages. I can (and do) take several days' worth of music with me wherever I go in a box the size of a deck of cards. It's easy to copy music to (and from) the iPod. I can use it as a hard drive. The UI is simple and elegant and clear. The iPod stands head and shoulders above the rest of the pack.
That's why people buy them.
Good luck getting surround sound out of the iPod hardware.
People have always had a need to stand out in, individually or as a group. It can be your clothes, your car, your behavior, your language, your status symbols, your furniture etc. etc. Both in terms of high status, social group (us vs rest) and individually (you vs world).
Artists have been creating their own designs forever. Couple hundred years ago here, speaking Latin proved you were a "learned scholar". 100 years ago the executives built housing on top of the hill, workers down the hillside. 60 years ago clothing was used to signalize if you were against the Nazis. 30 years you'd be wearing hippie clothes and join protests. And today you mod your iPod to show how "cool" you are.
The "plastic surgery" generation is nothing more than human nature with better tools for the job. People were just as willing to endure for the sake of beautey before as they are now.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Yes, it is superior quality to mp3 at the same filesize.
Why not just rip your CDs you bought in ACC format?
Please tell me where I can find an ACC ripper. BTW I use Linux on all my machines.
Well said. From a business perspective, why would you want to support a non-proprietary format when you're proprietary one is now a market leader? Things might be different if the iPod wasn't so hot and Apple was forced to add features to try to gain marketshare. Things look different from the top. Just ask Microsoft.
AnimeNEXT anime convention
It's a troll. The "iPods are only cool because they're trendy" comment is posted, in one form or another, in EVERY iPod topic.
It always illicits the same responses: "I got it because it's the best, not because it's cool", "I hide my iPod to not get mugged for it", and "you slashdot geeks just don't get it". Then the comparisons come up between the iPod and less "hip" players.
It is absolutely a troll, because it sets out to offend iPod owners and get them to defend their gadget. And what do you mean, "when I posted"... when you posted what?
What's so strange, the guys know more of programming anything in Windows than they know of MacOs X?
It's human nature. For anything personal, there is always an attempt to modify it. It happens way, way before there is a "plastic surgery generation". Even in the dawn of civilization, people do things to chage their look: tattoo, piercings, etc..
We are cursed with the desire to conform (buy iPod!!) and yet at the same time the desire to be unique (mod the iPod!!).
Um, think about this for a minute. The main site of MacRumors is devoted to *rumors*. This wasn't even good enough to make the front page.
Sure, it'd be nice, but it's as likely as a snowball in a fusion reactor.
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.