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Hacking the iPod Firmware

Posted by michael on from the void-your-warranty dept.

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."

4 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. adding in OGG? by the_2nd_coming · · Score: 4, Interesting

    when will some one hack it to play Ogg?

    --



    I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
  2. Killer App... by Chrontius · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since Apple's not doing it, and iPod firmware is no longer clear as mud, let me suggest something to those l33ter than I: A really compelling feature would be a book reader program that can take large text files with limited HTML -- just the basics like bold, italic, and underline, maybe even blockquote.

    With Baen distributing free books in RTF format with many hardbacks, and me getting an iPod for Christmas, this just got a lot more interesting.

    If anyone figures this out, I'd be happy to send a couple Baen CDs (copied) as a thank-you.

  3. Of course it might break the HW by Flexagon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As far as I can tell, this can't damage the iPod's hardware, can it?

    How do you know? In many highly cost-reduced platforms, critical control is moved into software, so that it might be quite easy to break the hardware by breaking the software. Fiddle with the power management (charging) firmware on some mobile devices and you might blow up the batteries or at least create a serious overheating condition. This kind of thing happens often enough to cause recalls and firmware updates even in "official" firmware to easily back up a claim that hacking the software can break the hardware.

    The earlier sibling's response is also sufficiently valid on its own: the vendor has no obligation to diagnose your problems if you've changed the (software) platform that provides the basis for their diagnosis capability. You didn't pay for an advanced hardware-only diagnostic service.

  4. read on by gotr00t · · Score: 4, Interesting
    They're currently working on making it work for the newer generation of iPods. Because they use the newer chipset from PortalPlayer, the memory mappings aren't quite the same (please correct me if someone understands this better).

    You can still use your iPod firmware pretty easily. I have Linux installed on my 3G iPod, and it's kinda like a dual-boot.

    If you think about it, it's a lot easier to program in C, using documented libs (podzilla) for the iPod, rather than hacking the Apple firmware and trying to add functionality, which will probably break your firmware anyhow.