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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."
I'm waiting for the NetBSD-iPod-HOWTO.txt
when will some one hack it to play Ogg?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Cool - all the folks in Redmond have to do is put Microsoft on the splash screen and that's the end of the problem.
I wish I could be authorized Apple service center right now.
;)
Lots of customers coming
Hardly modding the firmware! Isn't there some way of programming your own apps on the thing?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I did this. I changed the power monitor so it starts as a fully erect cock that becomes more and more flaccid as the battery runs down - it's totally hilarious. Of course, now people think I'm a gay pervert. But it's worth it.
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, it comes up in colour.
It's a *really* clever firmware hack...
-Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience-
"No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft."
- H.G. Wells
For thousands of years people have been 'modding' their clothes, houses, faces and bodies to distinguish themselves from the herd around them. Given that, I don't think hardware is a special case. If it forms part of your image then it will be changed, adapted or co-opted to help illustrate the personbrand you are. That's just the way human nature works, so no, the plastic surgery generation is irrelevant it's the an expression of desire for status, individuality and the illusion of differentiation.
Like most other things, it's just "same old, same old".
I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
Chris Nowak has figured out how to do something the smart people at engadget couldn't do, hack the iPod images without loosing all your songs or data. Check out Chris's article "iPod Hacking". Props to Nowak for coming up with this.
. ht ml
http://cnowak.blogspot.com/2004/12/ipod-hacking
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.
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
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
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.
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?
Actually, the non-Photo iPod (all models) use a 2-bit (4 color) greyscale screen. This is actually almost exactly like the screen built into Nintendo's Game Boy unit (untill GBC.). The best way I have found to convert full color images to be used with older iPod is to crack open PS> Open the image you would like to import to your iPod. Scale the image to the desired size first. Then, go to Image>Mode>Greyscale and click OK when it asks you to remove all color info. Then go to Image>Mode>RGB color. This is to get the pic back into a 32-bit pallete. You MUST DO THIS, otherwise your image won't dither correctly and it will look like crap. Finally, click Image>Mode>Indexed color... This will open a dialog. For pallete pick Adaptive (perceptual). In the number of colors dialog, type 4. For forced colors, pick Black and White (iPod screen is Black (full on), White (full off), and 33% on, 66% on for 4 'shades'). Enable Dithering using the dither method (NOT pattern) and mess with the percentage of dithering till the image is like you want it. Export to your iPod and enjoy.
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.
But what kinda MP3 codec is running in Linux?
:)
You're not making much sense, there. An MP3 decoder is an MP3 decoder. They're all the same. Some are faster or slower, but they all should produce identical output. MP3 encoders can vary, MP3 decoders cannot (short of implementation bugs, of course).
The MP3 decoder for the iPodLinux project isn't wholly finished yet because the kernel has some issues with the dual processors in the iPod. Work on making it faster is therefore progressing rather slowly. It's not yet suitable for public consumption, in other words. But for hacking around and trying stuff out, it's great.
And if you don't want to lose the use of your iPod, the installer can install dual boot. So that you can boot to the Apple firmware by default or boot to the Linux firmware by holding down a button at startup. Or vice-versa.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It's possible to change the text, menus, etc. also. Now you can change the "Do not disconnect." text along with the graphic. Warning: this is nowhere near as user friendly as the ipodwizard program, but it worked for me using a 4th gen. iPod on linux. Just download the firmware with dd from the /dev/sdx1 partition, open up a hex editor and replace whatever text you want. There's a checksum located at 0x421C that needs to be updated. There's a checksum2.c program that can calculate and write a firmware's checksum. I'm not going to post a link to it due to the author's wish to avoid a slashdotting but a bit of searching should find it. I found that this program didn't calculate the checksum correctly but always returned a value 16418 too high so I just modified it to subtract this constant. This is almost certainly specific for my particular ipod verson. After the firmware is written back with dd, the text modifications show up. All the text that can be reasonably edited is located together in one block in the file. I changed what shows up under Settings->About->Format from "Windows" to "Linux" so now I have a Linux iPod.
Try turning it off and flashing with the phone off, but charging - if I remember properly, this puts it into a USB-receptive mode.
Then again, you might have nuked that too, I don't know.
---
Mod me down, you fucking twits. Go ahead. I dare you.
(I read with sigs off.)
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.
Not sure how many people will actually take the time to change the graphics???
Don't get me wrong... the idea of changing the pictures on your iPod and personalizing your iPod is really cool! I just don't know how many will take the time and effort to do it.
Really clever firmware hack by the way.
http://allwaysmusic.modblog.com/
I believe Apple have one already. It what they use to produce the iPod screen captures on their website, such as: http://images.apple.com/ipod/images/musiccalendar_ 20040719.gif.
Careful what you wish for.
I know that my 4G has a different screen than yours, but it seems like the response time on my screen is really slow. Sometimes it's difficult to read the song title as it's scrolling. It would be nice if I could turn this off.
However, my #1 most wanted feature would be to decrease the sensitivity of song rating changes. I can't figure out why it doesn't just do one star per quarter-turn or so.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
- Take a picture of your iPod *
- Scale appropriately and replace whatever built-in picture you like.
- Take a picture of this picture on your iPod *
- Go to step 2.
* If you like, include a cat looking at your iPod.