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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.
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-
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
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, it voids their warranty because they dont want to pay tech staff to fix it when you mod your firmware, and it locks up.
When the price of a device is set, is is set with an assumption that a certian level of support is needed. They do not count for people having un-flashable firmware, because they modify their firmware to the point of total failure.
In any embedded device, it is not hard to write over the wrong part of your firmware, which will block you from restoring your firmware. If you do this, who is going to fix it for you? Also, lets say you modify the firmware to make non-optimal use of the hard drive, causing the hard drive to fail quicker. Should they be responsible for fixing this?
So, they decide to make firmware mods a warranty voiding act. They are not saying "You cannot mod your firmware". They are saying "If you mod your firmware, we are not responsible for it when it breaks."
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?
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.
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.
- 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.