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Dirty Greek - iPod Hacking - Change Graphics, Text, and Fonts
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Technology : iPod Hacking - Change Graphics, Text, and Fonts
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You are NOT on the DirtyGreek.Org homepage. Please CLICK HERE to go there.
 Welcome to IpodWizard. This program allows you to extract all strings, graphics, and fonts from the firmware, change them, then re-update the firmware on your iPod to include all the changes you've made.
It's really cool; I have Meatwad dancing when my iPod is charging, a neat font, new graphics for just about everything... I haven't changed the strings yet, but you can for instance change all instances of "now playing" to "now roxx0ring" or whatever.
You'll find all the instructions you'll need here in the tutorial. Find pre-made graphics and fonts in the forums in the graphics and fonts sections.
Tip: If you're trying to update your fonts, use index 13 of the fonts for 3rd gen iPods and 28 for 4th gen. You'll understand when you get there.
And no, this doesn't involve formatting your iPod. All you have to do is a little trick to make the iPod think you haven't updated your firmware, then run the iPod updater software on it to install the hacked firmware.
The tutorial tells you one way of doing this trick, but it didn't work for my 3g iPod, so here's how I do it:
 open the file iPod_Control\Device\SysInfo on the
iPod drive (iPod_Control is a hidden folder). Search for
buildID: 0x02208000 (2.2)
and change this to
buildID: 0x02108000 (2.2)
Now run the Apple firmware update software. It will think that you have a firmware on your iPod which is out of date and lets you update to the current one.
Here's what the tutorial says to do, if you want to try it:
1. Plug your iPod into your computer
2. Open iTunes
3. Open iPod Settings
4. Enable iPod for DISK MODE
5. Open My Computer and you should see your iPod like a hard drive
7. Open your iPod drive
8. Click Tools --> Folder Options --> View --> VIEW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS
9. Open the faint folder iPod_control
10. Open the faint folder device
11. Open sysInfo with the program wordpad
You should see some stuff, but most importantly, something like this:
buildID: 0x03028000 (3.0.2)
visibleBuildID: 0x03028000 (3.0.2)
The above are what a 4th generation iPod SysInfo file will show. You can manually change this here, but it is risky so
DON'T!!!!. [Editor's Note: This isn't really that risky, but go ahead and try it their way first.]
 12. Open iHack again, YES IT HAS MORE FUNCTIONS
13. On the left hand side click your iPod generation
14. Select the drive letter of your iPod from the drop-down list, e.g. H:/
15. As soon as you select your iPod drive letter, a box should appear telling you your iPod has been successfully patched
Now if you were to look in your SysInfo file it will have changed to something like this, (you don't need to look at your
SysInfo, only if your curious):
buildID: 0x03018000 (3.0.1)
visibleBuildID: 0x03018000 (3.0.1)
This will make the updater think you have an old version of the iPod firmware and will say you need an update.
But as I said, iHack didn't work for doing the trick for me. By the way, download iHack at the ipodwizard website.
Finally, speaking of iPod hacking, two really interesting things to check out are iPod Linux (Podzilla) and the website Hackaday, which has a dedicated iPod hacking section. iPod Linux is more just for the nerd of heart, but it DOES allow you to record on your iPod through the headphone jack at any bitrate you'd like. It's a little buggy right now, so I wouldn't recommend it to everyone. Hackaday is a cool site, and the iPod section includes such gems as the Altoids tin battery pack and more on firmware hacking.
Also, if you want to mod more than your software, ipodmods.com will switch out the LEDs in your iPod to make your buttons and/or LCD screen different colors to make it stand out uniquely "among the sea of white." Here's their photo gallery. For a similar change that's less permanent, try the new iSkins "Wildsides.
Enjoy!
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Posted By George on 03/17/2005 @ 09:52 AM | Link and Discuss (0) | More Technology
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