ipod

03/02/2005, 6:40pm, EST

Wednesday, March 2nd

iPod clicks reveal details, allows Linux installation

Users have worked out how to reprogram Apple's iPod with their own code using an ingenious acoustic trick, according to NewScientist. In an effort to install Linux on the iPod, a 17-year-old computer science student from Germany, used sound to decode to startup code on the iPod: "They adapted the component that generates clicks - or "squeaks" - as a user scrolls through the on-screen menu in order to extract vital information from the latest generation of the device. This allowed them to install an alternative operating system and make their iPods run games and other new programs." Nils Schneider constructed a soundproof box to record the iPod clicks and decoded the clicks into computer code to understand the hardware setup required to install Linux and other applications.

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tvalleau

I thought it was...

03/02, 6:45pm, EST

April 1, not March 1...

Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined Feb 2005

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mymacluvsme

Wow

03/02, 6:58pm, EST

Talk about computer geeks!

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trevc

Why wouldn't Apple...

03/02, 7:06pm, EST

... be the first to install a desktop operating system and install OSXStripped (Darwin) .... I mean, at the high-end 60GB, there's more than enough room!

Put a Blackberry-like keyboard and a HMD (Huge Magnifying Device), and you've got a winner! ;-)

Hey wait ... is that what's next?

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l008com

Ummm

03/02, 7:17pm, EST

I read about this months ago this is very old news!

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Nostromo

re: Why wouldn't Apple

03/02, 7:18pm, EST

Because the hard drives in the iPod aren't meant to do heavy-duty (or even normal-duty) desktop type hard drive work. The iPod drives are only meant to spin up periodically to read music into RAM, not run 24/7 like a desktop hard drive. Using an iPod as your main drive is an easy way to fry it :)

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medmuse

Mmmmmm.....

03/02, 7:49pm, EST

Yeah. I read the whole thing about two months ago too. Maybe more. Oh, and BTW, I read that Fujitsu is about to release a 120 GB 2.5 that lasts through twice as many write-rewrites; about 600,000, and Hitachi (I think) is releasing iPod sized drives commercially.

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dlindsay17

waste

03/02, 8:13pm, EST

yay! a 60gb calculator!!

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LouZer

old news

03/02, 11:01pm, EST

I thought linux has been on the iPod for over a year...

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JEB

So, basically. . . .

03/02, 11:55pm, EST

. . . . they f***'ed up their iPod, fooling around with it, and had to tell all of us about a hack-job, to make themselves sound hip.

Very hip, indeed.

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