iPod 'squeaks' betray software secrets

[Dippo]

Computer enthusiasts have worked out how to reprogram Apple's iPod music player with their own code using an ingenious acoustic trick.

To decipher the bootloader code - the program which allows the iPod to start up - Schneider decided to use Leach's system to play the bootloader code as sound.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7085

This was really creative. Maybe we will see some other uses for the iPod beyond just playing music.

[Hemingray]

Wow, that is amazing... how on earth would anyone even think to crack the iPod using sound? :eek:

[Mechcozmo]

Wowzers!

[Daveway]

Can someone translate thisinto plain English? :confused: :o

[killuminati]

Can someone translate thisinto plain English? :confused: :o

My thoughts exactly

[Mechcozmo]

Can someone translate thisinto plain English? :confused: :o

Used a noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise) to control (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=control) iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/). iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) is the thing (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=thing) that makes the noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise), however (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=however). The iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) controls itself with noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise).

[dotdotdot]

Used a noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise) to control (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=control) iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/). iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) is the thing (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=thing) that makes the noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise), however (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=however). The iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) controls itself with noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise).

I did not go to one of those links lol...

Yep, summed it up well.

---

Who would have thought an iPod could make noise? :confused: :p :rolleyes:

[sjpetry]

Used a noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise) to control (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=control) iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/). iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) is the thing (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=thing) that makes the noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise), however (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=however). The iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) controls itself with noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise).
Hmmmm..........interesting. :rolleyes: :p

[killuminati]

Used a noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise) to control (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=control) iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/). iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) is the thing (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=thing) that makes the noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise), however (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn2.0?stage=1&word=however). The iPod (http://www.apple.com/ipod/) controls itself with noise (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safari&rls=en&oi=defmore&q=define:noise).

I now have the word noise stuck in my head. I keep repeating it slowly. Noise....noise...n-o-i-s-e

[Mechcozmo]

I did not go to one of those links lol...

Yep, summed it up well.

---

Who would have thought an iPod could make noise? :confused: :p :rolleyes:

Those links go to a dictionary. So that you barely need to know English to understand what I meant.

And I didn't know that iPods could make noise until just recently-- I was using my 1G iPod like I always do when suddenly after I pressed the play button I saw the 1st song in my iTunes Library start to play! Amazing!

I now have the word noise stuck in my head. I keep repeating it slowly. Noise....noise...n-o-i-s-e

The n (http://www.cogsci.princeton.edu/cgi-bin/webwn?stage=1&word=noise) o (http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/diGi8tech/NGlossary.html) i (http://www.duke.edu/~charvey/Classes/wpg/bfglosn.htm) s (http://www.fiber-optics.info/glossary-n.htm) e (http://www.techfest.com/networking/cabling/cableglos.htm) that you hear is caused by something inside your head (http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=define:head&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8).

[hob]

Ok, ok... put the handbags (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbag) away...
I'm mildly confused as to what exactly this guy did here, but I realise why he did it. I've been tempted to put linux on my ipod but with my only experience of Linux/Unix being Mac OS X, struggling with Suse 7 or getting laughed at by computer science students... I decided to give it a miss

[comictimes]

Well, as far as I can tell, without being slightly obnoxious (don't worry, it was still highly entertaining :p ), this guy wanted to install linux on his ipod (I did it with my old one.... never really understood the appeal.. nothing changed). Unfortunately, that program doesn't work anymore because the ipod has changed since the program was made. So this ridiculously smart 17-year-old goes and finds some obscure program that a guy in England created to control that clicking noise that the ipod makes. Then smart-kid goes and makes each click correspond to a different piece of information going through the ipod as it starts up, with longer amounts of time between clicks to mean different types of information (you know, 0's and 1's... that sort of thing). So now, when the ipod starts up, the program that starts it up is sending lots of information through the ipod, and so the ipod is clicking along with each piece of information. So, in order to see what all of these clicks mean, i.e. what exactly the program is doing, this guy puts the ipod in a sound-proof box, starts it up, and records the sounds it's making. Then he puts the recording onto his computer, uses yet another program to decipher the noises back into the information they represent, and voíla! he has the program that controls the ipod. So now people can make extra programs (games, utilities, etc.) that work on the ipod around this program.


Tell me if I'm completely wrong, but I think that's about it, in slightly more simple terms than the article...

[killuminati]

ahhhh, now i see.

Thank you comictimes. Assuming thats correct what kinds of programs would developers be able to make for it? Would the iPod become like a pda?

[angelneo]

Maybe they can hand out doctorates in the study of ipods.

Seriously, all of these is becoming rather disturbing... in a nice sort of way.

[nagromme]

LOTS of software.

Games mainly so far: minesweeper, tetris, pong, asteroids, connect-4... but other stuff too, like a calculator, a file browser with black-and-white image viewer. That's all working now, plus anything else people come up with. Plus enabling voice recording (through the earbuds) and allowing music playback of other formats, like Ogg. There's even some work being done on porting Doom I to iPod!

And best of all, you can toggle between the "Podzilla" Linux GUI and the standard Apple system. Nice!

http://ipodlinux.org

Can'r wait for them to get it working on color screens! Plus the iPod Photo has more pixels to work with.

One day, a color-screen iPod Mini with 10 GB drive and Linux will be the coolest geek gadget on the planet :)

[notjustjay]

So basically he made a modem (well, an acoustic coupler) and uploaded the iPod firmware to his computer. Same concept.

[Mechcozmo]

Unfortunately, that program doesn't work anymore because the ipod has changed since the program was made.

More that the chips inside the iPod changed from 3G to 4G. The Mini and the Photo use the same chips as the 4G. But the 1G, 2G, and 3G iPods use the same basic chips and so iPod Linux runs on them.

Works fine on my 1G iPod, 5 GB.

[puckhead193]

Understanding that is like trying to get windows to work! :rolleyes:
ouch...my head

[killuminati]

Understanding that is like trying to get windows to work! :rolleyes:
ouch...my head

lol good analogy :D

[SFVCyclone]

So will putting linux on an iPod make it crash less frequently? :D

[Santaduck]

So will putting linux on an iPod make it crash less frequently? :D

No joke, actually:

http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/index.shtml


edit: I guess that's basically the same as Nagromme's post. btw Nagromme, idle in irc a little longer next time so I can catch you :)

[SFVCyclone]

hey thats pretty cool actually, at first i didn't see the advantage of it because most of the time the suposed hacks were fake but thats pretty cool how it was actually done but i guess it's for the people who exclusively use linux, am i right? or would some sort of games and the like slowly trickle down to the majority of ipod owners who are unaware that things like that are possible?