I posted these instructions over at iPodTouchFans last night, but, figuring that they will surely be useful to a wide range of 1G Touch users, I'm hoping to get this discovery some more exposure. Please feel free to leave feedback on your success rate with this technique.
For all you Touch 1G users out there who feel shunned by App Store developers certifying their Microphone-aware apps for Touch 2G users but NOT for 1G users who have discovered that their "Made for iPod" dock connector microphones work JUST FINE with these apps when running iPhone OS 2.2 on their 1G Touches (WITHOUT any jailbreak even), I think I just found a solution for you!
Previously, we had to resort to such hackery as jailbreaking our devices and then manually extracting the .app from the .ipa and copying it over to /Applications, which worked without actually cracking the apps, but it was an ugly solution because A) apps could not be removed or sync'd to iTunes in the normal fashion, B) the app icons looked squared off and ugly, C) apps that added things to Settings (that is, included a Settings.bundle) would not have their settings show up in the Settings applet when installed in this fashion.
But no longer! You can now install these apps on your 1G touch Jailbreak-free AND sans cracking!
Here's what you do...it's real simple:
1) Purchase the microphone app that you want to run on your computer, in iTunes. Try to sync that application to your Touch; you should get a message that says "The application was not installed on the iPod because it is not compatible with this iPod." A bunch of hooey, as we will see in a minute.
2) Find the IPA file that iTunes downloaded to your computer (should be in a folder called Mobile Applications, the location of which varies depending on platform: Windows or MacOS), and temporarily rename it to have an extension of ZIP.
3) Open it up and extract the iTunesMetadata.plist file from it.
4) Try opening it. If it is human-readable, skip to step 5. If it is in binary format, upload it to http://www.kilrathy.net/plist-converter and save the converted file it gave you, OVERWRITING the original. Now try opening it again.
5) Look for the section that looks like this (search for 'softwareSupportedDeviceIds'):
Now, don't worry if it doesn't look EXACTLY like this. Some will have only one integer listed in the array, and some will have more than one.
6) Modify it to look like this:
So, basically, reduce it down to one integer, and make that integer equal to 1. This softwareSupportedDeviceIds key is the key that tells iTunes what models of iPhone and iPod Touch are compatible with this app, and in essence we just told it that it is compatible with all models.
7) Save your iTunesMetadata.plist with these modifications, OVERWRITING the file you are editing.
8) Now, replace the iTunesMetadata.plist file that is in your application IPA file (which right now is a ZIP) with the modified one you just finished editing in the steps above.
9) Rename the ZIP back with an extension of IPA.
10) If you made a copy of the original IPA to edit, replace the IPA file in your Mobile Applications folder with this one.
Now, restart iTunes and try to sync that application to your iPod Touch 1G again. Success! Now you may simply plug in your MacAlly iVoice III or equivalent dock connector microphone (don't forget the headphones, too!), and have fun using your new microphone applications, on your non-jailbroken first-gen Touch!
DISCLAIMER: All that we did was trick iTunes into letting you install this app. We did NOT crack the apps; this solution only works for apps that you have legitimately purchased from the iTunes Store. Future updates for this app will have to undergo the same treatment before they will install, and the App Store applet on the Touch will not download and install updates for these apps over-the-air because it still thinks that your device is not compatible with these applications. Furthermore, just because the app was installed does NOT guarantee that it will work. The majority of microphone-aware applications in the App Store WILL work; however, a very small subset of apps have already been discovered that will not (examples include Google Search, which will install even without this hack but won't allow you to use the Voice Search feature, as well as Shazam 1.5, even though the earlier 1.0 release functions perfectly well on the 1G Touch with the MacAlly microphone).
Happy microphone-ing!
-- Nathan
For all you Touch 1G users out there who feel shunned by App Store developers certifying their Microphone-aware apps for Touch 2G users but NOT for 1G users who have discovered that their "Made for iPod" dock connector microphones work JUST FINE with these apps when running iPhone OS 2.2 on their 1G Touches (WITHOUT any jailbreak even), I think I just found a solution for you!
Previously, we had to resort to such hackery as jailbreaking our devices and then manually extracting the .app from the .ipa and copying it over to /Applications, which worked without actually cracking the apps, but it was an ugly solution because A) apps could not be removed or sync'd to iTunes in the normal fashion, B) the app icons looked squared off and ugly, C) apps that added things to Settings (that is, included a Settings.bundle) would not have their settings show up in the Settings applet when installed in this fashion.
But no longer! You can now install these apps on your 1G touch Jailbreak-free AND sans cracking!
Here's what you do...it's real simple:
1) Purchase the microphone app that you want to run on your computer, in iTunes. Try to sync that application to your Touch; you should get a message that says "The application was not installed on the iPod because it is not compatible with this iPod." A bunch of hooey, as we will see in a minute.
2) Find the IPA file that iTunes downloaded to your computer (should be in a folder called Mobile Applications, the location of which varies depending on platform: Windows or MacOS), and temporarily rename it to have an extension of ZIP.
3) Open it up and extract the iTunesMetadata.plist file from it.
4) Try opening it. If it is human-readable, skip to step 5. If it is in binary format, upload it to http://www.kilrathy.net/plist-converter and save the converted file it gave you, OVERWRITING the original. Now try opening it again.
5) Look for the section that looks like this (search for 'softwareSupportedDeviceIds'):
Code:
<key>softwareSupportedDeviceIds</key>
<array>
<integer>2</integer>
<integer>4</integer>
</array>Now, don't worry if it doesn't look EXACTLY like this. Some will have only one integer listed in the array, and some will have more than one.
6) Modify it to look like this:
Code:
<key>softwareSupportedDeviceIds</key>
<array>
<integer>1</integer>
</array>So, basically, reduce it down to one integer, and make that integer equal to 1. This softwareSupportedDeviceIds key is the key that tells iTunes what models of iPhone and iPod Touch are compatible with this app, and in essence we just told it that it is compatible with all models.
7) Save your iTunesMetadata.plist with these modifications, OVERWRITING the file you are editing.
8) Now, replace the iTunesMetadata.plist file that is in your application IPA file (which right now is a ZIP) with the modified one you just finished editing in the steps above.
9) Rename the ZIP back with an extension of IPA.
10) If you made a copy of the original IPA to edit, replace the IPA file in your Mobile Applications folder with this one.
Now, restart iTunes and try to sync that application to your iPod Touch 1G again. Success! Now you may simply plug in your MacAlly iVoice III or equivalent dock connector microphone (don't forget the headphones, too!), and have fun using your new microphone applications, on your non-jailbroken first-gen Touch!
DISCLAIMER: All that we did was trick iTunes into letting you install this app. We did NOT crack the apps; this solution only works for apps that you have legitimately purchased from the iTunes Store. Future updates for this app will have to undergo the same treatment before they will install, and the App Store applet on the Touch will not download and install updates for these apps over-the-air because it still thinks that your device is not compatible with these applications. Furthermore, just because the app was installed does NOT guarantee that it will work. The majority of microphone-aware applications in the App Store WILL work; however, a very small subset of apps have already been discovered that will not (examples include Google Search, which will install even without this hack but won't allow you to use the Voice Search feature, as well as Shazam 1.5, even though the earlier 1.0 release functions perfectly well on the 1G Touch with the MacAlly microphone).
Happy microphone-ing!
-- Nathan
