Apple`s iPod line, first released in 2001, has a consistent history of getting thinner and lighter with every generation. The future of the iPod series is likely to go even further as recent patent applications by Apple hint at their next step. Each one will also gain other predictable changes- greatly improved flash storage, longer battery life and Apple`s new strategy which seems to be cutting-edge prices. By setting the retail price of their products at the same level as the cost price for retailers to buy it from Apple they have held the price down. Apple then make their profit with sales from their Apple stores while other retail sales act as advertising for them and as loss-leaders for the retailers.

Even their most powerful mobile devices, the iPhone 4 and the iPad 2, are now 9.3mm and 8.8mm and are about to hit one of the simplest limiting factors to their thinness: the 3.5mm headphone jack. The patent filing is for three new socket designs that accept a standard 3.5mm headphone jack but by expanding when it is plugged in allow the device that contains the socket to be narrower, even narrower than the 2.5mm of the miniature jack currently in use. It remains to be seen if Apple choose to use this idea rather than designing their own flat connector as tying users into proprietary or unique designs has been a common choice in the past.

The current line up of four iPod types: the Shuffle, Nano, Classic and Touch is likely to be reduced to two or three devices as users get more used to touch screen interfaces and demand for a physical interface falls. The iPod Classic line is likely to be discontinued, leaving the very simple Shuffle and the touch display Nano and Touch.

In the future the Touch will almost certainly remain very similar to the latest generation of iPhone, though the amount of memory lags by one generation, using the same hardware and styling and lacking mobile data. The screen and battery life will be improved greatly as the Touch is aimed at dominating the portable media market for films and TV Shows. It is possible that the market for the Touch will be squeezed by the iPhone and iPad, especially if streaming media for mobile devices, such as Netflickz, continues to grow and becomes the usual way of watching media, making the Touch`s lack of mobile data crippling.

Apple`s Shuffle and Nano models may merge into one device aimed at the designer end of the MP3 player market as the falling price of touchscreens makes the the iPod Shuffle`s lack of a screen of no longer worth the cost saving. They are guaranteed to keep getting smaller to the limit imposed by being too small to use. It is not clear what technologies Apple may try to apply, possibilities include wireless Bluetooth ear buds, especially if wireless power for such a small device could be perfected with the iPod powering the earbuds. The earbuds would then be two separate items, one for each ear unconnected by the clutter of wires and as visually and physically unobtrusive as possible.

Much as the Apple iPhone does for smart phones the iPod series are still dictating the design and pace of MP3 player development.

In this How-To we’re going to show you how to change the “Do not
Disconnect” circle/slash icon that endlessly and annoyingly flashes all the
time on our desk. We replaced ours with the Engadget logo, the Sony
CEO, and Hello Kitty but any graphic will do. You can also change battery
icons, power status, boot up logos and fonts, or so it seems. We sprinted to
write this up, so we might update it as we try some new things. Now on
with the How-To!
For this hack you’ll need an iPod, obviously. We’re using the iPod photo,
but it should work with most iPods.

Next you’ll need a Windows PC with Apple’s iPod software installed.

Download and install the Apple software, this software contains the
firmware we’re going to add our own graphics to. Warning: When you do
this, you will be restoring your iPod and will loose all data, etc…Also, this
most certainly voids your warranty, so if something happens, you’re
screwed. But hey, you’ll have your own branded iPod, that’s hot and well
worth it, right?

Next up, download “iPod Wizard”

We’re not sure if Apple is going to freak out about this, it’s just like
changing icons in Mac OS X, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Unzip the file, and start iPodWizard.

Click Open Updater and choose the Apple Update Application you
downloaded, it should be in Program files > iPod.

Once open, choose the firmware for you iPod, we hacked the iPod photo
first, so it’s the IDR_FIRMWARE 5.4.0, we didn’t try all the others out
yet, but we’re guessing folks will post which one is for which iPod as they
start to hack away at it. The color one was easy, once you select the
firmware you can click the arrows to see the icons, in our case, they were
color.

Find the image you wish to replace, we wanted to replace the circle / slash
icon. Once you find it, click Save Bitmap and save the file to your system.
From there use any bitmap editor to edit the image, we used PaintShop Pro
and pasted the Engadget logo over the icon then saved it. Click Load
Bitmap and load in the image you just created.

Click Write, this will edit the firmware on your PC and then prepare it to
restore to the iPod. Once that is complete, open up Apple’s iPod update.

Make sure your iPod is plugged in, and iPod updater will look for what
firmware you can restore to, for us, it found the iPod photo and we had the
option to restore, which will then add the new firmware with our custom
image.

Click restore, and in about 5 minutes you’ll have the new image you made,
keep in mind this kills all your data, so back up before you do this. Here’s
ours…

The other one is Hello Kitty, since we know it’s just a matter of time until
someone starts selling a Hello Kitty branded iPod.

Here’s Sony’s CEO holding the Network Walkman upside down. We like
this image to remind us that even if you’re Sony and invented the
WalkMan, someone like Apple can come along and beat you hard.
We also made one for our pal Leander from Cult of Mac. We think this is
a great way to protect your iPod if someone steals it, too. Add your picture,
name and phone number, it won’t stop the thief, but it’s still a good
measure.

On a side note, Apple and every other music player maker should make
this part of the software that comes with their device, we all change the
icons, desktops, and everything else on our computers, so it makes sense to
be able to brand our music players any way we want.
Here are some of the other graphics that you can likely change, lots of cool
stuff for sure. Please post up links to your images in the comments, if
someone does something really wacky, we might give out a prize or
something.

For more information on all this, and some troubleshooting, post up in our
comments or over on where it all got started and where folks are still trying
lots of things, on iPodHacks.
iPod Wizard, whoever you are, nicely done!

Software you will need:
1. 3GP Converter (free)
• Official download page: http://www.nurs.or.jp/%7Ecalcium/3gpp/
2. Apple’s iTunes (free)
• Official download page: http://www.apple.com/itunes/

[ 1 ] First start up 3gp Converter (if this is your first time
using it, you will need to select “English” for the language).

[ 2 ] After selecting “English”, then select “Model: MP4, for
iPod” in the upper section of the 3gp Converter window.
After that click the “Apply” button.

[ 3 ] From here just select the “Output Directory” and drag and drop
the .avi file that you wish to convert to the top section of the 3gp
Converter window.

[ 4 ] After dragging and dropping the .avi file in to
the 3gp Converter window, it will now start to
convert the file for you.

[ 5 ] After converting, 3gp Converter will automatically start up iTunes and place the newly converted file you
just made in the play list window.

[ 6 ] In the iTunes window, right click the file you just made and click “Get Info”

[ 7 ] On the screen that pops up, click the “Info” tab at the top, and then begin to fill out the details (Name, Artist, Album,
etc.). The file name can be up to 255 characters in length if you wish to change it. You also have to re-add it to the play
list if you decided to re-name it.

If you have a new iPod you probably want to transfer the music and playlists from the old one to the new one. To make an 1:1 clone from one iPod to another:

- Quit iTunes.

- Move the folder “iTunes” located at /Users/YourName/Documents/ to the desktop.

- Start iTunes (everything is empty now).

- Quit iTunes (no joke, this forces the creation of the library file on disk).

- Create a folder “iTunes Music” in /Users/YourName/Documents/iTunes/.

- Use iPod2iTunes to transfer all tracks and playlists to iTunes (your disk must have enough free space to hold the entire contents of the iPod!).

- Disconnect the iPod and attach the second iPod.

- Use iTunes to transfer all playlists to the second iPod.

- Quit iTunes.

- Move the iTunes folder located at /Users/YourName/Documents/ to trash.

- Move the iTunes folder on the desktop back to /Users/YourName/Documents/.

Please note: If you have any data other than the music on your old iPod you must copy this data via the Finder to the new iPod.

A reader points out a straightforward way for Windows users to transfer music from an iPod to your hard drive, without extra software:

1. Connect the iPod to your PC. If iTunes starts syncing (ie erasing) your music automatically, hit the X in the upper right hand corner of iTunes display, to the left of the search box, to stop it.
2. In Control Panel, Portable Media Devices, double-click your iPod.
3. Navigate to the Music folder.
4. Select all the music folders, and drag and drop them into a folder on your hard drive, or directly into iTunes.

And you’re done! The iPod music folder structure is strange and inexplicable, but once you move your files into iTunes you can set it to automatically organize your folder by artist and album to clean that up. (To do this, in iTunes Edit menu, choose Preferences and in the Advanced tab, check “Keep iTunes Music Folder organized.”)

If you give this a go, lemme know how it goes. I’ll ammend the instructions with any additional info for other versions of Windows and iPods.

Just for the record, I did not write this article, but I would have known how to do this. But one thing I ahve noticed is that you do not need to go into the control panel. Instead just make explorer.exe show hidden folders. Then, navigate into the iPod directory, go into iPod_control, and follow step four of the article. Software

1. Plug your iPod (5g or 5.5g Video) in.
2. Go to your iPod drive, and open the iPod_Control folder (It’s hidden so make sure that you can see hidden files (See the 2nd notepad text)).
3. Open Games_RO folder.
4. Drag the Game folders into the folder Games_RO. (NOT A NEW GAMES_RO FOLDER IN THE GAMES_RO FOLDER!).

Success! You now have all of the Apple iPod games for free! (Thanks to me!=D)

Good luck with this, and I hope it works for you, all 12 games are working for me on my 80GB Classic 5th Generation!

In 1987, a German company, Fraunhofer IIS-A, began working on a system for creating digital audio
files that consumed little storage space while maintaining much of the original file’s quality. Among
other things, this work was motivated by the fact that one minute of CD-quality stereo music consumed
about 10 MB of storage spacestorage space that at the time was very costly. The eventual result of this
work was something called the MPEG Audio Layer-3 compression standard, now commonly known as
MP3.
This standard uses perceptual coding techniques to eliminate audio data that the human ear is unlikely to
discern. So efficient is MP3 encoding that you can use it to reduce an audio file’s size by a factor of 12
yet maintain most of the sound quality of the original file. Thanks to MP3, a four-minute song that
normally would devour 40 MB of hard drive space now weighs in at less than 4 MB.
The availability of more-compact and less-expensive storage mediahard drives and media cardsmade
MP3 an attractive option for use on home computers and, eventually, portable music players. But the
fact that such files were easier to store was only one piece of the puzzle. MP3 really came into its own
thanks to the widespread dispersal of a seemingly unrelated technology: broadband Internet access.
In the days when much of the world accessed the Internet with slothlike modems, downloading a 4 MB
file could be an all-night affair. When that file could be downloaded in a minute, the idea of moving
high-quality audio files across the Internet became an extremely attractive propositionparticularly
among college students who had both lightning-fast, school-supplied access to the Internet and a keen
interest in music.
Given that MP3 was a growing concern among such a significant portion of the population,
manufacturers of audio devices predictably began seeking ways to incorporate MP3 technology into
future products.
Share and Share Alike
Anyone with the faintest interest in technology has heard of the Napster music-sharing service, through
which audio fileslargely encoded with MP3were swapped wholesale across the Internet (much to the
chagrin of the recording industry). Music-device manufacturers understood that although those who
downloaded MP3 files were pleased enough to play back these files on their computers, many would be
even more pleased if they could transport and listen to these files on a portable device.
After the courts determined that such devices were indeed legalthat they were not specifically designed
as go-between devices that might aid music piracy, but as a final destination for music filessmall MP3
players such as the Rio 600 found their way to market. Regrettably, these players stored less than an
hour of music without the addition of expensive media storage cards. (And even with these additional
storage cards, such players rarely exceeded two hours’ playing time.) Moving MP3 files from the
computer to the player over the player’s slow serial-port or USB connection could take a long time, and
the software required to move files from one device to another was hardly intuitive. Navigating from
song to song on these things was a tedious affair, requiring you to page through menu after menu on a
tiny screen. Finally, these players cost upward of a couple hundred dollars. Although the technology was
interesting, only gearheads with more money than sense were likely to replace their inexpensive portable
CD players with one of these devices.
Even with these limitations, portable MP3 players still sold in respectable numbers. But just imagine the
kind of sales you could generate if you created a portable music player that successfully worked around
the storage, transfer-rate, and navigation problems.
Apple smelled an opportunity.

Hardware Fixes

This is the iPod I’ll be operating on. The two small screwdrivers shown are the only tools used for dismantling and repairing the entire device. You’ll need a small, flat-head screwdriver which will be used for prising things apart and opening the shell. In addition a very small Phillips head driver will be necessary for undoing some screws inside.
Important – I was using a flat-head screwdriver because it doesn’t get in the way when taking photos. This caused some minor scratching to the top and bottom of the Golden Shell when removing the covers. To avoid this you should use a plastic flat tool available readily on eBay or should fashion a plastic tool out of any spare plastic items you have lying around. If you feel confident of not causing too much scratching, the screwdriver is a good lazy alternative. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Stage 1 – Removing the top and bottom covers

Slowly force the flat screwdriver / plastic tool into the edge of the white cover at the top of the iPod. This is painstaking and its important not to get frustrated and start hacking away. Persevere and the top should eventually come loose. It will be attached to the iPod by a layer of glue.

The glue isn’t particularly strong so try to concentrate on getting the edges free and the top should pop off. It will take the silver/orange hold switch with it but be careful not to try ripping the headphone socket out. Once this is done, start on the rear end of the iPod.

Again, use the flat screwdriver to prise away at the edges. I’d avoid going for the centre as you need to be careful not to damage the main connection with an overzealous jab. The cover should come off with a little more ease, revealing a silver contraption beneath.

This silver grid is holding your iPod in place and needs to be removed by further prising witscrewdriver. By far the best way to do this is to put the tip of the screwdriver into each corner of tiPod and gently force the curved parts to bend in until the metal pops out. This again can be tricand you need to be conservative with your jabs in order to protect the delicate parts inview.

This shows a successful prising of the silver grid out of the Golden Shell. At this point it popped out at high speed. Goggles are recommended.
Stage 2 – Removing the Golden Shell
This is the bit where 99% of iPod operations go horribly wrong!
You need to pop the clickwheel connection out of its socket on the motherboard. This must be done without popping the clickwheel socket off the motherboard.

Turn the iPod around and look for two tiny screws at the top. These must now be removed using the Philips head screwdriver. This is a pleasant stage as nothing much can go wrong aside from losing the screws. When they’re out, keep them in a bright, obvious place or they will be gone forever.

Now you can remove the shell. Start by pushing gently from the bottom and continue by pulling as shown from the top. This stage is also fairly straightforward and represents the stage at which specific repairs can begin.
Stage 3 – The inner iPod

The inside of your iPod will look very much like this. The battery colour varies, as does the look of the hard drive but the positions are identical to both generations of iPod mini. Please excuse the MS Paint graphics, Photoshop is beyond me.

The Battery
Changing the battery is the most common iPod operation people undertake. This is because the iPod mini’s batteries are Li-ion and lose their capacity to hold a charge over time; particularly in the first generation where year-old pods are rarely able to hold a charge of more than 2 hours.
To change a battery you’ll need to buy a new one. Use eBay! A search for “iPod mini battery” will produce scores of results with prices usually around the £5 mark. Battery packs often include screwdrivers or plastic tools invaluable to the earlier stages of iPod dismantling.

The operation itself is simple enough. This picture shows how flexible the battery and hard dconnections are. Move your battery into a position where you can comfortably attack the whiteconnection point.

Use the screwdriver to prise the connector out of its socket as shown. Again, be careful not to pull the socket off the board. This can be tricky as the connection is quite tight so feel free to use fingernails, pliers etc until the connector comes loose. It may be useful to note that wiggling is far more effective than pulling as it drastically reduces the chances of socket-removal disaster.

This is what the separate parts look like. Take note of which bits you need to leave stuck on the motherboard. When the battery is out, remove your new one from its packaging and put it back into position; resting on the board as was originally found.

The Hard Drive
Hard drive replacement is the most common fix for more serious forms of iPod failure. The ‘sick iPod’ symbol usually signifies a dead hard drive but you should always try using the restore function in the iPod Updater to format first in case of software failure. This can be found on the CD or can be downloaded from the Apple website at http://www.apple.com/ipod/download (you want to download iPod mini software 1.4.1)

Just plug in the iPod and hit ‘Restore’ it may take a while but this can bring many an iPod back from the dead without having to resort to surgery.
More to the point, you will also need to do this when you replace the hard drive. Many new hard drives aren’t formatted properly so a restore is often necessary after replacement is complete.
Hard drives can be found on eBay but are more difficult to come by than batteries. You shouldn’t expect to find one for less than £10-£15 and may have to spend several days waiting for a suitable, reasonably priced hard drive to appear. Another important note is that 2gb, 4gb and 6gb hard drives all fit into the same space on the motherboard and have the same connection. Because of this, you might as well invest in a 6gb drive as a convenient upgrade.
This is how to change a hard drive:

The drive is attached to the board by a Molex connection (although yours may nnecessarily have this written on). This connection is rather delicate but surprisingly difficult to damage compared to those for the battery and clickwheel.

This picture shows the flat screwdriver being used to lift the Molex tab away from the board. This is helpful but fingernails should also be used to some extent. The connector should pop off with ease but don’t be afraid of using a reasonable amount of force as it’s a surprisingly well designed connection.

And there you have it, a successfully removed hard-drive. Your replacement should have the same connection which can be easily stuck into the Molex socket. When doing this, be sure to feel a ‘pop’ before reassembling as its important to be sure that the drive is fixed in correctly. Don’t forget to run the iPod Restore software if your new drive isn’t working properly.

The Headphone Jack Board
The headphone jack is contained in an elevated, removable section of the motherboard. It looks like this:

The board can be removed to repair problems with sound such as crackling headphones or no signal. This is easy to do but still requires a delicate touch as the connection involved is rather strong and prone to breaking. The board is connected at only one point so you can use the fhead screwdriver to prise it apart or simply pull away as shown.

Replacement headphone jacks can be found on eBay fairly cheaply. You shouldn’t expect to pay more than £5 for a working board. To install a new board simply pop it into place. Tconnection is entirely black and can be seen in this picture.

The Clickwheel
Clickwheel removal is a delicate operation. Be sure that it’s a wheel problem before starting as this can go quite seriously wrong. Replacement wheels can be found on eBay but are often prohibitively expensive for repair – around the £25-£30 mark. However, it can be done and if successful can fix a terminal fault for your iPod.
Start by removing the insides from the Shell to leave the wheel behind stuck to the Shell. Look for a small black tab inside the bottom of the Shell as shown below. Use your flat screwdriver to pull the tab up.

This should release the wheel slightly – you now have to push from above to remove the wheel completely. Use your fingernail to hold the black tab up whilst using the screwdriver to gently push from the opposite side. This is extremely fiddly so be careful not to scratch the Shell, damage the wheel or cut yourself. Alternatively, use tweezers to grasp the black tag and pull the wheel out. Both methods take a lot of patience and confidence so only do this on utterly defective clickwheels. Re-inserting a wheel is much more straightforward as it simply slides into place and clips into the slot. Be sure that your replacement wheel is sturdy and in place before replacing the Shell.
In case you’re wondering, the pictures don’t show me removing the clickwheel as its very hard to do without damaging the wheel or Shell. Unless you’re absolutely certain that the wheel is broken, don’t bother taking it out. Not even for an ebook.

The LCD screen is another common repair that can bring iPods back from the dead. At this point it’s important to note that the 1st and 2nd generation iPod minis have different screens that are not compatible with one another’s motherboards. The 1st gen screen has a connection about one inch long and is shown in the picture above. The 2nd gen screen has a smaller connection, about ¾ of an inch long.

Firstly, let’s release the screen from its moorings. These are white tags holding it in place as part of awhite backing onto which the screen is set.
The white tags lie on each side of the board and can be seen on the opposite side from the screen.
Use your fingers to push the tags off of the board, gently releasing one side at a time. This will set the screen free, connected to the board only by a piece of flex as shown below:

To remove the screen from its socket, look at the cream-coloured connection into which a brown flex is stuck. A darker bar runs along the bottom length of the socket. With the LCD in, this should be in an angular position, sticking up slightly. Gentlypush this down until it runs parallel to the mother board.