Filed under: iPod Family, Hacks
Make your old iPod's UI look like an iPod Classic
Apple uses new features and UI enhancements that are only available in the current generation of iPods as a carrot to get people to upgrade to the newest model. The new UI on the iPod Classics is a great example. These features could have been placed on the previous generation of iPods with a firmware update, but Apple decided not to do that. as they have for most of the iPod's history (which is their right, of course).Some eager hackers have modded the 5th gen iPod's firmware to make it look more like the iPod Classic's. If you're jonsing for split screen navigation but don't want to pony up for cash for a new iPod this is for you.
Keep in mind, though, that this entails changing the firmware that is currently on your iPod (which is Apple approved, the firmware that is, not replacing it) to something that was modified by a third party. Bad things could happen (though they could just as equally not ) so be prepared to deal with the consequences should the process run amok.
Thanks, Kai Cherry.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Sam said 11:27PM on 10-14-2007
anyone do this yet? i want to do it im just not sure if it's safe yet.
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Ryan said 11:38PM on 10-14-2007
Microsoft got this right, updating the firmware for all of the zunes.
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ryan said 11:39PM on 10-14-2007
i tried this on my ipod and it blew up and burnt my house down. don't make the same mistake i did.
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Kenn said 11:49PM on 10-14-2007
I just did it. It looks pretty good. The menu movements are laggy though. Check the video that is posted.
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ars_workerbee said 11:50PM on 10-14-2007
after watching the video of what it does, no thanks.
its kludgy and rough, and i like my fifth gen the way it is, thanks.
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a ham sandwich said 11:50PM on 10-14-2007
@3 could you clarify a little bit please?
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Frank S said 12:04AM on 10-15-2007
I just tried to do it, and, I don't know if I did something wrong, but I updated the firmware using 'iPodWizard' and now my iPod is shot. It loads to the Apple logo, then shuts off, then on, then off, etc. It doesn't stop.
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Just_a_guy said 12:05AM on 10-15-2007
I was so mad that I got a 5th gen ipod and less than a month later they had to update it. I wish I could pugrae my ipod to do this. It would be so cool, but again, I'm wary.
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Justin R said 12:14AM on 10-15-2007
Seriously, I wish I could get a new Classic without the new UI. The new UI is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. I hate to say this, but the zune is much prettier as far as UI is concerned. Apple could really learn alot from customizable things like that. All the Ken Burns Effect Album Art thing does is make everything slower. I just want radically different or the same. None of this half screen half ass job.
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Jt Hollister said 12:52AM on 10-15-2007
@#9: Did you just call the Zune's interface better than the iPod's? What the hell kind of drugs are you strung out on?
@#8: If you got it less than a month ago, there should be no problems getting a refund...
@#7: You should be able to fix that by doing an Apple restore from within iTunes. I put linux on mine once and had a similar issue, at the time was without a computer so I took it to Apple and they restored it for me (didn't even void my warranty).
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Jon said 1:00AM on 10-15-2007
I have the same problem as #7, but it won't show up in iTunes anymore, so I can't do a restore. Any ideas?
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Jon said 1:06AM on 10-15-2007
Ignore my last post (11), I sent it into Disk Mode and it was recognized.
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CrzyMke said 1:12AM on 10-15-2007
I just did it (using alterPod since i couldn't find any instructions for an actual mac). I survived it just fine. I think it looks great - although moving through menus isn't very smooth - maybe they'll update it and fix the problem. But in general I think it freshened the ipod up.
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Bruno said 1:35AM on 10-15-2007
The iPod's UI is likely one of Apple's most unambitious pieces of junk in the past 10 years. All my opinion of course, but seriously nonetheless.
I'm not about to say that any other brand of player has a much better UI, because frankly they don't. They're more often even worse. But just because something stinks less than something else doesn't make it "good."
Te UI in the newest Zune products does look very interesting from the posted videos and screen shots. I think there's a lot of room for Microsoft to shine but also a lot of room for them to make plenty of mistakes. After all, most people don't even realize the iPod UI stinks because they barely ever use any of its features or have a desire for features that are missing. Typical usage is random play or select a single track, pre-made playlist or "album." I don't know too many people that own them that try and do much of any navigation in the UI.
It's unfortunate that in addition to the very basic and inflexible UI that there exist so many bugs with track display and indexing. The iPod makes a complete mess of tracks and albums that iTunes currently handles. To be honest, iTunes only got there as of version 7 with its expanded tag support and ability to group tracks based on more tags as well as multi-sort within groups. Try clicking the Albums header multiple times to see an example of what I'm talking about.
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Wilder K. Wight said 1:50AM on 10-15-2007
All I know is that, while I like the new UI in an aesthetic sense, I have to be careful because some of my iPod's contents aren't work-safe, and the damned UI places random images on the right side... So it's very uncool to be showing a co-worker my iPod library and have a risque image from a movie, photo collection, or album art show up over there.
It has lots of potential for social problems.
"How cool! Wait... Was that your wife-- Naked?"
I would love a setting that lets me disable the Ken Burns thing at will.
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Dan said 1:46AM on 10-15-2007
I installed it with alterpod too and it's fine, the only thing that doesn't work is the preview in the right. what Did i do wrong?
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Andrew W said 2:19AM on 10-15-2007
@12 i'm having the same problem, it wont get past the boot screen. how did you get it to show up in itunes? im not seeing any disk mode other than the one you have to set from itunes itself.
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Jon said 2:23AM on 10-15-2007
@ 17:
During a boot cycle, hold down the center button and play/pause at the same time. It may take several seconds, but it will eventually go into a black and white mode called Disk Mode. From there, connect it to the computer and do a restore or install a different firmware.
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Andrew W said 2:27AM on 10-15-2007
thanks 18, just found that online myself *sigh of relief*
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Jon said 2:32AM on 10-15-2007
No problem 17/19. I was worried myself there for a bit with mine, but then I remembered that.
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