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iPod Background Finally Possible

ipodwizard.net — Over at iPodwizard we have discovered how to add a background to your iPod using the Apple Firmware.

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  • TomMcBaum, on 10/12/2007, -11/+24I love the comments about how they expect to be "fighting the girlies off" after installing this firmware update. The pathetic part is that this could be true. Anyway, great hack! Is it based on the 1.12 firmware?
    • Layzie, on 10/12/2007, -135/+48Zunes have been able to do this since they came out, and dont need a hack to do it.
    • Tollboi, on 10/12/2007, -36/+107@ Layzie
      yeah, and now you can do it on a good mp3 player.
    • deweyhewson, on 10/12/2007, -3/+58@Layzie

      I have always used an iPod and love it. But I admit, Zune does have that feature, and I wish Apple would add it on our side of the fence.
    • pastasauce, on 10/12/2007, -1/+47You'll be fighting off more guys and girls. Trust me. I put rockbox on my iPod 5G a couple months ago and guys were swarming all over me. Only one girl came up to me and told me it was cool. She wasn't even hot.
    • turbodigg, on 10/12/2007, -35/+14My Zen Vision M can do this, right out of the box.
    • Dezmodium, on 10/12/2007, -20/+11I see that comments that mention how other players that have this feature out of the box are getting the "thumbs" down vote. A little bitter are we, apple users? It ain't so bad. At least SOMEONE stepped up to the plate and got you the features you should have gotten from crApple.
    • flag564, on 10/12/2007, -55/+14Backgrounds?

      Oh why cant Apple ever come up with an original idea of it's own instead of ripping other people off?

      But I'm sure when, or if Apple ever adds this feature, it wont be considered stealing, right?
    • Jpantoga, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23flag564, what are you even talking about?
    • Layzie, on 10/12/2007, -18/+25What an irrational group. I get dugg down the ass for merely stating a fact.
    • gavintlgold, on 10/12/2007, -9/+10Note to diggers who don't know: You might as well block flag564. And don't reply to his comments because that annoys people who blocked him already.
    • darkyoshi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5Everybody... Give a big hand to our latest up-and-coming comedian, Flag!
    • fourzerofour, on 10/12/2007, -8/+9"What an irrational group. I get dugg down the ass for merely stating a fact."

      The topic is 'iPod Background Finally Possible'. It doesn't read 'iPod Background Finally Possible, Zune already has feature'. Post comments relevant to the story to not get dugg down. No one is going to buy a Zune for the one feature it has over an iPod. Speaking of comments relevant to the story.. doh.
    • jrbrewin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5"Post comments relevant to the story to not get dugg down"

      that's funny.

      especially considering the hordes of apple users who are more than willing to jump on every bit of non-apple news, which mentions products or services that compete against apple, and trash-talk / fill with fud / digg down, and then have the goddam audacity to state we should use the equivelent apple product.

      the sad state is, backgrounds are something that are something zune owners have been able to set, out of the box, since day0. Yet, apple-boys have non-stop bad mouthed every aspect of the product. Yet now we see the apple community 'taking' functionality from it to put it in to their hacked firmware.

      take a step back, and admit that it's kind of ironic, at the very least.
    • Blandyman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2***** man! Why did I block him?!

      Knowing he's STILL making a fool of himself is driving me nuts to read his comments again!
    • jrbrewin, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"yeah, and now you can do it on a good mp3 player."

      layzie. go and actually look at the mp3 player market, without blinkered eyes, before you make stupid, unfounded comments like that. e.g., look at the many many independant audio tests online that state that all ipod ranges have one of, if not the worse quality audio playbacks in market.

      hardly what i, and millions other, consider good. a better comment would have been.

      "now you can do it on the mp3 player sheep use"
    • Justin6512, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1pffff yeah, but only on First Gen Nanos!!!! booooo
  • SoxFan33, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2Thats pretty sad about the girlies.

    Its based on 1.1.1
  • Burritoking924, on 10/12/2007, -19/+7I think we should all celebrate by purchasing 1G nanos in mass quantity, chagne the background, then ship it back to apple.
  • SoxFan33, on 10/12/2007, -29/+4That would be cool. And make the backgrounds say YOU'VE BEEN HACKED or PROPERTY OF IPODWIZARD or something. Hopefully they wouldn't shut us down
    • Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -9/+17why would they shut you down?

      you can do anything you want to your ipod, but you might loose your warranty
    • jdong, on 10/12/2007, -17/+6Err, no you can't. You're modifying the iPod firmware -- which the license forbids. You don't 'own' the contents of your ipod -- you've merely been licensed it ;-)
  • PsychoAzn, on 10/12/2007, -68/+11Haha, that would be funny to do to apple...
    "Hey we got a package" -worker
    "Well open it"-Jobs
    "They're.... nanos..."-worker
    "What?"-Jobs
    *turns on nano*-worker
    "uhh... you might get mad..."-worker
    "Why?"-Jobs
    "They found out how to change the backgrounds..."-worker
    *Bangs head on desk*-Jobs

    XD we should do that...
    • Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -10/+77no it would be more like this
      "Hey we got a package" -worker
      "Well open it"-Jobs
      "They're.... nanos..."-worker
      "What?"-Jobs
      *turns on nano*-worker
      "somebody change the backgrounds"-worker
      "ok? "-Jobs
      "some stupid kids must have thought it was funny"-worker
      *Well flash them and ship them back out*-Jobs
    • rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -2/+149More like this:

      "Hey we got a package" -worker
      "Why are you wasting my time?" -Jobs
    • meatmcguffin, on 10/12/2007, -33/+14What about:

      "Hey we got a package" -worker
      "Quick, call Boston" -Jobs
    • darkyoshi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+26*Setting - an elevator*

      Worker - "Hey, we got a package"
      Jobs - "You're fired"
  • ij00mini, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33Why would Apple be pissed about this? People customize their iPods all the time, and this isn't detrimental to Apple or the iPod at all.
    • ImTheDarkcyde, on 10/12/2007, -20/+5and its one of the features jobs pimped on the iphone, is it not?
    • pwill, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27Wait, you can pimp a feature?
  • dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -13/+4Is this first gen nanos only? Or second as well?
    • dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -13/+6edit-nevermind, it's only 1G, the 2G, is encrypted.
      digg my comments down
  • MAJORstrasser, on 10/12/2007, -11/+23No OS X love?
    • mrFREEZE, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2It's almost as if more people know/bother to code for one OS/filesystem because it's the one most people use...

      Nah, they must be mac-haters.
    • SoxFan33, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0Multiple people have started porting iPodWizard to OSX, but never finished. and the iPodwizard developer doesn't have a mac. But you should still be able to load the firmware on. I know there are tutorials and utilities over at iPodlinux.org
    • ismith, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1If you have an Intel Mac at least you can use Crossover/Parallels/VMWare to run iPodWizard. I'm also surprised though that there's no native solution for OS X, it doesn't seem like it would be that hard.
    • m1ss1ontomars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2you do need a windows-formatted ipod. no macpods if you want this; ipodpatcher can't read the apple partition map.
  • supermanred, on 10/12/2007, -3/+61Come on APPLE add this to the damned firmware! Dont make me install some 3rd party hack!

    • Hydraulix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Just open the firmware. Let the developers take care of things.
    • Xiata, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Ah yes, the limitless power of the community until you want a feature they don't care about....
  • kiranlightpaw, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2Any reports of this working on anything other than Nanos? What about the 5G?
    • Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -14/+3you can also change the wallpaper on the iPhone
    • Rhine23, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Only 1st G nanos at the moment, 5g is scheduled for Tuesday according to the topic. Can't wait I remember using this program (ipod wizard) the day it came out. :)
    • Prometheus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+37Can't wait until this works with the Shuffle!
  • Quix, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4Changeable backgrounds? Zzzz...

    Oh wait, wasn't that the Zune's "iPod Killer" feature?
    • rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18No, that would be the half-crippled wireless music sharing.

      Of course, that feature is only useful if you ever meet someone else with a Zune (and they music you'd actually want to hear).
    • springah, on 10/12/2007, -4/+6@rspeed
      so much hate...
    • night141, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3@rspeed
      So much smug
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -4/+29There will probably Tuesday be a patch for the 5 + 5.5G iPods
    • Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -21/+4this isn't sony we are talking about, they don't release updates every time someone modifies the firmware
    • joshikus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15Why are people digging him down he's saying the firmware patch to change the background on the 5G should be out tues. not apple releasing a patch to stop it
    • virtualball, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1Are you the topic creater, DJ?
    • vagarach, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8He means the guys that wrote the hack for the nano will in a short while release a modified version that will also work for the 5G ipods.
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7No but you are talking to the person who created this patch.
  • unloud, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Can you do this in OS X somehow?
    • rspeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+61Sure, just open up "Desktop & Screen Saver" in System Preferences! :3
    • unloud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Har har :-)
  • neonfunk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2"finally"?
    • NtHammer, on 10/12/2007, -25/+6oh thats is a built in feature in the Creative Zen i have, which is way better than any of the ipod stuff.
    • mrFREEZE, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5But it's way too friggin' huge. Goddamn brick. Wake me up when they have one I can slip into my gym ID card case around my neck and that isn't hard-drive based.
    • Dezmodium, on 10/12/2007, -9/+5"But it's way too friggin' huge. Goddamn brick. Wake me up when they have one I can slip into my gym ID card case around my neck and that isn't hard-drive based."
      ZEN Vison M 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.7 inches 5.7 oz
      iPod 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43 inches 4.8 oz
      Brick 8 x 4 x 2.25 ~1 pound

      A brick? Really? I'll take slightly bigger and slightly heavier feature packed product over weak and puny barebones product that costs more anyday.
    • darkyoshi, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1And I thought Sony fanboys were scary...
    • mrFREEZE, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"ZEN Vison M 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.7 inches 5.7 oz
      iPod 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.43 inches 4.8 oz
      Brick 8 x 4 x 2.25 ~1 pound"

      I was talking about the nano. 1.6 x 3.5 x 0.27 inches 1.5 oz. Like I said, the ZEN Viz M (5.7 oz?) is a brick, relatively speaking... especially when you're hanging it from your NECK and exercising at the gym.

      Guess what happens when you continuously shake a harddrive?
    • NtHammer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1mrfreeze, the zen isnt meant to be the size of your (small) penis. the nano has like 2 gb and the zen has 30gb.

      and why are people digging me down (oh yeah, most people on here
  • weizilla, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4i think this is only for the first generation nanos. stupid encrypted firmware :-(
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -8/+8You people are small minded, Kingstone and I will be working on changing this Tuesday.
    • nuclearpenguins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You made a cool hack yet don't know how to use the reply function on Digg?
  • foxymcfox, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23First person to figure out how to do this on a Mac (Hopefully with a pretty interface, but I can make due with command line hacks) will get a hug from me.
    • SpacemanSpiff01, on 10/12/2007, -3/+26no one wants your sweaty nerd hugs.
    • foxymcfox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22Hey! I am NOT a nerd!
    • MuTeD, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Just run a Virtual PC for 10 minutes :)

      That is if you have a Windows disc lying around.
    • m1ss1ontomars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@muted:

      you can't use virtual pc because ipodpatcher needs a winpod, not a macpod.
  • afruff23, on 10/12/2007, -5/+5Rockbox already allows you to have a custom background. And rockbox works on 3G+ ipods except for the new nano, any shuffle, and the 80 GB 5.5g.
    • jdong, on 10/12/2007, -4/+9Yeah, and it gets wonderful 3-5 hour battery life too! Did I mention its fantastic video capabilities? You can play 30MB of pre-buffered MPEG2 video! That's so much better than MPEG-4 ASP or MPEG-4 AVC!
    • afruff23, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You can dualboot if you want to watch videos on a 2.5 inch screen. I agree about battery life though for the iPod. My iAudio X5L gets good battery life with or without Rockbox though.
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1So, no alternative firmware, Apple All the way
  • dingledoink, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1hmm, after I did what the instructions said, and disconnected my iPod, it had a screen that said "reconnect to iTunes to restore".... not sure if it was due to my image?
    • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2just open iPW and load the firmware then press Write to iPod
  • PsychoAzn, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1eh dunno, jus felt like writing that =P
    Yes rockbox does let you do that, BUT it isn't the original apple firmware, n not everyone wants to use rockbox.
    Gahd, jus wish that they didn't encrypt the 2g nanos... i can't do nething...
    Neway, good job.
  • WinnemuccaMac, on 10/12/2007, -17/+1Wow, this is just like what I've been able to do on my Meizu M6 from day one. Without hacks. On OSX and Windows.
    That iPod's an amazing piece of equipment.
    • Mufflegrump, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Yeah. Too bad you have such a small penis though. :)
  • gangals, on 10/12/2007, -5/+7Direct Links:

    http://rapidshare.com/files/15943519/nanobackground.zip

    OR

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8Z8POGSN
    • whitty, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5direct linking is a bad plan here. People won't know what to do, and will ***** up their ipods.
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4Don't leech.


    whoever asked, Yes I am the thread creator.
  • Kiabi, on 10/12/2007, -3/+0I wonder how much the background affects your Ipod's battery life. . .
  • Szandor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Sorry, you might want to check your macro settings on those first two screen shots.
    • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Those arent my pics, they are Kingstone's
  • djdut, on 10/12/2007, -11/+5come on people, if you are on the site, leave some comments!
  • bootle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4iPodwizard, wait till apple's lawyers hear THAT name...
  • golddigga, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2wow any pics
    i bet you could easily do it with the 5G iPod as they're both pretty similar
    • bigkm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1there guessing by tuesday so it won't be long
  • Surkit, on 10/12/2007, -10/+4aw thank god i have a zune. no need to mess with the demon's music player.
  • picknslap, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't get it, isn't the whole point of ipodwizard to provide different themes? Wouldn't this include backgrounds already?
    • gas28, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0It should have, but there was never an image for the background, so it was impossible to change it, the themes included virtually every other image but now we can change the background themes will be even better.
  • kdrlx, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8could the images be any worse ?
  • ibeetle, on 10/12/2007, -9/+7It is only available to Windows.
    It is only available to the 1st Gen Nano's.
    It disables features.
    It voids the iPod Warranty.
    It is not as easily changeable or removable as the maker leads to believe.

    Marked Inaccurate.


    • whitty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4there's nothing inaccurate about the post, moron. it never claimed NOT to void the warranty (but don't worry, nobody ever pays attention to ipodwizard use anyway, it won't really have an impact on your ability to get service), and it's easy peasy to remove. All you have to do is flash the ipod with the regular firmware again. If you made a backup, 2 second job. That's like, twice as fast as it takes you to finish!
    • SoxFan33, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2-You should be able to put this firmware on your ipod if you have a mac. There are tools. Look on iPodlinux.org for something to load the firmware on.
      -it will work on the 5g in a few days
      -the only thing that goes away is the title bar, and if u don't like it, don't complain
      -It really doesn't void the warrenty. I've talked to apple 2 times, and they have said modifying the firmware doesn't void the warrenty
      -it is easily changible. You can open up ipodwizard, load the firmware with one button, and write it to the ipod with one other. No need for command prompt. To remove it, you just restore or update your ipod
    • m1ss1ontomars, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1so...what exactly is inaccurate?
  • ccordero, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1i smell rat
  • ameba, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I don't use an iPod anymore, but I wish they released this when I still did. They need to find a way to change the text color, though, for people with dark backgrounds. Then it would be perfect.

    Don't worry I don't use Zune either.
    • SoxFan33, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0the font can be inverted to have white letters and a black outline. That would solve some problems
  • >mark, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4zen
  • rockyHardcore, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0that is awesome hey will it work on 2 gb nanos...
  • defaultdigger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2macro mode on camera?
  • night141, on 10/12/2007, -8/+5Zune wins
  • jdaniel284, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I have a Zune and can change my background to anything I like. I have a folder of wallpapers in a directory that I cycle through every so often while listening to the radio receiver. Good luck with the iPods guys. Maybe sometime soon you can upgrade to the Zune and see what all the buzz is about.
  • AriX, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1That's awesome!

    P.S. My digg makes the digg count "1337" :P
  • jbstingray, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0On Engadget!
  • chaoswings, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0There is better out there go to

    http://redchaos.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/get-the-most-out-of-your-ipod/

    It adds another firmware on top..you can swap out backgrounds and you no longer need itunes you can drag and drop you MP3s into the ipod as a removable disc. There are also free games like Doom, tetris and all that. It doesn't void the warranty like the one above does because you can dual boot between the two, and the original firmware isn't modified. It's also very easy to remove
  • tygut1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is pretty cool. I would like to see the ability to customize my iPod more, especially the now playing screen. Rockbox has some of these features, but Apple could easily implement them. Seeing which song is queued up next or showing play counts and last played dates would be cool. I would also like to see my songs rating on the first now playing screen and then change screens to change the rating. As I said I think Apple could easily make the iPod screens more customizable, it would be nice if they would.
  • viperssxt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1is the 5g one coming out to day or what?
  • jmg703, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Other mp3 players already do this and while I'm sure the iphone and 6G ipod will have this, apple is behind the times in this case.
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