With each Apple update of the iPod Touch firmware crippling most of the third-party hacks, it can be difficult to balance a beautifully tweaked PMP with the latest official functionality. Thankfully the talents behind much of the unofficial software are even more efficient than Apple; hence this upgrade of the popular Customize app to firmware 1.1.2-compatible version 1.20.
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Nikotalkie is a Push-To-Talk (PTT) app originally for the iPhone, which took advantage of the persistent, unlimited data connection to bypass SMS message costs and instead send instant voice notes between handsets or direct to an email address. There’s also a Windows desktop version and even low-cost VoIP functionality (although the basic PTT service is free), but up until now no version for the iPod Touch. With Marian’s work on a plug-in microphone accessory, however, the team behind Nikotalkie has steamed ahead porting it to the PMP.
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Edit: There are now screenshots of the app in action; not exactly pretty, perhaps, but great functionality!
We’ve been following the development of Marian’s discrete iPod Touch microphone accessory for a while now, crossing our fingers that as the hardware becomes available so will a VoIP client to make the most of it, and the latest is that a port of the Nintendo DS app SvSIP has been suitably fettled for the Apple PMP. So far there’s no screenshot or compilation, but both are supposed to be on their way from coder eok who is responsible for the port.
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Looking somewhat more refined than the earlier proof-of-concept, Marian’s microphone and preamp for the iPod Touch - which plugs straight into the PMP via a hacked dock connector - is now available to buy for a mere $45 (or €30). Development on the project continues apace, with the latest focus on the communication between the Touch and the microphone widget to try to get the gain boosted automatically. With that achieved, Erica’s VNotes application (as shown complete with microphone attachment in the video after the cut) should be even more useful.
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Earlier in the month we looked at hacking together a basic microphone input for the iPod Touch; now, arch modder Marian has gone one stage further and crafted a microphone pre-amp for the PMP that fits inside a standard iPod dock connector. Right now he’s bypassed surface-mount or printed circuit boards and merely soldered components directly to each other, but the hope is that a small SMD board could be developed leaving space to move the microphone inside the casing.
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For some, an in-car install is an FM transmitter and maybe an iPod cradle that clips onto a vent. In this Infiniti FX35, however, it consists of a very slick hack of the Apple AV cable, which feeds music and video directly through the factory-fit radio and onto the aftermarket pop-up screen on the dash-top and a flip-up DVD screen in the rear.
Check out the video of the setup in action, after the cut…
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With all the hacking of the iPod Touch and iPhone going on you have to wonder what all those third party apps are doing to your device. Yes, it is possible for a app installed from a non trusted source to hack into your devices system folders and ruin some important files.
These apps could also release a potentially dangerous virus that once plugged into your computer could infect it and its system folders, attaching itself to your emails and potentially ruin yours and others comps. All of this could even happen without you having a clue.
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Considering the lyrical waxing over the iPod Touch’s CoverFlow music browsing system, I’m almost surprised there are people out there who’d like to change the way the PMP handles tracks. However, wherever there’s cool hardware, there’ll be people wanting to make it even cooler: hence Matt’s project to bring flick-style transport controls to the Touch via its onboard accelerometer.
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While the iPod Touch/iPhone Dev Team are kept busy working on Jailbreaking and unlocking whichever firmware version Apple are choosing to release, that leaves other hack-happy individuals thinking of all the useful things they can do with their newly-liberated devices. Over at Hack In The Box they’re looking at the iPod Touch’s potential as a network management tool; well, actually they’re setting the PMP up as the perfect, discrete hacking platform, but we’ll err on the side of legal caution and consider the whole thing a legitimate WiFi analysis device.
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Before you get excited: this isn’t exactly what it looks like. Rather than being the amazing hack of getting Google’s open-source cellphone platform Android running on an iPod Touch, it’s actually a slideshow to give an impression of how the OS might look on a multi-touch device. Touch owner cast42 sliced out some screenshots of Android and sync’d them to his PMP; no, it may not make calls or, well, do anything, but it gives a fair idea of how the platform could look on a device of a similar form-factor to the iPhone.
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