When Apple gave birth to the iPod touch, it should have been the killer fusion of MP3 player and PDA. It wasn't. Fear not though, the guys and gals of the Internet have unlocked the touch's full potential--we show you how.
Apple's iPod touch desirability rating is stratospheric and it is arguably the coolest MP3 player of the year but, as we noted when we reviewed it, it's not perfect--far from it, in fact. Firstly, no matter how many sweet eye-candy doo-dads Apple throws at us, and irrespective of the warm glow we derive from caressing its glass and metal skin,
Even worse is that, despite the fact that it runs a cut-down version of Mac OS X, Steve Jobs has decided that we can only run the applications he wants us to run--Safari, YouTube, calendar, address book, photos, videos and music. Apple and Jobs promise that support for third-party apps will be enabled for iPod touches and iPhones in February 2008. But, if you can't wait that long, some dedicated souls on the Internet have developed methods for extracting the full potential of the touch.
Apple won't be much help to you after you've hacked your touch, so you'll have to rely on people on the Internet.
Caveats and disclaimers
The hack we will detail in this article is developed by a group who call themselves Conceited Software. We've tried it on a number of iPod touches and have had no issues with it. Naturally, that's not to say there isn't any risk involved. And although the makers claim that it won't "brick" your touch, there's no warranty expressed or implied--that's from both them and us.Speaking of which, once you hack your touch don't expect Apple's support team to be very helpful. You'll have to rely instead on the forums, message boards and newsgroups for your tech support instead. Getting your iPod serviced under warranty, should some of its electronics go on the fritz, isn't an issue--so long as your touch is fit enough to be restored into a non-hacked state. If this all sounds like too much of risk, then maybe you should give this hacking caper a miss and wait until third-party apps are officially allowed by Apple.
Before you begin
You'll need two key things: An iPod touch (obviously) and a wireless network with connectivity to the Internet.Getting an iPod touch onto a wireless network is, most instances, a snap. Just go to Settings > Wi-Fi, switch Wi-Fi on (if it's not already on) and click on the name of the network you're connecting to. If it's a secure network--these are listed with a padlock icon--the touch will prompt you for a password. This will be one of the keys listed on your router's wireless configuration pages. Once connected, verify that everything's working dandily by using Safari to surf the Web.
The hack we're demonstrating here only works on touches running the 1.1.1 firmware. You can check which firmware you're currently running by going to Settings > General > About. If you're using a later version, read the next section to see how you can restore your firmware.
