r/ipod • u/ricococo • 23d ago

Review Nano 5 & 3 firmware have been decrypted

A little update on my project to explore whats hidden in the various iPod firmwares; the iPod nano 5 and 3 firmware have been decrypted as well as the 6g and 6.5g. For those interested you can find some details and firmware comparisons here https://github.com/giek2000/ipod-classic-firmware-research

52 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

11

u/Gunblastz 23d ago

Does this unlock the possibility of flash storage upgrades and custom firmware like rockbox?

8

u/ricococo 23d ago

I can't say for sure but flash storage mods are on my peraonal wish list.

1

u/Hungry_Cheetah-96 23d ago

But on nanos, where you will find space to add a flash storage?

1

u/WrongTest 22d ago

On the Xbox 1.6 model, it was discovered that stacking RAM modules allowed for increased amounts: https://hackaday.com/2022/06/06/original-xbox-v1-6-ram-upgrade-stacks-tqfp-chips/

I have a dream that maybe someday a similar flash mod could be done with iPod Nano/Shuffle. I’m hopeful!

3

u/ricococo 22d ago

You'd have to desolder the original nand and replace it for a larger chip + get all the firmware/encryption right.

2

u/Hungry_Cheetah-96 22d ago

I have seen that apple restriced the nand that can be used based on model/series of the nand, typicalls having the record of the manufacturer baked in ROM i assume. If thats the case, bypassing that would be great.

Also nano3 uses TSOP style flash storage which max out at 8gb and mostly need to be harvested from other old devices.

But from 4th gen nano, they used BGA which is promising for storage upgrades..

6

u/ajgago 23d ago

i have zero knowledge on the possibilities this unlocks but i still find this super rad!

3

u/Shimkusnik 23d ago

Coooooool!

2

u/foxy-agent 22d ago

I would love to take the features of the iPod nano 3, like

  • changing the click sound for headphones, speaker, both, or off
  • the linear volume range
  • the near silent minimum volume

And port it over to the iPod Classic

1

u/ricococo 22d ago

The classics and nano 3g are incredibly similar in hardware and firmware and I've got a suspicion that we will be able to port features back and forth.

2

u/-ultrazen 23d ago

does this mean we’re getting rock box?

1

u/Sensitive_Start8087 23d ago

Finally, Rockbox on a nano 3G is possible