Hasta La Gadget!

James Whelton won a pink 8-GB iPod Nano and on the plane on his way back home, he hacked it. While he hasn’t jailbroken the Nano, he did get the better of the little device and dug out some interesting details of what may be possible.

James got control of the Nano’s SpringBoard, the iPod equivalent of a desktop, where all app icons appear. Normally, the Nano’s OS checks to make sure that it isn’t trying to load a modified version. James bypassed this check and proved it by removing an app icon, leaving a blank space (see video below).

That’s cool and all, but the SpringBoard plist (a plist is a file that Apple’s devices use to store preferences) shows that it could be simple matter to switch on support for movies, TV shows, games, an address book, a calendar and even a passcode lock. Here’s a picture of the extracted file:

Watching video on the tiny, square Nano screen seems kind of pointless, but so what? And unlike iOS devices which receive updates regularly, the normal iPods get one or two updates in their lifetimes, if ever, so there wouldn’t really be any reason not to hack one.

To be clear, the Nano hasn’t been jailbroken yet, and James hasn’t been able to do anything more interesting than make an app icon disappear. Still, it’s a start. We’re looking forward to seeing if hackers are able to come up with a full jailbreak for the best wristwatch of 2010.

Hello Nano [NanoHack.me]

See Also:

• Hands-On With New Apple iPods
• The One-Dollar iPod Keychain Hack
• Hack Turns 5G iPods into iPhones. Almost

Continue reading Researchers find weak point in lithium-ion batteries, suggest better nanowires could be the answer

Researchers find weak point in lithium-ion batteries, suggest better nanowires could be the answer originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week’s most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us — it’s the Week in Green.

This week we were blinded by the light as researchers unveiled a way to transform city trees into luminous streetlights using gold nanoparticles. We also showcased a mesmerizing paper LED structure shaped like a tree at Tokyo Designers Week, and speaking of stellar architecture, check out this stunning star-shaped Taiwanese tower topped with a built-in wind turbine.

In other news, strap on your rollerblades and hang tight – from the Department of Questionable Transportation comes the FlyRad, an insane electric unicycle that pulls you down the street at 25 miles per hour. Meanwhile, the city of Toronto is doing their part to preserve the environment by rolling out a fleet of garbage trucks that can be powered by the very waste they collect. Finally, the University of Rhode Island signaled a bright future for efficient transportation as they unveiled four designs that could tap the United States’ 2.7 million miles of roadways for solar energy.

This week we also looked at several new applications for futuristic manufacturing technologies – a dutch designer has pioneered a way to create 3D printed shoes that fit feet perfectly, and researchers have found that activated carbon cloth is a quicker picker-upper for toxic waste. Finally, with the holidays on their way, this week we rounded up our top ten green gadget gifts for 2010!

Inhabitat’s Week in Green: of electric tractor unicycles, garbage-powered garbage trucks, and luminous nanoparticle trees originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 14 Nov 2010 21:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Scientists in Israel have developed a transparent material with “the hardest organic nanostructure known to man,” according to Discovery News. Based on artificial proteins similar to (and simpler than) the beta-amlyoid proteins that have been linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and covered with transparent nanospheres, the new material is very, very strong: in order to cut it, a diamond-tipped probe would have to apply twice the pressure it would take to cut Kevlar. Researchers see it being used for anything from bulletproof armor to reinforced steel — but don’t throw out your old body armor yet! It could be years (if not decades) before this comes to market.

Transparent material developed that’s twice as strong as Kevlar, infinitely weirder originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The iPod nano iWatch? That’s so last week. Apple’s sixth-gen PMP has found a far better home in one fellow’s old Dreamcast VMU (Visual Memory Unit). It takes a bit of work to get the 1.5-inch screen and headphone outlet aligned just right, but when it’s all said and done, you get one of the best and quickest homages to old school gaming around. And hey, it also acts as a big plastic fortress to protect your touchy music player. Video after the break.

Continue reading iPod nano modded into Dreamcast VMU, magic meets nostalgia (video)

iPod nano modded into Dreamcast VMU, magic meets nostalgia (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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