zerolight

I’ve had my iPod Touch for a couple of weeks now. I’d decided when I got it that I was not going to jailbreak it. I mean, why bother? The 32GB model already comes with the iPhone apps – mail, calendar, safari, etc. Jailbreaking it provides you with what? MobileScrobbler, a dictionary, solitaire, a wallpaper app, Finder (to find what?), and a means of taking screenshots, to name just a few of the exciting options available to you. Is there really any point, especially with Apple bringing 3rd party apps to you via iTunes in a few months? No, is the simple answer, there is no point. Naturally, yesterday, I jailbroke my iPod. It didn’t go well, but as the following picture testifies, I got there in the end. Read more…

All went well initially. I installed the aforementioned applications. Then I had a tinker, and changed my ssh password using the passwd command. Some geek recommended that. Bad idea. The only way someone could get onto your iPod via the default password is if you leave SSH switched on (battery drain) and then connect your iPod to an insecure wifi network. If you are that stupid, then yay for you. It turns out that if you change the password via the passwd command, then it turns your iPod/iPhone into a paperweight with flashing icons, post reboot. Great stuff. And cheers Mr Geekboy. So I had to restore it back to factory default, re-jailbreak it, re-install same pointless apps, re-sync my iTunes and iPhoto libraries, oh, and then fix my mail app as that was suddenly broken. Groan.

All this effort was worthwhile for one single app. MobileScrobbler. It’s great. If only because I don’t have to use any silly workarounds when I come home after listening to the iPod in the car. I just walk into the house, turn the iPod on, it connects to the net via wifi and scrobbles my played tracks. It also runs whilst the iPod is connected to the car kit (the iPod Music Player doesn’t) so you can crash you car looking at album art rather than the road. Worryingly, since the official iTunes apps can’t run in the background, the chances are, MobileScrobbler will be impossible going down the official route. Boo.

On a more positive note, the actual jailbreaking of the iPod is a piece of cake using ziphone 3.0. Download it, double click it, wait a minute or two whilst the iPod reboots, and disco… it’s done, complete with the Nullriver Installer app. Whack on BossPrefs (to disable SSH amongst other things) and you’re ready to go.