The iPod: Beyond MP3s, beyond PDA


Wired offers an informative look into the myriad uses iPod users, and particularly people who hack the devices, have found for their pocket-size wonders.

Here are some highlights:
• Jean-Olivier Lanctôt-David has figured out a way to display online news headlines on Apple's iPod digital music player.

• One enterprising Japanese hacker has made a boom box out of an iPod.

• VersionTracker currently lists more than two dozen different hacks for the iPod (search for iPod).

• "It's got so much space and it's very easy to hack," one user told Wired. "Apple's done a great job. It's very simple. Synchronizing it is very easy. It's just a hard drive. You just copy files over. There are no weird synchronization protocols like the Palm. And you don't have to worry about space, like on a Palm. It's enormous. Who cares how much space you use?"

• "If Apple opened the firmware, that would blow it open," the user told Wired. "That would change everything. That would be phenomenal."

Analysis: This could be the device that drives Firewire into the consumer product space. The overt as well as stealthy appeal of the iPod could make it the uber-hit consumer device of the year, and that's gotta be a good thing.