If you have bought older generation of iPods, you are in luck as Rockbox 3.0 firmware was just released to the public.

What does it do?  Basically it allows you to free yourself from iTunes and do a lot more with old equipment.

Since Apple has stopped developing the firmware for the older iPods (yes, they keep making new ones to make more money, how greedy!), this Rockbox provides users with alternative way to upgrade their old iPods.

I personally have the 40GB model of the iPod shown in the pic, I should be doing a short DIY write-up to tell you all how it went.

Looks like their site is down already but keep checkin’, it should be up later.

Rockbox’s developers say that the most important changes to the software won’t be particularly obvious to the average user. “The first players supported by Rockbox decoded MP3 files using a chip specifically for this purpose. This made things a lot simpler for Rockbox, but also limited the amount of formats supported to variants of MPEG audio. Newer players don’t use this approach, and as such, it was needed to expand Rockbox to do sound decoding in software on these players. This opens up the possibility of supporting a lot of different file formats, which is of course exactly what we did! “

via engadget, ostatic, Rockbox

Well, here’s a cool little hack for anyone who’s interested in building a GPS tracker for fun. Although I’d rather stick to my GoogleMaps on my Blackberry, this is good info for anyone who wants to build a custom app.

The Open GPS Tracker is a small device which plugs into a $20 prepaid mobile phone to make a GPS tracker. The Tracker responds to text message commands, detects motion, and sends you its exact position, ready for Google Maps or your mapping software. The Tracker firmware is open source and user-customizable.

via opengpstracker

If you are like most folks who don’t know about DD-WRT and your Linksys router is dying on you, it’s time to switch your OS to DD-WRT.

DD-WRT also works on over 80 other routers, so be sure to check the supported devices list here.

DD-WRT is basically an aftermarket linux firmware for your Linksys router. It’s like putting an aftermarket turbo system on your hot import car, except this one is open-source and free to download.

There are many instructions floating on the internet but the most important thing is to identify what type of Linksys router you have.

You can refer to the instructions on the DD-WRT website wiki here. It might look a little hairy but usually it takes 3 simple steps of uploading a new firmware via the web GUI admin interface, TFTPing another file, then simple rebooting and wala you have a .

Check the back of your Linksys router to see what model it is. I have several different Linksys routers ranging from Linksys WRT-G V8, WRT-GS V5, and WRT-GS V7.

I’ve successfully installed the DD-WRT on my WRT-GS V5 and my WRT-G V8, but have bricked my WRT-GS V7.

If you have WRT-G V8 or WRT-GS V7, you can try this guide here. I’ve successfully installed the WRT-G V8 but bricked my WRT-GS V7, so be careful.

If you have one of the newer models or thinking about buying one, I highly suggest trying to get an old one off eBay or get the WRT-G models. Although WRT-GS V8 is supported, sometimes, it can brick your router just like it happened to me.

Bricked your router while trying to upgrade to DD-WRT?

Well, normally this doesn’t happen, but here’s resources just in case you do brick your router.

The only choice I have is to make a hairydairymaid JTAG cable which allows you to directly program and erase the flash and the Broadcom chip inside the router.

If you ever brick your router, you can always refer to the WRT54G revival guide before trying the hairy dairy method.

Click below for on the rest of the guide to tweak the settings and make the router go 10 times faster!

Continue reading ‘DIY Linksys HACK - HOWTO tweak your router to go 10 times faster!’

Here’s another way to unlock your iPhone SIM:

• • Download the iUnlock_Reloaded.zip from here, here or here. Save it to a directory.
  • cd to where you just saved the download and unzip it.
  • in another wiindow, ssh into your iPhone and run: mkdir /unlock
  • back on your Mac, scp the three files to your iPhone: scp -p iUnlock_reloaded *bin root@youriphoneip:/unlock
  • on your iPhone, run: cd /unlock
  • on your iPhone, run: ./iUnlock_reloaded

  If it worked, and says your iPhone is unlocked, you’re done. If not, read on.

  If it says that the flash went ok, but the unlock failed, do this:

  • put a copy of the 1.0.2 firmware in a directory on your Mac. If you need to download it, get it from here.
  • rename the extension on the firmware from ipsw to zip
  • unzip it
  • run: dd if=009-7698-4.dmg of=ramdisk.dmg bs=512 skip=4 conv=sync
  • use finder to navigate to the directory where ramdisk.dmg is and double-click it to mount it.
  • copy the following files to the directory you unziped iUnlock_Reloaded.zip in:
    • /Volumes/ramdisk/usr/local/bin/bbupdater
    • /Volumes/ramdisk/usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.14.08_G.eep
    • /Volumes/ramdisk/usr/local/standalone/firmware/ICE03.14.08_G.fls
  • copy those three files to your iPhone: scp -p bbupdater ICE* root@youriphoneip:/unlock
  • on your iPhone, run: cd /unlock
  • on your iPhone, run: launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist
  • on your iPhone, run: ./bbupdater -f *.fls -e *.eep
  • on your iPhone, run: launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.CommCenter.plist
  • on your iPhone, run: ./iUnlock_reloadedIt should successfully flash and unlock this time.

via iphonehacks

Here’s a little hack on HOWTO update your Arduino Chip from David Fowler. (Thanks David!)

After doing the reset mod to my Arduino Compatible Bare Bones Boards I wanted to update the firmware to get the full benefit of the Diecimila update. I followed the directions on the Arduino website but could not succeed. I sent emails and did web searches and still did not find the answer. Ultimately with the help of David Mellis, one of the Arduino Team members, we figured out that it can not be done from the IDE using the simple cable described at the Arduino web site. It can be done however and this article will give you the information needed to update or program new Mega168 chips with the latest Arduino code.

via uCHobby

So we made the MP3 player and it works freakin’ great! The sound quality was as good as an off-the-shelf MP3s.
We plan to hack it using a CuTOUCH CT1720 and make some cool touchscreen menus for it.

Here’s some pictures of how it will fit in the touchscreen enclosure: (It fit perfectly!)

The only hurdle we face now is changing the firmware of the MP3 player a little bit so we can grab the MP3 song titles.