If someone makes a device, someone else will want to break it open and run their own software on it. When the original manufacturer is Apple this is never made easy, and as [Daniel Stenberg] reminds us in the case of one of the earlier iPod models it required an unusual approach.
In short, an HTML file was found which triggered a reboot, meaning a buffer overrun had been found in the firmware. After much experimenting, the memory location was found which would flash the backlight, and from there a piece of ARM code could be injected which would dump the firmware very slowly bitwise by flashing the light. Enough code could be extracted to find the address of the USB serial port, allowing new code to be made which dumped the firmware via USB. We remember the earliest models using FireWire instead of USB, so perhaps we can zero in on the 3rd or 4th generation. From there enough could be deduced to run the Rockbox music player firmware. We remember seeing friends doing this back in the day, something which was for a while the height of open-source coolness.
Fast forward twenty years or so, and we’re still covering people chipping away at Apple’s defenses. We don’t know whether a first-generation iPod could run Doom, but we know Rockbox was capable of it on other players.
Ahhh yes, back when Apple still made things i wanted to have, good memories.
While he cost me (and the entire sector i worked in) my job (flash dev) even i can’t deny that Steve Jobs was a legend, but in my case i’ve mostly noticed it because since his passing the company just keeps getting worse and worse and worse… 🤦♂️
For a while they were a fashion icon that actually also were just making great hardware, then they became a fashion icon that just sells outdated hardware with a ton of marketing, now-a-days i don’t even know how to describe them anymore, every hardcore Apple fan i’ve known over the years no longer uses Apple because of the crazy prices for outdated stuff & because M$ and Google have copied everything else 🤷♂️
He didn’t. Adobe did.
Properly securing flash would have saved the industry, instead it was patchwork after patchwork on an insecure platform
I dunno, I feel like a closed standard where people demand ever increasing amounts of money for the tools was always going to be doomed as a web format – someone else (be it Apple, Google, etc.) would eventually have gotten fed up with Adobe’s shenanigans and invented their own alternative.
The modern web sucks in many many ways but at least it’s tending towards more open standards and less hacky workarounds, which is essentially what Flash was in the absence of a lot of stuff we now take for granted in a browser.
What a strange remark.
Adobe sired that abomination that was Flash, not Apple.
Perhaps you’re thinking of Quicktime?
* clash of cymbals * “FLASH! AAAAAAH! disowned by the bulk of us!”
Thank goodness Flash is dead. The plugin especially, was a dangerously insecure pile of trash. The concept was good, but the execution was abysmal.
> * clash of cymbals * “FLASH! AAAAAAH! disowned by the bulk of us!”
Wow, I feel old for understanding this reference.
But Apple was the first platform to specifically ban flash. Hence responsible for it’s demise (not its birth).
This is correct. Flash died quite fast after that.
I remember the whining of non-Apple users on that decision. Few years after that nobody remembered Flash. Really.
It was the same whine choir that started when Apple removed 3.5mm jack from iPhone. It was clear at that time that bluetooth audio is the way. And few years later all the whine choir phones are without the 3.5mm. Nobody seems to whine about that anymore .. Wonder why ;)
Apple just have made the correct decisions quite a few times. I know this is poison for Apple-haters.
Watching it from the outside, it looked like Apple just used that as a publicity stunt about security around the time when Netscape Navigator, Opera, and Mozilla Firefox were still new and just opening IE instantly gave you malware.
I don’t really think the headphone jack removal is as easy to justify as the blocking of flash, unless you’re a company that sells expensive wireless headphones. Otherwise the benefits are limited.
Once again an always-smug Apple fanboy who reduces people with perfectly working electronics (wired headphones that is, not Flash) to “whine choirs”.
Yeah, let’s all consume product and produce more e-waste, our grandchildren will thank us…
Well, now you’re outed as an apologist for anti-customer, anti-industry behavior. Flash was garbage, but removing the audio output from their best-selling MUSIC PLAYER (the iPhone) not only crippled the product but pays testament to Apple’s disdain for… well… everyone.
And you’re wrong: Many, many people still scorn Apple’s removal of the headphone jack, which is indefensible because the phones still have D/A audio circuits in them. They have to. Denying a connection to them is a petty fuck-you to YOU.
All these years later, Bluetooth is still unreliable shit, and Apple never did sell its own solution to the problem they created. And then they doubled down on this insult by removing the headphone jack from the iPad Pro, turning an already marginal product into even more of a toy. Want to watch a movie on the plane with your companion? Nope. Now you can’t both plug in headphones with a Y adapter.
And on and on. Take a step back and instead of folding to cognitive dissonance every time someone brings up an “uncomfortable” fact about your pet product, grow a nut and demand better. Otherwise, you’re just another tool for the degradation of products and services.
Bluetooth audio is mid. Still has huge latency, still needs to stay charged (boy howdy, do I wish earbuds could plug right into the phone). My phone still has 3.5mm, sorry yours doesn’t
Watching the bitter comments here, I can see that this touched you and got into your feelings. Maybe time to self-evaluate?
You could have just ignored “stupid apple fanboy” comment and moved on, but no ..
“always-smug Apple fanboy” clearly has more understanding about the electronics and the market in general than you do. 3.5mm jack was a space limiting factor, specifically preventing phones from becoming thinner. It’s also a pain to waterproof. Good riddance.
You had me with e-waste lol. Most wired headphones are discarded because the wiring goes bad. Research is hard when you’re ignorant.
damnit.. That was meant as a reply to @Olivier :P Stupid comment system.
we would never thank Jobs or Apple for this move. Flash was an atrocity!
i mean: we would never thank *enough*…
my 4th gen still works, runs rockbox of course. last apple product im ever going to buy.
“im”?
English must not be your first language.
I miss having a good MP3 player. I had the iPod Mini for years, with an upgrade from HDD to SD. Worked so wonderfully. Was running rockbox of course. It sadly passed away years ago. I bought a new MP3 player this year but it’s far from perfect. The user interface is just lacking in all aspects. I’d like something similar in size, but with Spotify on it. Especially for going to the gym.