Not much attention has been paid to the iPod since the advent of the iPhone. and this is a crime, because it was a brilliantly simple device with a wonderful user interface. To help him become relevant again, Guy Dupont gave an iPod to a 17-year-old a lot-needs an update with the ability to stream Spotify wirelessly so it plays music again without having to connect to iTunes.
But this is not a hack similar to the jailbreak of an iPhone and the side loading of some custom programs to add more functionality. Even the latest larger size models iPod Classic it had no wireless capabilities, so to upgrade a 17-year-old iPod, to access Spotify, Dupont had to evacuate everything inside the MP3 player except the iconic click wheel on the front.
Instead of Apple’s original hardware, Dupont changed a Raspberry Pi Zero W that was able to interface with the click wheel, a spare color LCD screen, a small engine to add haptic feedback and a 1000 mAh rechargeable battery. Not surprisingly, there is plenty of room within a 17-year-old device for highly miniaturized modern electronics.
With all of Apple’s original hardware gone, Dupont also had to completely recreate the iPod’s scrolling user interface from scratch using Python. While your upgraded iPod can now play almost any digital audio format, its ability to wirelessly access the entire Spotify library, including search features, is what makes this hack stand out. Aside from the green and black Spotify theme on the screen, this iPod seems to in some cases come straight from an Apple store neighboring dimension where the iPhone never became.