iPod touch now running Mail, Google Maps, and more

We're not looking at general availability yet, but those happy hacking cats unravelling the iPod touch have decrypted the ramdisk and are now busy installing applications. Already, Mail, Maps, and other 3rd party apps are up and running on their jailbreaked touches. The race is on between the cat and the mouse to see who will release their wares first. Maps screenshot after the break.

[Josh @ Jan 30th 2008 9:40PM]

i have an @att.net account. how do you setup email with the new update?

[Insignificant Fish @ Jan 31st 2008 11:48PM]

it is occuring to me that unless Apple starts to release firmware upgrades that open up old, and new, functionality of the hardware, there will be no real reason to update with all the 3rdP software for the emancipated touch.

[iPodEcho @ May 14th 2008 1:05PM]

If you want a super easy and beginner friendly guide check out iPodEcho.googlepages.com It's a new site but will be up and running with complete guides based on user requests! Post a comment for support! Thanks. http://iPodEcho.googlepages.com/

[carlos @ Jul 12th 2008 1:21PM]

i m so happy ts great hope Apple is not too serious about breaking the effort of the open community cause it will obviously help to sell more ipod

[carlos @ Jul 12th 2008 1:39PM]

so great i justwaiting for...................i cant believe it

[Dante @ Oct 11th 2007 5:57AM]

Um, where is the freaking bluetooth that we are suppose to have?

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 6:08AM]

Um, you can't just freaking add bluetooth.

Nowhere did it say the iPt was supposed to have bluetooth.

[Matt @ Oct 11th 2007 6:15AM]

Wasn't there talk of someone opening up an iPod touch and there being a 802.11a chip, and a Bluetooth setting in a (somehow) unfinished configuration menu?

What I want to know is what of the chances of bricking the touch by jailbreaking it and installing these apps, and Apple updating the firmware which is bound to happen soon?

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 6:20AM]

Yes, but that doesn't prove anything.

People on MacRumors are reporting that they can restore after jailbreak, so there shouldn't be any problems with it bricking.

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 6:24AM]

There were also reports that this wasn't the case though.

I would love to chuck these apps on my iPt but I'm always expecting the worst, too. However, if it bricks, there are ways to unbrick it (combination of buttons).

[Philip Hofstetter @ Oct 11th 2007 6:37AM]

Concerning bricking of the iPods:

I tried the TIFF exploit earlier.

It worked. I could access the device ith IPHUC, but neither the touch, nor iTunes recognized any music on it. Worse: iTunes only recognized around 200 MBytes of memory which already was 75% full.

Preferring music over an unfinished hack, I wanted to restore the touch, but I got nothing but error -18 from iTunes.

The trick is to do this:

1) Connect the touch
2) Press and hold sleep+home until the device reboots.
3) Keep holding until that "please connect me to itunes"-screen appears
4) iTunes says something about having detected a touch in recovery mode. Allow it to do its thing.

Now here, I got another error -18, so

5) Disconnect the touch
6) Close iTunes
7) Reconnect the touch
8) iTunes launches and shows message as in step 4, but this time, the recovery will work *phew*

So while the TIFF explout makes the touch pretty useless for its intended purpose, at least, you don't have to fear bricking it.

Philip

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 6:43AM]

Awesome news. I'll be attempting this when I get home. :)

Thanks.

[Kirk @ Oct 11th 2007 12:28PM]

Philip, that is a known issue and is a part of the jailbreak. That simply means the exploit succeeded. Once you gain SSH access and can FTP to your device, you simply have to rename a couple folders and you get all of your music and storage back instantly.

[Chris @ Oct 12th 2007 8:27AM]

Also, a little note. If you can connect using iPHUC, just type: enterrecovery

It throws the Touch/iPhone into recovery mode, then you open up iTunes and restore like normal.

Unfortunately a lot of curious people are deciding to take a look at the TIFF, not realizing that once you view it, you're already part way through the jailbreaking process.

If you don't intend to fully jailbreak, don't view the TIFF or you'll have to do some restoring or renaming to have access to all your storage and media.

[schipor @ Oct 11th 2007 6:07AM]

The bluetooth would really help when you don't have WiFi.

Damn their marketing!

[Wes Joyce @ Oct 11th 2007 10:34AM]

There may be bluetooth, but you can't just make it work...it has to go through the FCC before it can use bluetooth technology.

[Sneakz @ Oct 11th 2007 6:11AM]

But iFixit never said it did not have bluetooth. I doubt it does but, just sayin'. ANyway, will this work for 1.0.2 iPod touches or just 1.1.1? I haven't updated mine just yet.

[Russ @ Oct 11th 2007 9:37AM]

They never specifically said it didn't have a Marguerita mixer in it either, but I doubt I'll be blendin' drinks with it later. ;)

[Katanoki @ Oct 11th 2007 6:33PM]

But will it blend?

[Tim @ Oct 11th 2007 5:23PM]

You're not blending drinks with the iPt? Sounds like you got a bum device. I put mine in the blender and it pureed just fine. Warning: doing so will permanently brick the device... damn Apple always stopping me from unintended uses.

[shaun @ Oct 11th 2007 6:12AM]

sweet I want it for my iPod!

[Chriso89 @ Oct 11th 2007 7:58AM]

I need a guide to jailbreak my ipod touch. sombody`?

[Eugene @ Oct 11th 2007 8:08AM]

http://www.touchdev.net/wiki/Jailbreak_Guide

[Eugene @ Oct 11th 2007 9:41AM]

uhhh.. If I say yes will you leave me alone :)

[Richard @ Oct 11th 2007 6:22AM]

meh, wake me up when it plays xvid,avi files

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 6:24AM]

Wake me up when safari has flash and the above. ;)

[Ireland @ Oct 11th 2007 8:01AM]

If you are waiting for flash, I don't think you're getting an iPhone for a few years then. As of right now Apple says it's a power drain.

[Namarrgon @ Oct 11th 2007 8:29AM]

That's their excuse for all the useful features that didn't make the cut. It's wearing a bit thin.

[Leonard Nimrod @ Oct 11th 2007 8:59AM]

@ Matt H,

Exactly what version of Flash does Adobe have for OS X on an ARM CPU? Adobe Flash 7 for ARM CPU is practically worthless. Adobe Flash 9 for Mac OS X is highly un-optimized. Adobe is the one who needs to get Flash working properly, but shouldn't they stat by optimizing Mac OS X Flash and getting a decent version of Flash for the billion Symbian based phones out there?

My suggestion to Adobe is to create a chpset that takes Flash from being a slow, powersucking software solution to a faster, less power hungry chipset solution.

[Nick @ Oct 11th 2007 9:05AM]

other than gamming on the web.. why do you want flash?!?! the world has gone flash crazy.. it'll drain power and takes a while to load when its not optimized (which is about 50% of all flash on the web).

[Matt H @ Oct 11th 2007 9:54AM]

Err, I said wake me up when it has Flash, not it needs flash now.

Flash may use a lot of battery, but who cares.. that's what a charger is for. Why Flash? Not because of the 100% flash websites, but because of flash games, flash interfaces and videos.

Exactly what version of Flash does Adobe have for OS X on an ARM CPU? Ok none, but that's what I'm saying - Wake me up WHEN they get around to doing it.

Jeez.

[Ireland @ Oct 11th 2007 1:23PM]

Should be a long sleep then Matt.

[Chriso89 @ Oct 11th 2007 7:56AM]

Guide?

[bugmat @ Oct 11th 2007 6:33AM]

Meh...Wake me up when ti has a comic and eBook reader. No seriously this baby is now really on my Christmas shopping list - great work by all the hack...errr I mean software development teams out there!

[ssuk @ Oct 11th 2007 7:58AM]

I promise you this hack will be fixed before christmas, so best to put that christmas list on the 'maybe' pile.

[Stephen Lang @ Oct 11th 2007 5:12PM]

bugmat- you can wake up now, at least for an ebook reader-
http://code.google.com/p/iphoneebooks/

[Alex @ Dec 28th 2007 1:35AM]

it has an ebook reader :P

[bugmat @ Dec 29th 2007 1:44PM]

Heck I got it way back in November and I love my comic and eBook readers thank you very much! ;)

[yacoub @ Oct 11th 2007 6:42AM]

OMG!!! I can't wait to get Notes and full-Calendar on my touch! Looking forward to a nice compiled crack for the touch that doesn't require doing lots of convoluted things to get it working.

[yacoub @ Oct 11th 2007 6:49AM]

oh and supposedly this one only works if you have a Mac :(

[Timbuckto @ Oct 11th 2007 12:15PM]

So what, just shrink one of your partitions with GParted (defrag in windows first) and then install JaS OSX 10.4.8 ;-). Once installed checkout insanelymac.com to get help on upgrading to 10.4.10 so you can install iTunes and manage your iPod Touch.

[homer @ Oct 11th 2007 7:11AM]

with all that icons now it look a Microsoft Product. It's ugly!
Do you remember the Microsoft ipod parody?

[Trevor @ Oct 11th 2007 7:40AM]

Microsoft iPod Parody = Funny http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=36099539665548298&q=microsoft+ipod

[Richard John @ Oct 11th 2007 9:05AM]

That parody was made by Microsoft before they had an MP3 player. The Zune box is so clean, it makes that video kind of irrelevant.

[nikster @ Oct 13th 2007 2:26AM]

I'd say The video is the reason the zune box is so clean ;)

[AriX @ Oct 11th 2007 7:44AM]

Use http://www.touchdev.net/wiki/Jailbreak_Guide#Known_Working_iPhone_Applications_and_Requirements

Works like a charm for me :D

[ThePengwin @ Oct 11th 2007 8:32AM]

Hey, its finally catching up to my now outdated iPAQ rw6828, wow!
Seriously, windows smart phones and windows mobile PDAs have the same functionality, and its been like that for a good 5 years now why weren't they revolutionary devices?

[Dap @ Oct 11th 2007 9:35AM]

MultiTouch Interface? - This is the biggie!!! How you actually navigate, interact with the device. Easy and Beautiful.

I watched a crowd of around 100 people fighting just to demo one of these products at the Regent St Apple store. The older generation couldn't believe how easy it was, they were somewhat scared by the MultiTouch voodoo. I cannot remember many products getting that kind of reaction from the general public. It's ashame they couldn't purchase one though as the morning shipment sold out within 2 hours.

[laurie @ Oct 11th 2007 7:58AM]

Wake me up when Apple stop trying to lock down a FREAKING MP3 PLAYER. I'd love a touch but I WILL NOT PAY for one until its a device that APPLE allow me to install software of MY CHOICE on.

I understand the locking on the iPhone, that is a completely different product and sales model. This is a portable computer/mp3 player, with no contract and no subsidy. I cannot understand why Apple will not let consumers get the most out of THEIR hardware. And yes the hardware DOES BELONG to the consumer once purchased. Apple IP/Copyright is completely IRRELEVENT.

Are Apply really trying to become hated like MS, because they are well on their way...

[Kareem Halfawi @ Oct 11th 2007 9:38AM]

They don't want the iTouch to cannibalize iPhone sales, it's perfectly understandable.

Just like you said, it's a "freaking mp3 player" and it already does a whole lot more than any other "freaking mp3 player".