Not much attention has been paid to the iPod since the iPhone arrived, and this is a crime, because it was a brilliantly simple device with a wonderful user interface. To make it relevant again, Guy Dupont offered a 17-year-old iPod a lot-need upgrade with the ability to streams Spotify wirelessly so that it plays music again without having to be connected to iTunes.
But this is not a hack similar to jailbreaking an iPhone and side-loading custom programs to add more functionality. Even the latest larger models iPod Classic it had no wireless capabilities, so to upgrade to a 17-year-old iPod to access Spotify, Dupont asked to destroy everything in the MP3 player except the iconic front rotor.
Instead of the original Apple hardware, Dupont changed into a Raspberry Pi Zero W that managed to interact with the click wheel, a color-changing LCD display, a small motor to add haptic feedback and a 1000 mAh rechargeable battery. Not surprisingly, there is plenty of room inside a 17-year-old device for highly miniaturized modern electronics.
With the loss of all of Apple’s original hardware, Dupont also had to completely recreate the iPod’s user interface from scratch using Python. While its upgraded iPod can now play almost any digital audio format, its ability to wirelessly access the entire Spotify library, including search capabilities, is what makes this hack stand out. Aside from the green and black Spotify color theme on the screen, this iPod appears to be directly from an Apple store neighboring size that the iPhone never reached.