Not much attention has been paid to the iPod since the arrival of the iPhone, and it’s a crime, because it was a brilliantly simple device with an amazing user interface. To make it relevant again, Guy Dupont gave a 17-year-old iPod a many-need upgrade with the ability to Spotify wireless streaming so it plays music again without ever having to connect to iTunes.
But this is not a similar hack as jailbreaking an iPhone and downloading some software to add more features. Even the latest models of the larger size iPod Classic lack of wireless features, so to upgrade a 17-year-old iPod to access Spotify, Dupont had to turn everything into the MP3 player except the iconic click wheel on the front.
Instead of Apple’s original hardware, Dupont exchanged a Raspberry Pi Zero W that he was able to couple with the click wheel, a replacement LCD color screen, a small motor to give feedback and a 1000 mAh rechargeable battery. Not surprisingly, there is plenty of room in a 17-year-old device for modern, highly miniaturized electronics.
With all of Apple’s original hardware, Dupont also had to recreate the iPod’s user interface with Python from scratch. While its modernized iPod can now play almost any digital audio format there, it’s the ability to wirelessly access the entire Spotify library, including search features, that makes this hack stand out. Aside from the green and black Spotify color theme on the screen, it looks like it’s iPod in some Apple Store adjacent dimension where the iPhone never originated.