iPod Nano Hack Removes Apps; Jailbreak Work-In-Progress [Video]

Apple's latest iPod nano hasn't inspired quite the frenzied hack atmosphere as its iPod touch and iPhone siblings, but that doesn't mean the tiny touchscreen PMP is completely devoid of modification. James Whelton won a nano and spent little time in cooking up an app hack; while so far he can't add software to the PMP, he's figured out how to modify the Springboard UI to remove apps.Video demo after the cut

That involves bypassing the nano's cache comparison, which would usually be watching for modified files and reverting them to clean versions if it spots anything that has been tampered with. The next step is making use of the Movies, TV Shows, Apps, Games, vCards, Calender events and other mentions in the nano's plist.

Whelton is quick to point out that this isn't a nano jailbreak, but perhaps the first steps towards more control over the nano's file structure, apps and – eventually – a jailbreak solution:

"What I have also done is figured out a way for the iPod to boot with modified files (eg the SpingBoard Plist), bypassing the procedure it takes to stop this, I hope this will allow us to figure out a way to jailbreak it. I am primarily focusing on exposing some of the (for now) hidden features of the device" James Whelton