Never dreamed of the day you’d play a DVD on your Wii?  How about playing any N64 game on your Wii, not just the ones on the WiiShop?  And you don’t have to sell your soul for it?  Not a chance, right?  I was immediately interested.

Wii Homebrew and Visual Boy

Turns out there is a dedicated bunch of folks working on Homebrew firmware.  Give me a minute before you start scoffing.  Homebrew doesn’t necessarily mean crappy — I know that there aren’t too many great connotations associated with the word, but these people really know what they’re doing.  Sure, it might screw up your Wii if you don’t do it right.  I haven’t tried it yet either, but I’m planning on doing so once I get my hands on a copy of Twilight Princess (you need it to install the Homebrew).  Once you install the Homebrew firmware (it will appear as a channel), there will be all sorts of applications you can “install” onto your Wii that will allow you to play DVD’s and even Gameboy on the Wii.  Slick, right?

Once I get it up and running, I’ll be sure to introduce only the coolest apps.  But for now, just wanted to throw it out there and thank the developers for creating an alternative.  Thanks, guys!

Tired of the same old interface? Jealous every time you see someone whip out their iPod Touch? It’s quite alright – I was too, at first. Then I decided “Hey, I’m better than that. It’s just superficial tech-lust anyway.” I had finally seen the light. But I wanted to do something to get back at them, to make them see that my iPod (named Glassy for its glass-y features, haha) was just as good as their iPod (I’ll call them Touchy or something).

Just yesterday, I found a hack for the iPod Video 5g/5.5g. I discovered that this hack had been out there for a couple of months already and regretted not being connected deeper into the iPod hacking community, but hey – what can I do? I’ve been bombarded with stuff as of late. I found the steps on the iPod Wizard forums and DrivenDesign to be a bit lacking in substance, so I’ll offer you a guide with pictures and all, although it really isn’t as hard as I’m making it sound. In fact, you can do it in two easy steps!

1. Downloading the iPodWizard Client and Touch Firmware

The iPodWizard is used for a variety of things, mainly editing themes on the iPod, and updating firmware in our case. The iPodWizard program can be found at http://www.getipodwizard.com. Don’t be intimidated, the Wizard is very user-friendly and will work their magic for you.

Next, you’ll need the actual firmware files of the iPod Touch. Scroll to the bottom of http://drivendesign.us/touch.html and download the respective firmware file for your iPod Video. You’ve got a 5g iPod Video if your iPod’s the thicker 30GB version or if you have the 60GB variant. You’ve got a 5.5g iPod Video if your iPod’s the thinner 30GB version (nice choice) or the abundantly-equipped 80GB branch in the iPod family tree. Remember, this hack is not applicable to iPod Classics!

2. Mount the Touch Firmware on your iPod via iPodWizard

Now that you’ve got both the firmware and the mounter, the obvious next step is mounting it. Connect the iPod to your computer via USB. Open up iPodWizard; if you’re running Windows Vista like myself, you’re going to have to right-click it and select Run as Administrator (darn Vista, haha).

Change the Edit Mode to Firmware File and select Open Firmware.

Then, browse to wherever it is you extracted your Touch Firmware and select TouchHack 2.0.bin. Finally, select the Mount button.

Be careful – do unplug the iPod until it’s been restarted into the Touch GUI.

You’re done! Hopefully your iPod Video is still intact, and even better – livened up with the Touch GUI. There are a few bugs and kinks to be ironed out, but we’re just going to have to wait for TouchHack 3.0.bin, I guess.

A quick Word

I might’ve let on more to my personal life than I wanted to – so here are the answers to the questions you’ve been dying to ask.

• Is Herbert addicted to World of Warcraft? Does he play and eat nachos all day?
  • No, I play for recreational purposes. I’m just curious as to how this game works and why it’s so addictive. For those who do play, I am still a Level 12 Draenei Paladin – whoa, did that sound as nerdy as I thought it did? Anyway, I play an average of probably a good half hour to an hour with my friends (high-level 50s).
• Does Herbert not talk to people on Windows Live Messenger?
  • One word – YODM3D.

Back on topic – I hope the TouchHack firmware works well for you. I’m willing to suggest why this is a great alternative to Rockbox, in case there are some of you out there wondering. In fact, I think I’ll write a nice lengthy post about it.