iPod and iTunes Hacks

Change Your Battery Icon

Convert your iPod’s battery icon into a much more useful voltage indicator.

Your iPod’s battery indicator is represented by a visual icon of a battery. Sure, it’s pretty, but it isn’t necessarily the most intuitive way to tell how much life is left in your charge. This hack replaces your battery icon with numbers, as shown in Figure 3-16. The numbers represent how much voltage is left in your battery. Granted, it is not so ideal as a countdown timer, but it does gives you a better indication of how much juice you have left before you’ll have to take out your earbuds and (gasp!) listen to the world around you.

Figure 3-16. An iPod with the voltage indicator

On the Mac

Mac users can use the Terminal to turn on show voltage:

touch /Volumes/your_iPod's_name/iPod_Control/Device/_show_voltage

or turn off show voltage:

rm /Volumes/your_iPod's_name/iPod_Control/Device/_show_voltage

On Windows

Windows users can use DOS to turn on show voltage:

1. At the root of your C: drive, create a new text file called _show_voltage.

2. Go to Start → Run and type cmd.

3. Type your iPod drive letter (e.g., j:)

4. Type cd iPodControl_Device.

5. Type copy c:\_show_voltage.

To turn off show voltage:

1. Go to Start → Run and type cmd.

2. Type your iPod drive letter (e.g., j:)

3. Type cd iPodControl_Device.

4. Type del _show_voltage ...