Sixth-gen iPod nano hacked, jailbreak imminent? (updated)

A promising breakthrough was just announced in iPod nano hacking. James Whelton (@jwhelton) has taken the first steps to unlocking the latest, sixth-gen iPod nano -- and his work will undoubtedly lead to more developments in this exciting new area.

It's still in its infancy but Whelton has succeeded in bypassing the devices cache comparison and installed a simple Springboard hack that allows for a blank space previously possible only on jailbroken iPhones and iPads. Whelton hopes that his work will enable other developers to expand the functionality of the new nano by installing a bootloader onto it.

Could we see a jailbroken iPod nano in the short term? Absolutely.

This could be music to the ears of people who like to wear their iPod nano on their wrist. Especially if a jailbroken iPod nano could run the Movie and Calendar apps.

Since the new nano doesn't have any wireless radios apps like Email, Safari and Twitter make less sense but the possibility of new apps on the nano is definitely exciting.

Update: MacStories' Federico Viticci notes that Whelton has discovered some hidden strings in the nano’s OS:

Next is the discovery in some of the device’s plists of reference to support of Movies, TV Shows, Apps, Games, vCards, Calender events and so on, with a few other cool things like a passcode lock. With the bypass I figured out, I hope to enable these pretty soon. It seems like the OS is a rehashed version of the previous Nano’s OS.

What apps would you like to see on the new nano?