Apple in 2005 helped the Department of Energy build a top secret iPod

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Yoni Heisler

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  • Apple in 2005 helped two contractors for the U.S. Department of Energy build a modified iPod capable of housing specialized hardware.
  • An Apple engineer who worked on the project speculates that the government wanted to create an undercover Geiger counter to covertly record radiation levels.

In a fascinating story posted to TidBITS this week, former Apple engineer David Shayer details how he helped two engineers with ties to the US Department of Energy modify an existing iPod so that it could be used for clandestine purposes. As you might expect, the entire collaboration between the two entities was kept top secret, with Shayer noting that only four people at Apple were even aware the project existed.

Shayer notes that the engineers in question indirectly worked for the Department of Energy via their employment at Bechtel, a defense contractor used by the DOE. Shayer, as you might imagine, wasn't fully clued in as to what the engineers were aiming to do. Rather, his sole job was to simply help the engineers add custom -- and undetectable -- hardware to a fifth-gen iPod. Naturally, the engineers demanded that a modified iPod should function exactly like a regular iPod.

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Apple in 2005 helped the Department of Energy build a top secret iPod originally appeared on BGR.com on Tue, 18 Aug 2020 at 17:34:31 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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