Three ways to save some cash and repair or upgrade your iPod

Apple may be all about being green lately, but throwaway culture has made it so that anytime a gadget becomes less-than-perfect, we're frothing at the mouth for excuses to buy a new one. Dead pixels? Guess I need a new laptop! Battery is dying? That thing was old anyway. Need to take more music with you? That 160GB iPod is calling your name.

But with budgets tight, now is the perfect time to step back and contemplate the repairs and upgrades we can perform on our own. Influenced by the numerous people we know (both on staff and not) who have tossed perfectly good iPods, we thought we would go over some relatively easy fixes to give our iPods new life.

Replace that cracked iPod touch screen

One of the most common problems our friends and colleagues have encountered in recent years has been the cracked iPod touch display. Drop it at the wrong angle, bump it against the corner of a table, or leave it at the bottom of a heavy bag, and you could find yourself not only trying to navigate through a spiderweb of cracked glass, but a cracked LCD behind it.

This doesn't mean you have to fork over another $200 (or $300, or $400, depending on which iPod touch model you get). If you have a first- or second-gen iPod touch, for example, you could fork over $50-$60 instead for a new LCD and replace the display yourself (with the help of a sharp stick—or a spudger—a Phillips screwdriver, and something with which to wedge parts open).

From there, there are numerous guides that will walk you through taking your iPod touch apart (although iFixit's guide seems to be the most direct about how difficult this venture might be if you're not careful). The iPod touch requires you to remove the casing and get past the logic board before accessing the display, at which point you can swap out the broken one with the replacement and then work backwards to put your touch back together. True, this repair is not for the faint of heart, but if your only other option is to toss it and buy a new one, it could be worth a shot.

Change your 5G iPod's diaper battery

If you're still holding onto dear life with your fifth-generation (or 5.5-generation) iPod, chances are the battery doesn't hold much of a charge anymore. Or maybe it's dead, like mine. But that iPod is still practically as good as any new iPod classic and it's simple to replace the battery on your own.

There are numerous places to get batteries online for between $12 and $25, and taking your iPod apart isn't nearly as difficult as the iPod touch (in fact, we did it ourselves four years ago with nothing more than a screwdriver and some motivation). Once you get the case off, you must disconnect the battery cable, but you'll need to remove the hard drive before you can get to the battery itself.

In fact, this upgrade can be done to nearly any iPod model, though we were warned by iFixit's Kyle Wiens that some models require soldering while others don't (the 5/5.5G iPod does not).

Upgrade your iPod classic's hard drive

Okay, so Apple just recently upgraded the iPod classic's hard drive so that it has 160GB of space. If you have an older classic whose hard drive has pooped out or you want to upgrade for more capacity, though, it's possible with some elbow grease and a steely resolve. A putty knife, spudger, and other "opening tools" (things to wedge with) are required for this one, and there are 13 metal clips holding the front of the case to the rest of the iPod (much more than any past regular-sized iPod).

We have been warned here too that the task of replacing the hard drive can potentially damage or bend certain parts in the iPod classic, so exercise extreme caution when following some of these directions. It is doable, though, if you are looking to get your hands dirty.

Any upgrades you want to brag about?

But enough about the obvious stuff—we know that our readers are the crafty kind who like to take hardware tinkering to a whole new level. Have you done any iPod (or iPhone, for that matter) upgrades that you're particularly proud of, like the iPod video compact flash upgrade, or the glowing Apple logo iPhone mod? If so, let us know.