Hacking old hardware by... renaming to .zip?

A hands-on exploration of reverse engineering consumer hardware by decompiling Android APKs (which are just renamed ZIP files), sniffing network and USB traffic, and using dynamic instrumentation tools like Frida. Covers multiple devices: an AVerMedia Game Capture HD2 (controlled via discovered HTTP API), a Huion smart notebook (Bluetooth protocol reverse engineered to build a login-free web app), a Creative Sound Blaster E5 (USB HID traffic analyzed to build a cross-platform driver replacement), a Philips Hue bulb (Bluetooth packets replayed via Python), and a UE Boom speaker (firmware surgery to swap sounds). The core technique is treating APKs as ZIP files, extracting and decompiling them with JADX or Ghidra, then combining that with traffic capture to understand proprietary protocols and build open-source replacements for abandoned or restrictive apps.