First off, I need to echo Khidr’s sentiment regarding rockbox. It’s an EXCELLENT open source alternative OS for your MP3 player. Be sure to check out their website for details on how to install Rockbox, as well as to find out which MP3 players are supported. (Several versions of iPods and Sansa players are the primary targets, with several others working at varying levels of functionality).
I also collected a few rockbox links I’d like to share with the class to make your introduction into rockbox a bit smoother:
1. – Rockbox Main Site. You’ll find the daily builds of the rockbox (there are several programmers working on upgrading/improving/fixing rockbox and saving their "as-is" versions for your perusal), a starter set of fonts, and some basic themes (as Khidr mentioned, you can skin rockbox with different looks) to get you started.
2. – Rockbox Installers. This is a list (hosted on the Rockbox site) of the various installers available on the ‘Net. If you aren’t comfortable messing with a command line to hack into your MP3 player, you might want to poke around here…
3. – Mikeage Rockbox Builds. Mikeage is The Man! But to understand just WHY Mikeage is The Man, first, a bit of MP3 player knowledge. MP3 players are graded on many things, not the least of which is battery life. Like any efficiently utilized piece of technology, it should intelligently activate different parts of itself based on need. This (obviously) cuts down on wear-and-tear (in some cases) and utilizes less power (in most cases). For the iPod Photo (also known as the iPod Color), the ability to "scale" the CPU frequency to a slower speed (thereby using less juice) can confuse rockbox, and lead to lockups of your newly hacked rockbox. (NOTE: it has happened on other types of iPods from what I understand, I can only speak personally to the iPod Photo’s issues). A NOSCALING build has been created by a gentleman known as Mikeage: In essense, his server downloads the daily builds periodically and compiles them with a NOSCALING patch that, as the name implies, turns off the scaling of the CPU inside the iPod, avoiding those ugly aforementioned lockups.
And that, fellow surgeons of audio players, is why Mikeage is The Man. I’d recommend trying the normal build on rockbox’s main site first, but if you run into trouble with your iPod, talk to Mikeage.
4. – Rockbox Themes. Also hosted on the Rockbox site, these are some themes to get you started with skinning your MP3 player. I am particularly partial to the DGT collection, but there are several nice themes available here.
5. – jBlog. Julius is responsible for two of the sexiest rockbox iPod themes I’ve seen, jClix and jBlackglass. With some additional fiddling, you can install Julius’ themes on your rockbox’d iPod for some extra fanciness to go along with your new functionality. Defnitely pimped out if you’re ready to brave a couple of extra steps.
There are certainly many more rockbox resources on the ‘Net; send us some cool links you think we should post up here! Best of luck, and remember, if you brick your shiny Jobs music player, it was worth it. Totally.
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