If you have an iPod, Archos, iRiver, Sandisk or Olympus mp3 player, chances are you can add some extra features which the original manufacturer did not have in mind. To do so you have to gain access to your device, in short to hack your mp3 player and replace the original software inside your player, the firmware, with Rockbox.
Rockbox is an open source firmware for mp3 players, written from scratch. It runs on a wide range of players:
- Apple: 1st through 5.5th generation iPod, iPod Mini and 1st generation iPod Nano
(not the Shuffle, 2nd/3rd/4th gen Nano, Classic or Touch) - Archos: Jukebox 5000, 6000, Studio, Recorder, FM Recorder, Recorder V2 and Ondio
- Cowon: iAudio X5, X5V, X5L, M5, M5L, M3 and M3L
- iriver: iHP100 series, H100 series, H300 series and H10 series
- Olympus: M:Robe 100
- SanDisk: Sansa c200 series, e200 series and e200R series (not the AMS models)
- Toshiba: Gigabeat X and F series (not the S series)
Rockbox features are impressive: it supports for over 15 sound codecs, gapless playback, 5-band fully-parametric equalizer, and crossfeed high-resolution volume control, ability to create themes, advanced crossfading, volume normalization, album art, JPEG image and text-file viewing, Doom! video playback, voice spoken interface and more…
To install Rockbox on your mp3 player, simply visit the Rockbox website at http://www.rockbox.org/and follow the easy step by step instructions. It took 5 minutes for my iPod video to look like this:
