I'm sure that you have noticed that now-a-days almost everything can be found in an open-source version. Everything from software for your computer, to textbooks for school can be found free and open source. Now you can even get the awesome perks of open source on your very own iPod!
Rockbox is open source firmware for your iPod, or many other types of mp3 players. This means that everything is free, new, and extremely customizable. Rockbox has everything from awesome themes, to an iPod version of Doom. With Rockbox the limits of your pocket music player are endless!
Installing Rockbox on your mp3 player is fairly simple. You can either go the automated route, or the manual route. Personally, I went the automated route, even though it is not guaranteed safe. In most cases, it is still probably safer than digging around in your iPod's file system. To get the automated installer go here. Then installing is as simple as running the file, choosing your player, and pressing go!
Upon starting up my iPod (4th Gen Grayscale, and uber old) I found that the Rockbox display was pretty bland. This was a pretty quick fix, though. Simply go to the settings menu and choose one of the many pre-made themes for your player. You can also choose from different sizes and different fonts in your settings menu.
The interface while playing music with Rockbox, although odd when first starting with it, is actually pretty great. It displays all of your track info, including artist name, song name, album name, next song, and other information about your kbps on the current song. By holding down the Menu button it takes you to an easy to use interface for choosing your shuffle, repeat, and other listening settings.
For all of you people that are not just contented by just listening to music wherever you go, Rockbox also comes with tons of games. You can play everything from dice, to chess, to Doom! Simply go to Plugins > Games and choose your favorite game. For most games, your music will continue to play while you play the games.
Open source things, although usually pretty good, are not entirely without flaws. Twice in my three days of using Rockbox, I found that it was saying I had run out of battery. After getting this message I would have to do a manual restart (menu + select for 6 seconds) and it would restart just fine. If you find that you can't get Rockbox working, it is fairly simple to get back to the original firmware. Turn off your player, and turn it on. As soon as it turns on switch on the hold button and it should restart to the original firmware.
The Breakdown:
Pros:
- Open Source goodness ensures easy customization.
- Themes, fonts, and sounds for every personality out there
- Easy installation, and just as easy uninstallation
- Plenty of documentation on the website, if you get stuck
Cons:
- Having two seperate firmwares will use extra space
- Seems to have bugs telling how much battery is remaining
- Many themes have an odd number-based volume display
- Although it won't break your warranty, you will not be able to get any support while you are running Rockbox
All in all, Rockbox is definately worthwhile if you want to get away from the crowd, and make your mp3 player very personalized. Easy installation, easy customization, and easy interface makes it a win win win decision. Check out http://www.rockbox.org/ to get started.
Note: This blog has moved. You can find the new automaticable at www.automaticable.com. You will be redirected automatically.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Rockbox
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4 comments:
Nice first post Joe! A quick question for you...
Do you think, even with the hassle of the problems you had, that Rockbox is worth the install? I haven't checked out all of the features just yet, but I wouldn't want to take away from the simplicity and reliability of my current ipod interface just for a shiny different one that comes with problems. I guess my main question is: does Rockbox increase functionality, or does it just make it "different?"
On a side note, blogger is crappy sometimes with how it resizes your fonts, so make sure to preview your posts before you publish them. Sometimes it's easiest to change font sizes back to normal through the html view.
That is all. Glad to see you posting!
Hey man, good article.
So, similar to the above comment: the bottom line is-- would you recommend using rockbox?
Also, I wonder what kind of support it has for other built-in ipod features. For one, I would assume DRM'ed music is out? Does it integrate with iTunes still, and with other media players? Also, is there any interface for adding podcasts?
Well, I think that the differences between the built in firmware and Rockbox aren't really that great. You have many of the same features. The biggest plus side to Rockbox is that the community is always coming out with better stuff for it, like plugins and themes.
As for implenting podcasts and itunes and stuff, I don't use Itunes, but I think it would still work. When you put Rockbox on your player you don't lose the original firmware, so Itunes should still recognize it just like it did before.
As for the formatting issues, I spent like 20 minutes trying to get them all back to normal. Finally I just gave up.
So it sounds like the verdict is: wait until it gets a bit better.
Thats fine with me anyway since my 2nd Gen ipod nano isn't supported anyway. I'd like to see what they can do with my cute little color screen as far as themes go.
One thing I'd like to see them try and emulate is coverflow. Or at least have a better interface for showing album art. Right now the album art is TINY if you want it to show any song/album info, or you can get a full screen shot of just the album art but you lose all of the info. Lame.
Here's to hoping they put together a G2 nano rockbox!
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